Internal Medicine Cookout

Some of Kyle's colleagues had a get-together this afternoon for the Internal Medicine residents (which turned out to be several Med-Peders, too). The girls were a source of entertainment for everyone, and the company was wonderful. Here's to the start of summer!

To Grandmother's House we go...

Yesterday, Elise and Avery finally visited Grandma Shirley & Grandpa Charlie's campground for the first time, and they had a blast!

They got to take several rides in the golf cart (no they didn't drive. yet.) ...

... play on a fun playground ...

... and enjoy lunch from the depot and birthday cake with Nana.

What an exhausting day!

Video Catch-Up

The playgroup video (or tiny clip, rather) ... and then another cute one from some time outside with Daddy. Enjoy!

Playgroup at Cottell Park

Cottell Park is quickly becoming a favorite destination for our playgroup, and this week was no exception. It was extremely hot, but the girls had fun playing with their friends for an hour and a half before meeting Cassi for lunch and crashing for the afternoon. We even saw a helicopter which was cool, though it's strange flight pattern above the park is still a mystery! Unfortunately no group photo this time, because everyone was all over the place. Amazing how different the crowds look when it's 85 instead of a totally unexpected 55 when we went out last time! ;)

Avery was randomly a daredevil (which continues throughout the rest of this week), while Elise was adamantly opposed to going down the slide. So weird how their roles reverse so drastically!

Anyway, a few pics - and hopefully a video to come shortly!

More Kings Island

So we've literally gone to Kings Island 3 days already this week, and will likely go at least one more before the crowds pick up. The girls are loving it more each time, and are quickly recognizing "Snoopy Dog" and his friends, and are leading the way to their favorite attractions.

On Wednesday afternoon, Kyle even got to join us! Our plan was to spend the bulk of the evening in Boomerang Bay since I won't often do that by myself with the girls. First stop that day, though, was somewhat overdue (and also somewhat miraculous, considering I'd passed it every day) - the girls' first taste of blue ice cream! Ahh, heavenly. They enjoyed it as much as the rest of us, and I'd like to think they realize the sprinkles are the only decent ones anywhere (which are now all we have in our house ;) ). They've inherited that fine palate, I'm sure!

Elise and Avery LOVED Boomerang Bay, as you might expect given their love for the water. Each attraction was cooler than the last, though when we'd try to convince them of that to leave one for another, they did not trust is in the slightest. Not a lot of pictures of course, until the iphone is waterproof (2011 perhaps? ;)).

Unfortunately, most of the evening was spent dealing with Avery's meltdowns. You see, my children sleep about 9 or 10 hours a day (total), which is NOT enough for 2-year-olds. Period. And ohmygosh, it shows. Ask anyone who has seen them lately. Anyway, while this is what we dealt with most of the evening --

-- we did get things like this a few times, and - somehow - I would say it was an enjoyable family evening overall. Here's to many more this summer!

More KI & pool pictures from this week in the May Picasa album

Pooltime (and Popsicles!)

Since it's been nearly 90 degrees most days this week, we "opened our pool" a bit earlier than Memorial Day this year. The girls LOVE swimming, and are enjoying both our pool and "the big pool" at Kings Island (described as such to calm down hysterical girls when we said we were going swimming and proceeded to the car and not our backyard - more on that later). Pictures, anyone?

Kings Island

I love Kings Island. Of course, I'm sure some of you are going to say it's just because I grew up down the street from it, could see my neighborhood from the Eiffel Tower, and had season passes every year until I was 20-something. Heck, I probably went in utero, considering it's where my parents met. That might be part of it, nostalgia and all. And true - I'm not stupid, here - Cedar Point blows it out of the water with regards to roller coasters and I'm so pumped that Cedar Fair has brought a few new great ones to KI.

But when it comes to walking around, hanging out, growing up (then taking your little ones), I will fight you to the end - Kings Island is where it's at. It's no Disney park, of course(!), but the landscaping, fountains, details, play areas, music (prior to the current crap they blare now), sprawling layout, etc cannot even fairly be compared to Cedar Points zig-zagging metal queues in the blistering sun and the asphalt+metal jungle that it is. There, I've said it. When I want to ride coasters, I'm happy to make the trek up to Ohio's other park that's undoubtedly better at them... but when I want to hang out a few hours and enjoy the atmosphere, there's no competition. Assuming Cedar Fair doesn't continue to make it more and more gaudy...? Such a dilemma. I guess we'll take the good (oh! including Camp Snoopy - best Kiddie Land incarnation since Hanna Barbara land) with the bad, and I'm also guessing you know this is SO not the point of this entry :)

The point(s) is(are) this: we went today. It was fun. The girls loved it, and were (obviously) super cute. We'll be going back as much as possible this week while schools are still in.

