Surprising daddy at work

I love surprising other people--not so much being surprised, but surprising is fun for me. 

Combine that with my love for finding new and fun things that people like/ will like, and we had a great idea for Eric's birthday.

The Pink Apron, a friend I found on f/book through another friend, does AMAZING cookies and cakepops.  When looking online for Eric's bday, I stumbled across someone who did cakepops online, but I didn't want to just order from anyone.  I reached out to Lesley and she agreed to the challenge of making cake pops for Eric.

Also, Miss Sarah agreed to help me out by getting the girls up and ready, and lastly, our friend Tony H., who is on Eric's team, coordinated our surprise visit with the boss.

I picked up the cakepops and headed to get the girls, then we headed to Dublin.  Tony met us at the door and immediately took Cora (who didn't mind.) Bean and I carried the cake pops up to his meeting and SURPRISE, we surprised Eric!  His team was glad to see the girls and enjoyed the cakepops.  Beanie became enamored with the ducks in the pond outside his window, so we had to visit before we left.

They ran downstairs and took a quick visit--she was sad to leave, but we had a great visit and I don't think I'll have to twist her arm to get her to go to Daddy's work again, thanks to the ducks!...and couldn't have done it without Miss Sarah and Lesley and Tony too!

Daddy's big birthday

Daddy's "big birthday," as Amara affectionately called it...we had all of Eric's family come over on Sunday considering he had a mid-week birthday this year.  Amara enjoyed having all the attention, playing with Aunt Kristin, and being a show off.

We had one meager attempt at trying to get a group shot of the 3 kids, but in the immortal words of Charlie Shean, FAIL.

We had pizza, cake and ice cream and I'm pretty sure we all slept well that night!

August Festival

Our friends the Robert's Family invited us to a little carnival last weekend and we are SO glad they did!  It was at St. Stephen the martyr off of climb rd--where the nephews went to preschool many years ago actually.  We headed over there around 5 on Saturday, hoping to get there before it got too busy and we met up.  At first, it was pretty hot and the girls were pretty timid, but after a few minutes and a snow cone, they were gung-ho on the rides.

They chased each other inside when we took a break to cool off, but really liked the mini-carousel, they had.  We also got balloon animals, had fresh mango, popcorn, and even got a wrist band for rides, she liked them so much.  Amara and Hayliee chased each other in the mini obstacle course type thing and the dads' got to go air born whenever the girls wanted to ride the big slide.

We stayed about 2 hours and though the girls would have stayed all night, we had to put the brakes on at some point.  The festival had a live band that was just gearing up too, so I'm sure that would be great--this one is for sure going on our list for next year and we can't wait for the next festival too!

Cora was a peach--loved everything and barely made a peep, even though it was warm and a lot going on...

  I'm sure she was just thinking of what all she'll be getting into next year!!

Joanfest 2011

Ok, this is NOT the Joanfest from 6 or 7 years ago, to any of my friends out there--it's turned into a family Joanfest, well, early in the evening--now that Miss Joan is Grandma Joan :)  In fact, while Amara was playing in the pool, she was trying to get Joan's attention and completely unsolicited, she yelled "GRANDMA!" and sure enough Joan turned around--funny moment for all of us.

For Joan's birthday, we were excited to get to see her, since we don't play ball with them on Friday's right now.  We went early, knowing we had a limited amount of time with the girls and they handled it amazingly.  Amara played hillbilly horseshoes, Eric and I got to chat with some friends, and Cora was her usual charming self.

No surprise, Amara took her dress right off when she saw the kiddie pool set up and enjoyed splashing with some of the other girls there.  She loved Joan's mom's pasta salad (we got the recipe) and pulled pork and snagged 2 mini cupcakes to boot.  We ended up staying over 2 hours and had to fight with Amara to leave, not what we expected at all. 

This is an annual event, so no telling what next year will bring but I bet it includes the microphone and karaoke machine :)

Ice Cream Festival

Seems like Ohio has a billion ice cream festivals.  I know there is one south past Jeffersonville, out east to the Velvet one in May, Northwest to Young's Dairy, and even on in Cincinnati for Geaters--and I'm sure we'll visit them at all at some point, but for now we like to keep it local.

At a parade earlier this month, we heard about one on Galloway Road at Columbia Heights United Methodist Church not too far from us.

Even though it was near a hundred degrees, we decided to go and check it out.

We got there a little after it kicked off and it was pretty empty, but we had fun.  Amara jumped in the bounce house and played their kiddie games, including basketball, a toilet paper toss, and a bean bag toss--all for prizes.  She picked out 2 Hawaiian leis and a sucker.

Next to the ice cream--courtesy Young's dairy in Yellow Springs.  We all shared mint, strawberry, and Chocolate/Peanut butter and it was yummy! Eric and Amara had hot dogs too while Cora and I focused on staying cool.

Last, we ran quickly through a mister they had set up in the parking lot and cooled off before heading in the car.  I'm sure the heat didn't help their attendance but it was a really cute event and we had a fun evening.