May Fun

Nana and Grandpa came up for a quick May visit.  They were with us on Saturday.  Since Austin has soccer on Saturdays, they got to watch him play.  The weather was cold and light rain but they got to see him play.  Austin is good at soccer.  He enjoys running around the field trying to score and defend.  After soccer, we all hung out at home.  They worked on our curtains for our camper that Nana made for us.  Nana even surprised them with a Happy Meal.  We never let the kids get one so it was a nice surprise for them.

On Sunday, Brian left for Portland for 3 days.  Austin was really sad when he left.  He had never been so sad about Brian leaving like that before.  It was hard to watch.  I tried to reassure him it was only 3 days and he would be home before we knew it.  Distraction was a better technique.

After Brian left we took a quick trip to the library to see our story time teacher who was retiring.  Then we had a field trip to Heien's.  It was a great field trip. Austin tried shrimp and Brussels spouts.  He liked the shrimp but not the Brussels spouts.  I was proud of him for trying both of them.  It was a fun trip!

Then on Monday we had a field trip to Hale Farm.  This was my first time there as an adult.  I was excited to take the kids there.  It was a beautiful weather day.  We had fun!  They got to see wooing, iron making, old school room, general store, old house, and church.  We had lunch there too.  I even allowed the kids to buy an old toy from the store.  That usually doesn't happen but because Brian was out of town and it was pretty cool toy I said yes.  They were happy!

Austin had his last soccer game.  He played well.  I am excited for him to play again in the fall.  He is good and see what happens with him and soccer.  He's favorite sports are soccer and basketball.  Sydney hasn't been playing anything right now.  They will be be starting T-ball in June.

NASA had a free open house.  This was there first one in 8 years.  We thought we would take Austin and Sydney.  We were shocked to realize how busy it was.  We were sitting in traffic for over an hour just to park at the IX center.  Then in line for a bus to take us there for another 30+ minutes.  We finally made it there.  We walked around the facility for several hours.  It was cool.  We were so happy we went.

That night we had a Cavs game.  It was away so we took the kids to the watch party.  Unfortunately the Cavs lost.  We were sad however we do have fun at the watch parties!

Spring fun

Austin has started spring soccer.  He enjoyed soccer in the fall so we signed him up again.  We wanted to sign Sydney up but there was no tot available for a reasonable price.  The tot soccer was more than Austin's soccer so we decided to pass for now.  Austin has soccer practice on Wednesday nights and games on Saturday mornings.  Austin knew a lot about soccer from last year.  He really enjoyed running the field and playing goalie.  Austin knew how to play defense and we believe that is related to all the Cavs games he watched.

Austin and Sydney are in swim class on last time before summer break.  We take the summer off from swim class since we go to Wild Water.  They now go to swim class in the mornings.  Austin does not like that at all. But because of the Cavs we didn't want to do the evenings.  Austin has gotten better and swimming and is probably the best one in his class this time.

Our library started a program to read 1000 books before Kindergarten.  Since Austin starts in August we don't have much time to do that.  Austin is excited about it loves for me to read him books.  They get about 30 books every week from the library.  I used to only allow around 5 books each but now they get a ton and love it.  So I'm fine with it.  This week was our last week of story time.  It makes me sad because we have been going every week for over 2 years.  We always take the summers off from story time too.  But in the fall, only Sydney will be attending story time.

The kids continue not to usually take a nap unless there is a Cavs game or watch party.  Austin is good a taking a nap when he knows he'll be up late.  Sydney is difficult to get to nap but usually she finally will.  They go to bed around 8:30pm now.  Sometimes a little earlier and sometimes a little later.

Brian has been working hard getting the camper all set up for camping.  We are hoping to camp Memorial day weekend so we are trying to get it all set up.  Austin is extremely excited to go camping.  We hope we all enjoy it.

For Mother's day, the school has muffins with mom.  Usually because of work, I don't attend.  However this year because it's Austin's last year there, I made sure I attended.  The kids were even happy to go to school early for me to go.  It was sweet.  We had a nice breakfast there together.  I was so grateful.

