The kids have been counting down the days that their cousins would be here to they finally made it, so we can stop scratching off days on our calendar :) The first day they were here it was pretty rainy so we went down to Cincinnati the the Children's Museum. It was so fun. the kids have fun crawling through "the Jungle", playing with all the balls and tubes, playing at the water station where there were water wheels, pulleys and buckets to haul water up with, cooking at the diner and building at the block and lego station. I think the kids really had a fun time. The adults were definitely tired and we didn't even play as much as they did :)

There were so many neat pictures Jamie took of all the great formations that have taken years and years to be created. There were a ton of stalagtites and stalagmites. There was a lot of water dripping from overhead forming a pool at the bottom. They have so many tours of this cave. There is one which is just a crawling tour where there are very tight spots to get through with a time frame of about six hours! Yikes! There also was a boat tour where you had to take a boat to a different entrance to get into the cave. I can't even begin to think how bid this cave is! It was definitely worth the four hour drive!

The place here with all the people is called Grand Central Station. There are many entrances to the cave that lead down into this one spot that opens up for a huge number of people to meet. These pictures just show how big this cave is! We are down about 250 feet in the ground. I was surprised that the kids weren't nervous at all. In fact I wished I had reigns for Ireland to keep her from running over the ledge. They all loved it!

We had to take a bus to the entrance of the cave. We all had to go single file into the very narrow, steep corridor of the entrance. It felt so good in there! Nice and cool! They had lights through the whole thing so it was never too dark.

While we were waiting for our tour of the cave to start, we were driving around and saw this great rock shop. We stopped and looked at all their rocks. They ranged in price from a couple of dollars to a couple thousand dollars! We definitely did not let the kids touch those! They each got a bag of rocks which they were thrilled about. Aedan had already gotten a bag of rocks from somewhere, so he chose a jade to add to his collection. This sign was hanging up at the shop. Jamie had to get a picture :)

We decided to take the kids to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky for a big day trip over Memorial weekend. It took about four hours to get there. We stopped about half way to have drinks and snacks. The kids are always great with road trips, but it was good to get out, have some snacks and play a quick game of tag at the rest stop. When we were almost at the caves we noticed a big dinosaur museum. Well it wasn't too hard to notice since they had huge dinosaurs at the edge of the street. The kids got their picture taken by one. They were all trying too look fierce :)

Harrison had a great field day. They had so many games planned and the weather was great. I was able to volunteer. I was excited because I thought I would get to go around with Harrison and his group....nope :) They put me in charge of the bathroom breaks :) I had a laugh about it, but I enjoyed being able to see all of Harrison's friends and Harrison too.

The second graders this year at Aedan's school had a trade fair. The kids had to think of an item that they wanted to make and trade with the other students. They had to come up with a business plan, why they thought people might need/want their product. They also had a budget to stick to - $5. So Aedan wanted to make Panther Paw name plates. Springboro's mascot is the panther and their colors are blue and white. Aedan, along with the help of Jamie, used the router to carve out the name. He sanded it and then spray painted the wood blue. He hand painted a couple of paws on the plates. He was pretty proud of his accomplishment and was very excited to see that everyone wanted to trade with him at the trade fair :) Good job Aedan!

Happy Mother's Day! The kids all helped Jamie make breakfast for me. Jamie got me these beautiful roses. Aedan made a mug in school for me with a poem and his picture on it. Harrison made an ABC mother's day book which was so cute. Keean also made me a card at church. I love those gifts that they make and can't wait to show me! I am so lucky to have such a great husband and kids! I love you!

These were just some cute pictures I wanted to post of the kids in their Easter outfits. This picture of Harrison - typical :) They are all great kids and Jamie and I are thankful that we have them FOREVER :) Each child is unique and offers balance in our family. The kdis keep saying they want more. But I think mom and dad have to be on board with that one :)

Before ....and ......after my half marathon race! It was a lot of fun and I will plan on doing it again next year. I went with my brother, Pieter. He was quite the trooper since, I don't think he really wanted to run again. He has ran this race for the last three years. But he hid great and maybe I will talk him into coming next year :)They had the race set up great with a lot of water stops and plenty of live music throughout the whole race. We also got to run on the race track. The race track was about 2 1/2 miles and during that stretch there were no bands because you can't have equipment or people on the grass. They had cheerleading squads from the area cheering us on during the race track. We also ran past an LDS church with the missionaries passing out water. That was fun to see missionaries on the race course! My time was 2 hours and 5 minutes. Not too bad. My goal was 2 hours so I wasn't too far off. I plan to run a half marathon in September at jamie's work. That one is a bit tougher with more hills. We'll see how I do!

Aedan had a field trip to go to Ceasar's Creek at the end of the year. They got to see all kinds of animals in the wild like bats and their nest of little bats waiting to hatch, snakes, turtles, tadpoles and other fun stuff. They got to go on a nature walk to see native plants of ohio. It was a lot of fun to get to go with him since I don't volunteer in the classroom. He had a great time too.

Harrison's birthday was great fun for him. He decided that he wanted to have an extra video game instead of a party (jamie's idea :)) so we had a family party and opened presents. These are all the presents he got from family. He loved them all, but we usually can't go wrong with presents for Harrison :)

Harrison has been wanting to get a kite to fly for the longest time so we finally broke down and bought a $5 kite at wal-mart. We went across the street to fly it and they were entertained for quite a long time! They loved how high it could go. They loved running with it. We've done it a few times and now the kids help each other get it up in the air. That's the hardest part!

Harrison and Keean had their first soccer game this Saturday. Harrison just missed the deadline to play with the six year olds by about two weeks, so he ended up being able to be on the same team as Keean. Jamie is coaching them together, so it's alot of family fun! They both did a great job. Harrison scored a goal, and Keean got to kick the ball! Keean was a little nervous, but by the end he got the hang of it. Go RED!

Even i took part in the fun. Women are so good at multitasking...playing the video game AND eatinga a piece of pizza!

What is a vacation without a trip to the local chuckie cheese's!

Keean and Ireland testing out Ricky's new bike (well, new to our kids! :))

Ellie and Ireland - one of their better moments together :)

family fun in philly! harrison loves "facing rob" with the ds

Ireland on Easter

Ireland on Easter Sunday!

She is growing up so fast.

Easter Egg Hunt

Ready, Set, Go!

Since we were missing our family egg hunt we decided for date night (it was our turn to watch the kids) to let the kids have an egg hunt. We didn't have a lot of candy or a lot of eggs, so Jamie came up with a great idea to let the kids hunt for three eggs each. Each of the eggs had their name on it, so if they found an egg with someone else's name on it, they had to put it back and find their three. It actually lasted much longer than regular egg hunts adn I hope the kids had fun! Great idea Jamie!