Circus, Symphony and Swimming

First things first...HUGE news!  It's official...WE ARE GOING HOME!!!  WE'VE DECIDED TO MOVE BACK TO PENNSYLVANIA!!! 

It's a scary thought to up and move from the place I've spent the last 15 years of my life, but it's also something that Reese and I have wanted to do for our future.  We'll be relocating to the Williamsport area in mid-June.  So we have basically 2 1/2 months to try and sell our house, pack, and move.  We've already made our first trip to Lowe's and will start the list of projects tomorrow!

And for those of you who don't know...congratulations is in order for Reese!  He was offered a position with Edward Jones to open his own financial consulting office, which is why we are moving.

We've been having a blast the past few days!  Last Thursday night we took Mitchell to the Aladdin Shrine Circus.  While it was no Barnum and Bailey, he was oblivious of that (thank goodness).  It was actually quite boring.  I couldn't figure out if it was because it was the first day of shows and they were working out the kinks, or if all the rejects from Barnum & Bailey just ended up on this circuit.  Well, actually, I think I know the answer.  But like I said, Mitchell didn't know any better and had fun all the same. 

The show was inside the Ohio State Fairgrounds and they had lots of kiddie rides.  I think Mitchell is past the stage of being afraid of them, so the risk of buying a wristband for unlimited rides now pays itself off!  Here are a few highlights of him in action...

can you believe he wasn't afraid of this freaky octopus?  it kinda scared me!

here we are riding the train...

and here we are after I started sweating like a madwoman!

love this picture...what a trio!

here's Mr. Shriner himself!

Then on Saturday morning I took Mitchell to the library to see the Westerville Symphony play to a book called Dinosaur Dances.  The composer, also the Assistant Dean of Music at Capital University, wrote all the lyrics (and music) to the book many years ago when his children were young.  It was really, really lovely!!  I was so happy that I could share something like this with Mitchell, considering his love for music.  He gazed in awe at the musicians while they played.  I have to say that I will definitely miss our library when we move.  It has such wonderful programs for Mitchell.

Then today we decided to take Mitchell for a swim at the Westerville Community Center, another place which I will greatly miss once we move.  He and daddy had a blast!  Mitchell was so exhausted he barely made it home awake and then crashed for 2 1/2 hours!

I think Mitchell jumped off the side of the pool about 2 billion times!

They have a huge portion of the pool designated as a mini water park.  There are fountains and even a jungle gym that you can play on, with huge water guns at the top that you can shoot!  And there is a mini river that you can float down with rafts.  Oh, and there are waterslides too!

All in all we had a wonderful weekend.  I continue to feel so incredibly blessed with my family.  I'm the luckiest gal in the world...

And oh yeah...

then there was supper tonight.  Can you guess what he had???

Weekend in PA

This past weekend we went to PA to visit with friends and family.  We found out about a month ago that Reese's grandfather has bone cancer so we wanted to show our support and make sure we paid him a visit before he becomes too ill.  We had a great time...the weather was beautiful and spring ushered itself in on a high note! 

Here are the boys during our visit with Pop...

Since the weather was so nice there was lots of time to be outside.  Actually it was practically impossible to keep Mitchell inside!  Mitchell and MomMom had fun playing catch and taking walks around the yard looking at all the newly bloomed flowers...

and of course there were the serious discussions involving Abner as well!

PopPop in action

Friday evening Aunt Michelle, Uncle Matt and Maxton came over for a visit...

Aunt Michelle sharing her beer with Maxton...

and Mitchell sharing his cocktail with Aunt Michelle!

LOVE those blue eyes!

Like son, like father!

Saturday we went up to the cabin and met Matt and Maddie (we missed you Becky!!)

the next two photos are of Mitchell and Maddie "looking for bears" out the cabin window...so cute!

Time to feed the fish...

and of course the kids had to kiss the frog as they passed it...

What a nice weekend!

Carnival at Arrowhead Elementary

Yesterday I took Mitchell his future elementary school's annual carnival.  It's basically an indoor carnival with all kinds of games and those bouncy castles.  He had a blast!  It was his first time inside one of those bouncy castles and he thought he was the cat's meow!  He was completely worn out and red in the face when all was said and done.  Here he is in action:

And then the cutest thing...Mitchell loves music, as most know.  We heard some music coming down one of the hallways of the school and he immediately went towards the source to find a karaoke machine.  He patiently waited, jaw open, for a girl to finish singing and then shyly stepped towards the microphone.  The teacher in charge welcomed him and asked if he'd like to sing a song.  They sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Star first, then she asked if he'd like to sing his ABC's.  He was much quieter than he was on his microphone at home but I was bursting with pride at how brave he was!

The Muddy Maple Syrup Festival

Today we planned to head to the Boy Scouts of America Maple Syrup Festival.  I was rather excited for it...the forecast was supposed to be almost spring-like with complete sunshine, but that also meant that our last remaining foot of snow was being given plenty of opportunity to melt!  Against my better judgement (and listening to the opinion of one said partner who will remain somewhat anonymous) I left Mitchell's rubber boots in the car.  It didn't take long for us to realize that there was no way we could endure the muddy mess all over the camp roads.  So we packed up, took the shuttle back to the Jeep, and off we went to one of the local parks. 

Mitchell immediately wanted to "go to woods" so we took a little walk in the snow through the trails.  We even saw an owl.

After our walk in the woods Mitchell spotted the swings and wanted a shake at them.  I actually think he has forgotten over the winter how much he loves swinging.  He was giggling and laughing constantly!