A Really Fun Weekend

The weather this weekend was absolutely perfect: mid-seventies, low humidity and sunny. We took advantage of it and spent the weekend crossing off things on our summer to-do list. We went to Slate Run Historical Farm on Saturday. Oh, my goodness. My fascination with Laura Ingalls continues and it makes me think that I've really got to get Sadie a bonnet. This is a working farm so people are busy working and they love having help. Eli's personal favorites were the pigs. He kept saying "pigs. PeeeeYeeeewwww.....". The pigs are eventually butchered (which we're invited to watch in December) and for proof there are actually hams hanging in the smokehouse! The women were pickling and picking veggies. And Eli helped water the garden. Oh, and the best part, it's free!!!

Sadie loving every minute of the horses. The girl is crazy for animals.


Sadie and a ragdoll. Who enjoyed it more? Dad or Sadie?


Eli pumping water. It's a lot of work.


Carrying the water out to the garden.


Finally, pouring the water on the plants.


On Sunday we went to The Wilds to go on safari. We rode a safari bus through the open range and saw camels, wild horses, cheetahs, wild dogs, giraffes, rhinos, buffalo, and a bunch of different deer. It was pretty awesome.

I have to include this picture, because Eli was telling me "no picture, mommy" and Dennis is giving me the put-the-camera-away look. Yeah, it was a big two-year-old melt down moment. Eli wanted to be carried, we said he needed to walk. It was very traumatic for him. He was mad because he wanted to be on the bus and be done looking at the birds. We quickly got back on the bus so we could look at something a little more exciting.

They just opened up the carnivore exhibit. Look at the lazy cheetahs.

You can see all of this and more if you make the trip to Columbus. Plus, we have some great accommodations and I'm a pretty good cook. Come visit!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Eli!!!

Eli has really been looking forward to his birthday. He knew he was having a party, going to get to eat cake and was going to get to open presents. He was sooooo excited for today arrive. This morning he woke up and the festivities started. And I think he wasn't disappointed. It was a great day.

He had a huge stack of birthday French toast. After we sang "Happy Birthday" Eli sang "Happy to. Happy to." all day long. I got it on video, along with me asking him how old he is as I've been prepping him all week and he's said two all week, but today he said he was five!

His very own train and track!

Eli had most of the neighbors and some of his good friends over for his party. They all loved hitting the pinata, but no one managed to break it. We eventually had to just tear it open and let the kids run crazy picking up treats.

Eli's fire truck birthday cake. This is my second attempt at cake decorating. I don't know why I get myself into these things. I am my own worst critic though as Eli and the rest of the kids loved it.

One of Sadie in case you've forgotten what she looks like!

A haircut.

I'm Falling Behind

It seems I can't keep up with my blogging obligations. Either we're way too busy or I'm spending most of my free time reading a book. (Seriously, I'm right in the middle of a good book and I'm staying up way too late trying to finish it. Plus, I just got another book from the library that I want to read...) So, I'm falling a bit behind, but not so bad. I'm just trying to post at least once a week! Anyways, to catch you up on the latest Sperle news.

It's been hot and humid here and we've been trying to stay cool. Going to the pool hits the spot especially when it only costs 50 cents to get in and is only a mile away!


Eli loves sitting on these fountains and getting a "water enema" as I like to call them. I don't know if he likes the way it feels or if its because he sees the big boys doing it, but it occupies him during the breaks. Silly boys!!


The Columbus Symphony has "Picnic with the Pops" every Saturday night during the summer and on several Fridays they have concerts for kids. We went to the "Teddy Bear Picnic" concert. It rained on us, but we still had a great time singing, dancing, getting our faces painted and making bear ears.


Sadie stayed dry in the stroller, but she didn't mind the water. She was just excited to stay out 3 hours past her bedtime.


Pictures of tractors as promised. I don't think Eli was impressed as his dad was.


Even Sadie liked them!


Sadie walking with a little help from a pushcar.


A little tuckered out.

Sand and Chocolate

Last weekend we went to a reservoir to cool off from the summer's heat. Sadie loved the water and Eli loved the sand. It's getting harder and harder to get a good shot of Sadie.

Where are Eli's legs??

An old one of Sadie in the sandbox.

Eli loves brownie batter for breakfast. Pretty soon he's going to have to share the chocolatey goodness with his sister.

Standing, Big Trucks and COSI

Sadie is really on the go now. It's amazing how fast babies learn. Now, I really have to keep a close eye on Sadie as she is everywhere getting into everything. The other day I ran upstairs for a second and left the gate open so Eli could follow if he wanted to. By the time I came down the stairs (literally about 1 minute later) Sadie was already on the third step!! She's so determined and gets very angry when we don't let her do something that is dangerous. She wants to be doing everything that Eli is doing, wants everything that Eli has and gets so mad when she can't. She's pretty fiesty. Here's a lovely picture of her standing. Look at those thighs!! The girl loves to eat.

