The Works

We get into lots of free places with our COSI membership. One rainy Saturday we decided to go to Newark and visit The Works museum. We weren't sure what to expect...but it was free and not too far away so we decided to give it a try.

Isaac found a race car simulator.

Asher found a room of his very own.

Look he's a construction worker!! He's building the wall with bricks.Loving Thomas the Train!!I had a very difficult time getting him to leave this space but I wanted to find out what the rest of the family was up to.

Andy found something fun to play with.

So I had to give it a try.And then Maia had to show off as well!We went upstairs to check it out too. It had exhibits about the history of the city. Back downstairs we found this awesomely fun kinetic sculpture.We spent at least an hour playing with this thing.What's this a xylophone bench.Move over kid it's daddy's turn. We are off on a train ride. All Aboard!! This ended up being a very fun trip for us!! There was a ton to do and it was all interactive:) I was a little disappointed that the glassblowers workshop was down for annual maintenance but we will definitely be going back!! One of the nice things about this museum is that it wasn't packed full of people. So we got to look and play for as long as we liked.

First Day of School 09

Look what we found on the first day of school! Isn't that exciting? Big creepy crawly slimy slugs!! Yeah!!!! Okay so I wasn't that excited but the kids sure were:)

Even Isaac looks a bit disgusted putting the slugs in the box. He wanted to save them so Andy could see them when he got home from work.



Can you say gross? I wouldn't go on the front porch all day just knowing they were out there:)



Isaac all set for 4th grade!!

He's got the nervous hands in this shot.
Maia all set for 2nd grade!!She saw this dress at target and just HAD to have it. I told her no but then I went back later and picked it up. I surprised her with on the morning school started!! She is definitely getting her own opinions on clothes lately. She leans very heavily towards preppy:) And of course comfort. Don't even get me started on how many pants she turned her nose up at because they were uncomfortable. The problem is she thinks ALL pants are uncomfortable...she's gonna live in dresses this year.Gotta have some pictures of them together.Isaac can't help being goofy!All those new supplies are heavy!!There bags were packed FULL!! No way I could've fit one more single thing in their bags!!Off to start a brand new adventure:)Okay I've gotta go cry now!

Early Bird Luau

So we loved Brownie's last year and signed up to do it again this year. Since we signed up early we got to go to the early bird luau. It was very very crowded!! I thought the dance was for 2nd graders but it turns out it was for ALL Dublin girl scout who signed up early. Talk about a lot of girls!!

First we played BINGO! And boy was the girl calling the numbers A.NOY.ING!! The girls had a lot of fun at this station. Maia even won a bag of skittles:) The annoying number caller tried to kick our group out after about 10 minutes but we refused to leave.

For anybody interested...The lady in the background is Glenda...our boy scout leader and mom of Mac and Mo. The little girl across from Maia is Allyssa. Her mom was supposed to be my co leader last year when we tried to start our own troop. Claire is the cutie in the link shirt with the lei around her head. She's the ice skater.

Maia wasn't at all sure about the dancing part at first. Her friends did eventually draw her in though.

We had a DJ who let the girls request songs. Which sounds innocent enough however remember I said there were older girls here as well. Older girls who like inappropriate music. I just about passed out when I heard Katy Perry singing "I kissed a girl and I liked it"!! I wanted to cry when I saw all the little girls singing along. A couple of them knew every word to that song. I think I kinda threw up in my mouth just a little.

We ran into Briana. Maia's friend that lives directly across the street from us. Then we went outside to play chase and tagAll in all we spent about 4 hours at the dance. Which was about 4 hours longer than I wanted to be there:) All the other mom's were very nice but I felt so out of place. Plus this is the weekend that I first heard the dreaded word--cancer. So I wasn't exactly in the most outgoing and certainly not in the mood to party luau style!! But Maia had a very good time with all of her friends and that is what counts!

Food Pantry

Our church challenged us to take a grocery bag and fill it up for our local food pantry. We decided to take one bag for each kid :) We sat them down and explained how so many people are losing jobs and families are struggling to put food on the table for their children. I was so proud when the kids said they would gladly give up their allowances in order to fill up their bags!!

We took them shopping and they each chose their own food items for their bags! It was quite the lesson as we compared prices and chose the better deal.

Each bag was pre labeled with what it's contents should be. Isaac got the spaghetti meal bag.

