Woodland Lights 2013

We seem to have a lot of family holiday traditions. Apple picking, pumpkin patch, cookies for Santa… It's pretty cool. I hope all these traditions give the girls warm cozy feelings inside and that they will remember our traditions fondly. It makes blogging a little difficult, though, since I just write about the same stuff every year! But it will be fun to look back and see how the girls have changed/grown since our last adventure! Here are our pictures from last year! 2012 Woodland Lights

Camping - Hocking Hills

Our second camping trip this year and second time tent camping with the girls and dogs was a huge success! Apparently, our practice round earlier this year paid off. The tents went up easier, we were less stressed out about letting Chloe walk around a bit, and best of all it didn't rain! The weather was actually fantastic.

Here are our tents. The girls and the dogs shared the green tent (we figured Monty would protect them from any curious critters) and we had the red one. It wasn't nearly as romantic as I imagined... 

We left home Friday afternoon. Dave and Solana got home from work/school and we were gone within a couple hours. We arrived at the campsite around 6pm and it wasn't too long before we were ready for a fire. Here are the girls enjoying the fire with their milk.

 Here's Chloe's post-s'mores face.We can't let a single night go by without s'mores. I saw all kinds of camping dessert ideas online. Some fancy and some clever. We tried the banana boat dessert once. But you just can't beat a good 'ol s'more. I'm not sure I'll bother with any clever camping desserts again.

The girls were so excited to get into their tents! Chloe didn't sleep well, though, and woke up crying in the middle of the night with half her body off of her air mattress. I'm not sure but I think Bluebell might have knocked her off on purpose...

 Saturday arrived and we breakfasted on ham, egg, and cheese burritos by the fire. After a proper fueling-up for a day in the woods we headed out for our big hike. We hit the path for Cedar Caves - an easy 2.5mile hike on the trails. Chloe is using her binoculars.








Solana's ready to go!!! I love how the girls dress for camping. The mismatched outfits and knee-high socks are my kind of outfit! Practical and somehow still adorable.







We passed some amazing cliffs. Solana is not like me in many ways but one thing she did seem to inherit from me is her fear of heights. She was less than pleased as Dave stood at the ledge. And she nervously warned me to be careful as I picked my way slowly in a crouching position just close enough to say I looked over.


Crossing over a dam.

Dave pushed Chloe in the stroller most of the way but finally pooped out and handed her over to me. No sooner did I take the stroller than we rounded a corner to find an extremely steep downhill. I was sure I'd lose my footing and fall down. Had I done that the stroller would have gone careening down the hill with me dragging behind as the safety-wrist-strap connected me to the stroller. I had this vision very clearly as I started heading down and then promptly gave the stroller back to Dave. An avid trail runner, though, I was more than happy to trot down ahead, disregarding Dave's repeating requests for me to walk, and get a picture of Dave navigating both the stroller and Solana (see the walking cane he's holding for her) down the hill. Dad of the year, I say.

Chloe walked for a little while. But, as you can see, we were in an out of shadows. It makes it hard for someone with full vision to maneuver the light transition visually.  Between the light and the multitude of roots, rocks, and sticks in the path I forced her to hold hands. We were pretty slow-going so we only let her walk for a short while. 

By the time we got to the falls we had been hiking for (I estimate) 2.5 hours and were pretty tired. Dave decided to leave us with Bluebell and hike back with Monty to get the van. This sounded fine to me except for the fact that he wanted to leave us at the top of a terrifying staircase down to the falls. It was one-person wide with open rails on the side. Either Bluebell or Chloe could have easily fallen right out. Dave saw me paralyzed by fear as I attempted the decent and changed plans. Thank goodness because I would have had a heart attack trying to hold Bluebell's leash and Chloe. I was just sure Bluebell would give a good tug knocking me off balance and one, if not all, of us would go plummeting down the side of the cliff. Here we are safely at the bottom and walking around the "falls." Unfortunately there wasn't any water falling but it was still pretty. 

Then Dave left us and we ascended a more gradual (and less frightening) path to the top where we found a parking lot, picnic ground, and bathroom. We parked our tired butts at a picnic bench, ate leftover burritos, and snacked on trail mix as 

Dave and Monty hiked it 2.5 miles back to camp. 

Dave's boss and his wife, Dave and Dorothy Goe, rode their motorcycle out to meet us and arrived just as Dave picked up the girls and me. They also traveled with a couple other of Dave's colleagues. After a quick stop at our campground we headed out again to visit Old Man's Cave.

Again, the decent and climbs were a tad been dicey but it was so pretty there. 

Dave's boss, Dave Goe is on the left. Another colleague, Orville, is on the right.

 S'mores night 2

Bluebell love 

Final breakfast at the campground. 

Two pooped dogs.

 This is how I look when we're camping. I don't even pack makeup and I'm not ashamed of it. Girls, this is what your Mommy looks in real life. You might as well get me that way in pictures. I don't usually endorse pictures when I look like this but it seems approrpiate for camping...

More Bluebell love on the way home.

Chloe is 4 Years Old!

