Atlantic City

Turns out that Atlantic City isn't very far from Philadelphia, so we decided we had better make the trip. Here we are on the famous board walk. It's a pretty cool place...a beach with a whole lot more to do than just go swimming, that's for sure. We decided to have a seat and enjoy lunch on the boardwalk, so here we are, eating before the kids get to go check out the water.

Here is Larry and Rhyan, and I just had to laugh when I saw this picture. They seem like they have the same cheesy grin on their face...Rhyan looks just like her dad to me in this picture.

Here are the kids checking out the water. They find the waves quite interesting. After we had left the ocean, Mayson was trying to tell me something about it and couldn't remember what it was called. So, she said, "Mom, you remember the lake with the river in it?" Apparently, that was how the waves in the ocean equated to her. As much as the kids weren't supposed to get wet, we all know how that goes. Mayson was standing in the surf, and her dad warned her she was probably out too far. Either way, a wave was coming in, she was trying to run from it, and as the sand was moving under her she kind of started running sideways, lost her balance and did a somersault in the water. As you can see, she was quite wet, and there was sand all under her clothes. Luckily she was a pretty good sport about it, and went back to collecting sea shells. The kids were having a lot of fun with the sea shells, and we had to have them each pick their favorite to bring home so we didn't have a whole bag full of them in the car.

Here are the kids outside the Taj Majal as we were leaving. Mayson was starting to dry, Kaleb wasn't doing too bad, and according to the kids, the ocean was the highlight of our trip!

Philadelphia

Here are the kids in front of the icon of Philadelphia, the Liberty Bell. The kids thought it was pretty neat, but we had a hard time getting Mayson to understand why the bell was broken. That, and of course, they wanted to try and ring it which we had to convince them was not a good plan.
In this next picture we were looking at the cow in the Philadelphia Historic Park Visitor's Center. It has the Constitution written on it and the kids thought it was cool. Mayson was particularly intrigued by the cow.

This was a chair in Carpenter Hall, which is another of the buildings the founding father's used a a meeting place.

This is a picture of Independence Hall, the place where the founding fathers met to write and sign the Declaration of Independence. We had a really fun tour guide, and learned a lot about it. The building is not only beautiful, but there is a lot of cool history that goes with it. While on this tour, we also got to see the first Supreme Court building. Before DC was built, Philadelphia is where the nation's capital was at, and the first supreme court met here. Below you can see Mayson and Kaleb by the rail in the large meeting room in Independence Hall.
Here is Larry, hanging out with Rhyan after our tour was over. We were enjoying the nice, cool air conditioning before going back outside.

This tree was right outside Independence Hall. Kaleb decided it looked like a chair, and sure enough, it turned out to be a pretty good place for him to sit. We thought it made a pretty cute picture.

If you pay much attention to your money, you will know that there is a mint in Philadelphia. We wanted to go on a tour, but we missed it when we got there on Friday, and the mint isn't open on the weekends. The kids liked the eagles on the building though, so they wanted a picture with them.

And last but not least, what is a trip to Philadelphia without eating at least a few Philly Cheesesteaks. Misty just happens to be a big Philly Cheesesteak fan, so in the three days we were there, she ate a few of them!!

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Kaleb's 7th Birthday

Kaleb was very excited for his Birthday to come this year. We took cup cakes into school and his classmates sang happy birthday to him. He got to go pick out a new bike for his birthday, because he has gotten so big he doesn't fit his old one anymore. That night we took him to Applebees for dinner....Kaleb's favorite place to eat.





Kaleb wanted a basketball party for his birthday, so we got all his friends over and had a party in the back yard playing basketball games. The weather was pretty warm that day, and by the time the kids got to cake and ice cream they were pretty hot and ready for a cool down. What better way to do it than with ice cream!?

Mayson's Field day

Mayson had her preschool field day the beginning of June. I went to help and watch and it was a lot of fun. They had activities like the water cup traveling from bucket to bucket, jump roping, T-Ball and parachutes, which is what Mayson is doing in this picture.








Mayson also got to play basketball. She had fun, and its funny to watch the little kids chasing the basketballs all over the court.












Here Mayson and Rhyan were taking a break on the grass. Rhyan had found herself a jump rope to play with, and I think Mayson decided she needed to hang out and cool down.

Rhyan Exploring

Here's Rhyan exploring at Aunt Debbie's house while we were in Las Vegas in May. She was totally intrigued by this table, and after she figured out she could climb up into it, that was all she wanted to do.

Kids Pictures

Here are the pictures of the kids that were taken in May. In these pictures, Kaleb is 7 years old, Mayson is 4 years old and Rhyan is 9 months old.

Kaleb's Zoo Fieldtrip

Kaleb had a fieldtrip to the zoo with his class in May. Larry was out of school, so Mayson played hooky from preschool for the day and we all went to the zoo. We had a lot of fun, and Kaleb had fun with his friends. It was a little chilly but hey, it's spring in Cleveland...it could have been a lot worse!

