Mill hollow park

Now that the weather has turned a bit cooler, we decided to start checking out the local parks instead of just heading to the beaches.  This last weekend was our first attempt.  Now that Jude is bigger, he has to hike along with the rest of us instead of going in the carrier.  He isn't too sure he likes this idea and would much rather be carried like a king.

According to the website, this park was to have trails, river, bridges, and a playground.  All great features for us to check out as a family, though I know the boys would spend the whole day o the playground if they could.   

Well, once there, the map wasn't that helpful as many park maps are just too simplistic and out of scale to be of much use.  After I had stared at the map for a good ten minutes and the boys have gone mad with waiting, Brian made the tactical decision to just head off toward the river and explore.  Ok.

Wow.

The river was cool.  It so reminded me of walking down under the viaduct with my dad when I was younger...or maybe like walking down at the ford.   The river was shallow and had a very rocky shore consisting of small rocks (lots of shale).  The other side was a cliff face.  We slowly walked along the shore...just exploring and enjoying time together...

 throwing rocks in the river

catching crawdads

 skipping stones

watching minnows

Wading in the water

Catching a toad

Looking for fossils

Trying to walk on slippery rocks to an island

Chasing a fallen hat downstream

Playing king of the mountain

Feeling the water rush over our ankles.

Jude really liked picking up and dropping stones.   Tamlin flitted about from rocks to meeting other hikers to wading in the water.  Brian and I had a contest to hit the floating leaves with thrown rocks.  I lost....but I will just say that it is a good thing that neither of us are relied upon to hunt moving targets for food.

We did head up on a trail for a short bit...but then the boys saw the playground.   I knew there would be no convincing them to hike in the woods once a playground with swings and slide was in their sights.  I know that we will back to this park again and explore some of the other trails....especially as the leaves on the trees change color.

It was a good afternoon and I am sure we built some good family memories.

Potty training update

Jude is having more success with the potty after a bout of using pull-up pants.  Man oh man, those pull up pants are just like diapers....especially in Jude's mind.  We ran through the box and have now gone back to only underwear during the day.   Jude is highly successful if we keep asking him if he needs to go potty every hour or if he is dry.   We then make a big deal out of being dry, complete with yeahs, high fives, and fist bumps.   A success in the potty earns him a M&M and a sticker.  

Now going number two hasn't been quite as a successful....though we do have a bag of planes for him once he reaches this goal.   And Jude looks so cute in his little underoos.

Both Brian and I are glad to be done with diapers, even if there is still a bit of laundry with the underwear.   Good job my little man.

Little moments

With all of chaos of new job, mom's surgery, moving, and trying to sell the house, I have really tried to find little moments each day to appreciate.  These just seem to be a minute or two where the universe goes. .. "Here.  Chill out.  Look at this at just be for a few seconds."   

In return, my soul feels better afterwards, even if it is just by a little bit.

Examples of late :

Damselfly flitting over the orchids

A green frog hanging out on a leaf

Two herons flying close by

Two hawks sitting on the telephone wire a few miles apart

A bald eagle flying close enough to see that it was a bald eagle

A wonderfully beautiful seashell

And then sometimes the universe laughs in my face...

Tamlin has taught Jude how to make fart sounds.

Where hippies go to retire

Our new time has a very laid-back vibe to it...

Very relaxed...

There are lots of people with longish hair

There are lots of tattoos showing

There are bikes on sidewalks that are not chained up and not stolen

There is support for music

Many people make eye contact, smile, and say hello...

I joke that I think this is where hippies all congregate when they retire...

What sealed this thought was a bit of graffitti on a bench in one of the parks in town

It wasn't a swear word...
Or that Joe loves Sue 4-ever..
Or that Class of 2012 rules...

Carved simply into the wood was that "It's better to burn out than fade away"
Thank you, Neil Young.

Games

When I get home from work, I often have time to play with the boys before dinner.  Sometimes we play with the wooden trains, or Geotrax (big favorite), or racing games on the wii.  We also play board games too...well, Tamlin and I follow the rules and Jude makes up his own.  More often than not, the rule is let everyone play and stay happy.

Our current favorites are...


Ants in a can
Gift from the Aunts for Christmas

Goal: push on plastic ants to hop them into Oscar's garbage can. 

How we play:  get the ants in the can by any means before Jude grabs them and dumps them into the can by the fistful.

What it evolves into:  Dropping the ants into the can by any silly means, including jumping, hopping, or dropping them from over your head...and then dump them out on your brother.


Hullabaloo
Picked up at the second hand store

Goal:  Listen to the voice say what color, shape, or theme to card to move to in some silly fashion.  Randomly calls stop and declares a winner.  It is like a funky twist on musical chairs.

