Santa Photo

It was a successful visit with Santa this year!

This was taken at Sam's Club in Hilliard.

Merry Christmas!

Santa Letters

I have a lot of catching up to do on this blog, but for now, we wanted to update you on our letters to Santa this year. Parker and Seth had a lot of ideas for their Christmas wish lists.

Seth's letter to Santa:

Parker's letter to Santa (with interpretation by Shane):

Isabelle decided not to write a letter this year, although she has quite a wish list too:

We took the letters to Santa's mailbox in front of the Grove City Museum.

Here are the letters they received back from Santa:

We are anxious to see what Santa brings!

First Day of School 2016

It's that time of year again - back to school! August 24th was the first day. Parker started Kindergarten!! He goes to JC Sommer and his teacher is Mrs. Dyer. Another girl in our neighborhood, Maria, is in his class, so it's nice that each of them already know someone at school. The night before school, Parker said he was both excited and nervous. He really didn't seem nervous. We had talked about how he will start Kindergarten all summer and he seemed ready.

"Secret Life of Pets" backpack

New this year, the bus stop is just one house away from us! Previously, we had to walk or drive down the street to meet the bus. This new bus stop will be so convenient.

Walking to the bus stop

When Parker's bus arrived and after hugs for me and Shane, he had no problem getting on the bus. Once he got home that afternoon, he said he had a good time and that "school" was his favorite part of the whole day.

He's home!

Here are two papers Parker brought home:

Parker drew himself

Isabelle is at Jackson Middle School again this year. As you can see, she is cheering again. She had to wear her cheer uniform to school on the first day because the cheerleaders were part of a pep rally in the afternoon. Also this year, she is part of Symphonic Choir and Show Choir. She was happy to see a lot of friends again and reported having a good first day!

Not thrilled about holding an "8" for 8th grade

Isabelle's schedule:

Seth is in 5th grade at Hayes Intermediate. This is a new school for Seth and it has 5th and 6th grades. We are all happy that this school starts almost an hour later than elementary school, so Seth can sleep later in the mornings. Seth's teacher is Mrs. Jameson and he will also have Mrs. Elswick and Mrs. Gagliardi. They each teach different subjects and they are the same three teachers that Isabelle had in 5th grade.

5th grader

Seth also had a good day at school and was happy to see that he knew several people in his classes. Since a lot of the kids at this school have come from a different elementary school (Buckeye Woods), there are a lot of new kids Seth doesn't know yet.

Here's to a good school year!

Summer Summary - August 2016

August - the last month of summer break.


Our whole family went to the Ohio State Fair on August 1. We didn’t enter one building or see any animals! The day was all about riding the rides this year. Being a Monday, it wasn’t too crowded and we got to ride all that we wanted to. Parker really liked the big slide and rode it several times.

Parker found his friends Derrick and James

You may recall that Parker took swimming lessons in July, but didn't make much progress. Well, Parker really improved his swimming skills in August! We bought him a pair of his own goggles. He loved them, and started going under water with them right away, and even swam a bit on his own with his head under water! Who knew that the secret to getting him better at swimming was buying goggles??

Parker playing in the water:

In preparation for Kindergarten, the school district held and event for kids and parents to learn about the school buses and to help them feel more comfortable riding them to school for the first time. Parker learned how to sit properly and we all took a short bus ride around the area. Good news about our bus stop – one has been added right at the corner by our house! This means we won’t have to walk or drive down the street to get the kids to and from the bus anymore!

Each summer, the kids and I like to take a trip down to the Cincinnati area to spend some time with our friends Shannon, Brady and Savannah. This year, we spent a few hours at the pool in their neighborhood. The weather cooperated and it was a good, fun day!

Seth, Brady and Isabelle



Parker and Savannah

We checked out a "new to us" pool - the Groveport Aquatic Center. This place was so neat because it had a large shallow area, a deep end with diving boards, a lazy river, two water slides and a splash pad.

These are two slides - one curvy (left) and one almost straight down (right)

Overview of the pool

Seth jumped really high off the diving board

Lazy river



Lazy river

Shane and Seth planned to see Tecumseh, The Outdoor Drama in Chillicothe near the end of August. They planned a whole weekend of camping at Tar Hollow State Park and seeing the show. While the camping trip was a success despite some rainy weather, the show was cancelled after everyone had already arrived, due to rain. Fortunately, they were given rain tickets and are planning to see the show at a later date, and still really enjoyed camping.

They took some games camping

One of the lakes

Swimming in the lake

The campsite



Mini golf at the campground

Throughout the summer, Isabelle babysat Callan, who lives down the street from us and is 11 years old. It was an easy summer job for her and a great way to earn money. In August, she attended cheer camp and show choir camp. She was very busy!




The boys spent a lot of time putting together various train tracks all summer.

Isabelle learned how to blow bubbles with gum.

We attended open houses for each of the three (yes, three this year!) schools. As of this posting, Isabelle's school had not yet had their open house (so no photo).

Finally, here are some miscellaneous photos taken in August. We certainly had a lot of good days!

Treats at Dairy Queen

Helping with the grocery list at Meijer




Checking out school before it starts

Farewell, summer break!