He had a hard time giving up his allowance as there was a game he was saving for and he wanted to buy it that particular weekend. Let me stress that we did not MAKE the kids do this. We gave them the choice and they all chose to give. I could see Isaac struggling and thought he may change his mind. He never complained or anything I could just see him thinking things through in his head. Once he started filling his bag though all his doubt was gone. He prayed for the families who would receive the food he had bought. I was one proud mama :)

Maia picked the canned goods bag. She packed and repacked that bag about 20 times before she felt it was just right:)

Asher was the most gung ho of all!! I couldn't believe how excited he was to fill his bag. He was giddy!! It was so sweet :) All 3 kids carried their own bags into the church. Poor Asher insisted on carrying his own bag. The bag was BIGGER than him!! Seriously:) But he was so proud of himself. He was just beaming.

coming home

We weren't exactly ready for vacation to be over but yet it was time to come home. Andy decided he would like to drive through Philadelphia so he mapped out a different course then the one we had used to get to Virginia. I was up for the adventure!! Here are a few last shots of the ocean.

I really really really wanted to drive through the Cheasapeake Bay Bridge/Tunnel. It was out of our way but I knew the kids would love it. This is the entrance into the first tunnel.

There were a lot of bridges and tunnels on the way home. All through Maryland actually. The kids were in heaven.

If you look close you can see an eagle's nest in the tree. Isaac actually spotted the eagle but the rest of us missed it:(

This is it for pictures coming home. We ended up getting stuck in the worst traffic back up ever!! For 6 hours!! After that we were all cranky and just ready to get home. We nixed Philadelphia all together. Another time maybe.

We ended up driving until 3am before we decided that we MUST get some rest. We ended up in some dumpy motel that made us all sick. We were told the room was smoke free but there is NO WAY that was the truth. We slept for about 5 hours and then got out of there as quickly as possible!

We made it to New Phila to pick Shiloh up just a couple of hours later. It was quite a happy reunion let me tell you. We've never been away from her for that long before.

We were so anxious to get home that we didn't stop anywhere else that day. We just got on the highway right there and set out for what we thought would be our normal 2 hour trip home. Boy were we wrong!! Andy had somehow taken a wrong turn. I can only guess it was sheer exhaustion on his part! Afterall we've made this trip a hundred times now!! We decided to turn Navalie on and she was taking us on strictly dirt and gravel roads!! Seriously!! Our normally highway loving GPS had somewhere along the way developed an affinity for dirt and gravel. We spent probably 50 miles on dusty backroads. It was awful. Andy was getting completely fed up. Finally Isaac fessed up that he may have changed her settings just a bit!! It ended up taking us close to 3 hours to get back home again! Where I promptly headed to bed and fell fast asleep:)

Just an FYI...Maryland's rest stops are among the grossest I've ever seen. For real. Completely disgusting. Maia and I both threw up a little bit in one of them. Virginia's rest stops on the other hand were very clean and well kept!! I should know...we stopped about a million times!!

Saturday 4th of July--Williamsburg

Saturday, the 4th of July, was the day we had set aside to spend at Williamsburg. What better way to celebrate the independence of our nation than at the place where it all began? The only problem here is that I really really wanted to spend more than 1 full day at Williamsburg. So I went into the day with a teeny tiny bit of a bad attitude that we were here but that there was no possible way to see everything.

Our first stop was the brickmakers. See the lady stomping through the clay? Can you imagine doing that all day long? And let me tell you that clay is messsssyyy!! This would not have been the job for me:)

Next stop...the Cabinetmaker. We all had fun trying to find the hidden compartments in this desk. Furniture was routinely made with hidden cubbies to stash your precious papers and such. You were supposed to dig through the desk and find all it's treasures. It was a very hands on experience. But yet I did have one mother give me the evil eye because my kidlets were touching the antique desk! bet her kiddo's didn't have much fun if they weren't allowed to have the hands on experiences that Williamsburg provides.

The printing press. This was very informative and popular!! It was so crowded in this room. The lady explained how customers were pretty much rich men only--because that is who could read!! It was amazing to me how she had to ink up each individual letter!! Oh my...it was like font Heaven...if you like that sort of thing. And we all know I do:)

This was simply amazing!! They read the Declaration of Independence off of the balcony of the Capitol Building. Talk about emotional. There wasn't a dry eye around us. Big biker dudes had tears rolling down their cheeks just like the little old lady's!! It was a really beautiful moment and I felt so blessed that I could share in it with my kids. The cheers and chants were after each sentence was read really made all of us feel proud to be American.


