Our day

We had a busy day. First off to ballet. I took the camera with me, but after dropping the girls in the classroom, I got so engrossed in a book that I didn't take any pictures. I wasn't even around when Annalise had to go potty and a nice mom took her (she went before--just want to make it clear that I'm not totally ignoring them at ballet). Then we went to the library. On the way out, we always stop at the statue of the little girl and her dog on the bench. We like this statue for 2 reasons. First, it's not creepy and painted to look like a real person and parked 2 feet from the road on main street. Second, when we moved here, the little girl was Evie's size, now Annalise is almost as big as her.

Later in the day, the Brays came to pick up Annalise for her first ever solo sleep over. Haven't heard much from them so it must be going ok.

While Annalise was getting stuffed with bread and ice cream, Evie had a swim meet.

Here she is with Coach Chelsea. We love Coach Chelsea because she pretty much taught Evie how to swim in 10 days and is super supportive of all the little kids.


Here's Evie winding up for her heat in freestyle.

As she swims past me. She could probably shave a couple of seconds off her time if she used her arms.

Coming in for the finish. I think she finished 2nd in both her races tonight.

And this is her backstroke race. She did pretty good and didn't bump into the lane lines once!

The family truckster turns 100

100,000 miles that is. Sure, that isn't much these days, but it seems like the recent addition of a number to my odometer makes the car run a little slower. Well, we have at least 75K more and 4 years to go before my next car. And with the new timing belt and axel thingy, we should be set.
I also wanted to post this awesome picture of me driving IMS.

Cleveland

We ventured up to Cleveland this past weekend to visit Grandma and Grandpa Taller. Evie also made Grandpa Taller a fancy shirt too. Watch out Grandpa Seibert, your birthday is coming up....

Later that evening, we were treated to a sunset cruise on Lake Erie with Jim's Uncle Bob and Aunt Pam and their sail boat. Here is Jim sailing with downtown Cleveland in the back ground--zoom in. By far, the best sunset cruise we have ever been on!

It was an absolutely beautiful evening with completely clear sky

As the sun sets on Lake Erie, we headed back to the slip. Thanks for a wonderful cruise!! If you ever need sailors, Bob and Pam, we are up for a ride!

On Saturday, Grandma and Grandpa took us to the zoo via the Westside Market. Mom got her cannolli and the girls got a snack.

There was a dino exhibit at the zoo with life size replicas of dinos that moved and roared. Annalise didn't really like it, but Evie was really interested in it. We think she liked it more than the live animals.

We also went into the butterfly house. It would distrub Aunt Becky to know that several really big butterflies fluttered around us the whole time. You can see from this picture how intense it was.

Outside, we saw how the girls measured up to a baby giraffe.

What's a trip to the zoo without sitting on a bronzed animal? They took a ride on a wolf.

Later that day, Grandma and Grandpa hosted a block party with the girls. We took the opportunity for a night out. We attended a fundraiser for the Neighborhood Family Practice www.nfpmedcenter.org where my friend, Katy, works. It is a clinic that serves low income community in Cleveland. They do great things there and we are so proud of Katy and her contributions. Way to go!!

Katy's husband, Steve, was in charge of balloon animals and hats. Here are examples of his work. Pretty good for 3 months practice! Contact him for your next birthday party.

Later, one of the entertainment acts were belly dancers. They invited the crowd to join in. Of course, we had to dance too!

Sunday morning, we met up with Katy, Steve and their kids, as well as our friends Tami, Mike, and Kaia who happened to also be in town from CA.

Evie and Annalise and sweet Kaia. The last time we saw her, she was just a couple weeks old! She is such a cutie!

Tami, Katy and me. It's been too long for a NWO reunion! That's the plan for 2010. Get your calendars ladies, we are having a reunion. (Also, these are my new specs, Aunt Becky. Post yours for comparison.)

Here are all our kids. Eli, Annalise, Sam, Kaia and Evie. They were joined Saturday by another offspring of Crossroads!

Aedan William was born to Krista and Tim on Saturday! Congrats guys! We are so excited to hear about your insites as new parents on your blog! Do you think he would want to come and drink some beer on a parking lot next year????

Breaking all previous records

This is Evie's 3rd swim meet. She is making incredible progress. She no longer wants anyone to walk by her. It's all about getting the finish ribbons. She placed 3rd in this race. She probably could have placed 2nd if she didn't stop 3/4 of the way through to size up the competition.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day Everyone! We had a quiet day. Jim was off in Pittsburg hanging out and going to a concert with Uncle Jeff. He flew back home this afternoon and had a big Father's Day party waiting for him. Dad and his girls

Jim's favorite thing to eat is limited to birthdays and holidays. I'm sure that if there is some health hazzard to eating artifcial color, he will come down with it by eating this barrel of cheeseballs. Annalise called them cheesy Kix.

Evie worked hard to make Dad this one of a kind T-shirt. He wore it the rest of the day. To the pool and to DQ. He got lots of interested glances at the DQ. They were probably jealous of his fancy shirt. Now he's wearing it mowing the lawn.

