snow day

Today is thanksgiving and we have much much much to be thankful for - a warm house, a great family, and lots of food.  it was just the four of us today - small and mostly quiet.  too bad the kids don't share my love of this thanksgiving menu.  after a nice nap for everyone, we went outside to play in the fast melting snow.  had to try out our new snow boots and pants.  definitely kept the kids warm.

first skate

today we went ice skating at the Chiller.  it was the first attempt for R and K.  we went with some school friends and it was a fun and slippery afternoon.  thankfully, one of our friends brought snacks for everyone to share.

zoolights 2013

We had the opportunity to attend "preview" week at the columbus zoo for the wildlights.  it was a cold and dark night, but it was fun to meet up with our friends and see all of the pretty lights.  the light show was great and K danced to the music.  in order to get warm, we went into the aquarium - R was surprised and excited to see that Santa was there, feeding the fish.  it was pretty cool and it was something we would not have been able to do in a large crowd.

freeman's farm

Today we went to Freeman's Farm to get pumpkins and take a hay ride.  It was brrrr cold and the pumpkins were very picked over - but it was fun to get outside and run around.  Our hay ride was a fun tour around the farm and K really liked to see the tractor in action.  After the ride he went over to the antique tractor and took it for a spin.   R and K sat on the scale to see how much we had to pay $0.35/lbs.  We also scarfed down a couple of bags of kettle corn that they were making at the farm.  yum!

boo at the zoo 2013

We tried to do a zoo outing with school friends on Saturday, but the weather was rainy and very cold - so we had to go it alone on Sunday.  We layered up under the kids costumes to keep warm and headed out to get some candy.  in addition to candy, we took a carousel ride and saw some animals.  K was well recognized as buzz lightyear and R looked adorable as Izzy.

first bowling experience

R and I went bowling with our friends on a rainy saturday afternoon.  R was very confused about what to do, but when she figured it out - she developed her own ball throwing method.  it was fun to see her in those tiny bowling shoes.

fire awareness week

As part of fire awareness week, we went to an open house at the local fire station.  it was pretty cool to climb around on the trucks.  the kids were able to crawl through a tunnel of smoke.  they had three alarm chili there too - which we did not try!

race weekend

I ran my first half marathon today.  it was a little bit humid and a little bit rainy and a lot up hill.  I survived and had a decent time of 2:23 (avg 11 min miles).  it was great to see my husband at the finish.  i don't know if i will do another one soon, but maybe in the spring.  pretty cool accomplishment.  Later the same day, we had our annual chili cook off and block party at the neighbor's house.  it was very rainy, but fun.

OSU vs. Wisconsin

Andy and Lindsday vacationed in the midwest this week.  After getting engaged in St. Louis, they came to Cleveland and then Columbus.  Dad scored 6 tickets to the Wisconsin game.  it was a night game so we went down in the afternoon to walk around the campus.  it was a beautiful day!  we went to a tailgate and then the game.  great to see my brother!

apple picking 2013

it is apple picking time again!  we headed out to Lynd's for our annual visit.  we visited the general store to stock up on apple related products, then headed out to pick our apples.  we picked jonathan's and courtland's.  the kids had a great time pulling apples off of the trees and dad even acted as a very good step ladder.  both kids thought it was fun to eat apples right off of the tree.  i can't wait to make a delicious apple dessert with our bounty.