Good Old Moon

I made my annual summer pilgrimage home to Moon Township with the kids the end of June. Once of the reasons we went when we did was so we could go to my niece Carol's graduation party. I can't believe I have another niece in college! I also can't believe EZ has such creepy eyes in this picture. HaHa

Of course that meant my grandpa and Aunt Nancy and Uncle Tom were in town and we had so much fun visiting with them. Getting a group picture is never easy and this time King made it extra hard because he was either cover my Aunt Nancy's face or playing dead.

The cousins always have so much fun together and I love this pic of my brother-in-law Robert being such a great uncle.

Of course we had to go to Kennywood while I was home. We picked a day that my dad had off work and we brought Ellie and Grace along for the ride. We actually sat down and ate lunch at Johnny Rocket's. That might not seem like a big deal, but in my 34 years of going to Kennywood we never once went to one of the sit down restaurants. We are big time now ;)

We all had a blast, but for some reason King did everything in his power to ruin every pic he was in.

Another splurge this year, was getting digital prints of some of the roller coaster pics. It was just $30 for all the pictures you took that day. I wish I had realized and bought the deal earlier in the day, but we still got some good ones. 

I love Katie trying to help Noah stay in his seat and the terrified look on my dad's face. I swear he likes roller coasters, but he always looks like this in the pics. 

Conrad was on this ride with me, but he is hidden in the pic. He was so brave to go on such a big coaster.

I love this one of Ellie and Netta on the Phantom, because Netta has this "It's no big deal" look on her face.

It was great having Ellie and Grace there to run around with EZ and Netta. I was a little nervous to let them run around without an actual adult, but they did great and Ellie is definitely old enough and responsible enough. 

Netta and Grace have a ton of fun together. There is a 5 year age difference, but you can't tell looking at them. HaHa

Aunt Meghan had a bunch of water balloons, so we set up an epic boys vs. girls water balloon fight. It ended up not quite as epic as we thought and it took 5 times as long fill the balloons as it did to have the fight.

We took Ellie for her traditional birthday trip to the Drive In. I am glad she still likes doing this, because we love it. We saw Inside Out and it was awesome.

The people who live across from my parents have a pool and they said that we were welcome to come us it. So one day, while my niece Sarah was there babysitting so the mom couldwork from home, we went over to swim. We were all have a great time, but then the daughter swam too close to the slide while King was going down it and she ended up getting hit in the face and started bleeding. Of course it was a total accident. It was a tiny pool and it was really easy for something like this to happen, but when the mom heard the crying she came running out and went crazy. She was yelling at Sarah and never even bothered to ask me what happened or acknowledge that I was there. It was really weird and traumatic for Sarah and I think it's safe to say we won't be swimming there anymore.

On a lighter note, King was in baby heaven this trip. He spent a lot of time following Kaelyn around.

Then Sarah and Casey arrived and King was even more excited! We loved Austin, but unfortunately, things did not work out as well for Sarah and Casey there and it got to the point where they just couldn't afford to live there anymore, so they moved up to live with my parents while Casey job hunts and they happened to arrive a couple days before we left. King was SO excited to see Casey again. King kept petting Casey's leg while he was talking to him. It was pretty hilarious and then insisted they had to have a picture together.

The arrival of Sarah and Casey, meant the arrival of baby Hazel and you know King was all over that.

Netta got in on the baby action as well. Thank heaven my sisters are still having kids!

Grandpa gave everyone rides on the motorcycle. All my kids were in except for King, which is exactly what happened last year! Conrad was killing me, because he insisted on holding on to the handle bars, even though he couldn't really reach them. I love that we used to ride on this motorcycle as kids when we would go visit my Grandpa E. and now my kids are getting do the same thing.

It was fun to be able to have the 4 boys all born the same year together, but there was A LOT of fighting. It is just a few too many toddlers. Luckily, we got one nice shot of Noah and Conrad not trying to kill each other.

We also managed to get a pic of the 4 of them together, but it was not easy and it was not a great picture.

Having all those kids in the house also meant that disease spread like wild fire. When we got there Meghan and her kids had pink eye and then at some point someone started barfing and there was a fever going around and when it was time to leave King and I both had diarrhea and Conrad had pink eye. We almost didn't leave when we planned, but luckily we survived the journey and no one pooped their pants. Within days of getting home, I got a nasty case of pink eye, which was way worse then what Conrad had had. That just doesn't seem fair, especially since I was supposed to be training for a triathalon, but no swimming for me! Despite all the disease the trip was still totally worth it. I love my family!