How we play:  listen and move to the correct shape in the most fun way possible.  Jude just runs around in circles.  Be funky!

What it evolves into:  Lots of silly dance moves and Tamlin re-arranging the shapes.  Jude really likes this game so he is up to playing it over and over and over again.




Don't sink in the sink.
Tam picked this one off the shelf at the second-hand store

 Goal: move your dudes from one side of the board to the other by placing them in slots.  However, some of the slots allow the dude to slide through to the bottom of the sink. 

How we play:  Jude gets all the left-over dudes and randomly places them in the slots.  Tam and I try to move our dudes across the board and maneuvering around Jude's dudes.

What it evolves into:  Jude eventually runs out of dudes by putting them all into the "sink" slots...he may try to take someone else's  dudes that are on the board.  Tam tries to "feel out" the slots and changes his mind if his dudes start to sink.  Sometimes someone wins, but other times it is all about seeing how many dudes fall into the sink.

Kerplunk
Bought cheap at a church rummage sale

Goal:  The sticks go through the center of the plastic tube creating a webbing that holds up marbles.  Players take turns pulling out the sticks and avoiding dropping the marbles.

How we play:  First we see how fast we can all put the sticks in before Jude gets tired of sticks and starts dumping in the marbles.  Then we take turns pulling out the sticks, but the winner is who gets the most marbles, not the least.

What it evolves into: Tam and I try to get all the marbles to fall before Jude decides to stop pulling sticks and instead decides to scoop up the marbles to put them back in the tube.  Sometimes it breaks down into seeing how many sticks they can drop into the tube or how many marbles they can get stuck in the tube with the falling sticks.  Game ends when someone tries to eat a stick or marble.


Good times :-)

Lorrain County Fair

We hit up our second county fair for the season, the Lorain county fair. 
We went after work on Wednesday, so it wasn't too crowded.  This is one of the larger fairs, and was a combination of adult and junior showings.  We walked through the junior animal barns and the boys had fun talking to the animals.  At the time we were there, the ponies were being shown with their kid riders.   Tam was fascinated at being that close to horses being ridden around the field (he was at the fence).  Jude kept insisting that the mottled horses were cows.  When I corrected him, he would make his horse sound..."hee-haw."

 Jude: Tractor! Tractor!  My Tractor!

Translated: Can we take this tractor home? 

 Tamlin:  Look at these huge wheels!  Take my picture in the wheel, mom!  Look I'm a bridge!
Translated: I'm cute; Mom, you always take our picture in the big tractor wheels.

Me:  Hey, boys, let's get a photo of you two together in the wheel...
(This is the only shot of a dozen where they are looking at me at the same time.)

Of course, we had to get greasy fair food...like a bucket of fries and fresh squeezed lemonade.
And then Brian found...
Fried Cheese Curds made with Wisconsin Cheese!
We haven't eaten good cheese curds since Minnesota...they are so decadent and so bad for you.
Yummy!

Tamlin tried one and decided they weren't for him.  Jude, however, thought they were awesome.

We walked all over the fair and ended up in the game and ride area right before going home.  We usually never play the games (all rigged and giving away crap prizes).  However, there was skee-ball...and it was only a quarter for a game.  I, for once, had 25 cents.  Tam has played before, but mostly on the iPad.  He wasn't ready for it to be such an incline and Jude tried to climb up the track after the ball.  The two boys got a grand score of zero, but had fun.

 The rides were expensive and we weren't willing to pop for two wristbands for unlimited riding.  We compromised with 5 rides and told Tam to choose 4 (and hoped to find one for Jude).  Tam LOVES rides already and really wants to try the big rides too.  Thankfully, he isn't quite big enough for those yet, but soon.  He choose a mix of roller-coaster-like rides and swing-like rides.  Here is a bus that rotates in a circle up into the air.  Tamlin loved this and was grinning from ear to ear.
Jude wasn't as happy...  "My swing!  My swing!  Jude swing!" 

Right at the end, we found a ride that allowed little ones over 30" ride without an adult.  It was a scrambler-like ride but went pretty slow (no flinging the kids against the side of the cars).  Jude was super excited that he could ride, and super upset that he couldn't ride RIGHT NOW but had to wait in the short line for his turn. 

 Jude doesn't look so sure about this now.  

He did not want to ride with Tamlin but insisted on his own car.

 Once the ride started moving, Jude LOVED it.  He smiled the entire time!

 Tamlin had fun too...

 Tam insisted on making car sounds and funny faces whenever we waved at him :-)

Overall, the fairs were hits, though, I am sure we will have to budget more for rides in the future :-)