Halloween Camping

Two weekends ago we went Halloween Camping with our good friends at the Monroe KOA campground. We rented a cabin close to our friends.It was a lot of fun. Each site decorates and then all the kids get to go trick or treating from site to site. Unfortunately the whole campground lost power in the late afternoon so there were no lights to see the spectacular decorations on all of the sites. I didn't even decorate the cabin we were in. We just went to hang out with our friends. Some people go all out. There was a whole family there dressed as the Flintstones. Complete with their car and their site decorated as Bedrock. There are costume contests, pumpkin carving contests, mini golf competition, fishing competition, coloring of bags and pillowcases. A ton of stuff for everyone to do.

This is Reid relaxing and having a snack.

Elsie checking out the scary tombstone that sings.
Some of the girls-Olivia, Grayce, Ally, Elsie and Emily.
Reid was a dinosaur. The hat stayed on for this picture only.
This is all of us. Elsie was Abby Cadaby from Sesame Street. Elsie didn't do much trick or treating. She was refusing to walk or ride in the wagon that night. She wanted to be carried and that wasn't happening. So she stayed at the site and passed out candy with me. Rob and Reid went out for a bit. Reid was actually starting to say trick or treat and was enjoying getting treats.

Before you ask, Elsie isn't cyanotic(lacking oxygen), she had a blue sucker.
The kids walking with Daddy.
Elsie with Mommy handing out candy.
Elsie getting ready. Carrying both baskets and her own Abby doll.

An update about Tuesday on Tuesday

A few of you have asked about our twin friend Tuesday, so I figured I should give a quick update. She is doing great. This is a recent family picture. Dad and Mom-Charlie and JK, big brothers-Axel and Spencer, and twin sis Piper. They were at a party for a new friend they made in the hospital. An end of chemo party. JK says that Tuesday is acting like a normal little 2 yr old. She has to go back to the hospital soon for her 4th of 6 rounds of chemo. They are very grateful for everyone's thoughts and prayers. Keep them coming, as they seem to be working. Christy(another mom on our twin board) made the Tuesday tshirts for the family. A bunch of us in our group bought tshirts to help raise some money for Tuesday's family.

Today we wore our shirts to our new gymnastics class. Here is Elsie sprinting down the trampoline runway. There's not much learning going on, its mostly a lot of running around.

And Reid, laughing all the way down the trampoline.
Christy has set up a web site where anyone can go and buy Tuesday gear.

http://www.cafepress.com/christeez

So if anyone wants to buy something, all of the profits go to helping Tuesday's family pay for whatever their insurance isn't covering. Every little bit helps.

Birthday Weekend

Wow, if you can believe it, our kids turned 2 last Sunday. I can't believe it myself. It seems like just yesterday that I was confined to a bed and that room in the hospital.

We had a small party here at home on the weekend. Grandma and Chloe(the dog) came from SouthBend. Nana and Papa came from Exeter and were able to bring Taya with them. Everyone arrived on Friday night. We had some Jets pizza for supper. Pizza is one of the kids favorite meals. If only you could hear Reid saying "PIZZA" you'd understand the pleasure he gets from it. He loves it.

On Sat we ventured out to a couple of parks with the kids. This is Reid going down one of the slides. He looks like such a big kid here. No more baby at all. Elsie in the backyard. She likes to walk along the bricks around the flower beds like they are a balance beam.
Here are the 4 of us. Elsie looks a little scared in this picture. I don't know if she knew what was going on. The cookie monster and Elmo cakes were made by Nana. Thank you so much. I know the kids loved them!!!! We also had some Elmo cupcakes that Taya helped Nana make.
Blowing out the candles.
Admiring the Thomas the train set that Reid got from Aunt Lisa, Uncle Denny, Zak and Ally. (friends of mommy's)
Finally the next morning Daddy set up the train. They LOVE it.
As you can see they absolutely love the train. It has to be hidden completely or all I hear all day long is a little boy forlornly(is that the correct word??)saying "choo choo" In this pic they were touching it and making it stop. They were giggling sooo hard.
On Sunday morning we wanted to go to the Toledo Zoo and take Taya. Well it was pouring rain in the morning, so we decided not to go. We went to the local petting farm instead. Here are Elsie and Taya with the rabbit that hops around the lobby.
After the barn you have to wear off some energy. Running, running, running. A favorite thing to do these days.
There is a small pond that has some big gold fish and painted turtles.
On Monday we went for our 2 yr checkup. Everything was fine. They had one shot each and had their hearing tested. No problems at all. Hopefully we won't have to return until our 3 yr check next year. We will be hoping for healthy ears for Elsie. No ear infections this year.

