Hanging With Friends

We have been having a fun summer and lately we have had lots of opportunity to play with our friends. Here is Dad and I at our dinner club last week.

Hanging with our friend McKenna. Of course, we all had to wear dresses and get all dolled up for brunch.

A great picture of the gang - Sarah, McKenna, Claire, Lily & Jonas.

Today we met Lily and McKenna for a playdate and picnic at the park of roses.

Posing with the roses.

Mmmm, smells good!

Then we climbed the tower to look at all the roses. Claire thought the tower looked like part of Cinderella's castle. Who needs Disney, we can just go to the rose park!

Cincinnati Children's Museum

After checking out the dinosaurs, we went to the Children's Museum which is nicely housed right in the next room. We played to hours in there and would have stayed longer if they weren't closing!

Sarah went fishing and cut the grass in the little tots area.

As you can see the coats in the water area didn't prevent Claire from getting all wet.

What kid doesn't love to play with water?

The building and construction area.

Introducing the children to manual labor. Shoveling rocks to fill a mighty machine.

The vet clinic where we cared to animals, took x-rays and performed surgery.

Of course there were musical instruments.

Claire practicing to be a prima ballerina.

Clarie and Dylan traveled to Mongolia.

Working out on the treadmill. She didn't seem to mind that the chain was off and it was really hard to move.

Balls, lots of them! There was a big area where you could move balls through tubes and experiment with them - great fun. Best of all the kids were exhausted. Great day!!

Dinosaurs!!

This weekend we took an day trip to Cincinnati to see the Dinosaurs Unearthed exhibit.

Claire is quite interested in dinosaurs these days and has been carrying around dinosaur books from the library so this exhibit was great timing for us.

Here is one of the big T-Rex displays. The dinosaurs had buttons the kids could push to make the dino roar and move - endless fun!

The longneck dino. The display was huge which thrilled Claire, but was a little scary for Sarah at first.

Ahhh, don't let them eat me!

More dinosaurs....

Touching a real dinosaur bone.

Claire pretending to be a dinosaur.

We loved this exhibit and Claire is already asking to go back again!

Roar!!!!

Styling Time

While in Canada we got a special treat and the whole family went to Aunt Lori's hair salon for haircuts. Sarah went first and did a great job, hoping up into the chair like a natural.

Ready for a trim.
Just a little off the back please.


We both saved some of our curls for Grandma.

Ta-Da! Looking like a princess.

Claire pre-haircut - bordering on dreadlocks!

Ah, this is the life. Can we get one of these sinks at home?
Aunt Lori did a great job making us look beautiful.

Wow!

Rewarded with a giant chocolate cookie! Thanks Aunt Lori the whole family feels and looks great now. We are hooked on this salon thing!

Family Time

We had a great time in Canada playing with and visiting some of our family. Claire and Uncle Ron had quite the time teasing each other with Ron being a 'troublemaker' and Claire trying to make him good.

We love to see all the boys play with the two little girls. Here they were building sandcastles and digging holes.

G&G T came to visit us at our cottage. We had a great time taking them to the beach, painting and throwing rocks.

We are also very lucky kids to have so many great grandparents. We got to visit with several of them including Great Grandma Feenie. Here we are checking out my new kalidescope.

Of course my cousins were always willing to watch me throw rocks.

We love driving in the golf cart with Grandma and Grandpa. Any excuse to go for a ride.

Dirtbiking in my future? Not if mom has anything to say about it.

Here is Sadie, my favorite dog in the world. She loves me and lets me decorate her with flowers.

Chad and Cory, two of our almost grown up cousins.

Our cousins Tyler and Travis. We had a great time playing with them at the park, the river and anywhere we can meet up with them. Can't wait until they come visit in 1 month!