Brutus On Parade

Not being from Ohio, I don't quite understand the Buckeye madness, but people are crazy for Buckeye anything. Football season is upon us with the first game this coming Saturday. For those of you who don't know where we live, student housing is on campus in the heart of all of the stadiums (yes, soccer, track, softball, baseball, lacrosse, hockey and basketball are all played within spitting distance of our front door), which happen to have a lot of parking lots, which get filled really early in the morning on game days with tailgaters driving very expensive "RVs" decked out in scarlet and gray with marijuana looking plants plastered all over it. People dressed in red football jerseys start frying up bacon, they open up a few cans of beer and start playing corn hole. The football stadium itself holds like 90,000 people and thousands more come out to enjoy the spectacle. So, that's like 110,000 people plus invading our front lawn on any given Saturday in the fall.
We went to get our season tickets this morning. Yes, season tickets, not that we go to all of the games. We buy the tickets and then sell them to one of Dennis' classmates. We kept the Michigan tickets, but I have a feeling that when November rolls around and people are willing to buy my ticket for $400 I might be tempted to sell it because there's a camera I'm really itching for that is otherwise not in the budget. Anyways, we went to get our tickets at the Schottenstein Center, which is, again, spitting distance from our front door. At the Schottenstein Center, they have statues of Brutus Buckeye decked out in all sorts of fancy attire. For those of you who don't know who Brutus Buckeye is, he is the mascot at OSU and seems to be at every event all over Columbus. A buckeye, by the way, is a nut that looks a lot like the eye of a deer from the buckeye tree which have leaves that look a lot like a marijuana plant, not that I've ever seen a marijuana plant in person.
Brutus on Parade is a fundraising event to raise money for the new library. Local artists dressed up Brutus in some clever and not-so-clever ways. They will be sold at auction later this fall. I went a little crazy with the pictures but some of them were funny.
Rock-n-Roll Brutus:
Green Brutus:Tinman Brutus:Super-Hero Brutus:Astronaut Brutus:Statue of Liberty Brutus:Mime Brutus:Peace and Luv Brutus:That's a Spicy Pizza Brutus:Van Gogh Brutus:And some you might have to be from Columbus to appreciate.

Jim Tressel and Drum Major Brutus:Christopher Columbus Brutus:Archie Griffin Brutus:Butter Brutus:Dave Thomas Brutus:
Totally unrelated to Brutus Buckeye but totally related to OSU and cheers. Here's a nicely done video about one of OSU's traditions.

Cruise the Ville

Because we couldn't think of anything else to do this morning, we decided to throw the kids' bikes into the trunk and take a ride around one of the local parks. To our surprise it was Clintonville's annual "Cruise the Ville" car show. We got there a bit too early as most things hadn't started yet, but we got a really close parking spot, we avoided the crowds and the heat, and Eli got to admire cars, his favorite thing in the whole wide world. He enjoyed it a bit more than I thought. He had a really nice tantrum when we were leaving because he wanted to "stay and look at the cars."
Sadie entered her car. Check out the engine in that bad boy:Eli was particularly fond of the trucks:Don't touch the car. Don't touch the car. Don't touch the car. It's a good mantra. Notice how Eli is leaning on the car...Sadie got her face painted by the Shriner clowns. Eli was not interested in having some silly looking man paint on his face. He wouldn't even take a balloon animal.

More Playing

1. my seeds, 2. beach bum, 3. big smile, 4. cars galore, 5. flower child, 6. play or work, 7. rock climbing, 8. swimming, 9. first fish, 10. Happy Birthday, 11. biker dude, 12. state fair

Just Playing...

1. state fair 001, 2. sadie's triumphs 006, 3. windsock 029 (2), 4. mushrooms 004, 5. painting 009, 6. nd trip 073, 7. painting 004, 8. mushrooms 011, 9. csa 021, 10. csa 018, 11. windsock 030 (2), 12. mushrooms 003

Eli's Birthday Party

Eli had his best friends over for a backyard picnic "bug themed" birthday party. I had some games prepared: pin-the-antennae-on-the-butterfly, drop the bugs in the jar and a bug hunt, but it seems that 3 year olds just want to run around and play trucks. But, for some reason I didn't get any pictures of that.
Eli loved his birthday cake about as much as he loved having all of his friends sing him Happy Birthday.


