a house full of insanity: Ohio on my mind

Well that was a quick trip.

We're back. We made the most of a three day weekend.

The kids and I took off in pouring down rain on Thursday and brought the gloomy weather with us to Columbus. Clouds and rain didn't spoil our time though.

We fit in as much as we could.

The kids were super stoked to stay at Aunt Kathy's.

They remembered the toys the she has (UNO attack and Jenga), they remembered where they get to sleep and they remembered that when in Columbus we usually eat out ALOT. And we did not disappoint. The drive was long in the rain and the dark, thanks to the days getting shorter, and mommy had to listen to Christmas music to stay awake til the wee hours of the night. Yep, Silent Night is playing in my head as we speak.

I am glad the kids slept in Friday morning because mommy needed an extra hour of sleep.

The kids woke up ready and eager to go! They were so excited for breakfast.

Apparently if you buy the same foods (cinnamon toast crunch, bananas, and 2% milk) but eat it in a new atmosphere it is the "best breakfast ever!"

Maybe it is because they got to eat on bar stools and watch Phineas and ferb while eating cereal.

That's why they call it vacation.

Kathy and I took the kids to a park and watched the kids play.

They ran off some energy.

On Saturday, the weather outside was pretty cold, rainy, and miserable, a normal Ohio fall day, so I had to be inventive on what we were going to do to have fun inside.

I took the kids to Tuttle Mall to play on the indoor kids area.

I accidentally called it a playground and was informed it is NOT a playground because there is no swings and no monkey bars.

Rosie announced that the "play area" was for babies and she was bored.

When did she get so old?

She walked into Justice to do a little browsing and played some Macala and Checkers on my iphone but quickly wanted to be done with the "play area".

Then her eyes happened upon a girl with a Build a Bear box in her hand.

She immediately asked if we could do Build a Bear.

To her surprise I didn't suddenly say no.

We rounded up the troops and made our way over to the Build a Bear store.

So it's been many years since I have been in a Build a Bear store.

The last and only time was in college when Nate took me there for date night and we built a bear together. Awwwww, so romantic. (add the gagging sounds now Neil.)

In fact Rosie actually has him in her room. His name is Rufus and he has little glasses and wears a golf outfit.

So taking four kids into this store was a little bit different of an experience.

The kids each picked out a stuffed animal to make their own.

They each are so different in personality so it was no surprise that they all picked completely different animals.

They each got their hearts pumping before putting them in the unstuffed shells of soon to be cuddly bedtime companions.

The place wasn't busy at all so we were able to enjoy the experience and all the kids got to be apart of creating their pal.

Rosie's picked a special Shake it Up bear with a shake it up theme song in the paw.

Mommy sure is a sucker.

Bubba picked a very traditional bear..... until he dressed him in a Jedi outfit.

The two other girls picked a bunny and a monkey.

There are no pictures between the air bathing of the animals to walking out the store.

Because there was only one momma and 4 children running around picking outfits and accessories for their bears and then the whole process of naming them and making a birth certificate, there was no time for momma to snap pictures.

When the chaos was done and we had our bears all ready to take home then I remembered that we needed to snap a picture to send daddy.

Daddy's first response was "how much did you spend?"

Oh daddy. You just aren't any fun.

The kid's new companions go as follows:

Rosie -- named her Shake it Up bear, CeeCee

Bubba -- named his Jedi cloak wearing bear appropriately, Anakin

Gigi -- named her butterfly halloween costume wearing bunny, Magenta

and Lil Miss named her monkey. Bananas

They did good.

After the mall and a stop at Graeter's Ice Cream we headed to my brother's to watch the game and eat more food. My sister in law Dini is an awesome cook (she is seriously my idol in the kitchen) and whipped up appetizers, chicken wings, chicken noodle soup and mashed potatoes.

We were munching all night.

These two babes each have a birthday this week.

Lil Miss took a liking to Uncle Scott.

I thought for a moment she might also take a nap with Jacob but that was short lived.

And of course we had birthday cake for dessert.

....and presents.

Then it was time to say good bye.

The visit just wasn't long enough, but we were missing daddy.

This morning we packed up our stuff and headed out bright and early.

Of course the bears were all dressed and ready for the 7 hour drive home.

The trip home was so much better in the sunshine. We made great time and came home just in time to carve our pumpkins. Daddy had them all washed and ready to go on the table.

I roasted the seeds the last couple of years but couldn't get the kids to really even try them.

So I didn't go through the whole process of cleaning them and baking them this year.

Maybe next year.

Lil Miss was very interested in what mommy was making. She could see Elmo's face on her pumpkin. This made it a little more difficult for me to cut out the stencil with her latched around my neck.

When I wasn't looking she swapped a piece of pumpkin and taste tested the pumpkin right out of the shell. It must not be that bad because she sure enjoyed it.

There was alot of concentration going on as each child worked on their own pumpkins.

As they get older it is amazing how much they can do themselves. Pretty soon they won't even need me. :-( Then maybe they will let me do my own pumpkin.