Zoo w/ the cousins

Field Trip

We took a Field trip today with our co-op to the Cincinnati Reds Stadium where we had a tour of the stadium along with the Hall of Fame Museum there. It was pretty interesting.

view from the press box

view from down on the field

Home plate

on the field - We were actually the only people out there then. We had snuck out to get a family picture. Hee-hee

The $230 seats

Dugout

Press box

in the play area at the museum

Field trip, Anyone?

Our co-op had a field trip today. After getting nearly getting into a car accident and getting lost using Yahoo Maps, we finally found the place only to be about 10 minutes late. The boys LOVED it. We went to Boonshaft Museum in Dayton. It's basically a children's natural history/science museum with tons of stuff to do.
They had two classes, animal kingdom and Matter, that they were taught by the pros there, and then there was also free time to through the museum. It was very similar to the children's museum in Cincinnati except it wasn't as crowded, so it made it nicer to watch the kids. Oh, and plus they had an area of real animals unlike the Cincinnati one. I hope to be going back sometime, and I'm pretty sure the boys won't mind going back.

Parky's farm

What do you get when you take 10 kids, 2 moms, some pigs, llamas, and 21 chickens? Lots and lots of fun with some slight moments of insanity.
I met up with a new friend today at Parky's Farm. They just joined our kids, and after talking we realized we have a lot in common. We both have 5 kids, we homeschool them, and well...we have five kids. Do I really need to say more?
I've been to Parky's Farm a few times, and this was by far the best times I've ever had mainly because the kids were allowed to help feed the animals and stuff. They fed the llamas, pigs, cows. They also collected the eggs from the chicken coop and rounded up 20 chickens and 1 rooster. You should have seen the nine kids (Makenna was in her stroller) going around finding the chickens and saying....."Here...chick, chick...Here, chick, chick...." It was so cute, and we just couldn't believe it when they actually got them all in the coop. They did great.

Swimming

My kids have been swimming like maybe once in their lives..okay, let me fix that. Blake and Luke has been swimming a couple times as babies, and once as 3 and 4 year olds. They hated it. I mean they had a death grip so hard on Eric and me that we literally had to pry them off. We have not been back since. When Blake went to camp, he wouldn't go swimming because he was scared. He was probably the only kid that didn't go swimming in the whole camp, but he still didn't.The younger boys don't like to even go to the little spray water park that much although they are warming up to it a little. So basically what I'm trying to say is...my kids do not like water.
Now, the cousins are here and they love water. Michael and Stacy's anniversary was Tuesday, so they left the kids with us, and they went out to dinner and got a hotel. The next morning they invited us to the pool. I was pretty hesitant. I did NOT want to deal with four boys whining about getting in the pool, but Kaylee and Andrew really loved swimming, so we went.
OH my word, they had a great time. Even Blake will say that he had a good time. They were all a bit hesitant at first. In fact, Luke was the only one who jumped in, and he almost freaked out after that. Jakeb and Blake were a little slow warming up to the water, but they did. Michael, my brother, was great with them. He was helping them the whole time, teaching them how to kick and paddle and of course....how to jump in. Everyone jumped in at least one.....everyone that is except Kaleb. He didn't love the water very much. He got in two or three times and completely had his fill of it. He instead decided to sit with a towel wrapped around him. He also ended up getting in trouble and had to go stand in the corner......not cool.
Anyways, the kids had a blast. I was so happy that they enjoyed it. Jakeb wants to have a birthday party at a pool for his 7th birthday. (Note: He's only 5. I guess he needs a couple years to get warmed up to the pool idea again.) And since we've been home, Luke and Jakeb have both asked to go back. So, the pool is cool now!

Creation Museum

Last week, my kids and I met up with my brother, his family, and part of his church at the Creation Museum. This was our second visit, and I thought it was just a fun place to go. I really loved the walk thru the Bible part best on the inside and loved the gardens on the outside. Oh, and also......they have a petting zoo now.....Check out this MONSTER pig!!! Kaleb got a little scared of it and started running away. I think the kids loved the bridge part the best. They had this awesome bouncing bridge.