June Happenings

The beginning of June I had to squeeze in some fun while I just had King and Conrad to deal with before EZ and Netta got out of school. One day we went to the children's museum and got this pic of King. It's not the greatest, but I love it because it shows off how long and lanky he is. At his 5 year check up he was off the charts for height! In fact he is 2 1/2 inches taller than EZ was at the same age, but 3lbs lighter. He is our little bean pole.

EZ did baseball again this spring. Just like soccer, I have a real problem with the leagues here, because they are all games. He was actually doing well at the beginning of the season and got a hit pretty much every time he went up to bat, but then half way through he just lost his timing and couldn't get a hit. We are going to try and look into the indoor facility and any off season training they might offer. It's times like these that I really miss our Y in Texas.

One perk to EZ's team this year was that the grandparents of one of his teammates own Jollay Orchards and they let us have a party there. They fed us lunch and let us ride the Ferris Wheel. It was pretty awesome. 

They also had a little pond for us to fish at. Conrad was EZ's helper, but King was a bit timid about it until . . . 

 He found his babysitter Heather and her mom to help him. He really loves Heather and he plans to marry her some day.

Netta had her dance recital which had a steam punk theme and was really a full show instead of your typical recital. She has really enjoyed dance at her new studio this year and started out taking just tap and ballet, but then added jazz. She did a great job, but the experience wasn't all that great for our family. We brought all the kids, since there are kids in the show, but Conrad kept talking, not super loud, but still he was talking and then this dad who was giving me dirty looks finally turned around and asked me to leave with him. I had been really trying hard to keep him quiet and I just wanted to get though Netta's second dance, which was coming up and then John was going to leave with him. So, I somewhat sternly let him know that I was doing my best and that I would not be leaving until my daughter was done. Well then at the end I realized that his daughter was one of the star senior dancers when his wife stood up crying and clapping for her. Oops. They really hate me. Oh and John missed Netta's first dance because he didn't recognize on stage with her bangs pulled back. Not our best evening as parents. 

John's MBA friend Noelle has a house on Gull Lake, which is an hour from here and one weekend we had an MBA reunion there. It was heavenly. We got to go out in the row boat . . . 

  . . . and the she pulled us on a raft behind her pontoon boat. 

EZ kept yelling for her to go fast and he was very proud that he was able to go "no hands!"

Netta fell off quickly and got freaked out and King wouldn't even try, but Conrad insisted on going as well and loved it!

She had a paddle board, which EZ became obsessed with. We need to look into getting one for our lake.

JJ and Bridget were there with their kids and even though Lily and Netta haven't seen each other in over a year, they were instant best friends again.

We were all having a great time and then boom this huge storm rolled in. John thought it would be funny to run outside in it, until he started getting pelted with hail! The weather is frickin crazy here.

May Fun

In addition to all the birthdays, we had a ton going on in May. John got to go to Austin for a fishing trip with some of his friends from Dell. Of course he stopped by Buc-ee's. I was very jealous. I think it may have made him a bit homesick for Austin.

The elementary school had a track meet. I kind of feel bad for EZ, because he is not very fast and he knows it and having to compete like this just kind of rubbed salt in his wound. But I think he had fun hanging out with his friends.

That night, after the track meet, the school had it's technology fair and EZ was in heaven. The robotics team was there and the high school student who won was letting everyone play the computer game he had created. Oh and EZ's class had a demo table where EZ got to help people play coding games. I am thinking EZ has more of an academic future then an athletic, but hey that worked for me.

While I was a the tech fair with the boys, John was on a church daddy daughter camp out with Netta. It rained all night, and I don't think anyone got any sleep, but they still had fun and I love that they get a chance to do stuff like this together.

My sister Sarah had her baby girl Hazel at the end of April, so of course I had to have an Austin trip as well. Thanks to my companion pass status on Southwest, I decided to surprise EZ and take him with me. The only bummer was he had to miss his big 4th grade field trip to Conner Prairie in Indiana, which in my defense was no where on the calendar when I planned the trip. I was going to surprise him the day of and just throw him in the car and say "we are going to Austin!" but he was getting way too excited about the upcoming field trip so I had to tell him about 2 weeks before we left. I was hoping his initial reaction would be excitement, but instead he started crying. Oops. But once I reminded him that he would get to see all his Texas friends he perked right up. And I promised we would go to Conner Prairie as a family this summer.

Of course EZ was in heaven with all his old friends. Here he is with his buddy Bradly. His mom Maggie, who is also one of my good friends, was cool enough to pull him out of school for the day, so they could have lots of fun together.

Of course I loved seeing all of my friends, but I also loved eating all of my favorite food. Visiting Austin as a tourist is so much fun! I had all my favorite places packed into one awesome weekend. I got to eat my favorite burgers and pitas and of course queso! I especially love the queso at Torchy's Tacos, but EZ couldn't get over the swear word in the slogan. As soon as we walked in he starting giggling hysterically and said "Mom don't turn around. There is a swear word behind you."