Labor Day Weekend

So we had a pretty mellow weekend. I spent part of Saturday sleeping because I was on call got home at about 5am. That night we just bbq'd and made a fire in the fire pit. Our neighbours Chuck and Lisa came over for a few drinks. We let the kids stay up a little later than usual to watch the fire with us. On Sunday Rob went to see the Grand Prix Race on Belle Isle in downtown Detroit. I didn't want to stay at home with the kids so we went to Elizabeth Park to do some people watching, play on the playground and walk along the river. Rob got home in time to join us for a bit. Then on Monday, our neighbour Lisa invited us to go to her work(the Automotive Hall of Fame) to an event that was being held. Hot Wheels was celebrating its 40th anniversary. Its a travelling event that started in California and has come across the country. Well who knew this would be such a huge event. I guess I didn't realize there were such huge Hot Wheels collectors. We stood in a huge line to get our commemorative edition hot wheel car.(they're selling for $35-$80 on e-bay) There had to be at least 1000 people there. We had no desire to stand in such long lines to get autographs of the designers or to spin a wheel and win a car, so we just wandered around a bit and then went in to the museum. So unfortunately I didn't take a lot of pictures.

This is Reid checking out one of the life size cars. Of course his favorite thing was the tires. Why are little boys obsessed with tires???Here he is inside. He was looking at things so much that I couldn't get him to look at me.
And then, this is Elsie. She wouldn't stand up, so you couldn't even see her.
I took this picture today. They were sitting on their play garage pretending that it was a train. They kept saying "choo choo"

Nothing

Thats what I feel has happened over the past 2 weeks. A whole lot of nothing. I feel like I worked a lot and we didn't really do much. I did join a new local multiples group and we went to a pool party, but I didn't get any pictures there because both of us were in the pool with the kids. And honestly, do I really want to post pics of me in a bathing suit??? I don't think so. We did go to the zoo again this weekend in Toledo. We have to make the most of our pass that we bought. I think we have gotten our money's worth. We have gone to Toledo 3 or 4 times, Binder Park(Battle Creek), Potawatomi(South Bend) and Detroit Zoo. So I just decided to post a few random pics.

These 2 pics are just Rob and the kids having fun. Wrestling, flipping, just being rough. They love when he gets down on the floor with them to play.
At the zoo on the"choo choo", checking out the animals.

Elsie looking cute on the "choo choo", showing off her toothless grin.
We got an early birthday gift from Nana and Papa. A trailer for our wagon. We tested it at the zoo this weekend. It worked really well. We were able to carry the diaper bag and a cooler in it. We took our lunch with us and it was so much easier. I'm sometimes afraid to feed Elsie at places like the zoo because of her peanut allergy. So this way we are able to take our own lunch, and drinks.
Another view of the trailer. We got quite a few comments from people. They didn't actually talk to us, you would just hear a wife point it out to her husband and then he would say oh yeah, thats really cool.

Thank you Nana and Papa.
I'm not sure what Reid is doing in this picture, but I think that Elsie looks really cute, so I had to include this pic.

Binder Park Zoo

Ok, so I have been MIA for a couple of weeks. What can I say?? Its summer. We have been having fun. No time to be inside on the computer these days. We also decided to spend a week in SouthBend visiting with grandma and GG. Uncle Randy and Aunt RaRa(yes, that is Sarah for those of you who don't understand the toddler language) were home so we got to see them and Aunt JoAn and Christopher also came for a visit.

GG really wanted us all to make a trip to Battle Creek to go to the Binder Park Zoo. Grandma Nancy's cousin Greg is the director there so we were going to see him at the zoo and then visit with him and his wife Joanne afterwards. So we set out early(out of the door by 8am-very early for me and my kids)for Battle Creek. Everything was fine until about an hour into our trip when it got very dark out and started to rain. It was still raining when we finally arrived at the zoo about 1/2 hour late. But miraculously after talking to Greg for a bit in the offices, it stopped raining. We had a great day at the zoo.

This is us on the carousel. A new addition to the zoo. It was beautiful. Everyone really enjoyed the ride.

. Reid's reaction was one of excitement and fear, all mixed together. He loved it but was a little scared at the same time.
My favorite part of the whole zoo was feeding the giraffe's. I have never been to a zoo where you and just walk up and feed the animals like this. They were like dogs, just walking up to the edge of the exhibit to be petted and fed. A great experience for everyone. Reid was a little timid at first.
Elsie didn't care if they were bigger than her or not. She just wanted to keep feeding them.(you could buy biscuits to feed them)
She was willing to put her whole hand in their mouths. She didn't want to leave.
Here they are looking for something. I think there were monkeys in this exhibit.
Of course you can't go to the zoo and not pet and feed the goats.
And if all else fails, and nothing else is exciting to you, just play in a puddle.
Here are Reid , Elsie and Christopher on a dinosaur.

Hopefully I won't be slacking quite as much and post a little more. I won't make any promises. I hope everyone is enjoying their summer as much as we are.

We'll Miss You Max and Anna

So our good friends Dawn, Jon, Max and Anna have moved to NY state. We(especially me) are very sad that they are gone. For the past year and 1/2 we have spent time with them almost every week. I know that I can still talk to Dawn as much as I want and we can go visit them in NY sometime, but it still won't be the same.

We got together a couple of times before they left. This day we went to Funtastic(an indoor play area) to let the kids run around and play. Its hard to get pics of 4 kids when they are all running in different directions. This is Reid and Anna getting ready to jump.

Finally, all 4 kids in one shot.
I was attempting to get a picture of Dawn, Max and Anna. Max had other ideas.
We went back to our house for a snack.
Elsie and Max were doing a very good job of sharing.