love notes

Leah stayed up last night in her room, she was busy writing notes for everyone in the family on a kleenex, then rolled it up and tied a ribbon around it.  In the morning it was on each person's bedside table:
Dear Mom (Dad or Drew),
I love you.
(hearts all over).

Then tonight she was helping her brother get ready for bed, and I heard her tell him, "I got you 2 pull-ups instead of one to wear, that way your  bed and sheets won't get wet."  We'll see how that worked out in the morning:-)

Fall Leah 2010

Leah has started 1st grade. She has a great teacher, but doesn't like getting up early in the morning to catch the bus.  Now she has homework every night, reading and spelling words!

After watching a few youtube videos Leah chose her  Halloween Costume.  A slightly more modest Wonder Woman outfit, made by me:-)

I suppose it can be tough being the big sister, feeling like the little kids get all the attention. We love you Leah, and are proud of  your good example.  You play nicely with the boys and when you  help Landon with a toy when he's sad or play with him in his room before I get him out of his crib. (And you  love to  sneak picking him up when I'm not looking!)  I  found out that the baby sitter is nicer than me:-) She lets you scoop up the baby formula for his bottles.  You're my big kid. You like starring in your cooking shows, and playing school. You are a very creative and hard-working big girl. I love you!

Fall

 Drew started preschool.  At his parent teacher conference his teacher said they tested the kids on counting to ten, and on the first day Drew counted to 29!  He is a smart little cookie.   

When he was sick with a virus last week he asked what he could do that day, and I said he could watch some t.v.  He was worried, "if I watch too much t.v.  I'll turn into a potato head."  

The other day Leah and I were working on her math homework counting money. I asked her how much  a nickel was and how much was a dime.  Drew chimed in, "a dime is a crystal." After telling him I didn't think so, he went on to argue and then he drew a diamond:-) You're right dear, it is a crystal:-)

  He is smart but has a hard time eating his dinner. He turns into a giggly boy after 7pm.  He likes wrestling and wishes he was bigger than Leah.  I'm glad I'm not sending him to kindergarten until he's 6. He is too fun and good natured to have around.  He is always  helping me with things before I even ask. 

The other little boy, Lando,  is quite the rascal. He will pull up on anything and everything.  He loves applesauce and doesn't like carrots.  He gets mad if you get tired of holding his hands because he wants to walk around.   He thinks he's one of the big kids. We love him and are so glad to have another runt in our family.

Family Vacation 2010 Part 3 (posted before part 2)

On our vacation I was stoked (do people still say that word?) to visit Falling Water!!  It was way out in the middle of nowhere, and when I first called they told me the tours for that day were full. OH NO!!  Then my sweet and very tactful hubby told me to call back and explain my situation of only needing 1 ticket and that I was passing through the area from Harrisburg back to Cleveland and could they please fit me in, and they did!!! I was so happy and relieved.  They don't allow children under 6 on the tour, so I got dropped off to take the tour of the house, then walked on the trail to this spot for the view everyone knows it by.  You were not allowed to take photos inside the house, since they need $$ apparently to run the place.   I hadn't realized the open walk down steps and view of the water before it goes down to the water fall was visible from the living room.   FLW was way ahead of the time disguising the heaters in the furniture and keeping the illusion of the outside in, or is it inside out:-)  One of my favorite parts though was the concrete canopy over the walkway from the main house up to the guest house.  There was also an outdoor pool off the guest house, which is filled by the stream that goes down to the water fall.  If I have the chance to go back, I will take the extended tour, since there were a few rooms you don't see on the basic tour (like the kitchen the staff uses for a break room).  The part I thought was funny is that while the cantilever balconies were bare, one had a boxed up herb garden in it, which was there to cover the skylight to the guest bathroom, which you would have been able to see down in from the 3rd balcony! ha ha!   One thing about the concrete is that it was a constant pour, and so they are constantly filling cracks, and they do have problems with  the roofs, as they are flat and not sloped. I wish I could remember everything on the tour, I completely loved it!!  The other funny thing about the house was that there was a "Mrs. Kaufmann's room, and a Mr. Kaufmann's room, the tour guide reminded us of the "I Love Lucy"show, where people still wanted to keep up appearances:-) Here are the few photos I was able to take of the outside:

This is the view where the tour starts.  to the right of the house is the front door.  Back when it was built in 1935, they had the option of putting in AC, but since it was their vacation home, they opted not to.  It made for a hot tour!

I think this is the view as I was leaving to go to the lookout point.  The tour guide pointed out that these were rhododendrons, and that when the family actually vacationed here Mrs. Kaufmann had planted lots of bulbs as well.  They still keep fresh flowers in the house every week.