And now, for the stuff that's more fun than my rambling...

Apparently Avery thought she was in for the worst time of her life....?

...which she thankfully got over quickly :)

Busy week!

What a busy week we've had! Mostly, we've been celebrating.... though my stress level at the moment would not indicate exactly that. Still, there are pictures to prove it! ;)

First, we celebrated Aunt Kelly's MBA with a wonderful cookout. By the way, Elise and Avery are pros at cornhole from point-blank range!

Then we celebrated Kyle's 30th birthday, complete with the best ice cream cake I've ever had made. Ok, and had. I can't fake modesty on this one, it was yummy - and oh, so easy!

Finally, we celebrated Grandma Pat's life and visited with relatives in Ottawa for a couple of days.

There are a few more pictures in Picasa. Can you believe May is speeding to an end?

What happens...

... when little girls refuse to nap (and still wake up by 6am). Thankfully, that serious a protest only happened the first day of the big girl bed transition! ;)

Oh, yeah.

I guess in my divided post about the transition from cribs to big girl beds, I forgot to really tell the story of how and why we find ourselves sitting outside the girls' room this evening as they fall asleep in the adorable beds previously shown. :)

Elise is a monkey.

Seriously, at the 5th percentile for height (unofficial until their appointment considering they haven't been for a well-child check in 8 months, but that's where they've always been) we assumed the girls would stay in the crib until we kicked them out. The only two "normal" reasons to move to a new bed (normal meaning "common" and "what any sane person would do, considering the freedom that comes with big kid beds" ;)) is when a new baby is coming or when the child climbs out. Since I'm not pregnant, we figured we had at least a few more months to prepare for this transition!

Let me clarify, as I have for friends when the discussion has come up -- Elise wasn't "almost" climbing out of her crib, or "trying" to climb out of her crib. If that's all the kid is doing, leave them in! She did that for 4 or 5 months, and there's no way in the world she would have been able to make the transition then. She could hike her leg over and even lie across the railing but had no intention (or courage enough) to actually get out. From what I've heard this is fairly common - just because it looks like they have the notion does NOT mean to run out and change their whole bedtime situation. Seriously, as a PSA for parents of toddlers: don't rush it, cribs afford so much more.... of a lot of things!

But no, my monkey was out of her crib at every opportunity, trying to teach her sister her escape moves. Of course, given how smoothly she was able to get out (I seriously didn't know she did it the first time, even though I was 2 rooms away on the same floor - no thud, and not a peep!), we didn't exactly rush. Still, postponing the inevitable seemed silly when it's really not safe for a not-yet-2-year-old to make that drop, so we shopped for beds.

The plan all along, what seemed logical to us, was to transition straight to twin beds with rails. That was when we would do it on our schedule, and - most relevant - Kyle would have a job that would afford us two beds x two mattresses x two box springs x two-four guard rails x 2 sets of bedding x you get the picture. That isn't an option right now, so toddler beds it is! We fell in love with the beds you saw because they so closely resembled the cribs (and therefore, in my opinion, look great in their place)... and as an added bonus we paid VERY little for the two beds after Amazon gift cards from Swagbucks.

All that being said, the past two days I have found Elise on top of her dresser/changing table after what I can only assume is some serious drawer scaling. WAY less safe than getting out of the crib, no?

Parenting is fun! ;)

George!

Yesterday, Kyle and I took Elise and Avery to see Curious George at the zoo! You might recall that my daughters love(d) George, so I was quickly willing to make an exception to our weekdays-only zoo rule and venture out on a crowded Saturday when I heard he would be in town.

Knowing it would be crowded (confirmed by the number of people waiting to get in at 8:50am) and realizing that the new Children's Zoo play area had just opened a few days ago, we had made a plan to make a beeline to check it out first. This worked out well, and the girls were the only kids on it for at least 15 minutes when we finally had to pull them away! The area is much cuter than I expected after seeing a few pictures, and - especially with no big kids to knock them around - my two had a great time playing.

After leaving the Children's Zoo we saw several more animals in a short period of time (love the mornings!), including two new "baby" (young) manatees! It was so great to have manatees again, after several months without. We'll definitely have to make it back in the next week or two (during the week!) to visit all of the other zoo babies, because before we knew it it was time to catch a ride on the carousel and head over to the show... just in time to find out it was canceled.

They did offer a meet & greet in it's place (George's partner's flight got delayed and he needs a bit of help, you see, to tell stories)... but it was a lot more time and effort for a lot less entertainment. Still, the girls enjoyed giving him a hug and high five fist pump.

