Double digits

My baby turned 10 yesterday.  I still don't know how thats possible.  We started the day right with ice cream.  We woke everyone up at midnight last year and took them out for ice cream.  Ben loved it and asked we do that again this year.  Ben actually was still awake at midnight.  Zach was all for going out, but we just couldn't get the other two out of bed.  Of course when Sam and Ellie got up the next morning, neither remembered us trying to wake them up and both were mad they didn't get to go. Lesson learned for next year!

Ben woke up way too early for being out until 1am and he made sure everyone else was up and knew he was 10.  He requested cinnamon rolls for breakfast.  He wanted cookies for his after dinner treat so we (mostly Ben) made them.  After relaxing a bit, we headed to Mongolian Grill for lunch.  It was amazing and we all ate too much.  That has become Bens favorite restaurant, and I'm ok with that! After lunch we headed to the pool.  For almost 4 hrs we swam inside and outside, went down the slide, in the whirl pool, by the bubbles, to the kid section and back again. We were all ready to leave. We went home for a little dinner and cookies.  Jon and Ben took a bike ride and the rest of us were done.  Everyone was asleep early last night.

Jon was off yesterday and today.  We went out to Panera for breakfast also per Bens request.  We've probably gained 10lbs for his b-day.  We did some bowling and the kids are working on home made bow and arrows with dad right now and loving every minute of him being home on a Tuesday.

Train time

The Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railway is letting kids ride for free in August.  Now that the public schools are back in session, we thought it was the perfect time to head out. The kids were really excited for their first train ride.  We rode around for almost 4 hours.  Our train car was almost empty so the kids got to walk around a bit.  We also made a trip to the concessions car (or concussion car if you're one of my kids).  It got a little long for the kids by the end, but overall they had a great time.

Only child day 3

I'm so glad we took yesterday afternoon off and just laid low at home.  Zach wanted to cuddle.  A few minutes later, he was out.

We headed to Chuck E Cheese after dinner.  Daddy won a jackpot on one of the games for Zach.

He managed to kick our butts at air hockey every time!

He won more tickets last night than he ever has before, and he didn't have to share them!

Only child day 2

After dinner last night, we headed out for some putt putting and ice cream.  Zach had a blast, but he needs to work on his short game.

We spent the rest of the night outside with neighbors watching Zach shoot hoops in the driveway.  He can entertain himself (and us) for hours outside.  

I woke Zach up early this morning and we headed to the toddler time at Sky Zone.  It was practically empty and he played hard.

We came home to have lunch with Jon.  He had to work today, but hes working from home so we still get to hang out with him a bit.  We were going to head out for a bit this afternoon, but Zach has finally hit the wall.  Instead, we're going to hang out here and maybe hit the pool tonight.  We have one more day until the rest of the group comes home.  Its going to be a complete shock for Zach.

Family of 3

Gram picked up Ben, Sam and Ellie yesterday and took them to her house for Gram camp.  We are a family of 3 for the next few days. We always miss the kids when they leave us for long periods, but its kind of nice only having one kid again.

We did some shopping yesterday.  Zach got some pretty cool sunglasses and a new TMNT shirt.  We hung out at a park, had dinner out with aunt Corrie and spent some time outside playing.  Zach even got to stay up late and had a late night popcorn snack with us.

Jon took today off.  After going out to breakfast, we headed to the zoo.  If you know Zach, you know he is obsessed with giraffes.  We've never let the kids feed the giraffes before, but we let Zach do it today.

The boy was in heaven.  He fed them, talked to them for a few minutes and made sure to say bye when it was time to move on.

Once we saw all the animals Zach wanted to see, we went bowling.  Zach was thrilled to have the lane to himself.  He finished 2 games in record time and even beat his high score.  Toys R Us is clearing out some stuffed animals so he might have conned us into buying 2 small ones, then we came home to rest a bit.  We have plenty more planned for the next couple days.  We'll do some putt putt after dinner. Sky Zone, the pool and maybe a little Chuck E Cheese is on the agenda for tomorrow and we'll see how much energy we have for Wednesday.  I'm sure the other 3 are being equally spoiled by Gram.  I see a lot of "who had a better time fights" when they come home.

Wordless Wednesday: Morning cuddles

Splash pad

We went to the splash pad with friends today.  I think the little ones had more fun playing with dirt than being in the water.

Ben and Liam are just too cool for this place!

Finally!

Shes home! After an uneventful flight home on Thursday, we've barely left her alone.  Who needs to unpack when you can hang out with these guys??

Wordless Wednesday: Playing in the rain

Pool time

Ben got a huge floatie from his secret swimmer that he's been dying to use.  We headed to the pool with some friends last week and the boy spent the first 20 minutes blowing up Nemo.

It was well worth the effort.  They were on it the entire time and had a blast.

1st day

Its that time again!  Since the public schools start really early this year, I thought we would too.  Ellie and Zach were very happy about this.  I compromised with Ben and Sam.  I told them we wouldn't do anything math related until next week. That seemed to make them happy.  I'm confused on that one though because they both really like math!

Zach is technically in pre-k this year.  However, the boy loves to learn and has already passed Ellie on basic things like counting, letters and their sounds and at 4, he can tell time!  He and Ellie will be doing pretty much the same things this year.

The kids still seem to love homeschooling.  Ellie thought she might want to try out public school for kindergarten, but with her issues, we all decided home was the way to go for her.  Shes actually the one who has been asking to start school for the past week.

We relaxed things a bit last year and plan to do more of that this year.  I really like the unschooling philosophies and we're leaning that way for this year.  As long as I can keep my type a personality out of the way, I think this could be really fun for all of us.
We have a math curriculum for the older two only because they both requested it.  We'll continue to go through some books they like and we have plenty of things around here (in and out of the house) to keep us busy and the learning happening.
Ellie and Zach will continue to work on recognizing upper and lower case letters.  We'll work on writing more than their names and I have a feeling Zach will be reading before the year is over.

If you can't read the what I want to be comments, all three boys picked you tubers.  They are dying to have their own channels.  Ben also picked a plumber.  I have no idea where that came from, he's never mentioned anything plumbing related before.  Just like last year, Sam also chose to be a mechanic.  Ellie, of course, stuck with princess!

Glamour girl

Ellie went to a birthday party over the weekend.  It was definitely a girly party.  It was at a local kids hair salon.

All the girls got makeup, nail polish, a hair style and a dress to borrow.

After they got glammed up, they did a fashion show complete with a red carpet.

The other girls were a bit older than Ellie so she was a little out of her element, but she loved all the makeup and attention.