Our big girl woke up to her much anticipated number 4 pancake. Look how big that thing is! But in true big-girl style she ate every bite. One of the things I love about Chloe at this age is her genuine appreciation and excitement for everything around her. She gasps and exclaims when something is new and wonderful to enjoy and I pretty much melt every time she does so. I was a puddle all birthday weekend. Chloe enjoyed everything as much as any parent could possibly hope and I'll cherish these memories forever.

I wish everyone could have seen her opening their presents. It's fun to see a little kid get excited over the gift you sent them and she would not have disappointed anyone. You'd think she received a real rainbow in every package.

Chloe got this car from her Grammy and Grampy. She LOVES IT!!!

She had her first school-friend birthday party on Saturday. Dave rented a bouncy house and four little classmates came over for an hour and a half. They had a fantastic time playing between the bouncy house, the playground, and Chloe's new car.

The girls played hard in the bouncy house. They even ripped down all my streamer decorations from around the yard and decorated inside the bouncy house. Solana headed up the mission and wanted to make sure it was a surprise for Chloe so they worked fast and furiously while Chloe went for a joy ride in her car. When she came back to the bouncy house they all yelled, "Surprise!"

The girls enjoyed some snacks and a much needed hydration break. It wasn't tremendously hot but warm enough for a break in the shade.

Chloe's just chillin' with her friends. Check me out with my hands on my hips. I think I'm a big fan of the free-style birthday party. (Quite the contrast from Solana's unicorn-pegasus party!) Just let the kids play I say! I didn't even bake the cake, if you can believe that. We got an ice cream cake!!!

Chloe's riding with her friend, Lydia. 

Chloe Bea - 4 years old!!!

(This little blouse used to be mine. :-)

Chloe's First Day of School 2013!! Pre-K (2nd Year)

After a very long one-week wait Chloe finally had her first day of school! She was very excited to finally join Solana outside waiting for the bus. This was Solana's second week and also picture day. She was practicing her picture smile. I have no idea why they're both holding their arms out like that but they both look to me like they're about to lift-off and fly away Superman style. I love these girls so much! This picture makes me want to squeeze them!

Solana's First Day of School 2013

Solana's first day. Chloe's practice first day.

Solana picked out her outfit the night before - she's actually wearing a precious mandarin colored blouse underneath but I forgot to have her open her jacket. She rolled out of bed within 15 seconds of me opening her curtains. She then finished her morning checklist, ate waffles (sourdough - yum!), drank her milk, and was ready to go 10 minutes before the bus. I expect all mornings will go this smoothly (optimism at it's most best). She wore flip-flops with her skirt. It was pretty cool for August. Low 60's in the morning and we'll only get up to mid-70's today but you absolutely positively must wear flip flops in August!

Third grade will be a great year!

Dork of the Year

The first day of school for Centerville is today! The Summer flew by but the girls are anxious to get to school and I'm anxious to get back onto a routine. It's difficult to get workouts in with the girls home so I'm squeezing into my clothes, the house is also in disarray, and paperwork is piled up to my eyebrows on the computer desk. The mornings before school want to be chaotic so I was a bit nervous about this morning. But somehow we made it outside in plenty of time without any frazzled nerves. I was feeling mighty proud. Solana happily skipped onto her bus and I waited with Chloe for her bus to arrive.

But a strange thing happened. Her bus drove by in the wrong direction and on the other side of the street. It usually stops at our driveway. Then, even stranger, it kept on driving right past us. It was a bit chilly out this morning and Chloe got cold after we had been outside for fifteen minutes so I was holding her. I waved frantically while precariously holding my almost 4 year-old with one arm. The bus stopped a few houses down and I started walking toward it with Chloe in my arms. The Aid popped out and speed-walks over to us, "There's no Pre-School. It doesn't start until the 21st. The bus driver is calling to check but that's what we read on our bulletin board today."

Super Duh. I felt so stupid. "Are you kidding me? I don't know how I missed that! Thanks for stopping and telling me!"

Actually, I know exactly how I missed that. I didn't pay close enough attention to the letter from school that came a couple of weeks ago. I was so preoccupied worrying that Chloe got into the correct school this year that I completely overlooked the line stating the first day of school for Pre-School! It's a whole week later! Poor Chloe was all ready to go to school but she's sitting next to me now happily playing in her doll house so I think she'll be ok. We'll probably stop by the school today so she can visit her classroom.

I'm sure I have bills to pick up, anyway. I'm the PTO Treasurer this year - part of the reason I have a huge pile of paperwork waiting for me at home. But I'll talk about that in another post. It's a story.

Chloe's First Movie

We had a lazy Sunday last weekend. This is something we rarely enjoy. Dave ALWAYS has lots of yard work to do in the Summer so we don't usually have a whole day to do whatever we want. We took full advantage of our day decided to head to the Greene for lunch. Brio has a deck that faces the in-ground fountain that all the kids play in. The girls wore their swimsuits and played in the fountains as we waited for our food at Brio. After lunch we walked over to the movie theater to see Despicable Me 2. As we munched on popcorn before the movie Dave pointed out to me that this is Chloe's first movie. I can't believe I hadn't realized that!

She was a little squirmy and only spent about a third of the movie in her seat. The other third was on either Dave or my lap. Fortunately, the theater was fairly empty so her squirming didn't bother too many people. I think she enjoyed her first movie experience. We may wait a while before attempting another, though...