Kaleb Plays Spring Soccer

Kaleb got to play soccer again this spring with Michael. They have a lot of fun and have actually gotten a lot better from the last season. As you can see, Kaleb gets into these kicks...this is serious stuff!











Here are Kaleb and Michael looking a little too excited to be at the game. They must have been thinking about the after game snack right about now.











Misty & Rhyan hang out on the sidelines to cheer on Kaleb. It was definitely nicer on the warm spring days than it was on the chilly ones.

Mayson & Kaleb's Dance Recital

Mayson and Kaleb had their spring dance recital the first week in May. I was not there because I was home with the plague, but Larry took them and I saw a video after. They did great of course. Here is Mayson with her friend Kaia who lived across the street. They had fun dancing together.

Kaleb's dance group was doing an animal dance, and he was the giraffe. He has fun dancing with his friends and it is a great way for him to get some energy out. It's too bad everyone isn't closer to go to this kind of thing. We have the video though if anyone wants to see it.

Mayson's 4th Birthday

Mayson was so excited for her birthday to come this year. For months I heard about how she wanted a princess party and everything that she wanted for her birthday. When she knew it was actually close, the question of the day was always, "Mom, how long til its my birthday?" Needless to say, we were all happy when her birthday finally came.
Now, we all know that Mayson is a little infatuated with Ariel, but come on, where'd those pretty blonde curls go?? Mayson got everything Ariel for her birthday, from dolls and a swim suit to beautiful, flowing Ariel hair. As you can see, she was pretty excited!









Mayson decided she wanted a princess party for her birthday long before it was here. She and all the guests dressed as their favorite princess, minus Gunnar of course, who came as a knight to save the princesses. Mayson of course dressed up as none other than Ariel, minus the wig because there was just too many things to do to worry about that much hair getting in the way.







Here you can see all the princesses and the knight. They were having fun, but I don't think they were all very happy about having to sit on the couch for picture time.

Here is Mayson's princess cake. She was very excited and is telling me all about the princess cake she wants next year.












We decided to make puppets and do a puppet show at the party. There were princess, knight, prince, and dragon puppets. Mayson of course made herself a pink princess puppet with long blonde curls.

Kaleb made a prince puppet. The kids were excited to make them, and I had a few blisters when we got done from having to hot glue back on pieces of the kids puppets that didn't stick with the regular glue.




This is a sampling of the wonderful puppet show the kids put on for us. It was large amounts of laughing and chaos....the kids had fun. Now the question I hear from Mayson all the time is, "Mom, can I have this for my next birthday?"

Easter in the Arctic

As you can see Easter at our house this year was a little chilly. We had our Easter egg hunt on Saturday and the kids got to put on all of their snow apparel to find them. Mayson thought it was great fun, she just kind of had a hard time picking up the eggs with her gloves on.
Easter of course was right after our return from Utah and our coats were still not here. They were in the box that was somewhere between Utah and Ohio. So, Kaleb was reduced to wearing the Harley jacket, because that was the next warmest thing. It was not only snowy, it was really cold. As you can tell though, to a six year old boy candy is much more important than the temperature.
We have so many friends on the street with small kids that the Easter egg hunt has become kind of a big thing. Even with the bad weather, we still had a pretty good turn out. The thing that was nice is that it didn't take much to hide the eggs. All you had to do is take a handful and throw them into the middle of the yard....the snow did the rest. There were a quite a few though that we officially hid.

Easter day brought about another 18" of snow. We had to haul the snow blower out to get out of the driveway, and then brave the blizzard to get to church. For an Easter Sunday it was pretty sparse! Our girls sure looked cute though, traipsing through the snow in their springy Easter dresses.

Mayson's Preschool Beach Party

Mayson's preschool had a beach party in March. There were prizes to be won (purple sunglasses included) and games to be played. There was one game where the kids would stomp on one end of a board and the other end would shoot a stuffed animal that was sitting on it up in the air. Mayson had a blast doing this and kept doing it for a while, but on one instance she was leaning forward looking at the stuffed animal sitting there while she was jumping on the bpard. Let me tell you, not a good plan. The other end of the boad came up and whacked her in the forehead. This picture was obviously taken before the incident, because as you can see she doesn't have a big red line accross her forehead yet!
Kaleb had a fun evening too. He kept trying to haul these palm trees around the gym, or taking the big sand bags off the bottom of them so they would fall over. As you can see, he's looking a little guilty in this picture so my guess is he was planning on doing it again when I caught him for the picture. That's okay, I guess you have to expect it from our rambunctious little boy!







All in all, it was a fun family event. Even Larry got a pretty green lei. Besides, how can you complain when they are serving you free dinner?