We rounded out the afternoon with lunch at Chipotle/Quiznos (no, they aren't combined - you wish!), a nap, and a cookout with the extended Kaufman family to celebrate Aunt Kelly's completion of the Xavier MBA program. What wonderful family time on a beautiful spring Saturday! I think I'm going to have no trouble getting used to the option...

(Check out Picasa for more!)

Big Girl Beds

Well, you read that the girls are in big girl beds. I tell you what, they provided a nice distraction from the emotion of it all by being HORRIBLE the first 3-4 times (2 days) going to sleep in them. We won't talk about that any more.

Now, a few days later, they are doing fairly well. I still lose between 30 and 60 minutes of my day - sometimes twice - by having to sit outside the door until they fall asleep, but for the most part if they know we're paying attention they know they are to stay in bed. For the most part. We won't talk about the other part(s). ;)

More importantly though, look how cute they were the first bedtime upon discovering the change!

CHCA Alumni Chapel

Today, the girls and I went to CHCA for a few hours for Alumni Chapel. It was literally the first time I had been in a chapel service there since I graduated which (um, seriously?!) has been 9 years. I brought my camera along, but when God decided to open up the skies and deliver a torrential downpour as soon as we pulled in the parking lot, I forgot to grab it in figuring out the rest of the logistics of getting us all inside.

I wasn't sure how the girls would do, but they were awesome. They stood at the bottom of the steps at the side of the theater and danced (and "sang"!) along with the praise and worship, and were very well-behaved during the "story", even though it really wasn't their style. :)

It was wonderful to watch Elise and Avery in that environment, since they aren't with us during church. It's pretty unique to praise an awesome God for his blessings while adoringly watching two of the biggest in your life. It was wonderful to see a few old friends and catch up with a couple of spectacular faculty members, some of whom I keep in touch with but haven't seen in person for years. And it was really wonderful to see the culture of the school that seems to have changed so much for the better since I was there - such interaction with the worship and speaker, such diversity, such passion and energy. It was as if students were really engaging God in their lives as a general rule, and not as the exception. Exciting stuff, especially considering on academic and community service levels we've always known it would be fairly high on our list of options for the girls' schooling.

And now Avery and Elise each have little Isaiah Eaglets - they're practically there! ;) (Photo to come).

Seriously though, that and pizza for lunch and an actual nap, even in big girl beds, and I'd say we've had a pretty great day thus far!

Cribs

Twenty-seven months ago, we put together cribs in anticipation of the arrival of our sweet (gender-unknown) babies.

Then just over 2 years ago, we brought home these precious, tiny girls that looked so lost in them.

And tonight, we're taking them down to put "big girl beds" in their place.

More on that later, but can I just tell you how freaking hard this is turning out to be for me? We haven't even started and every time I see the beds I get choked up. I remember standing in the nursery several times, super pregnant, thinking about these two little people that would soon join us. Today I stood there and just started crying. I'm such a sap!

Seriously though, for whatever reason, this is hurting. Of course, then I laugh with Kyle (you know, that kind of laugh) that I'll face these familiar bridges again - Kindergarten, High School, driving, College, Weddings. Let's not get ahead of ourselves, of course, but can we just acknowledge that this part of mommying is hard? Or maybe it's just hard for emotional crazies like me.

Leadership Retreat, cont'd

Friday morning, as is always true of our family, we were up bright and early and immediately on a different schedule than the rest of the world. Seriously, it was kind of a bummer that we were leaving the trails as most of the group was just getting there, but after a crappy night of sleep for Elise and Avery (and their parents), we needed to keep some semblance of structure or they'd be even bigger terrors the rest of the trip. I'm sure this wasn't entirely terrible for anyone though, considering our pace as we "hiked". :) But I'm getting ahead of myself...

We got the girls First Breakfast (a cereal bar, to tide them over) just before 7, then hung out on the gorgeous porch for a little while.

Second Breakfast (pancakes and sausage for 50!) was served around 8, which we ate quickly before heading out to the park. If you know Gatlinburg (and the surrounding areas), you probably know that it is a destination with split personality disorder. On one hand there is the kind of kitschy (and yet oh-so-endearing) part of town - hillbilly golf, tacky gift shops, an attraction that can only be described as a human gerbil ball, and museum after museum dedicated to human "oddities". I admit, I love this part of town - in moderation.

Let me skip ahead to what some might call a third personality - the arts and crafts "districts" of Gatlinburg. Having a home with decor that is not at all country, this is somewhere we've never spent much time. I hear it's great though, if that's for you.

