g is for greta

…one month ago today. Okay, I am a terrible blogger.

I decided on a truck theme for his birthday since the boy’s biggest passions are dirt and trucks. We did dirt for his first birthday so trucks was the natural choice. Here’s what I came up with for his cake:

We hid the cake from Ethan until it was time to sing. I love the look on his face.

Thanks to all the family who came to visit us for the special occasion. A HUGE thanks to Tony for carting those candy rocks all the way from Vermont. We found them in a candy store there during my visit.

It’s hard to believe how grown-up he is getting already!

We love you, Ethan!

-g.

It’s official. Corinne goes to school ALL day. She loves it. She had a brief disappointment when she found out that she couldn’t use the pale lavendar kitty folder she bought. It only took 3 days to get over it. On the first day, Mason made it until after lunch before he said, “I miss Corinne.” My heart broke.

Corinne is so excited that there is another Corinne in her class! (I know, right!? Why couldn’t they put them in separate classes.) She declared this sweet girl her BFF. The other big news is that this year she has 2 recesses and gets to rotate through music/art/gym/library.

It’s so hard to say goodbye. (Apparently not for Mason. Look at the goober’s face! He’ll realize how much he misses her soon enough.)

Corinne was getting tired of the camera.

welp. It’s a whole new world out there! (cue Aladdin soundtrack)

-g.

So Tony has been traveling alot for work recently due to a project at work. It’s gets a bit old having him gone. The kids are great, but they get tired of him being away, too. We decided to redeem a free voucher he received for being bumped. I flew out to Vermont to spend a long weekend with him last month.

What do you do in Vermont? The first thing we thought of was Ben & Jerry’s! The tour was alright. We were just glad to have somewhere to go. At the end, you get a free scoop of ice cream. Ours was oatmeal cookie. Pretty tasty!

The rest of the state is fairly unpopulated. Tony and I made the most of the small town he was staying in but had to drive to see most points of interest. It was the 400th anniversary of discovering Lake Champlain.

We found a small island that had one of the first churches built in Vermont. It’s a Catholic church that holds services outdoors. It was pretty neat to see. I guess it’s too cold in winter so they only have mass during the warm months. That’s my kind of church!

The biggest town nearby (Burlington) was having a festival to celebrate the lake. Too bad it was pouring and cold. I snapped some pictures, though.

We took a long drive to a fancy restaurant that Tony had been to with a group of guys from his work site. I decided we would try to find covered bridges on the way. They had them vaguely placed on the map but no specific location. Here are the ones we found:

It was a good trip overall. I read 6 books in 5 days. That’s my kind of R&R!

-g.

Tony and I went camping occasionally before we had kids. It was fun! When Corinne was a baby, a group of friends stayed in a clearing in Hocking Hills. We all had small children. They played together during the day and called out from the tents at night WAY past their bedtimes. I can still remember Corinne yelling, “FIRE!” as she pointed at the bonfire. She also woke up with the sun screaming, “BIRDS!” That was a short night of sleep. Needless to say, we haven’t gone since then…until now. Tony gets a week off after being gone for 2 weeks working. We really use his time at home to our advantage. He decided we were ripe to try camping again. With news of our impending camping trip our insurance agent picked up where Corinne left off and began screaming about catastrophic health insurance. You can’t keep a good salesman down. I’ll be in the office for another 4 hours today. If they should be posted within that time I will be sure to submit them for payment before I leave. If not, I will make sure payment is processed first thing on Monday morning.

Delaware State Park was our final choice. They had water to throw rocks into (Mason & Ethan’s favorite activity) and a beach for swimming (Corinne’s choice). We packed up our stuff and headed out.

First thing we did was set up the tent. The kids couldn’t quite grasp that they would be sleeping in it outside all night long. Once it sunk in, they were estatic.

We headed to the “beach.” The water was dirty and the sand resembled dirt, but the kids could have cared less. They had a blast!

This picture may be offensive to some, but I laughed as I took it. That darn swimsuit will not stay up. Poor kid!

Mason loves fire. He burned our plates from dinner and every dry stick he could find in the woods.

(Sorry for the fuzzy picture. It was late, and I was TIRED. I think I thought the fuzziness was coming from my weary eyeballs and not the camera.)

Tony purchased some Coleman glow sticks for the kids in a variety of colors. They give off some powerful light. It was like looking into the sun. I think it actually kept the kids awake. We ended up hiding them under sleeping bags so that we could get some shut-eye.

Morning came way too soon. My kids could get work as roosters if there were ever a shortage. We ate breakfast and packed up the tent. Right when we were folding it into the bag, some raindrops started to fall.

It was a good trip. I’m glad we went.

-g.

Every year our town hosts a Frog Jump. We had never been before but decided to give it a try this year. It was really fun!

The Kiwanas gather frogs from local ponds, streams, golf courses, etc and hold them until the festival. They rotate them through the large main tubs into smaller containers that are taken to the numerous jumping circles.

The kids hold their frogs under a container until the beginning of the race.

Then they must keep their knees in the inner circle while trying to coax their frog to jump beyond the outer circle. They can do anything to get them to jump except touch them.

If they win their heat, they move on to the winner’s circle to continue on. Corinne made it this far but lost in the semi-finals. It only cost $1 to play until you get eliminated. It was well worth it.

There were other things to help entertain the kids, too.

Mason played the game where they were the frogs on bouncing balls and had to jump to the outer circle.

There was also a ripoff fun dunk tank. The kids love to play Carnival Games on the Wii. I was interested to see how it translated to real life.

Corinne did great! She was able to dunk the guy in the number of tries we had paid for.

Mason, however, was amazing! He was super good at hitting the tiny target on the Wii and showed he was equally as skilled in the flesh. Too bad we paid for more throws than we needed.

Ethan didn’t get into it much. I think he enjoyed the slurpy from the Dairy Queen stand the most. He liked climbing on the trailer with the frogs while looking cute. See?

I think we’ll add it to our “Don’t Miss” list.

-g.