I loved being able to get my food fix and my baby fix on this trip. Hazel is such a cutie, although it did kind of confirm to me that I am happy with the size of my family and while I am sad to never have the experience of giving birth again, I am ok that we are done having kids. Luckily, I think some of my sisters will still be having more babies for me to play with.

When I started planning this trip, I found out that one of EZ's best buddies Ethan would be moving to Georgia at the end of the school year, so we had to make sure they had lots of time together. They are 2 peas in a pod and couldn't have had more fun. We haven't been letting EZ have friend sleep overs yet, but I let that rule slide this one time and he was ecstatic.

One the flight home, I wanted one last pic of me and EZ together and without my knowledge he made this great face here. He is such a goofball. Luckily, he did cooperate for one good one.

The end of May marked the end of Kingston's preschool career. He has made so many strides this year. His teacher said he was hands down the most improved and he is ready and set to go to kindergarten. I would try and work with him on stuff at home, but he had no interest. I know preschool made all the difference for him. Besides just improving academically, he actually got somewhat over his fear of performing. Much to my surprise he sang all the songs with his classmates at the end of year performance instead of refusing to even stand with the group like he used to. Here he is with Ms. Kelly and Ms. Arianne. They had to say what they want to be when they grow up and he said "A food fight," which is a character from Skylanders. That is really confusing if you are not up to date on little kid video games.

Pre-K was the year that EZ broke out of his shell a bit and actually made friends and the same is true for King. He has some really great buddies from this class and luckily one of his best buds Mia will be going to Brown for kinder as well. We are praying they will be in the same class together, because he keeps insisting that he is not going to go to kinder and that he wants to stay at preschool.

 My parents came for Memorial Day weekend and we were able to hit up this awesome arcade. It is about 40 minutes away, so we probably won't get to go there a ton, but it was definitely worth the drive for how much fun everyone had. 

 

At the end of the month the town had a kind of creators festival for anyone to come show off stuff their group creates. There were science and art exhibits and EZ got to be a volunteer once again and teach people how to play some coding games. It has been a bit of a hard year with his teacher, because of way to much homework and him having a naughty bunch of boys that are always getting the whole class in trouble, but I have to say that he has loved all the technology that she has incorporated into the classroom

Happy Birthday EZ!

EZ turned 9 on May 26th and for some reason that sounds so old to me! He is also acting so much older. He likes to hang and play board games with the adults and he has really gotten into magic and especially card tricks. He is learning new tricks off of YouTube all the time and he had me set him up with a blog and a YouTube channel, so he could write about fun entertaining things and post videos of his magic tricks. Watch out world! 

He was lucky that he got to celebrate his birthday multiple times. First, my parents came to town for Memorial Day Weekend and so we celebrated with them. EZ requested I make school cafeteria peanut butter bars and I was more than happy to because they are amazing. I have been looking for a really good recipe for these for a while and my friend Nikki sent some over with her husband, who is our home teacher and I was hooked.

EZ finally got the light pack for his most recent version of the Skylanders video games. I think my kids will be getting Skylanders for the rest of their lives at the rate they keep coming out with new versions.

His birthday was on a school day and I had plans for making a treat for him to take in to his class, and then I got a killer ear infection and so John grabbed donuts instead and of course everyone was just as happy. That night he got to pick where we all ate for dinner and he picked Popeye's. He and John love that place, but it just makes me feel sick every time. But, I will take one for the team for a special birthday treat and pay for it dearly the next day.

His birthday party was at the Y and they did and AMAZING job. The party hostess was unbelievable. She learned all of the boys names and I don't think I even knew all of them. They provided all the decorations and the plates and what not. All I had to bring was the cake and some snacks. The boys got to play a bunch of different games in the gym and again the hostess did a great job of making sure everyone had a good time. They also got to go swimming and the best part was that because everyone was over 8, I didn't have to get in!

EZ wanted a Star Wars party and I just happened to find the Darth Vader cake ban on clearance for 5 bucks and it turned out great! I also found a really fun method for melting buttercream icing and then pouring it over the cake to give it a nice smooth finish like fondant. Luckily, it actually worked because making this cake was a one shot deal. My ear infection, which I thought was from a sinus infection, actually ended up being cellulitis and I had to go on 2 different rounds of antibiotics and for the first few days I was on heavy pain meds, during which time Netta starting barfing then passed that along to me, so basically I was a hot mess. But, I promise I was healthy enough to make the cake and I didn't pass on any of my craziness to the party guests.