Happy Birthday Drew!

We had a lot of fun celebrating Drew's 3rd birthday. On his actual birthday, Chris took the day off and we headed to the Akron zoo. We made an unexpected pit-stop at White Castle and officially introduced the boys to the "slider" sandwich. In spite of the hot weather (and our lunch) we had a nice time at the zoo. The boys (all three of them) never tire of looking at the animals.







After the zoo, we headed home to take a nap to be ready for the big birthday dinner. Drew chose Pancho's (a mom and pop place here in town) as his restaurant of choice. They even brought him out fried ice cream and sang to him. He felt very special. We headed back to my parents' house after dinner to have a mini-birthday celebration for Drew.

Both boys love sitting on this over-sized chair. I can remember sitting on it when I was a kid, too. Pancho's is one of the few restaurants I missed while living in Marysville.




Papa and Nina bought Drew his own big boy bike this year for his birthday. He hasn't mastered the art of peddling yet, but hey, he's only three!



A few days later we hosted a party for him at our house. Drew insisted the theme be "worms." You can imagine how ecstatic I was when I walked into the balloon shop and found the worm pinata (I don't know how to get the tilde). I truly believe I would have started a fight if someone else would have wanted to buy it.

My sister and I worked very hard on this crazy worm sandwich. Mmmmm...






Andrea and I were so excited about creating these cupcakes. Here's the secret: bake the cupcakes, fill them with pudding, stick the worm in then sprinkle cookie crumbs on top. It's amazing what we do to accommodate my children's birthday wishes...



The infamous worm...

Flowers and Candy from the Boys

Jonathan and Drew decided they wanted to buy me their own birthday presents. Jonathan chose flowers and Drew wanted to pick out some bulk candy (of which he consumed a great majority.) The flowers were beautiful! I was so proud of them for wanting to do something nice for me.

Happy Birthday Michelle!

This past month marked a momentous occasion in my life...I celebrated my 30th birthday (augh!) I'm so thankful I was able to do so with family and friends.

On my actual birthday we went to lunch at Damon's...The pulled pork sandwich was incredible! Afterward, Chris, Jonathan, Drew, Andrea and I all headed to the Kalahari Indoor Waterpark. I think we all needed the break. Thanks Andrea!

A few days later some of my friends and I ate at a Japanese Steakhouse. What an experience! Ask me about the egg sometime...

No More School...No More Books...No More Teacher's Dirty Looks...

We went out to Texas Roadhouse to celebrate Jonathan's completion of his first year of pre-school. Afterwards, we headed to the school for a program. I don't have any pictures from the program because Jonathan was in a bad mood the whole time. It turns out that Jonathan doesn't like to be in front of a crowd...

Jonathan and Mrs. Murphy

Leah and Jonathan

Jonathan made two very good friends (both of whom are moving out of state). You have seen Leah, but I failed to get any pictures of A.J. What a terrible mother. His teacher, Mrs. Murphy, was wonderful. He'll be attending the same school next year, getting ready for kindergarten the following year. Unfortunately Mrs. Murphy is retiring. I hope he will enjoy his next teacher as much as Mrs. Murphy.

He's such a smart boy...I am so proud of him.

Superheros

The boys love pretending to be superheros. Our friend Clay made their dream a reality when he began drawing masks on their faces. They feel very spiffy with their "masks" on.

Can you guess who the boys are? Drew is "Thing" and Jonathan is "Wolverine."

Thanks Clay!

Tuttle Mall

Our family headed down to Marysville to attend a graduation party the end of May. Afterwards, we decided to pay Dublin a visit. We ate at Chipotle and hung out at Tuttle Mall for a while.

Whoever was the first to design a mall with a children's play area needs to be commended. I miss that here. Although, if there were play areas in the malls up here I would probably spend more money...

We topped off the night with a trip to the candy store. The boys were in heaven. Whoever thought of putting a candy store right next to the children's play area should be commended as well. Hmm, there's also a Build-A-Bear workshop right there...Do those marketeers think we parents are stupid??? Wait a second, don't answer that...

Dedicated Baby-Sitters

Abby and Hannah came up from Marysville to watch the boys while we helped move the Jones Family. They were life-savers! The boys truly enjoy their company and were so sad to say good-bye. Thanks guys!

The Great Outdoors

It's always great to spend time with family, especially enjoying the nice weather...

Careful...don't fall in!


The boys enjoyed playing with the lily pads in Nina Tripp's pond. We celebrated Memorial day with Chris's family this year. Ralph fried a bunch of Walleye that he caught in Lake Erie. The boys loved it!



Playing on the water slide is as fun as ever. The boys make my hands sweat sometimes because of how high they jump off the top. I'm afraid they'll not land on the ground, not the slide.



There's nothing quite like being pampered by your grandparents.


Drew decided he needed to rest for a while. I wonder if he would have fallen asleep if left alone?



Weeding is not my favorite job (that would be obvious if you came to my house) so needless to say Mom and I didn't get very far. Dad and Chris (Bobby helped a little, too) ended up power-washing our fence and eventually staining it, all within a week (impressive). It was a dirty job, but it looks great!

What a great brother! Those boys love their jeep. They also love ramming it into the fence. It's a good thing that each 4x4 is cemented in!

The Columbus Zoo

To all of my friends who were about to write my blog off...again...

I was struggling to get the pictures downloaded. Fortunately, I figured it out. Enjoy!

The boys and I had a great day with Beth and the kids at the zoo. Jonathan and Brooklyn hit it off right away (again) and became inseparable (is that the right word??). Drew and Xavier are teetering on the verge of best friendom...they just need to spend more time together.

The weather was beautiful and the company was even better. We would love to do that again soon...What do you think Beth?