Mother

We had such a fun day! After Michael's morning nap, we drove down to see my mom. About 20 minutes into the trip (it's about a 40-minute drive), I realized that I had forgotten her presents. Ugh. I decided that she'd probably rather spend the extra hour with the kids, so I'll have to deliver them later.

We headed to Sharon Woods, a cool state park that my family went to pretty much every weekend when I was growing up. The kids had a blast on the huge playground. Then, we walked about two miles around the lake. I'm so proud of my mom. She had hip surgery seven weeks ago and never complained. Go Mom! After our walk, we had a nice dinner at my favorite restaurant, LaRosa's. My mom rocks.

Here are some pictures from our day!

Mother.

Pushing Pear.

She thought she was pretty cool. She kinda' is.

Me posing with a random piece of playground equipment. The Pear was supposed to be posing with me, but the little booger darted.

Part of the nature trail.

Mama duck and her little ducklings. (Sorry it's blurry. They were moving fast!)

Mama Kel and her little Kelings.

Off to bed now. Have a great Monday!

Until next time,

Mommy Kel

Spring Has Sprung

There is a definite correlation between nice weather and my lack of blogging. Now that it's finally pretty outside, the kids and I spend almost all of our free time at the park, on walks/bike rides or playing in the backyard. I am 100% an outdoors person and could totally do without TV and computers (well, within reason). I don't even have a cell phone. I may be the last person under 70 to be able to say that. My darling 68-year-old father even has a cell phone. Oh well. I've never been "hip" and I really don't care.

The past week was a lot of fun! We rented a pontoon boat on Cowan Lake on Saturday. This is one of our favorite warm-weather activites because the whole family can enjoy it, including Champy. Yes, even our beloved pooch gets to come along. Saturday was beautiful - 70s and sunny. We brought the fishing stuff, but only drop a line a few times. I was all about relaxing. We ate lunch out there, cruised around the lake a little, then headed back. The kids had a blast.

Straight-up Stinkers.

The Pear made me nervous about 5,000 times. He kept trying to get out of the gate onto the bow, climbed the benches, leaned over the sides, etc., etc.

She LOVES being on the boat. This is her fourth year!

Champ is just happy to be included.

We let the Worm drive the boat quite a bit this time. Not cutesy pose-behind-the-wheel-for-a-picture driving, but actual driving.

We had rain on Sunday and I accidently let Champ loose (didn't know the gate was open). I guess he found the nearby creek, because he came back gross. Taylor and I were forced to give him a bath, then hot showers for us!

Champ, pre-shake. Dare I say that he actually looks kind of thin??

All poofy post-shake.

Mike's basketball banquet was Sunday night. The AD organized a dinner and slide presentation to go along with the usual awards ceremony. It was awesome. I'll have to find a way to link to the basketball Power Point. It actually made me kind of teary-eyed.

On Tuesday, Mother (I always call my mom this, kind of as a joke because we are so NOT formal) came up and treated us to a trip to the Outlet Malls. Michael was a little gassy (I call my kids "Olde English Tudors" when they get like that. Get it, "Tooter"?) and not really too happy, but we did get some good shopping time in. Good ol' Mother even treated her baby to a few little things. She rocks.

We got an awesome treat on Thursday. My dear old friend Lea came to visit! Lea is probably my oldest friend (as in time, not age). I think we started hanging out when we were 5 and our older brothers played Little League together. She is so awesome and I could just talk to her for hours. We hadn't seen each other in years, so I was glad she got to see the kids (and meet Michael). I'll be planning a trip to her neck of the woods soon!

Lea swinging Taylor.

Taylor and the Pear. Michael usually takes awhile to warm up to people, but he liked Lea right away. Animals and kids always love her. I think that says a lot!

My old buddy and I.

Cutie!

Michael loves balls. It's one of his favorite words, too. Check out the video below. Watch it twice - once to see Michael's cuteness and a second time to see Champy's fat butt rolling around in the grass. I didn't even realize he was doing it at the time.

I'll end with a few more pictures from the week. Enjoy your weekend!

Michael is a dare-devil. He shimmies right up the steps on our playset. Hard to believe he just started walking three months ago!

Taylor is getting braver, too. She's mastered most of the challenges at the park.

The Pear loves to run around with Taylor's purses. It's hysterical.

