g is for greta

I am a cookie snob. I want them thick with a crunchy exterior and soft interior. We are foodies in this household. During one of our countless times watching Food Network, we watched a Bobby Flay throwdown centering on chocolate chip cookies. While Bobby’s didn’t do it for me, his competitors’ cookies made my mouth water! I’ve searched the internet and found a new favorite recipe. I’m only going to give the link because it explains how to make them perfectly on the website. Here’s some incentive to check it out:

I piled the dough high like haystacks. I figured that might help with the thickness. I also refrigerated the dough for about 20 minutes before baking just to harden it up some.

I could barely wait for them to bake. I did eat some dough to help hold me over until they were finished.

Sweet darling…

It makes me happy just LOOKING at the picture of that delicious morsel. Make some when you need to feel loved. (Which should be NOW!) Yum.

-g.

Tony’s dad offered us 4 tickets to an Indians game while his mom bought all the munchkins Tribe shirts. We thought the kids would really like it so we headed north. Ethan stayed behind for an evening of being spoiled by Abueltia and Papa Tom. Tony and I headed to the rapids with the kids. Who can resist a ride on a train? This may have been Mason’s favorite part.

The game was a big lackluster. There weren’t many hits. The kids were distracted by the vendors selling food so we ended up eating more than watching the game.

Shortly after this picture, we figured it was time to visit the kid zone. The kids played on the toys and played the claw game. Tony won a hat for Mason. He was much happier for this picture with Slider:

I’m glad we went. Family time is the best time!

-g.

So…long ago I posted about a contest to win a free ice cream party from Edy’s. I’ll cut straight to the chase…I won. My normal followers are already aware of this. Well, I wondered how it would all pan out. One word: FANTASTIC!!! Edy’s really thought of every little thing you would need for the party to be a success.

FedEx delivered this:

It felt like Christmas! There were even gloves on top to handle the dry ice inside.

Ah. Behold the deliciousness.

We transferred the ice cream to the stand up freezer in the garage then played with the dry ice. The backyard blow-up pool was instantly transformed into an eerie oasis.

The kids decorated the driveway.

I think we had ice cream for lunch that day. Can’t think of anything yummier to have!

The weather was colder than normal and there was a sprinkling of rain at the end. All in all, it turned out to be a fun afternoon.

Thanks, Edy’s!

-g.

Corinne and Mason have shared a room since Ethan was born. They had their own little schedule and nighttime rituals. It was sad to have it come to an end. We decided that Corinne needed to switch to her own room and put the boys together in the larger bedroom. It was an interesting day.

The kids loved “helping” us take the crib and changing table apart.

All the pieces are now in the basement collecting dust. Sad to think that no other babies are in the house.

Corinne is really into pretending, and Mason is just catching on. She had him lay on the crib mattress and pretend to be sick. It was funny to hear what her advice was on getting better. Note the cup of water underneath the lamp. Corinne would fill it with cold tap water then put it there to warm up. I asked her why she didn’t just get warm water in the first place. She looked at me like I was dense.

That night, Corinne was sad to sleep alone so we gave them one last night together. They thought having a sleepover was fun! We’ll probably do it again in the future.

Everyone is all settled in now. Strange enough, things are much calmer at bedtime. We told Mason is was his job to keep Ethan in his bed. He takes the responsibility very seriously. Corinne likely feels left out. She occasionally opens her door to report something of little significance just to feel less lonely.

Now if Ethan could just figure out how to get out of his room in the morning and into our bed without waking anyone else up…

-g.

I have honestly had more people than I can count ask me if Ethan is adopted. I assuming they ask because he doesn’t look like the rest of us. I, however, wonder sometimes if he got switched because of how CRAZY the kid is. He has raised the level of chaos in our house exponentially since he was born.

For example, he is the first of the kids to get stitches. He fell in the back and hit his chin on our cement stairs. I always wondered how you would know if your kid needed stitches or not. Tony always said it would be obvious. He was right! A trip to Children’s Urgent Care and 6 stitches later…

Note in the picture that there are only 5 surviving. Somehow he ripped one out. Ouch! That was around the end of June. He looks more like this nowdays:

Anytime he hears the word booboo, he still points at his chin. Then there are his playing habits. Toys are alright for awhile, but he prefers to find something more interesting. Like shredders…

I wondered why he was quiet for so long. Good think we keep it unplugged. Mason saved the day with his need to clean. I’ll think he’ll be OCD like me.

This is the look he gave Aunt Steph to show how sad he was about his bad choice.

Little ham. He also has a personal sense of style. He MUST pick out his own clothes everyday and often tries to pick out mine as well. I documented one of my favorite outfits.

Don’t worry. We weren’t going anywhere that day.

So many reasons to love my little guy!

-g.

It wouldn’t be a summer in Columbus without the Ohio State Fair. There were lots of rides and food to be had.

Mason was all about the rides. His cute face cheers me up.

Mason loved that he was “driving” the train.

There was a downpour while we were there. Thank goodness that lightning and thunder didn’t follow. Mason kept right on riding. I think it cooled him down rather than slowed him down. (Note: His hair is soaked!)

Corinne wanted to ride, too. She was into different rides than Mason. This jumpy ride reminds her of how her stomach feels when we go over the hills near my parents’ house.

Of course, she wanted to ride on the ponies.

What do the kids do when they aren’t riding rides? EAT!!! I don’t think we tried any new crazy food item this year. Just stuck with our favorites.

And drink, too. It wasn’t as hot as past years but still was fairly warm.

Ethan was too little to ride rides this year. He mainly pointed and Papa Tom carried him wherever he wanted to go.

They had a huge blank painting for kids to color in. The paint was washable. We spent alot of time there in the shade.

The kids wore themselves (and the 6 adults who tagged along) out. As seems to be our annual tradition, they rode the SkyRide to the front of the park. Their little legs couldn’t handle the trip.

Already counting down the days until next year’s fair!

-g.

…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.

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.