Bathtime

I hesitate to post pictures of my disgusting bathtub, but I hope you're too busy looking at the kids to notice all of the black mold! The kids love their baths and bathtime is even more fun with bubbles!

Ho, Ho, Ho!

Cool hair, dude.

Gymnastics!!!

As promised, here are some pictures of Eli and Sadie at gymnastics. They go to Wendy's Gym and are in the ones and twos class so they are in the same class. It's basically independent free play, but there are obstacle courses, a rope swing, bars, a trampoline, a foam pit and some other fun stuff that is just supposed to introduce them to the equipment and learn a few skills. They have a great time and LOVE every moment. Dennis gets to come too because he doesn't have class on Wednesday mornings when the gymnastics class is and it's a good thing because I don't think I could keep up with them otherwise. Sorry the pictures are bad. Either the kids are too fast or the camera is too slow because we got a lot of pictures that looked like this:

The Search for the Perfect Pre-School

Eli's going to be 3 in the fall which means that we can send him to pre-school. We hemmed and hawed about this but decided that Eli would benefit greatly from spending some time with other kids and adults, being in a school environment (afterall almost every kid and adult he knows goes to school) and spending some time away from mom and dad. Eli's gotten pretty clingly lately especially after he watched Nemo (only up to the scene where Nemo was taken by the scuba-diver) and deemed it the scariest movie ever and now refuses to be in a different room then we are in. So, we're on a mission to find the perfect pre-school. I know it's a bit early but classes fill up fast especially the morning times at good schools. We started searching for schools that are within a very close driving distance from our house (yes, that was our only standard). Turns out that there are about a gazillion that are pretty close to our house so we had to narrow our search down to those that are close to our house and to those that were recommended by someone (who could be a perfect stranger). We visited three this week and have two more on our list. Eli seems to like them all. Sadie too, but I don't think she knows that she's not going to pre-school--at least not in Columbus, Ohio. I really didn't think that pre-schools could be so different, but we were surprised. We visited a very "hippie" school that allows lots creative and free play, but that seemed to be about all they had planned and well, we do that at home and it just didn't seem to be a good fit for this family. I really like things neat and orderly and clean and I love schedules and plans and this school just didn't seem to have that though I do wish that I could be more creative and laid-back and I want my kids to be that way, but I really want a school-like environment that has a set curriculum and follows standards and does progress reports. We found that in another school we visited. I really like this school because it is a school and the kids were learning and having fun and following rules and reading and writing. We also visited a Private Catholic school which we also really liked and perhaps like it more than the other one as it had a very family-like atmosphere, but tuition is a bit higher and classes are a bit shorter. Only two more to check out before final decision time. Hopefully, we'll know be next Friday!

I'm also hoping to get some pictures this week of Eli and Sadie at gymnastics, which they both love, love, love. Sadie can't get enough of the trampoline and Eli totally digs the foam pit. We practically had to drag Eli out of there, which is saying a lot because he's always ready to leave.

Yes, it was 70 degrees here this week, which always scares the crap out of me even though we were outside non-stop. January and seventy degrees in Ohio just shouldn't go together. But, the week before that it was cold and snowy and we took the kids sledding. Eli loves the groovy hat...

Happy New Year!

We spent New Years morning going to Franklin Park Conservatory to see the enchanted train exhibit. The kids loved seeing the train nestled in the exotic plants and they got to stamp their passport, which was probably more fun for me!

Feeding the koi is so much fun. They are some very hungry goldfish. I love how colorful the area is with the Chihuly glass rolling around in the water. It might be my favorite place in the conservatory, but it's tough to beat the desert plants that I'm so fond of.

It's getting really really hard for Sadie to stand still for a second which is why there isn't a train in this picture. Sadie just couldn't wait for it to come around again!

Sadie managed to find the only puddle in the place and she managed to fall into the puddle while she was splashing around. It turns out that the bathrooms do not have fans only paper towels so it was a very wet ride home for her!