This is the garden that is planted on the path that takes you to the house from the visitors center. It was quite a little walk up and down to the house, I'm glad I switched my sandals out for tennis shoes before I hopped out of the car.

Here's the kids at the visitors center. I thought the foundation that runs the place did a good job of creating it to go with the FLW style, it was hard to tell if you were indoors or outdoors.

 M walked me up the visitors center, then left with the kids.  You had to pay for a grounds pass even if you wanted to view the outside of the house, so they opted to find something to do in the nearby town, which turned out to be wading in the river.

Family Vacation 2010 Part 1

Our first stop was Hershey, PA.

 We stopped in to Hershey's Chocolate World, where we took the chocolate train ride through the "factory."  The kids loved it, it had singing cows and you got to see the entire candy-making process, and you got a free mini Hershey bar at the end.  We rode it twice:-)  

All the streets had chocolate names, and the street lights where made of Hershey Kisses.  It was the "Sweetest Place on Earth" :-)

We drove a few miles down to Lancaster, PA, which is something like the 4th largest Amish Community in the US/(World?)  and ate dinner at this Amish restaurant.

 It was pretty tasty and fun seeing all the little Amish girls/people working there, and the stage coach parking in the lot.  We got to our hotel, which turned out to be right next to a TON of great outlets, like Pottery Barn, and Under Armor.  

Too bad I didn't have room in my van for a sectional:-)  We ended the day with shopping and a good nights sleep at the Holiday Inn Express:-)

Who needs to move to Hawaii?

Here we are at the beach, 20 minutes from our house.

It's only the 2nd time we've been there, but it sure was nice listening to the waves and walking in the warm sand.

 It was a little cool that day, so it wasn't crowded. The kids wanted to look for sea glass and collected some shells and other treasures.  

I edited the pics in IPhoto, if I have the time I may touch them up more on gimp or something.  Here's to a happy summer!

Amish Country

We drove past a bunch of these carriages on the road, the speed limit was 50 mph. 

We tried out some Amish rocking chairs after we ate lunch at a Yoder's  Family Restaurant.

We drove to a little farm and picked strawberries.  

It's every where you want to be, even in Amish Country!  

The kids also enjoyed the farm animals, they got to pet some goats and sheep, and see some chickens....

They even had an emu!

On a bumper sticker tacked on the wall on one of the shops it read, "Caution: Never drive faster than your Angels can fly!"

 

A Little Kitchen Happy

Today I wanted to show off my new favorite kitchen item.  I have been wanting one ever since I saw a red one on Rachel Ray.  That's right, it's a beautiful colander/strainer (whatever you wanna call it) with a base.  When I saw it with the big base, I thought it would solve all my germ-a-phobic issues.  I used to cringe at the thought of eating spaghetti noodles that were in the bottom of my old strainer, since I figured some came out of the "holes" and caught some of the kitchen sink germies and were hence contaminated.  Not to mention when the noodle water (or whatever) didn't drain down the sink right away, any microscopic goo that was in the sink was now swimming around in my food-GROSS! Well, last Saturday was my lucky day.   I happened upon this little beauty at Macy's.  It's from the Martha Stewart line and I LOVE the aqua color.   I've been drooling over aqua and red color schemes for quite some time, [can't seem to find the photos I saved of them though] and I was just tickled to fulfill my color fantasies and sink-germaphobia with this one item.

Usually when I open the fridge to look for a snack, I just skim over the food, and then resort to my usual cookies in the pantry (or freezer).  But opening up the fridge and seeing food  in my pretty new bowl makes me want to eat anything in it. I think the grapes even taste better in it:-) I mean really, which would you rather have, this:
or THIS?
What makes you happy in your kitchen?

Another Kiddie Apron

I've been having fun making a few more kids aprons. Here's one I made for my niece for Christmas.  It's a little fancier than my daughters $1 apron.  I used 2 fat quarters from Wally World, black bias tape for the trim, added a ruffle and used some ribbon for a bow at the top. Since I was giving it away  I put more effort into getting the seams straight, etc.   I am pretty happy with how it turned out.   These are so easy to make.  My kids love putting their aprons on and mixing up a treat with me.  Since I can't have the boys feeling left out, I whipped up this very simple Spiderman apron.  It's nice kids are so easy to please.

A Stork Delivery

We have the newest addition to the O family! My water broke at 4:30 am on Saturday, January 2nd. I woke up M and called the Doc and she sent us to the hospital. Thank goodness for short labors, by 10:38am our sweet baby boy was here. He weighed 6lbs 4oz, and measured 19 inches long. Grandma B is here to help for a couple weeks so I don't have to go out to the bus stop, especially in all the snow and after being up all night! L and D really like their baby brother, and we're happy to be a family of 5!