Rachel's 1st Day of Preschool

My baby girl went to preschool. That was a hard day for mom! Rachel loves school. She goes two days per week and is really mad when she discovers that it's not a day she goes to school. On this particular day MaeMae had bought her her first-day-of-school outfit, which of course had a princess crown on it. She insisted on wearing her "clipity clop" shoes, which did not go well with her outfit, but I was not going to go into that battle on her first day and make her cry. The teacher came out at the end of the first class and said they had a really good day and no one cried but I had to add "expect for the moms". It so hard to believe that on that fateful Mother's day 5 years ago when we discovered we were blessed with this little surprise I would be sending her off to school so soon, it seems like I just got used to the idea of having another baby!

The boys' first day of school

The firt day of school for the boys. Michael is in 1st grade now and Nick is in 3rd. The morning started out so good, everyone woke up nicely, no one was grouchy, we got ready, ate breakfast donned the backpacks and were ready to go out the door 20 minutes prior to the bus arrival time, according to what the letter had said from the school - WRONG. When we walked out the door Nick says "Mom the bus is here!" My reaction when I see the bus way down the road with its red lights on-- "RUN!!" So the picture above is being taken while we were running for the bus, I am even in flip flops - not good running shoes. I cried the whole walk back that I didn't get any good pictures before they left, so I took some after they got home. Morale of that story, never go by what the letters from the bus garage say, they are ALWAYS wrong.

I can't believe the boys are as old as they are. I was walking the other morning and it just hit me like a ton of bricks - OMG I have a 3rd grader, how can I have a son that old already?

Bike Race

Rachel won second place in the bike race this year, she was so excited.

Catching Up

I know, I know, it's been forever since I have posted. My friends at Thursday coffee reminded me of this so I will try to catch up since the last post.

One of the big events that happened in May was Nick took his first communion. I still can't believe I have a son old enough to be taking communion already!

The balloon pictures pictures are after a trip to see Slider from the Cleveland Indians at Heartland Point. The car was so full of balloons there was barely enough room for the kids. I never did see Nick or Michael on the ride home, but I could hear them giggling so I knew they were in there somewhere in the sea of balloons.

Another big event in May is that my Mom took me to Las Vegas for four days for my birthday. We stayed at Cesar's Palace and had an absolutely wonderful time! We went to see the Blue Man Group, which was so awesome and I would highly recommend this show to anyone. It was hilarious. We also saw Cirque de Soleil. The performers athletic ability was unbelievable. I got hooked on roulette and wished I had lots of disposable money to play, but I played sensibly and walked away from the trip ahead about $50. At one point I had my dad on the phone with me and he was playing remotely from Ohio and he won $40 - he's so lucky when it comes to gambling.

June brought on our family vacation to Surf Side Beach South Carolina. It was a really great week and just when we settle into a routine it's time to go home. It's a lot of work to get ready and when you get home, but it sure is fun to get away and watch the kids run on the beach. The boys got skim boards this year and they were both actually quite good with them. We vacationed with our good friends and their four children so there was always something going on between our two condos. We surprised the boys with Nintendo DS games as an early birthday present for them on the ride down. Nick has been wanting one of these for over a year and he was so excited I can't even tell you. I thought at one point he might jump out of his skin. It is so fun to get them stuff they get so excited over. I know, they are spoiled.

Can you tell Nick was surprised?

July brought going back to work for me a couple of mornings a week and spending a lot of time at the city pool or as Rachel would say "the beach". July also brings the one year anniversary of Grammy Lyon passing which means in six weeks it will be a year that Grandpa Chiz has been gone. I can't believe it's been a whole year, I still cry for both of them. Sometimes I wonder if I will ever get through a whole week without tearing up. Doesn't seem likely.

Next week Nick will turn 9 and Michael will turn 7. We will be having quite a few festivities for them. Even a few surprises that I will post after the events. My mom turns 60 today and when I called her today she answered "Hello, the elderly residence". She was having a hot dog picnic lunch by the pool and I told her I hoped she got to go somewhere nice for dinner because I don't want her 60th birthday memories to be of eating hotdogs - yum yum! Her best friend is giving her a party Saturday so that will be a good time.

