the kindness of neighbors

one of our neighbors is one of four children and her mother feels an affinity for me. she often shares tips (the color coded easter eggs, watching marching band practice, etc.). and on occasion - toys! we have received several outdoor toys (scooters, balls) and today she dropped of some mega blocks! usually my neighbor brings hand-me-downs over, but it was surprised by her mom at the front door today with a load of blocks. the kids were very happy to see her. love.

surprise picnic

i never know what i am going to find. i stumbled upon this picnic in progress when i went down to let maggie out this morning. love.

manning at the park

he was so excited that someone shared some bread with us to feed the ducks.

studious boy

manning really loves to draw and 'read.' i captured these two moments the past few days. love. 

preschool 'airplane'

i mentioned mason's 'airplane' at preschool as they take their trip around the world these last few weeks. it was set up again when we arrived this morning for drop-off and i had the boys model. they have used the 'airplane' off and on (in paris they traveled by 'hot air balloon'). mason is having so much fun with it. love.

waiting for the bus

i just love how much these four love each other. so special. love.

disney week

madelyn's class is having a "disney week" as a reward from their teacher (he is a disney super fan). each day is something different (bring a toy, wear a shirt, etc.), but madelyn wanted to wear disney each day too - she has more that enough to make it a reality. love.

waiting and waiting in the car dealership

last week, we brought the van in for a repair to a rear window that, as i described it, had fallen off the track.  it didn't make me feel that great when they said that they had never seen that before. uh-oh. so we spent almost two hours to learn that they were going to need to call toyota for approval for the repair under warranty and order an entire new window (it is a single piece and the plastic clips had broken). so we came back today for the installation of the new window and take care of another, non-safety related, recall.

i had come prepared last week and was loaded up again today. i made the boys spend the first hour drawing, using stickers and word searches. but then we broke out the ipad. i used the timer on my phone to give them each a five minute turn before passing it off to the next one. it worked out much better than you would have thought. in fact, we had several other people come over and praise their behavior. i was pretty impressed with them myself, especially when we started to head into hour three! they took another break from the ipad and spent some time watching the swamp people marathon that was on the t.v. in the waiting room - and they had a million questions about it, many of which i couldn't answer.

i started to get a little nervous as we started getting closer to the time we needed to be home to meet madelyn's bus. when they came to give me an update, i had to make some quick choices. they hadn't yet gotten to the recall (something with the backs of the chairs). apparently, the window had been quite a job that they said will be outsourced if it happens to someone else. they offered me a loaner car, but it wouldn't fit all of the carseats. they wanted to know if i wanted them to keep going or come back again. i did not want to come again so i started trying to get ahold of neighbors who might be able to get madelyn off of the bus and called the school to find out what i needed to do to approve the substitute pick-up (they don't let the kids off the bus unless a parent or other appointed person is visible). after a few attempts, i found a neighbor who could meet madelyn at the bus stop and called the school again to give her name for the driver.

it turned out that they couldn't do the recall because of all the carseats and wanted me to bring it back another day. sigh. on the plus side, i found a solution to my egg dying plans for next year - marshmallows! so all and all a very successful trip to the dealership. and madelyn was spoiled rotten by our neighbors with applesauce, cookies and hot chocolate for snack. she was a little sad to have to go home. love.

akron children's hospital open house

after soccer we loaded up and headed downtown to an employee open house for a new building that was just completed at matt's hospital. the first activity was a photo booth with props. surprisingly, the kids were not into it - at all. but we gave it a whirl anyway. the volunteer had suggested that we might get a christmas card picture out of it, but i don't think so...

there was actually a lot for the kids to see and do, besides seeing the gorgeous building. we were even treated to a super yummy boxed lunch! we could choose veggie burgers, burgers, grilled chicken or pulled pork sliders and the box was filled with chips, a piece of fruit, a bottle of water and a frosted cookie. all wonderfully yummy! and a surprise that we would be fed so well.

they were really taken with the large bubble wand. manning was in total awe (he is our bubble boy). she wasn't quite far enough away for little hands not to pop them so it took a few tries for each different type she was trying to demonstrate. but she handled it really well and stayed positive.

manning was also very excited about all of the balloon bundles. 

the kids got a little crafty with some bug hats.

we were super excited about the opportunity to go up on the roof and see "air bear" up close! we see it all of the time on our way to the zoo and occasionally flying, but this was pretty awesome - even a little scary. the roof has no guard rails at all, just an open helipad, but the views were pretty great.

then we went downstairs to see the ambulances or "mobile intensive care units." the inside of one was done out in a space theme and the other was an underwater theme. the kids were only impressed by the decor and the dvd player.

it was pretty cool to see all these emergency vehicles up close and reminds us how fortunate we are that this is the only way our children have seen the insides.

the kids had already seen this new sculpture installation on facebook and thought it was neat to see it in person.

as if the kids needed any more reasons to love coming to visit matt at work! love.

the start of soccer season

the big boys ready for their first soccer game

the boys thought that it was cool that i caught them both midair.

mason is the senior soccer star in the house and is still just happy to be on the field playing. he seems to have a natural defensive sweep to his play (not that i know anything about soccer, but that is how i would describe his field movement).

first team huddle!

way more excited to play than to have his picture taken

the only reason that we were able to be there is because madelyn's softball clinic was cancelled as the boys were on the way to soccer (softball was at the same time). madelyn was a little bummed to miss softball, but i was super excited to get to be there for maddux' "first." she was in her softball gear at the game and learned a lesson in flipping your bill up...

manning was very into the soccer game

the kids were hysterical trying to 'shake hands' at the end of the game.  instead of lining up to slap hands, they were huddled and literally shaking hands with each other.

i had to take pictures with our soccer stars! maddux scored a goal in his first game! and mason scored two! it was pretty exciting to see our dynamos in action. love.

another book recommendation

this book has been a (fought over) favorite since we picked it up from the library and the conversations the kids have had while looking at it together have been fantastic. keep your eyes out for you choose by nick sharratt and pippa good hart, but maybe at the library. it is pretty pricy on amazon. love.

update: so here is a picture of inside the book and a video of them discussing the options (they were all talking but you can see that madelyn dominates in the video). they have serious spent hours and hours with this book. each page has a question at the top and then a lot of images to choose as your answer.

around the world - japan

every year the pre-k class spends the last two months going "around the world." today they went to japan. it is really cute, they have chairs in the hall to simulate an airplane and then come in to learn about different places. 

if i had been more organized, or thought about it, i would have asked aunt abby to record something for mason to bring for show and tell. aunt abby lived in japan and speaks japanese. i will try and remember for next year when maddux gets his turn.

this is a cute bulletin board outside of his classroom that i thought was special. mason is on the blue flower in the middle. i missed the picture preview for purchase this year - for the first time - and it is the best pictures the boys have ever taken! of course! love.