Simon the Superdad

Last weekend I met my mom and my sister in Chicago to spend the day with my Grammy. Also to spend some time with my mom and my sister. Something that come to think of haven't ever really done. Simon stayed home with the girls.

In his words "It was the best weekend ever" They went to the library, the Y, the mall, rode the carousel, went to Red Robin, took great naps, slept great at night, the house was immaculate, and the best present was the Christmas tree.

They always like to surpise me when I am gone and make tons of adorable art projects...

They made this out of white rolled paper and then they made the ornaments out of construction paper and even made the bows on the presents with some of my ribbon.

I just wish I was half the parent Simon is.

Directions...

Look who you will find on the street in Chicago while asking for directions!

Great to see you Devon.

Blog/Camp Friends are friends for life.

*** Addition for Debi*** No, I didn't randomly run into her. I was in Chicago visiting my Grammy and I had about an hour to kill so I emailed Devon and and walked through Chicago to go meet her at her building! I couldn't be in Chicago without saying at least a hello and grabbing a starbucks with her!

Lulu and her bike.

In the excitement of Halloween, a devoted post was not made in honor of Lulu the bike riding queen. Lulu received a "big girl bike" for her 2nd birthday since last year when Ruthie was 2 she was riding a bike (with training wheels) and Lulu always wanted to try, so we figured, we would have to get her a bike for her birthday otherwise it would be a long summer. Well her Gammy got her a bike and in true Lulu fashion she would not put a foot on it all summer. Even all the excitement with Ruthie and riding without training wheels, Lulu wanted nothing to do with any attention on her and her bike.

Well, Halloween night before all the trick or treating, Simon sees her walk into the garage, get on her bike and take off. I go running outside with the camera to have Simon take some footage of Lulu and of course, she will not perform.

Hopefully while watching these you can see what we deal with. The minute the camera was on her and her huge accomplishment she would stop immediately and pull faces. Classy girl.

Way to Goo Lulu!

Happy Halloween

Lulu, Ruthie and their friend Andie (they look like could all be sisters)

Lulu the banana

Ruthie the Fairy

We had a glorious Halloween. It was a beautiful 75* day and we enjoyed every minute of the day. We had 4 families over for dinner before the trick or treating and then walked our neighborhood. We barely made it to more than 20 houses. On the 2nd or 3rd house Lulu quit. She just wanted me to pull her around and she refused to go to any houses.

Some of the gang before we headed out.

Lulu was like the neighborhood celebrity. Everyone LOVED the banana and she doesn't like when "the people" wanted to look at her and touch her so she retreated to the wagon. Our neighbor Cheryl got her to go to one of our other neighbors house but that was about it!

Lulu and Cheryl celebrating after successfully trick or treating at a house. Not a great pic, but one of pride for Lulu as this is one of about only 3 houses Lulu would go to.

Ruthie loved every single minute of the night and no one could keep up with her! She just ran from house to house and kept asking if she could eat her candy as soon as she got it!

Checking their loot as soon as they got home!

The guys were content to pull out all their folding chairs in the cul-de-sac and drink beer and hand out candy.

Great start to a long weekend.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY - 9 YEARS!

Today Simon and I celebrate 9 years of being happily married.



Our song at camp was always "Free Fallin". The Fireside would have to put it in the jukebox every summer! When I heard this song a few weeks ago, I immediately started thinking about what I could do.

I enjoyed every minute of compiling this video. Every single picture feels like it was yesterday and I can remember every single detail about when they were taken. The best part about them is that Simon was next to me for every one of them.

I am so happy that we are a team. I am proud of all we have accomplished, and I look forward to another 9 million more years with him.


* Also, this marks the 1 year anniversary of this blog and here is my 8th year anniversary blog. I am so glad that I have started this blog and we all love looking back through these pictures regularly.

Columbus Trip

Simon and I took the kids to Cleveland for a weekend with Gammy and headed down to Columbus for a weekend of good friends, good family, good food and a losing buckeye team.


Friday night at the last minute we surprised a great friend for her birthday and had a yummy dinner and after dinner drinks at our favorite "used to be" local bar. Much like the fireside (for all you camp people) this bar was a great place to go to and right down the street. And it is always great after all these years of being away from both The Fireside and PK O'Ryans that we can still walk in and the bartender knows us.

Saturday our old house was for sale so we made an appointmentto go through it. After that we went to our favorite shops along the Worthington High Street. They were having their Saturday farmer's market and it wouldn't have been a more beautiful day. Although, that doesn't really help to make matters of being "Columbus Sick" any better. Simon kept telling me that I better be working on a pretty good pep talk because he really misses it. All along I thought I would be the one that was sad. We walked past our favorite restaurant at the end of our street and always brings a smile to my face and is always decorated so beautifully for the holidays.


Saturday afternoon/evening we were off to campus for some tailgating! We had so much fun catching up with more friends and more family. All of which I was totally lame/freezing and didn't get the camera out to take tons of pics. These are the best I have.





Amy Jo, Stephanie and Yours truly....

(Buckeye Colors are Scarlet and Grey, hence the colors of the blog for this buckey season)

All the people walking into the game. Really.....Simon says he sometimes doesn't understand how my brain works and seeing this picture I would have to agree. I can't manage to take pictures of our house, or our day and friends and family, my pregnant sister, but I manage to take a bad picture of random people walking into a stadium.....FASCINATING!

I promise I will get better.

Go Buckeyes!!!

My sister Katie sent me an early birthday present of tickets to the Michigan State - Ohio State Game in Lansing. We were so excited, as we haven't been to an Ohio State game in a year!

We went up to the game with some of our neighbors and managed to tailgate in the parking lot and found a great college bar that sold a fabulous drink called a Sharkbowl. This drink is served with many straws and a couple of gummy sharks. Someone yells shark and everyone is supposed to continue to drink and can't stop until the drink is all gone.

It was such a wonderful day and certainly some quality time for Simon and I to be together.

Script Ohio

Guy at the end of our row that we thought was funny!

SHARK!

All Scarlet and Grey in the crowd

Preschool field trip to the Pumpkin Patch/Apple Orchard

We went on a Preschool fieldtrip this past week. I was able to bring Lulu and she was so excited. She talks up a good game every time we drop Ruthie off that she wants to go to school but I am sure if I told her, sure just go.....She wouldn't.

There are a few kids that are in Ruthie's preschool class that are in Lulu's gymnastics. The joys of having them so close. They will maybe have some of the same friends.

It was a beautiful day except for the fact that it was freezing!

Last Year's Family Photo

This pic was taken last year. I wanted it to match one of our wedding photo's see below.

Simon, was not a fan of this photo. He didn't want it at all, let alone, as a Christmas card, or even to our families. His main reason was that he felt that the picture did not capture the girls personalities. He felt that the girls looked like boys.

So, you can only imagine the shock when the photo studio sent out their fall/holiday newsletter about all the upcoming events and photo opportunities and our family photo was on the cover! I really don't recall giving them permission ever, let alone, this is the picture we didn't like. I called the studio to ask about this and well.......

We are headed back to the studio on Saturday to hopefully re-create last year's picture just with girls instead of boys.

still one of my fav pics from our wedding.

Pumping Catch

That is what Lulu calls it! All time favorite activity for me is the Pumpkin Patch. I could spend hours just walking around picking pumpkins.

The girls had a great time picking all the pumpkins, of course we picked about 20 we liked then we had to make some tough decisions as to which ones to leave there and which ones to bring home with us.