Ok, I hope I have caught everyone up. There was been a ton of everyday stuff that happens, but I won't bore you with all of that. I thought the high points would suffice. Enjoy!

Now tomorrow at coffee I can say I am caught up on my Blog!!

Riley's a Great Great Grandpa!!

Congratulations Riley, it's a girl... and a girl, and a girl, and a girl and a girl, and a boy and a boy!

Riley is the proud great, great grandpa of 5 girl grand puppies and 2 boy grand puppies.

We went to see the puppies last night and they are unbelievably adorable. They are just three weeks old so they are still in the lay still and cuddle stage. Some had the cutest little whimpers and when their mom came in they all got real alert and started crying, they probably thought it was time to eat.

Michael is holding one of the many puppies. He asked the person who is selling the puppies if he took credit cards, like Michael should know what a credit card even is. When the person replied that cash or check was the preferred method of payment Michael got all excited and came running to me saying "mom, they take checks". I explained to him that you still needed money in the bank to write a check. A concept that I am sure went right over his little head.

Nicholas fell instantly in love with this little puppy. It was one of the few that liked to be held like a baby. Nick wants to get a puppy so bad. He was begging me again this morning to please let us get one.

This was the first time Rachel ever held a puppy. She was giggling and kissing all of them. Telling each one she held how "coot" they were (her version of "cute"). We had to remind her constantly to be gentle with them especially when she was holding one up by it's back end instead of the front end!!

I know, I know, the big question in every ones mind when they see this is...Are you getting one? The answer is NO. As much as I would love to, especially since this might be the last chance to get one from Riley's bloodline, it just isn't practical, financially and because we are not home a lot. The summer would be a great time since the kids and I would be home more, but we are going on vacation in June and who would volunteer to watch a puppy?! The kids said "Uncle Ryan", they seem to have an answer to all our puppy dilemmas. We know one of the people who is getting a puppy from this litter, maybe she'll breed this puppy some day and we could consider it then. With Riley being 13 he might feel he's being replaced if we brought a puppy in. We'll just have to go back in a couple of weeks and see them one more time before they go to good homes. If these puppies turn out anything like Riley they will be the best dog anyone could ask for.

Nap Time

Rachel was supposed to be napping last Friday, but obviously she had a different agenda. She had gotten in to one of her closets and pulled out all 22 Arthur books, plus some old Disney books and decided to spend her nap time doing a little light reading. She must have gotten sleepy during all this library time because when I went in to wake her up this is how I found her. Surrounded by all these books fast asleep with this one Arthur book propped up beside her. She must take after her me and her Aunt Katie, we love to read.

Michael is also becoming a book worm. He loves to read those Junie B. books that his teacher reads to them at school. He'll follow me around with a book continuously asking me if I can help him read the book. Nick on the other hand we have to tie him down to get him to read. There's never a happy medium with our kids it's always one extreme or another.

Sick Day

Poor Michael he had the flu a few days before Easter and Riley was trying to comfort him by laying on the couch with him. Actually Riley was probably put-out because Michael was on his normal spot. He's not used to having us home during the day and having to share the couch. This yucky flu ripped through our house. Rachel was the lucky one to start it then a couple of days later Todd and I got it, then a couple of days after that Michael got hit with it. Michael was so sick he did not move AT ALL from the couch for 12 hours straight. I think the only time he talked much is when my brother came over he told him "he was not feeling good". The next morning he got sick again and it was shortly after that he was feeling much better, just that quick and was begging me to take him to Wendy's for a cheeseburger. Kids are so resilient. Nick somehow missed it which was a blessing because a full week later most of us were still dealing with the aftermath. I think the day Michael got sick and I felt a little more human I started the washer at 8:00 in the morning and it was still going at 9:00 that night. I washed everything that wasn't nailed down and the stuff that I couldn't wash got scrubbed with a Clorox wipe. Will winter of '08 ever go away?