The second (or third, depending on whether you're following my rambling train of thought) is what MAKES this place, if you ask me: The Great Smoky Mountains National Park. You can only go in the magnet store so many times in your life. You can only be baffled by the longest human fingernails or take pictures with various wax people or famous cars so many times. But - much like the appeal of Disney World for us - you CANNOT see all there is to see in this giant park that spans multiple states. (You can, however, play Hillbilly Golf and the Ripley's Golf Courses (Davy Crockett & Old McDonald's Farm) each and every visit, if you can afford them. But I digress...)

Because this park is so phenomenal, and also because we have absolutely no money :), the outing of choice on Friday for our family was to go to the Greenbrier part of the park and choose a trail to explore. We knew that without hiking backpacks or no children in tow we wouldn't make it so far as halfway through any given trail, but whatever. That just means we'll have to go back and keep pushing the Rainbow Falls trail off to another trip.

The trail du jour was Ramsey Cascades. The largest cascade in the state is about 4 miles in. We didn't come close to seeing it. We did, however, see gorgeous butterflies in droves, beautiful streams, and adorable almost-2-year-olds that LOVE rocks and water and naturally loved combining the two by throwing rocks IN water.

Second coolest activity? "Reach it, trees? Please?" (Translation: "Lift me up please, so I can touch the leaves way up there").

There are lots more pictures from our hike and the gorgeous trail in Picasa. After a while in the park, it was time for lunch. We weren't sure where we planned to eat, but the adorable Happy Days Diner caught our eye. Serving meals like the Laverne & Shirley Duo, Fonzarelli's Chicken Parmesan and Mrs. C's fried chicken, how could this girl resist? After all, I was raised on TV Land shows!

Kyle and I had burgers, but perhaps Elise had the most creative meal: Grilled Cheese dipped in chili. Apparently it was delicious.

After lunch we put the girls down for a nap. The cabin was empty (seriously, we are the only morning people we know) so Kyle and I played some games and both took a nap ourselves. Glorious. When the girls woke up, we played for a while as other families trickled in (and the rest of the kids napped) until it was time for dinner. After dinner, the girls joined a few of their friends for an impromptu (and RIDICULOUSLY cute) dance party. :)

Finally, it was time for bed. We hated cutting the dance party short, but by 7:45 when we were putting Avery and Elise down they were definitely bordering on over-tired. They went down much easier the second night, though, and Kyle and I headed back out to hang out with the rest of the crew.

The evening was spectacular. Great conversation, great snacks, and culminating in an hour or so of praise & worship on the deck under the stars. The night that followed would once again be mostly sleepless, but the time together was well worth staying up for.

Saturday morning, Avery was incredibly out of sorts. Meltdown after meltdown, a very difficult time following instructions and playing nicely, and Kyle and I decided we just needed to head out pretty early. We didn't want to be on the road terribly early (trying to time the bulk of the drive with naps), but we knew that we'd be better off with decreased stimulation before making the girls sit in carseats for 5-hours going home. We planned to spend some time at the Old Mill shops since we didn't really get to in January, but we couldn't get there because of a parade taking place in Pigeon Forge with staging filling that area. We walked around some other shops though until about 11, then grabbed lunch at Wendy's (Elise LOVES Wendy - the girl, and the food) and started home.

It was a quick trip - and our second whirlwind trip to the same part of the country in just a few months. We were are exhausted, but it was something we look forward to doing again as soon as possible. We feel so blessed to be a part of such a real, passionate, fun group and are so excited about what God is doing in the church and in the city!

Lots more pictures in Picasa (new May album). Some, especially of the trails, are definitely worth a look - such a beautiful part of the country!

Leadership Retreat, Day 1

Every year, the leadership teams at 4 Corners are invited to get together in Gatlinburg for about 48 hours just to spend some time as a community. In one (giant) cabin, about fifty people including the staff of the church and volunteers from all aspects of church service - worship team, tech, nursery/children's programming, outreach, etc - gather together with their families to get to know one another and simply encourage one another away from the day-to-day workings of the church. It was really cool in large part to get to know people that serve in a different area, that we might not have even met previously. And it could go without saying that it was such a blessing to spend time as a family, especially during this very busy two-month homestretch of residency. It was nothing short of miraculous that Kyle was able to join us, and we are so thankful it worked out. And without further ado, some pictures from the first day. (I know what you come here for!)

Exploring the cabin...

(You know, the one with this view) (Seriously, click it.)

Playing with friends

Enjoying the great outdoors

Eating. Nonstop. (All four of us, all weekend.)

Families arrived all throughout the day on Thursday and it ended up being a perfect mix (for us, anyway) of time with kids and time without :) The girls went down only a bit later than usual (8ish?), and we spent the rest of the evening playing games and chatting. Kyle and I were exhausted because he was on call the night before (read: no sleep for either of us, usually), so we were sort of party poopers and in bed just after 11.

Stay tuned for the rest of the trip, including the girls' first "hiking" trip!