How many trucks can Eli see before he gets bored? I don't know as he hasn't reached that point yet. He can't get enough. Every truck is sooo exciting and big and wonderful and brings on smiles and giggles. We can hardly deny him the opportunity to see and sit in big trucks when they come to the local science museum. (Tractors are coming soon. I'm sure you'll be seeing those pictures too.) This is the first time that Sadie got to sit and drive. She loved it too.

Sadie enjoying the baby water table at COSI, the science museum. Splashing is her forte.

Sometimes Blogger drives me crazy. Currently, it won't let me post a title for this post. I was going to call this entry "Fourth of July and Bikes", not really creative, but a title nonetheless. Enough rambling, here's the kids and a little info. behind the pics.

We just arrived back from a trip to Hornell, NY to see Dennis' sister, Pat, and Lewisburg, PA to see our good friends, the Rosenbergs. We had a wonderful trip and the car ride wasn't even that bad! We had this brilliant idea to leave when Sadie woke for her nighttime bottle around 4am. This idea backfired for several reasons. First, Sadie decided that this would be the night that she sleeps through the night so we had to wake her up from a deep, deep sleep at 5. Second, when you put your kids to bed at 7pm they never get to see darkness. Eli and Sadie were so excited to see the moon, street lights and other nighttime things that they didn't fall asleep quite like we had anticipated. But, it was fun to hear them giggle at the darkness.
We all loved seeing Aunt Pat. Eli and Sadie loved Pat's drawers full of all of her OT stuff. I can tell that their fine motor skills have improved already!!
The Rosenbergs just added another addition to their family in March. It was wonderful to finally meet Alexey. It was fun for the grown-ups to have to work around 4 different nap schedules. We didn't get to do much, but it was fun just visiting and watching the kids play. Oh, and Eli LOVED Gabriella. He called her name for hours and did a very good Marlon Brando impersonation when he called her name with an anguished,"ELLLLLLLLLLAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!". We spent the Fourth of July with them and Eli got his first taste of fireworks, which also resulted in his first burn with fireworks. Now he knows we aren't kidding when we say, "Hot!".


Sadie is getting around in many different ways. She has upgraded her army crawl to a full-fledged crawl. It's amazing to watch her cruise around on all fours. She keeps surprising me when I put her down in the living room and she ends up in the kitchen. She's pulling herself up and starting to cruise with the help of the furniture. But, her favorite trick is letting go of the furniture and smiling with "look mom, no hands" pride. She also has a new way of getting around. She's discovered the fun of going for a ride in the car! Eli thinks this is very cool. He loves to crash into her.

Eli also loves his "bike". Here he is with his best buddy, Ky, going for a ride. His feet don't actually touch the pedals, so he has to do the Fred Flintstone walk to go anywhere.

The Sperle Reunion

It seems like we always seem to miss the weekend of the annual Sperle Family Reunion held at Greg's house in Park Rapids, MN. Well, this year I took action and requested that the reunion be held at a time that we could actually attend. And what do you know? My wish was granted. We had such a blast playing in the water, hanging with the family playing games, singing songs, doing crafts and making icecream and eating 3 pounds of gummy bears! Eli loved having so many cousins around that he could chase and boss around and bother. I'm surprised that I don't have any pictures of him with Ashley as he called out her name all weekend "Ashee" and wanted to be everywhere that she was. It was pretty cute, but I'm pretty sure that Ashley found it pretty annoying.
Sadie also loved all of the attention that she got from cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents. In fact, she loved it so much that she didn't want to go to sleep! Here she is being spoiled by Emily.


Eli and Gabe share a love of cars. Here they are trying to share the cars.


Aunt Paula had a special craft planned: Hats!! All of the kids personalized their own visor. Here's the girls looking pretty in their fancy hats. (Don't tell Mary that her daughters are posted all over the internet in their bikinis.)


Who has the patience to play Ring-Around-The-Rosie 100 times? Cousins. Ahhh, Eli loved every minute.


And they all fall down!

Pictures From Uncle Darren's Wedding

Uncle Darren's wedding was beautiful. The kids are so excited to have a new aunt. Talia is beautiful and sweet and we are so excited to have a new Zeman. We celebrated the joyous occasion by dancing into the wee hours of the night. (Seriously, Eli is quite the dancer. Now I know what they mean when they say "cut a rug.") We all survived sleeping in the same hotel room and with each of us having a cold. Sadie was a little cranky because of the cold and fever keeping her up most of the night before the wedding and I felt like she wasn't representing herself very well as she's usually so content and happy. Here's a few:


Eli refused to button his shirt all the way up so he could wear the tie that went with his outfit.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Elton John

Fun In the Sun

Because I Can't Just Post About Sadie's Fingers This Week

A little brother and sister time.

P.S. Only 10 more days until our trip to North Dakota.

As Promised, Sadie's Fingers

Sadie must be double-jointed or something. I notice quite often that Sadie has an unnatural spread to her fingers. I often try to replicate her finger spacing with my own fingers and it involves me straining with all my might, then using my other hand to help move my fingers into the same positions that she does naturally. Maybe she's Mork or a fan of Star Trek. Either way, it is an unusual talent. Here are some close-ups of her fingers from some random pictures I took of her: