3 Years Down, a Lifetime to Go!

George and I celebrated out 3rd anniversary by going to dinner at Rolando's with the girls. The service was slow and not very good, which brought back even more memories! Although the service was a little rough, we had such a beautiful and fun reception! We wanted to eat upstairs and they would have let us, except the air conditioning wasn't on and it was extremely hot! After dinner we picked up an ice cream cake and once the kids were in bed, we had champagne and ice cream cake. I know this sounds like an odd combo, but it actually went very well together! I asked George Tuesday night if I could wear my wedding dress to work, but we thought it might be a little too formal! I'll put that dress on again one of these days!

Hives

After some online research, we determined that Erin had hives. It was crazy how they would disappear and then reappear somewhere else, always changing shape and size. Really weird! We're making an educated guess that it was the strawberry flavored malted milk balls. So for now, we will be avoiding strawberries and strawberry flavoring as well as malt. As soon as I get the chance, I will be checking out the ingredient list to see if there could be anything else. As of now, there are no hives on her and she has only had a couple small ones today, so we think it has run its course. At least they didn't bother her! It would have been really rough if they were itchy and we had to keep her from scratching!

The Longest Sunday

I braided Erin's hair for church this morning. It was really cute and helped keep her hair out of her face. The girls got to play with Giovanni during coffee hour. They have so much fun together!! While Erin was napping I looked around the house for damage from the hail. We have holes in the window well coverings and a cracked basement window. We have yet to crawl out and inspect the roof. We headed over to grandma and grandpa's for dinner with nana and papa. They'll be leaving for home early tomorrow morning. While we were talking after dinner, George noticed a rash that had suddenly appeared on Erin. We immediately brought her home, gave her some benedryl and a bath. After speaking with a nurse, the assumption is that this is a contact rash since there is no fever and Erin doesn't even notice it. I checked on her a few mins ago and the benedryl has really helped to clear it up already! Just to be safe, yiayia Rena will be taking her to the doctor in the morning. It's good to have a job, but at times like this, I wish I could be the one to take her!

EJ and Tracy's Wedding

My step-brother got married on Saturday. Luckily, we didn't see the severe storms that Canton did! They were married in a barn since the church they had planned on was still under construction. It was a really neat location with the cornfields visible through the open barn door. They really made the best of the situation and had a beautiful, memorable wedding! The girls had a blast dancing at the reception. They both took turns dancing with their Uncle EJ. I have pics of them dancing but they're a little dark. I'll try to lighten them up and then post them. We left earlier with Erin while Sammie stayed to dance till she dropped with her nana and papa, which she did. Papa says she fell asleep in the care before they could get the seat belt on her!

Balloons

Friday night we went to the balloon lift off with my grandma and her friend Mary. We got to sit in the Schumacher Homes area and have an excellent meal with great views of the balloons. They even had games, cotton candy, popcorn, a face painter and balloon artist. I took Erin home a little earlier while George and Sammie stayed to check some more stuff out. There were a ton of people there! Sammie liked watching the balloons take off and Erin like the sky divers. She was very worried about how they were landing since she knew they were falling. I liked seeing the sky filled with balloons. Such a cool event! Although Erin was a little fussy. She wanted to go potty (#2) but was a little intimidated by the Port-a-John's. Poor thing!

The Block Room

Erin loves the block room at the YMCA. We play in here sometimes while Sammie is at swim. Today she was climbing up and going down the slide all by herself. Of course when I tried to record it she noticed the camera and wanted to see it, even though she hadn't gone down yet! Once I turned the camera off she went right up and slid down! Lil' Stinker!!

Sleeping

George found Erin sleeping like this. I know I have a picture of Sammie doing the same thing when she was this age!

Back to Work. . . :(

Well, the time came for me to return to the workforce. I was more upset Monday morning at the daycare that the girls were! They had a blast! Sammie made several new friends, of course, and Erin actually stayed dry the whole day! I, on the other hand, froze to death in an overwhelming orientation! It's better to have too much info than not enough though! Today I completed a couple work orders, one of which included adding links to the current website. (Matt-I'll be learning how to use Adobe's CS3 suit!) I'm very excited about everything I'll be learning as a web developer! The best part of the day is walking through the back door to find my babies waiting for me and screaming mama as I come in!

Nana and Papa's Surprise

Much to our surprise, Nana and Papa came up earlier than they had planned. They arrived late Saturday night instead of late Thursday night. The girls were so excited to see them! They have so much fun playing with Nana and Papa and cram as much in as they can!

ABC's and 123's

We've all been working with Erin on her counting and alphabet. It's so cute to hear! I remember how Sammie always started with 2 and would periodically leave one number out. Currently, Erin is leaving 7 out. We've been joking that 7 has been expelled for being unruly since 7 8 9 (7 ate 9) lol! A child's mind and ability to learn are always amazing miracles! I've also been teaching Erin head sholders, knees and toes. Hopefully, I can get video of that soon!

Hamburgers Galore

Saturday we went to Akron's 3rd Annual Hamburger Festival (http://www.hamburgerfestival.com/). We had learned about it by watching Unwrapped on the Food Network and marked it on our calendar. It was pretty neat. There were several restaurants all lined up. The smell was fabulous! We sampled burgers from a few places and enjoyed something about each one. They also had live music, free crafts for the kids, a balloon artist who made Sammie a cool butterfly, and a couple rides. There was one older lady centered in front of the band with her walker against a bench who was dancing up a storm the whole time we were there. She was the only one dancing too I should point out. I imagine that will be Erin one day! It was located at Lock 3, which is close to the police station so there were a lot of cops! One lady told us the cops knew who had the best burgers and shared what she had learned from them. The area also had a little Akron history musuem that had some neat stuff in it about the canal system, Goodyear, and different toys throughout the years. It was extremely hot so we didn't stay too long, but had a great time and are looking forward to going again next year.

My Little Rock Stars!

What child isn't fascinated by their own image? We put some fresh batteries in the star station and the kids have been having a blast! It's been harder to video tape and get pics of Erin lately. She wants to see them immediately inlcuding before I get a chance to take any or right in the middle of the video!

Aunt Jill

Monday we met Jill at Kohl's for some shopping and then lunch. I'm trying to get some more/new professional clothes for my new job. Anyone who has had the privilege of shopping for clothes for me knows what this entails! :) (My mom probably still has nightmares about dress shopping for me and George cringes when I ask him to come and help me!!) Tuesday we went to Jill's house to swim. The girls really love being in the water! If swimming is mentioned around Erin, she's starts to take clothes off in preparation! Erin went the whole time without a swim diaper and didn't pee in the pool from what we could tell! I took her in 3 times and she peed on the deck a couple times, which we agreed was ok since it was not in the pool! Sammie continues to become stronger and more confident in her swimming abilities! I'm so proud of the progress she has made through her swim lessons!

Ice Cream

Friday, we went to Kountry Kones with Con, Lindsey, and Giovanni. The girls loved their ice cream and Giovanni loved his mommy's milkshake. The children then burned off their extra energy with somersaults, Erin's latest talent. I didn't get too many pics because my ice cream was melting faster than I could eat. I looked just as bad as Erin except I didn't get it on my clothes! :) Check out Lindsey's site (link on the right) to see some of the great pics she got!

Making Pasta

The girls and I made some egg noddles from scratch. They did a great job helping me knead! I'm hoping to do this more often so that I can get quicker at rolling out and cutting the dough. The girls ate the noodles up! They were really tasty!

SUV

Putting the utility in Sport Utility Vehicle!

Erin loves to have her window down and feel the wind blowing in her face. She has started putting her hands in the air and screaming wee! It's hysyerical! She tries to get everyone to join her!

First Friday

Downtown has started an event the first Friday of the month called First Friday (http://cantonfirstfriday.com/default.aspx). It's held in the art district. We decided to check it out. There are several galleries in the area where you can see and purchase the work of local artists, a bunch of restaurants that run specials for the event, and local musicians that play in the streets and in the galleries and restaurants. This was the 1st anniversary of First Friday so they were giving away free cake! We looked for the remaining animal sculptures and found almost all of them! Erin pointed out and was very excited about the turtle sculpture. There's supposed to be activities for kids, but we missed them. I'll think we'll be checking this out again next month.

Swimming

We've been doing a lot of swimming this weekend. Saturday morning the kids have their lessons. George didn't have to work so he was able to watch both girls. Erin was such a ham during her class! She's usually calm and quiet, but this week she must have wanted to show off for baba. She had the instructor dying laughing. For one song we sing face goes under before putting the kids' face in the water. When I sang this Erin yelled no in response. The instructor and I giggled and I just couldn't bring myself to put her face in! Sammie passed the guppy level and is now in minnow I. She was so excited cause guppy is the hardest level to pass and she was at this level for 4 sessions. When they told her she had passed, she looked like she was going to burst! We are so proud of her and all of her hard work! Saturday evening the girls and I went swimming at grandma's. Sunday afternoon, we headed to grandma and grandpa Clapper's for even more swimming. The girls had fun jumping off of the diving board! Erin got upset everytime before she jumped off, but wanted to keep doing it!

Drive-In

We went to a drive-in movie Friday night. We try to go to one once every summer. This particular theater is just outside of Kent and is called Midway. (http://www.funflick.com/) It's only $16 a car and that's for 2 new movies!! We saw WallE, but didn't stay for the second movie cause everyone was really tired! We all had a great time and hope that we're able to go again before the end of summer!

Big Girl Cups and Cooking

The girls have been playing with plastic food lately. Erin came out of the kitchen the other day and told me she was cooking. After I put her down for nap, I went to clean up the mess from lunch and found that Erin was cooking, in a dirty pan that I had used to cook lunch in! Apparently she has seen enough cooking to get the basic idea. I have also started to teach her how to use a big girl cup. Although she prefers to mix her food into her cup insted of drinking from it! I'm sure after some more pratice she'll be just as good as Sammie is!