On Saturday, we went to gladiators game. We got free tickets from the Cavs so we decided to take the kids. It was fun. Austin liked it. Sydney enjoys the snacks while watching the game.  It was fun. We left early because we've been there so much with the Cavs.

On Mother's day, I went to my parents house in the morning.  We got mom flowers and the kids made her a card.  Austin and Sydney enjoy playing on the deck.  They like making pictures to hang on the deck.  Then we went home and kids made me lunch in the camper.  That was the first meal we had there. The kids had a lot of fun bring out food to the camper.  They even got me a planter flower.  It was very nice.   Then we went down to the Q for a watch party.  The Cavs won so we had a great day.

Atlanta

Last year, we went down to Atlanta and had a great time.  We wanted to do it again next year because we are not sure we can go next year with Austin starting Kindergarten.  When we planned the trip, we took our best guess that we wouldn't miss a home Cavs playoff game.  And we were right!

We went to the Cavs watch party at the Q at 7pm Friday night.  We love the watch parties.  They are a lot of fun.  They have fun fest down on the court and give a small treats to eat since we are Wine and Gold members.  The Cavs won so it was great!

However we had a flight at 6am.  That was rough but we made it.  Then the plane was delayed which was annoying since we were up so late and got up so early.  It finally took off and we arrived at 8:30am in Atlanta.  The kids are fabulous on the plan.  They watch and play games on their Kindles.

We got a our rental car.  Brian installed the car seats and then we were off to the lake house.  It's a two hour drive away.  The kids were exhausted so they fell asleep in the car.  We stopped at McDonald's for lunch/breakfast.  The kids got pancakes.  They love that they can get pancakes all the time there.

Once we arrived at the lake house, the kid were ready to play.  Brianna was great with the kids.  There were paddle boats.  They loved those and really liked going out with the big kids.  Austin liked kayaking too.  Then we even went out on the boat and Austin got to tube.  Austin didn't like it because he got a lot of water splashed in his face.  There was a golf cart and Brianna would drive it.  They would go down a little hill and she told them it was a roller coaster.  They loved it.  There was a fire and we had s'mores.  There was even a cake for Connie's anniversary.  It was a fun day!

In the morning, Jim took Riley, Ryan, Brianna, Brian, Austin and Sydney fishing.  Austin has been so excited to go fishing.  This was his first time.  Amazing they caught 14 fish!  Jim said he never catches that many.  We believe Brian's dad had something to do with this.  It was amazing.  Austin was so excited!

Later in the day, we all went out on the pontoon boat.  Austin went boating again.  This time he liked it because it didn't go as fast and didn't get splashed in his face.  We even made Sydney try it but she didn't like it.  She was really tired though.  In fact, she fell sound sleep in my arms on the boat before we even made it back to the dock.

We helped clean up and then got ready to go to the airport.  Since it was a two hour drive, we wanted to get there at a reasonable time.  We stopped in downtown Atlanta because we knew the Cavs would likely be playing them next.  Brian took a picture of the kids there.

We checked into our hotel near the airport.  We took the kids to a IHOP for dinner.  They had never been to one before.  Since they love pancakes, it was perfect.  We went back to the hotel and read some books the hotel had for kids.  It was great they have that program!

Then we watched the Cavs game.  I fell asleep.  I knew that it was likely Disney was going to announce it's free fall dining that morning.  And they did.  It was a disaster because the dates I was planning were not on the list of dates.  So we had to figure something else out.  But we still needed to get ready for the airport and eat breakfast.  It was stressful.

We left for the airport and dropped off the rental car. Then went to the ticket counter and the lines were crazy long.  After we dropped off our bag, we stood in line for security for an hour.  We were so close to missing our flight.  We had to run though the airport and got to our gate just in time.  It was a mess!

The flight was fine and the kids used their kindles.  I went and got the van once we arrived back in Cleveland while Brian and kids waited for the bag.  Once we got home, I finished booking Disney and Brian went to work.