When the reading was over the Fifes and Drums marched through the streets and the crowd and townspeople followed. Asher lived for seeing the Fifes and Drums so this particularly exciting for him.

We took a tour through the capitol building. This is where trials and such would take place. It was a gorgeous building. Full of beautiful antique furniture amidst amazing architecture. Right up my alley!!


The Blacksmith's It was hot and filthy in here.
Everyone is worn out and Maia especially is full of complaints:) It was hard not to get irritated with them so I just went ahead and got irritated! Good thing Andy and I balance each other out so well. He was able to readjust my perspective pretty quickly:)The church. It looked gorgeous from the outside however I never did get to see the inside. It was open to the public the day before.
Maia in her hat. She HAD to have this hat. She would DIE without this hat:) We got to go inside the general store to buy it and that part of it made me very happy. The general store smelled exactly like my Great Grandma Ruth's house. I haven't smelled that smell in 30 years but as soon as the first waft hit my nose I stopped dead in my tracks. And bawled. In the middle of the general store. It was out of sheer happiness I assure you. It was like I had regained a very special piece of my childhood. I also enjoyed talking with the proprietor of the general store. At one point he asked me where we were from and I replied Ohio. He looked at me like I had 2 heads and proceeded to tell me had never heard of it!! I should've said Schoennbrun as Ohio was most certainly not a state back then!! DUH:)Asher with his much coveted gun. I don't know I almost think he looks more like a pirate here. Pretty scary either way though.After dinner and a pear cider we headed out to find some trinkets and treasures for me to bring home. The kids had all bought souvenirs but I was yet to pick anything up. I had my heart set on charms for my charm bracelet. I found them and then some. I also picked up a Christmas ornament. How fun will it be to reminisce about our trip throughout the Holiday season?

It was getting late so we headed out to find a good spot to watch the fireworks. Maia and Asher were NOT looking forward to the overhead display. Lucky for them we had quite a wait. In the meantime a little boy named Conrad was very very eager to make friends with my kids. Conrad was very difficult to understand and quite a handful to boot. It didn't take us long to figure out that he was different. Very different. I don't know if he had ADHD or autism...I'm leaning very heavily towards a combination of both. The boy was sweet and demanding all at the same time. Isaac picked up on it right away. Isaac seems to gravitate towards people who need a place to fit in. He was so incredibley kind and gentle with this boy. They played for well over an hour and the entire time Isaac was beyond amazing. Like I said this boy was very difficult to understand but Isaac was patient and completely tuned in to him. I sat there with tears in my eyes my mother heart swelling with pride!! I do have to say that I was scared to death he would make some comment about "Germans". He is WWII obsessed I tell ya!! And he has been spouting off that the "Germans" are coming after us in all his play scenarios. Conrad's mother was very clearly German through and through. Thankfully we did not offend them.
I managed to snap a future blackmail picture. All mommies need one of these pics right?Finally the fireworks started. Maia hid behind Andy and Asher ran down the street shreiking. Never fear he ran right into the arms of a STRANGER!! That's right he let some unknown woman comfort him as opposed to me. He wouldn't let me NEAR him!! Thankfully she was a mommy herself and very kind. I felt like a complete loser though:( It was surreal watching the sky light up in celebration above the same houses that were standing when our country first began. It made me wonder how those men and women who fought so hard to establish this country would feel about what we've become. I'm sure they would have moments of tremendous pride and also disappointment. The whole thing brought me to tears. Yes tears again. It was an emotional day.After the fireworks the Fifes and Drums marched back out with torches and the mob of people followed them through streets. All singing the Star Spangled Banner. Yep more tears. But it wasn't just me making a fool of myself. EVERYBODY was sobbing. I have never seen anything like it before!!

Asher wanted nothing more than to see the drummers but it was impossible through the crowd. Right before we headed out the door I spotted these young men and they were kind enough to pose for a picture. After their mom and dad said they would be happy to :) Totally cracked me up! The momma had tears running down her face as this is her boys last year participating in this wonderful event. I think all momma's can sympathize...we've all felt the passing of time.

This is Asher at the end of the night. I think we ALL felt as bad as he looked by the time we made it back to the hotel:)