Until next time,

Mommy Kel

I'll See Your Sectional Championship & Raise You a District Championship

That's right, for the first time in 80 years, the Hurricane are district champions! Congrats to Mike, his assistants and the boys on a big win over Shawnee in the district championship game Wednesday night. Thank God for modern technology because I had to listen to the game on the computer. We had planned on going, but Taylor got sick as soon as we got home from Susan's. I'll spare you the details, but let's just say it wasn't pretty. She's doing okay now and sleeping soundly, but she had a rough go at it for a few hours. I'm just waiting for Mike to get home now so I can share a celebratory beer with him.


I hate posting without adding pictures, so I'll throw on a couple of shots from our beautiful day yesterday. It was sunny and 70 degrees so we spent the whole day outside. Yay for spring!


Taylor loves coloring with sidewalk chalk.

Michael wanted to try his hand at it, too. Heck, I was just happy he didn't try to eat it.

Yikes, he looks like a 2-year-old here!

My lefty at work...

...and my righty at work. Pear is going to need a haircut soon!

After chalking, we headed to the park to feed the ducks. Taylor is fine with the ducks, but she's still a little aprehensive about the geese. I can't say I blame her! They get a little too close for comfort when they want bread! Michael was completely unfazed. He just kept throwing bread AT them.

"Here goosie, goosie." Look at Taylor jumping back, haha.

Michael had a blast on the playsets. He did take a little spill on this bridge, but popped right back up. Check out that goose-egg on his noggin!

I thought this was a cool picture of Taylor. It was soooo windy!

Until next time,

Mommy Kel

On the Mend and Friends

Well, I think the Pear is finally getting back to normal. Turns out the poor guy had Roseola, a nasty virus that only kids like 4 and under get. Taylor had it at almost the same age, so I kind of suspected it when his fever got so high. Sure enough, the rash appeared Saturday afternoon. He's not eating much and is still a little whinier than usual, but I think we're headed in the right direction.

Michael's sickness meant we had to cancel a few plans. We had to miss Taylor's field trip to the pumpkin patch Thursday and the surprise birthday party for our friend Tony Saturday night. We have snuck in a few fun times in between. I ended up taking the kids to the pumpkin patch on Saturday morning because I thought Michael was all healed up (the rash hadn't appeared yet and the fever was gone). Taylor had a blast on the hayride and I now realize how much of a trooper Michael was!

Posing for a fall picture before we left for the pumpkin patch.

Getting ready for the hayride.

That was one bumpy hayride! I had to put Michael on my lap because the poor guy about flipped over when we hit the first bump. (And yes, he's teething again. Imagine that.)

Checking out some of the farm animals.

Sunday was a day I had looked forward to for a long time! Lauri, Scott and baby Tony were in town and we had plans to meet up. I was afraid of passing the Pear's germs to Tbone, so Michael stayed home and watched football with Daddy. Taylor and I met the gang at a park in Cincinnati and hung out for a couple of hours. I sure do miss my friend! Tony is just adorable and I'm so happy that I finally got to meet the little dude. Lauri and Scott are doing a great job and I'm very happy for them. Ho-pefully we can get together again around Thanksgiving.

Taylor was so excited about our Mommy/daughter time.

The oh-so-adorable Tbone. What a cutie!

Lauri, Scott and Tony. Scott, Taylor wants to say sorry for kicking you. :)

The girls and Tbone. Lauri pointed out that both she and I were wearing lace camis and lace was about the last thing you'd see us wearing back in our crazy OSU days. I'm not sure why Taylor is snarling in this picture. I love how focused Tony is on the paci that had just popped out.
Taylor loves Lauri. :)

I was off yesterday and was happy to see the Pear back to mischief. I pulled him out of Champ's water dish about a zillion times and had to go back to wresting him down to change his clothes. We took a little trip to the park and flew Taylor's kite. The weather was a little chilly, but perfect for kite flying!
Back to ripping stuff apart. His diaper is all jacked up because he won't lay still long enough for me to get it on perfectly.

One of the Pear's favorite pasttimes - ripping the doors off of Taylor's Dora van.

Taylor does a great job of flying the kite!

I love this picture.

Michael crawled all over the play equipment!

Feeding the ducks.

Mommy, get that goose away from my head.

Until next time,

Mommy Kel

P.S. You have until Friday at noon to vote for Brandon. See post below.