Our talented neighbor made Eli's caterpillar pinata. It was almost too cute to hit. Almost. Sadie would hit the pinata and then laugh hysterically, I wish I would have had the video on.

Finally, Dennis had to step in and give the caterpillar one final whack. Then, all the kids went running. It's amazing how the people who are in these pictures are the same people that have been in all of Eli's birthday pictures. I guess the parties I throw must not be so bad if they keep coming back!! Seriously, we have made some really great friends here in Columbus and they have helped create many wonderful memories. Thanks to everyone who came to Eli's party, sent gifts from afar, called, or sent silly e-cards. Eli loved every minute of today!

Happy Third Birthday, Eli

The kids are napping while I'm supposed to be preparing for Eli's big birthday party this afternoon. But, I wanted to take a second to look back on Eli's birthdays. How old does a child have to be before a mom stops thinking about her child's actual birth day on their birthday? Probably never as it was one of the best days ever.
Eli's birth day. Gosh he was a scrawny bugger. First Birthday:
Second birthday:
Third birthday:(He has crazy hair in the morning.) Dennis and I got Eli 70 hot wheels cars from ebay for his birthday. Each of them was individually wrapped. I think it was a really good morning for him. He was very upset when we would only let him take five cars to church.

A Trip to Slate Farm

Several weeks ago, the kids' playgroup met at a historical farm. I love Slate Farm. It's all so romantic: a summer kitchen, a smokehouse with brown-paper wrapped ham, a water pump, a wooden swing hanging from an old tree branch, a hay loft, and miles and miles of space (plus, volunteers get to wear bonnets). Things just seemed much simpler; no internet, cell-phones, cars, or hectic running around. It was just you, your family and work, lots of work. Do you think the women were lonely? I think I would get really lonely. I'm sure they were considering the nearest neighbors were miles away. Maybe they didn't have time to be lonely.
None of Eli's and Sadie's friends made it into any of these shots. My kids tend to be a little bit slower than other kids. They love to linger when they're hanging outside and I didn't feel the need to rush them. I love that they could happily spend 30 minutes looking at chickens.

The Ohio State Fair

We spent yesterday at the State Fair doing all sorts of state-fair kinds of things. We ate too much junk food; the kids had their first taste of funnel cake, which Sadie adored. The kids also got to eat icecream on a tractor. I think it was their favorite way to eat icecream. I can't believe I forgot to get a picture of the butter sculpture. There was plenty of animal touching. Eli even got into it. He likes to keep us on our toes. Here Sadie is petting the baby pigs, neither of them would get near the fattest boar.
We took in a few rides.
I'm surprised that Eli wanted to go on the rides by himself. He's just spent the whole day surprising the heck out of me!
Notice the band-aid on Eli's forehead. It's to cover up the large goose-egg that Eli is currently sporting. He was jumping into the pool on Saturday, slipped and fell. The result is what happens when you hit your head on the side of the pool.

Vacation--The Finale

Because I have nothing else to post, I'm going to finish up the last leg of our vacation. We went to Bemidji, MN to visit my brother and SIL, my friend Stacy and kids, and then we headed to Park Rapids for Dennis' brother Greg's and new SIL, Michele, wedding reception, which I don't have any pictures of. It seems like I can't go on a vacation for longer than 2 weeks without getting sick and I happened to be sick the day of the reception. I managed to make it to the reception, but Dennis was in charge of pictures, so there aren't any. Anyhoo, here's pictures from Uncle Darren's house.
A rare family photo:Aunt Talia, Uncle Darren and the gang. Notice how Darren, Dennis and I all have our feet crossed the same way. Aren't we too cute for words?!Uncle Darren just happens to have an ATV so we gave the kids rides. Slow rides because they weren't wearing helmets.Eli was more than a little skeptical:We went to some weird wildlife park outside of Bemidji called Paul Bunyan's Animal Land. The animals were all in very small cages right next to each other. I think it really ticked the tiger off that he could see small deer running around, but couldn't get to them. You were allowed to feed most of the animals. To feed the deer, you walked into a separate caged area so there was nothing between you and the deer. Sadie really got into it, Eli avoided most of the uncaged animals.Uncle Darren loved it too:You can see why Darren and Sadie became friends fast: