Princess party

Natalie recently attended a birthday party for one of her friends from school. This party was special because it had a serious princess theme to it, as you can see in the pictures below. Even the adults helped set the tone for this one.



Natalie spent most of the party hanging out with Amanda, who is one of her best friends from school. There was even a pinata to take a few swings at, with the traditional scramble for candy at the end. Natalie just can't get enough of birthday parties and the cake and ice cream that come with them :-)

Eric's adventures

Now that Eric is mobile he gets into all sorts of trouble while exploring the world. For example...

He found the dryer and thought it was pretty cool.




He found the pantry.


And the fridge...



Mmmm, apples.



And don't forget the TV stand downstairs. There's lots of stuff in there to throw on the floor!


It's always an adventure!

Fun with the Mitchells

In June, Monica, Ana, Connie, and all of their little ones came to visit us in Cincinnati. The kids all got to go to a nearby water park and hang out. They pretty much had the park to themselves, which was great. Ana had a particularly good time getting wet and playing with the kids :-) The kids enjoyed the water and their lunch at the park, and it was great to see everyone! Thanks for coming down guys.

Sprinkler fun

The weather this summer has, for the most part, been pretty good, and we've been taking advantage of it every chance we can get. We thought you'd enjoy these pictures of Natalie running through the sprinkler a few weeks back. She wasn't a big fan last year, but as you can see she seemed to be enjoying it this year :-)

The website returns

Just a quick note to let you all know that the website is not only up and running again, but it's also updated with the latest and greatest pictures of the kids. Go check it out!

Our home email addresses are now also working again, so it should be much easier to get ahold of us now :-)

Seaworld and Downtown Disney

After Magic Kingdom we also went to visit Shamu at Seaworld. Here we are at the entrance, and guess who was there to greet us!




There are plenty things to do at Seaworld. For example, there are porcupines, sealions, crocidiles, flamingos, and other cool animals.


There's a cool dolphin show.


There are also birds who want to share your lunch. This may have actually been Eric's favorite part. He loves birds, and he spent quite a bit of time chasing this one around the tables at lunch.


Even Elmo and his buddies were visiting. They put on a great show for us, and Natalie got to visit with them!



Shamu and his buddies put on a great show. Natalie and Eric got to see him twice!




It was a long day, but the kids had a great time.


We also went to visit downtown Disney. We ate at a couple of pretty cool restaurants, and there were also plenty of shopping spots and treats to be had. Notice in the restaurant picture below that Eric is eyeing the smoking dessert and wondering why no one else is worried that it appears to be on fire.



There were plenty of treats to be had, with Natalie's favorite being the lollipop as big as her face.







There was also some serious swimming going on back at the hotel during the downtimes. Eric absolutely loved the kiddie area where he got to walk through the shallow pool and play with the water shooting out of the ground. Natalie also had a breakthrough when she swam by herself for the first time!








Thanks a ton to Grandma Ginny and Grandpa Steve for joining us on the inaugural trip to Disney World. We all LOVED having them along, and I hope they had a great time as well!