We don't condone playing with our food. Jim took this picture before mom stepped in and had a stern talk about manners at the table.

Slip and Slide

In an effort to break my long streak of going to the pool every day, we stayed home this afternoon and played in the yard. I dug out the slip and slide and baby pool. Evie helped me set it up. When Annalise got up from her short nap, it was a free for all. In my preparations, I even packed a cooler with snacks for the backyard so I wouldn't have to run in and out of the house. I brought the camera out too. Annalise "dives" into the baby pool.
Evie shows her how it is done. Incidently, that's my garden in the background. I have giant tomato plants, but no fruits on them. I'm a little concerned. The could be confused with shrubs, they are so bushy.

Just a shot to show you that I parked myself in my zero gravity lounger (from Menards). Probably the most comfortable lawn chair ever.

When they were tired of the water play, they played in the sand table. Annalise had a swim suit malfunction.

And some slip and slide action. I could have got closer, but that would have meant that I had to get out of my lounger.

Family Fun Strikes Again

We are working on Dad's Father's Day present. Shh...it's a surprise! It was also in the last issue of Family Fun. An article about how you can jazz up a plain T-shirt. Of course, once you go buy the fabric paint and a "special--not old" T-shirt, you would be better off just buying a jazzed up shirt at Target. But it's the experience that counts. Evie works on Dad's present. She chose to use white paint on the yellow shirt. Subtle.

We made some for other members of our family. Try to act surprised. This one is in progress

Watch out Michael Phelps

Evie's first swim meet was today in the rain. She was really excited. She did great in the pool during her heat. I think she surprised herself how well she did. She already is asking if she can do swim team again next summer.

Produce in the Yard

We can hardly believe it, but our yard is starting to produce food already! We have been eating lettuce from the garden for a couple of weeks, but there have been some new things to pick! Annalise gets ready to head outside. She picked out her outfit herself. Flowers everywhere. We aren't sure what inspired the red socks.
Here's our first head of broccoli! It was huge and we ate the whole thing for dinner.

Evie and the broccoli. Of course everyone had to take their picture with the veggies. It's a Taller tradition that dates back to Aunt Laura and a giant zucchini.

And it is cherry time! We have three trees and have been picking since last Wednesday. I figure that I have put about 35 cups into the freezer and made a pie. I have also shared with friends, but as you can see, there are still more to be picked.

These trees are much shorter and there is a better chance to get more cherries off of them. To expidite the pitting, I went to the fancy kitchen gizmo store and bought a cherry pitter that pits four at a time. I was sceptical at first, but it really works and saves a bunch of time. I still have to do it outside because the juice still gets everywhere.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. There's still lots more!

Karin and Cory's Wedding

We attended the wedding of my cousin, Karin and her groom, Cory, this weekend. It was a beautiful ceremony that we thoroughly enjoyed because our kids sat across the aisle from us with Grandma and Grandpa. We got to actually pay attention and cry at all the right times, not just when the kneeler hit our shins. The very happy couple. Congratulations Karin and Cory!!
In addition to the ceremony babysitters, the next best thing (outside of the union of Karin and Cory, of course) was the fact that we attended this in our very own town!! We didn't have to drive anywhere, stay over night, or find a babysitter!!! Karin and Cory, we'll come to as many weddings as you want to have! As far as Annalise was concerned the best part of the reception was the butter buffet at the table. She had three kinds of butter to spread on her bread. Butter is her favorite food currently and this almost made her head explode.

Soon she skipped the roll entirely and ate the butter straight up.

The Kevin Seibert family came to the wedding too. Since they have more kids than adults, we all took turns taking care of Sweet Baby Tessa. She's pretty easy going. Aunt Becky, she started to give kisses too. You are missing out on some slobbery love. You better hightail it back to NWO.

Tessa and Aunt Jenni hanging out at the reception.

Seriously Adorable. This makes up for all the pictures we didn't take of her on vacation

Annalise also had a great time drinking the punch. Until she spilled it all over. We all saw that one coming.

Annalise and Marin take a spin around the dance floor.

Jenni and Karin. Her dress was so pretty and according to her, it weighed a ton!

Almost the first swim meet

After two weeks of somewhat intense morning practices, Evie got slotted for her first swim meet today! She was set to swim the "freestyle" in the fourth heat for kids 6 and under. This means that her coach finally thinks that she can combo doggie paddle and swim under water 12 yards without sinking. In her official team suit and goggles on the way to the pool
Evie and her buddy, Gabby. Gabby is in her second year and gets to swim 4 races!

The kids use a permanent marker on their arms to write down their events, lane and heat. Evie has one event written on her right arm. On her other arm, we wrote "Swim Fast" but it smudged.

Our team and coached get all pumped up! The started to get things rolling early because a big storm was rolling in.

Evie all lined up to swim. Unfortunately, after 4 or 5 races for the 6 and unders, we heard thunder. That put us in a delay. The meet ended up gettign canceled due to the bad weather. We will try again next Tuesday.