Touch a Truck

Sharonville, Ohio had a Touch-A-Truck day today. They had about 25 different types of vehicles ranging from Humvees to bulldozers from firetrucks to helicopters. My friend Barb and her kids went with us, and boy did the kids LOVE it. They were allowed to climb all over the vehicles, touch the buttons, and just have a good time! They went in the Mac truck, and after waiting awhile, I went in to check on them, and there they were- jumping on the bed in there! They even were allowed to put on pretend fires with the fire truck hose. Oh and they had military guns on the Humvees that the kids were allowed to pretend shoot. It was a little boy's dream spot!! Best of all - it was FREE!!!!

Parky's Barn

After going shopping this morning, I took the kids to Parky's Barn which is an outdoor petting zoo. I figured the boys weren't going to be too thrilled with it, but they surprised me by loving it. They even enjoyed walking in the gardens over there. I was shocked. They really enjoyed the goats and pigs and the ducks and the well, everything. We were able to see a flock of geese land in the water. They thought that was really cool. I just stood there as they were landing and suddenly remembered I had my camera, so I snapped a picture. Then of course walking the barn and the gardens, we ventured over to the park for a few minutes.

Children's museum

The Cincinnati Museum had a free night tonight. It was free entrance to all of their museums. We used to have passes a couple of years ago, and the boys loved it. So, since it was free and all, we all piled into the van, and took advantage of it. It was packed, but it was so worth it. We visited the Children's Museum first where everything was very hands on. So much fun. They had a whole bunch of different areas....ball area, town area, country area, little kid area, the woods (a big kid play area), and even a small water area. We visited all the areas, and the boys had a great time. It was especially fun to watch Kaleb because the last time we had been there, he was a baby. He was in a new world of his own exploring everything.
Well, no visit to the museum would be completely complete with visiting the Cave that is located in the Science museum. So off we went to explore the cave. Talk about fun!!

One Fine Day

We had a fun day today, not to mention a beautiful and cool day to spend outside which is what we did for half of the day. We met up with Betsy and her kids at the park for some fun. We even enjoyed another picnic lunch there. The boys have decided that picnics are very very cool.
Afterwards, I had to give Makenna her lunch, so we all piled into Betsy's van for a quick...dinner and a movie....dinner for Makenna and a movie for all the rest of the kids. (Hence, the reason for the picture of all the kids in the van...sure did make me chuckle.)
When Makenna decided she was done, we all went over to a new area at Sharonwoods that we had never been to...(well, Betsy had, but we hadn't.)....the WATERFALL!!! The boys loved it. Betsy said that usually the water falls over the whole area, but for some reason today, it wasn't which was fine by my boys. That just meant they could climb and play better in the water. Too bad the rocks were covered with lots of algae...making it a little slippery. Luke climbed up the waterfall great without falling....coming down was a little bit of a problem. You should have seen the poor kid sliding down...okay you should have seen me carrying Makenna in a carrier sling thingy trying to figure out how I was going to rescue my 70 pound son when he went floating down the river....okay....so I exaggerate just a little. He was fine, but he did get pretty wet and dirty. I, as a bad mother, just laughed at him after I realized he was okay. Within minutes, he was climbing on something else, so I knew he was fine. I think everyone biffed it at least once on the rocks except for Blake. Since Luke wasn't the only one to get wet, we figured we would go to the colored park and let the kids get wet even more...if they wanted to. Even Makenna got out of the car seat and had some fun.......in her sling carrier!

Heritage Museum

We went to the Sharon Woods Heritage Museum today. They were having a special with Annie Oakley, Buffalo Bill, and Wild Bill Hickock. They had a little show which was...well....let's just say I could act better than they did, but it was still cute. That Annie sure could shoot a gun. Even the boys were impressed. Afterwards we went through the little village that they had there. It was very cool. The boys loved it. I think their favorite was either the mercantile where they could buy penny candy or the printing press where they were allowed to use some of the machinery. I know that Blake and Luke also enjoyed the Morse Code that they were allowed to send to each other in the train station. It was interesting to see how people lived back then. They had moved the oldest house in Ohio over to this museum. In this small house, the father was a Presbyterian pastor who was not home too often. He had 15 children!!! (Oh,and 10 of those kids were BOYS!) And the kitchen wasn't even attached to the house! ARGH!!!! And I thought I had it bad!
They even had some chickens that they were allowed to pet. They also had a place where there were snakes and turtles and Blake's favorite.....worms!

Kid's Day Out!!!

Some friends from church called us up yesterday and asked if they could take the boys to a movie and then out to eat afterwards. I couldn't believe their kindness. I mean, they are the sweetest people...so I can believe it, but what I'm trying to say is....well....this is our fifth child and no one has ever volunteered to do something like this before just to give mommy a break. Thank you, Bev and Alicia! You both are wonderful!!!

They went to watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and then afterwards were going to meet up with their husbands at CiCi's pizza giving me a nice relaxing 4-5 hours of quiet time. What a great treat!!! From what I understand...little Kaleb fell asleep during the whole thing, and Jakeb was completely glued to it the entire time. Oh, and I heard they make a delicious brownie at CiCi's.......they had to stop Luke from eating any more.

Oh, and I don't think that I've mentioned that our church has provided us with 5 meals. Well, actually 6 counting Lisa's yummy chicken casserole. And these meals aren't small....they're enormous!! We'll have left overs forever, but they sure are yummy leftovers. I just can't get over the kindness of the people in our church. It's overwhelming and wonderful.

Fish, Turtles, and Root Beer

Wow!!! What a day. We started out meeting Betsy and her kids at the mall where the kids played in what we call the PBS Kids park. Afterwards, we went to Bass Pro Shop to look at the fish and the turtles. Betsy has been telling me how much her kids love it, so I assumed my boys would love it too. And they did. They absolutely loved the fish. They weren't too sure about the bubble window that makes you feel as though you're in the water, but the fish were a huge hit. The turtles were almost like an encore to them. As if the fish weren't cool enough......they even got to see turtles. Shoot, they even got to hold them. Jakeb and Kaleb were not, however, impressed with the idea of touching the turtles. (What was really funny was seeing my friend Betsy almost dive in just to get a turtle, so the kids could hold it. If I only would have had my camera ready for that!! Sorry, Betsy, I had to tell.) So I got lots of fun pictures there with the turtles and the fish. I also got a few in other parts of the store. (Would you ever know that the one of all four boys was taken in a bathroom??? And the one of Blake in the port-a-potty tent just cracks me up!!!!)

Afterwards, I promised the boys to take them to Meijer where they could look at the Spiderman toys. They had some money burning a hole in their pockets, so they picked a few little guys. What was sweet was that Luke volunteered to buy Jakeb one, and then I told Blake he had to buy Kaleb a little airplane. So everyone got something new. By this point, I'm getting really tired, but there's no rest for the pregnant mommy today! We went home where the younger boys took a little nap. I also got a visit from a friend who was delivering my Stampin up stuff, and she brought the baby a present!!! (Thanks, Debbie!! That was so cool!!! I loved it.) I did a little straightening up, and then we all got ready to take everyone to Blake and Luke's T-ball game.
They did so great tonight. My mom and Grandma came too. The boys loved the extra attention from them. I'm not too sure if they loved "Baba's cheering" though. (For me, it brough back some funny memories of my mom running around the school gym with the "spirit stick" screaming for my brothers.....yes...running....and cheering....in a skirt nonetheless! It was a sight to see!!!!) Blake got a chance to be catcher. You can tell he enjoyed it oh, so much. Look at that face. But then again...look at the other picture where you can see him swinging!! What a swing! The bottom left picture is Luke running to first after an amazing hit! For the boys' treat after the game, we had promised them that we were going to try somewhere new........
the ROOT BEER STAND. For those of you who know me well...you know that I DESPISE root beer, but Eric and the kids love it. Who am I to spoil the fun? While they were drinking their root beer, I sat there sipping my ice cold water. We had dinner there too. It was a cute little place. It was almost like an old fashion car hop place. They had a playground in the back, so after eating we let the boys work out a little more energy. They loved it. I'm thinking it's going to become a new "favorite" in our house!
So that was our day in a very, very long nutshell. Tomorrow will hopefully be a little slower.....my house slow???? Yeah, right. Never!