thursday play group

this month's play group is at rocky river park, where we hung out at the beach and waded in the cool waters of lake erie. emma was NOT a fan of the sand. needless to say, she refused to walk around. towards the end of our time there, she did play a bit with one of ben's beach toys, gingerly pushing the sand around with her finger.

kid fest

this is our 2nd year attending cross point's kid fest. this year, emma got her very own dog balloon and tasted her very first flavored snow cone (last year i only gave her shaved ice). there were about 200 folks that came out today. yesterday's kid fest had between 300-400 people. wow!

a "cross" the table dinner

yesterday evening we enjoyed a delicious meal and fellowship with a missionary group from faith baptist church, little rock, arkansas. they will be in cleveland for the week volunteering their time with the city mission, lakewood animal shelter, and helping with cross point's annual kid fest. the group was mostly made up of teens, led by the youth pastor and a handful of adult chaperones. they were all very sweet, and seemed excited to be up here helping out. i can't wait until tyler is old enough to participate. given his excitement already with volunteering at the food bus (prepares and delivers meals to low-income cleveland homes out of a bus), i think doing a week long trip helping another community will be even more exciting for him.




(this was my table)







(ben and emma always enjoy each other's company)

baby boy photos!

introducing my newest nephew: ian diaz vinje!













he was actually born on june 1st, but i just got photos of him yesterday. congratulations mike, rubie and edison!

all i wanted was a new pair of shoes

saturday, we headed to crocker park in search of a new pair of vans for aaron. we were unsuccessful in our quest, but we did find the liberty fest. there was a gigantic stage in the middle of the shopping area, and lots of family friendly activities scattered about the property (even a small fair set-up in the parking lot). we didn't linger for long, but we stopped by to see the "petting zoo."










the MAJOR entertainment was a free sunday afternoon performance by nat and alex wolff of the naked brothers band. tyler's a fan of them, and wanted us to film the performance so he could see it when he gets back. umm....sorry, no. plus, there's probably some video recording device prohibition or something. maybe they'll come back again when tyler's around.

picnic at the park

this evening we enjoyed a fantastic picnic at the park hosted by cross point. the weather was splendid, the lake beautiful, and of course, plenty of food. emma had an enjoyable time running around with the other kids. she walked down to check out the lake view with her uncle jon, and then went off with some friends to play in the playground. it was nice to just sit, relax and catch up with everyone.




(time to eat!)














(grill master reid)


















(taking a breather from chasing the boys)
















(some volleyball action)

it's a boy!

introducing the newest member of our family: zeus...the cutest american bulldog you'll ever see!

we actually met him last week after coming across his add through petfinder (an animal rescue listing). he's about 2 years old and probably 80-85 lbs. (lighter than beau by 10 lbs.). his original owner got him from a breeder in tennessee as a puppy, but since becoming a manhattan chef, he no longer had time for the dog. the chef's dad (who lives 30 min. from us) agreed to take zeus and find him a good home, and that's where we came in.

it was pretty much love at first sight. he was very sweet to us when we met him, and we were quite taken with his handsome physique. the only thing we have to work on is his listening skills. he does a good job listening for the most part, but i think that sometimes he wants to test his limits. he's been great with emma (mostly ignores her which is a good thing for us), and emma seems tickled to have him around.

now that we've settled in for the evening, i think he's starting to miss his old home. he's been letting out some sad sounding whimpers. if he's distracted with something to do he's happy, but i think when he gets down time for too long it gives him too much time to think about the fact that he's in a new place.

here are a couple of video clips of him playing, since we had a hard time getting good photos of him (he was always on the move!).

4th of july holiday

we spent most of 4th of july at gram and pap's enjoying some wonderful food. after we ate well beyond what we should, we played a game of croquet. aaron won the game, but i think it was because todd wasn't there. emma and ben had a great time playing with each other. the both of them, along with gram, disappeared on a walk around the neighborhood. according to gram, the were especially fascinated with the storm gutters. they watched the water run down, threw some rocks in it, and even stomped around on the metal. it sounded like they had plenty of fun exploring together.

we didn't make it to the lake for fireworks, but we were able to parts of it from our house. maybe when emma is old enough we'll go and see them.

the hype with skype

i just had a fabulous video call with michelle (who is in londong) about 3 hours ago...and it was free!

she referred me to skype, because she needed an inexpensive way to make calls back home while she is away (she pays $.02/minute for international calls to the u.s.). using skype, you can make video calls and video conference calls with anyone in the world, and it's free if all parties are skype users. the site also explained other interesting features of the software that could be especially beneficial for people who travel a lot.

if you have family, like me, that's spread out across the u.s. and the rest of the world, using skype would be a great way to introduce and familiarize your kids with family members that you may not have regular contact with. emma was absolutely fascinated seeing and conversing with her aunty shelle in real-time. and since it was free for the both of us, we didn't have to worry about a time-limit.

beyond crayons

watercolor on paper.

original artwork by e.g.p.