Soak City

It's hot, must go swimming! Valley beach is closed, let's go to Soak City!!!
Love this picture! Now that I have a blog, the kids just know they need to pose ALL THE TIME!

Sam went down the slide too, but I couldn't seem to get a good picture of him. I kept missing him. He's very upset that there is a picture of Matthew and Josh, but not him. That's Sam for ya! The world revolves around him :)
This is the only slide Ben will go on. He's my scaredy cat (man, that's got to be spelled wrong...doesn't quite look right).

This is one of the only slides Matthew can ride, not because he's scared, but because he's not tall enough yet. I feel so bad for him because he's a daredevil and can't always ride the things he wants.
I'm sorry I must show this picture. It's the "end" of the summer. These will be the last pictures I take of any kind of swimming. I will not tell you who's butt this is, but I can tell you that I told him to pull up his trunks the whole day. He had it coming...

We're getting up at the "crack" of dawn tomorrow to go to the science center in Cleveland...can't wait. I think the kids will love it. It's been awhile since we went. Nothing like shoving all kinds of fun stuff in before school starts.

"It's raining, Mom, I'm bored. There's nothing to do!"

"Let's play hide and go seek. First, I need to put on my sports bra," says Mom. Game on, boys!! To add suspense to the game, it was storming out which made the house dark and eerie. We had two rules...one, you cannot turn on the lights and two, you couldn't change hiding spots. The basement and garage were off limits. Talk about fun...

Matthew had a great hiding spot and it took us a long time to find him. The below picture is me on the bed and they never did find me. They gave up first. I was so proud of myself. I kick butt in hide and seek.

I may not be the best mom in the world, but today I felt like I was. We had so much fun.

For dinner, I taught Ben how to make spaghetti and meatballs. Again, felt like a great mom. He did spectacular. Dinner was delicious. He was so proud of himself. I was so proud of him.

Awesome day...and it rained the whole time. We were planning on going to Soak City and I'm kind of glad we didn't.

It's Friday...Time to blog!!

Lance had his birthday party today at his house. They had a slip 'n slide right off the swing set. Lots of fun...

Lance got what he wanted..Jack Sparrow's knife (sword). He was pretty excited.

Cheryl made the cake and it was still warm...love warm cake...yum! The kids also got these skeletons that had squishy face guts in them. My boys obviously loved it.

Good day...

Happy Birthday, Lance!!!

This is one of the kids I babysit and it's his birthday TODAY!!
He told me what he wanted for his birthday...Jack Sparrow's knife.
It's so amazing to me how fascinated boys are with guns and knives. You can keep them away from weapons and they still manage to make a "gun" or a "knife" out of Legos or Tinker Toys.

Went for a walk with Ben tonight

Here's my normal scenario when I go for a walk with my boys...all 4 of them ride their bikes and I try to keep up by walking and listening to my iPod. Obviously they have to stop A LOT so I can catch up. Now, tonight was different...

I told everyone that I wanted to go for a walk and Ben piped up and said that he would like to come. I figured he wanted to ride his bike, but I was very wrong. He wanted to walk with me. Sam and Josh wanted to ride their bikes, Matthew was too tired. So we went to a park actually near Palm Tree Fanatic's home called Stokely's Park. Come to think of it, we ended up seeing one of her kids there.

I had such a wonderful time talking with Ben. We laughed a lot and talked about more serious stuff. I love the relationship I have with him. We used to butt heads and not get along, it's really nice now. I know his teenage years will be rough, but I hope we can have a good relationship that's open and honest...a Mom can hope.

Clyde Softball Tourney (All Nighter)

Eric played in an all-nighter softball tourney this past weekend. Their first game was at 10:45pm Friday night. The second game was at 6am Saturday. We decided to stay up all night. As you can see, I didn't do well. I ended up taking a "nap" around 4:45 and got up to watch their game at 6. I've decided that I am too old to do all- nighters. I'm not happy...

Some of the guys trying to stay warm by the fire, if that's what you want to call it. You can't even see a flame. One of the guys, who will remain nameless (Scuba-he's the one in the blue), only brought 6 pieces of wood. Needless to say, the fire didn't last long. Number 22 is my husband, nice butt. The one who looks like a deer in headlights is Russell. The guy next to Scuba is my nephew, Justin.

The other picture is what's left of the fire.

They won the whole thing! Congrats, guys. That's everyone except two guys, Russell and JR.

The kids were feeding the ducks Doritos and Lay's potato chips. The river was right next to where we were hanging out.

Last night's baseball game...Go Ben!!

Here's my oldest, Ben, getting ready to bat.

If you look closely, you can see my wonderful husband in the background. He's out in the ball field trying to psyche out the other team. Just kidding...he's coaching first base.

Imagine that, the next picture is Ben batting. I think he struck out...thanks to the wonderful umpire who's strike zone was from the kids' forehead to their ankles.

WARNING...I'm about to vent. I really wish they had better umpires. I know they are only kids, but how are the players supposed to learn what a strike is when the strike zone is ridiculous.

It's unfortunate that Ben struck out because he didn't swing at what should have been called a ball. I'm done venting...

We had a superhero dropped by to watch the game. I got a quick picture of him before he crawled away.

He forgot his mask so we need to keep his identity a secret...thanks.

Ben pitched for two innings, which is the maximum they can pitch. He also plays first and second base...not at the same time...that would be impressive.

He did really well...I was very proud of him.

This is Zachary, one of Ben's friends. Obviously, he plays on the other team. He's one of the kids I babysit over the summer.

Matthew's accident

Poor Matthew! He was playing basketball two days ago and tripped over a scooter and hit the metal chaise lounge. YIKES!! I don't know if your kids have ever had an open wound on their head, but let me tell ya, it gushes the blood. Needless to say, it took me a good hour for the bleeding to stop. I thought for sure we were headed to the ER. Matthew was not happy about that because he received staples before to the back of his head and it wasn't an enjoyable memory.

I finally get the bleeding to stop and what does my wonderful Matthew say to me...Can I go back outside and finish my game? Boys will be boys...

(I am loving my blog...I just wish I didn't lead such a boring life...hee, hee)

Cleveland MetroPark Zoo - July'07

Wow...my first blog entry. How exciting...

We went to the zoo a couple of weeks ago and had a lot of fun. The kids love the dinosaur exhibit. Matthew wants to be a zoo keeper. I'm sure that will change next week.