Life Lately

Fall is FINALLY here after what seemed like the longest summer ever. I am so happy to be in sweatshirts, boots, walk in crunchy leaves and turn on that fireplace! 

Parker finished out his first soccer season, and on his last game he scored his first (and only) goal. It was in the wrong goal, but he ran back screaming “I won ! I won!” And i was yelling like he’d won the championship. He really liked soccer and will probably play again in the spring. 

Philip and I each took a kid on a date and our experiences were quite different. Ainsley got dressed up and went to a fancy restaurant where the waiter called her “Miss Overall”. She ordered her food by herself, used her manners, ordered “adult food” and chose water. 

Parker had to be told not to lick the table, and he kept slipping bits of chicken and rice into his water cup. 

We both had good quality time with each child, but maybe next time we can switch lol 

We painted pumpkins with Uncle Bubby & fam- and Ainsley and AB lasted a lot longer than the other 2 at painting. But they all created pretty lil pumpkins. 



Parker had a field trip to the orchard with his preschool class. He has a group of 3 other boys that are thick as thieves and he is really enjoying being around older boys. Not sure his teachers are loving it as much as he is :)

Anna Beth was also there on a field trip and we found her in the pumpkin patch! 

We celebrated a couple birthdays of some sweet friends. 




Liberty had family movie night in the gym and we packed our blanket up and went up to watch Charlie Brown and the great pumpkin and a Garfield Halloween. We chowed down on popcorn and Ainsley got really upset about Garfield and Odie being stuck in a haunted house, leading to lots of tears there and the ride home. 

We had a family bonfire and the kids had a blast climbing on mud piles, digging in the dirt, riding 4 wheels and roasting marshmallows (Parker called them mushrooms). 







Both of my kids are in a huge LEGO phase. Ainsley will sit and build hours on end going through each instruction by herself. Parker loves to build and create and tells everyone “my pop says I’m a great builder”. 

Fall Break

Our fall break plans were very spontaneous this year. We went back and forth on several different ideas and the night before, we settled on doing an overnight trip to Cincinnati with our friends the Stearleys. 

Wednesday night my cousin Tiffany was in so we went to Anna Jos for dinner then the kids spent the night with my parents. So we got up Thursday, picked them up and headed up to Cincy. Their tiredness led to car naps ,giving us a pretty quiet drive. First stop was SkyLine (of course) and next was the Newport Aquarium. 

The Mermaids were out which the kids thought were cool. Parker was most excited to see sharks and Ainsley really wanted to see starfish. 

Ainsley was much braver than Parker- she touched star fish, coral and even snakes. 

We managed to meander, stop to eat, stop to play, and not run through it all like they usually do. After the aquarium we checked into our hotel and went for a swim before dinner. 

We took a city trolley to Hafbraus House for dinner. The food was delicious and the kids had a lot of fun. We love some German food:) after dinner we walked to an arcade where the adults and kids had fun playing games and winning random crap, before we took the trolley back to the hotel. 

Ainsley (and therefore me as well) had a rough night of sleep due to her poison ivy. Apparently she is allergic to it, leading to steroids and lots of calamine lotion. But we managed to wake up enough to enjoy the yummy hotel breakfast and get ready for the zoo! 

Parker and Ainsley both wanted to see the sloth (thank you to the movie The Croods). It was a perfect fall morning for the zoo and we got to see so many fun animals. 

The kids hit a wall after lunch but we managed to see Mo the Sloth last. He was, of course, sleeping, but they enjoyed seeing him nonetheless. Ainsley fell asleep before we were back on the interstate and Parker wasn’t far behind her. 

We had such a good time just getting away for the night and enjoying some family time. I think all of our tanks got filled :) 

We spent the rest of fall break just hanging at home and relaxing.