Virtual Christmas Carol 2011

Juliet's Sixth Birthday

Juliet had her sixth birthday! We had a very fun family party which was dragon themed per Juliet's request. She really enjoyed having family members over and eating dinner, cake, and of course opening presents.

She made this pin the flame on the dragon game all on her own.

Don't touch the cake Cole! Actually, Cole has come a long way as a few years ago he would be attempting to lick the cake.

Yea! Birthday Girl! I thought this dragon cake I made from a design online turned out pretty great.

I was really proud of this Chinese dragon I made out of balloons and streamers because I came up with the concept and design myself.

Juliet woke up to find lots of balloons in her room.

And also this sign made by Grandma Kathryn.

These are not dragon related, but we made these super hero pops to give out to Juliet's classmates to celebrate there. They have little capes and masks and say, "Today is a SUPER day, it's Juliet's birthday. I should have looked for something dragon, but these were fun and did the trick.

Cole's Eighth Birthday

Since Juliet is turning 6 today and I will be posting pictures from her special day, I realized that I had not posted any of Cole's pictures (from July!). He wanted to have a monkey party, so here are his monkey decorations and cupcakes. I loved the way the hanging "vines" looked, and the little monkey Juliet made to hang from them.

A Trip To The Columbus Museum of Art

The Columbus Museum of Art recently did a huge remodel, and the kids had a fun time there earlier this year. They have a great kids room as well as hands on "stations" throughout the museum. We enjoyed the puzzles you could do of works of art, as well as the creation stations with a few materials you could go wild with. Definitely a fun trip!

A Visit To The Columbus Zoo

One of many lovely trips to the zoo. As you can see, Vivien really enjoyed this one!

A Trip To COSI

Our family loves COSI and we've made countless trips there. Here a few pictures I found of us at COSI last spring.

A Few Pictures from a Trip to Firefly Cafe

There is a cute place we've gone to a couple of times called Firefly cafe, which is set up as a large play area for kids. A nice place for a rainy or cold day.

Vacation to Port Clinton in August

In August we got to take another trip to Port Clinton. We went to a few favorite restaurants and spots, but we also enjoyed trying some new things like the African Safari and our first family trip to Cedar Point. It was a great time.

Here we are playing around at the resort where we stayed. They had great pools that we enjoyed and open grounds to stroll around on. Lot's of beautiful birds everywhere. I'm not sure why I decided to take a picture in front of the gravel pile...but it really was pretty despite that.

A day before we left for the trip Cole broke his little toe while jumping on the trampoline. I got some pictures of his boot and Juliet helping his around. Really after the first day he was back to himself and was able to get around with only a little difficulty. In truth the broken toe probably saved us from losing Cole at Cedar Point or at other spots. So it had its up sides.

The African Safari was a hoot. I guess I hadn't realized how exhilarating it would be to have animals coming right up to your car to eat. It was actually terrifying at times, but a lot of fun, and very memorable.

They also had pony and camel rides that Juliet and Cole enjoyed.

It was too busy at Cedar Point to get too many pictures, but here is one of the kids ringing out their clothes after getting soaked on a water ride. Vivien and I opted out of that one.

One of our favorite spots is on the shore right by the lighthouse.

Here is Juliet sketching Vivien. She looks like such a serious artist.

We had a great time and loved just being able to be together as a family!