Not to be outdone by last year's ponies...

In case you were wondering, Grandma and Papa's house is still the coolest place to visit in the summertime. Remember last year's pony parade in the backyard? Well once again, my sister Sarah and her family are visiting from France for 2 weeks, and once again, my mom is putting on quite a party for the kids. Today, her and my Grams hired the famed Columbus "Turtle Lady" who puts on shows for libraries, schools, and groups of kids all over town, to come over and give a private show for the kids. I don't even know her name because she introduced herself as 'The Turtle Lady', but she was amazing. She brought tons of turtles, snakes, geckos, and frogs for the kids to pet, poke at, and feed. She was animated, funny, and astoundingly kept 7 toddlers, and a slew of older kids captivated in their seats while she taught them about her reptiles. It was so precious to watch the kid's faces as they watched her with the animals. What a special treat today was. Can't wait to see what Grandma plans for next summer :)

I hope you like zucchini bread...

As per the usual this time of year, our garden is producing a plethora of larger than life zucchini faster than we can eat them. And I only planted one seedling this season, because I learned last year that planting 4 only makes sense if you are trying to supply the local grocery store. Eli is my little gardening buddy and his favorite part is picking the veggies when they're ready... and sometimes when they aren't but he just can't help himself. I love to watch him pop the warm cherry tomatoes straight into his mouth and see the juices dripping off his chin. 

And now I have to scour the Internet for 100 recipes involving zucchini. Zucchini pancakes anyone?

Do you want fries with that?

Is what my parents always said we'd be saying for a living if we didn't study hard and go to college. Its kind of ironic now that they're the ones who've purchased a food concession business and are traveling the state serving fried food to America's finest. Friday was Red, White & Boom, Columbus' annual fireworks spectacular downtown. So John and I as well as Chris and Rebecca and some friends of ours from our Bible study all signed up to work the event with my parents. My parents own two trailers. One serves ice-cream, frozen chocolate bananas, and root-beer floats. The other serves fried delights and lemon shake-ups. Its a big operation. Rebecca and I lucked out getting assigned to the cold trailer with my mom while the boys were sweating it out with the hot grease of the fried one. It was a perfect day for the event and the crowds were were out in full force. Nothing says God Bless America quite like 2 year-olds walking around swigging 20oz of Mountain Dew, large teethless women hanging out of teeny-tiny bikini tops, and more kids on leashes than you'd typically see at the animal shelter.  We enjoyed a lot of laughs in our trailer and met a lot of great people who will be burned in my memory for a long time. We served food from 11am until 11:30pm and people were still trying to buy things from us as we were cleaning up.  And I have to give proper kudos to my parents for the massive amount of work that goes into preparing for and cleaning up from for these events. I don't think my dad went to bed that night until close to 4am. It is not for the faint of heart.  Enjoy a few pictures from the day. 

Rebecca and I early morning getting things ready

My dad and John, on the job since 6:15am

Frozen chocolate banana? Hand-dipped before your eyes, might I add.

The ice-cream trailer, just killing time

My cute mom. Doesn't she fit the part perfectly?

John and Chris peeling onions pre-event. Someone's gotta do the dirty work

The fried-trailer crew. These guys were slammed for hours and did an awesome job

Happy Independence Day!!

Happy Birthday Agathe!

When I think of a perfect summer night it involves 3 things: breezy warm weather, a leisurely evening walk, and Graeter's Ice Cream. Tonight was one of those nights.

For the next several weeks we have the privelage of hosting a French student in our home named Agathe who arrived from Toulon, France last night. She is a dear friend of my sister Sarah's and is so excited to be in America for the very first time. Today is Agathe's 15th birthday and we wanted her to feel extra special, especially since she is thousands of miles away from her family and friends. We took her out for some American pizza at one of our favorite places, got her a few gifts, and finished off the night with the best ice-cream (I think) in the world. Agathe was wide-eyed and delighted as she experienced American hospitality at its finest with unlimited drink refills, attentive and friendly waiters, and even a free dessert just because she was from France and our waitress thought that was really cool. She couldn't believe that we were allowed to take home the left-over pizza in a box as this is unheard of in France. She was also amazed by the jar of free mints for the taking on the way out the door. I guess sometimes its the small things that make our country the best in the world.

I think Agathe really enjoyed her birthday. She told me on the way home that she felt special and loved her first day in America. 

Does Norah like ice cream?

I'm gonna go with yes

Can you tell that Eli is just a bit enamored by the cute blonde living in our home?

Such a good big brother

And Norah's post ice cream face one more time

This boy loves his ice cream as much as his mama

 Happy 15th Agathe! Thanks for sharing it with us

5 Years Baby!

This Friday will be our 5 year anniversary. We celebrated a little early and planned a fun "stay-cation" around town without the kiddos. Thanks to my parents and grandparents, we got to have two whole nights to ourselves. We dropped the kids off Saturday night and, after meeting up with friends for a quick celebratory happy graduation drink for John's cousin Brit, headed home to pack our bags. Sunday we left early, grabbing breakfast and coffee on the way, and drove to King's Island. Now, don't snicker, I know an amusement park is not your typical romantic destination. But for all of our 4 prior anniversaries, I have either been pregnant, or recovering from childbirth and we had to take it easy. So we wanted to do something different and carefree this year. And on a nostalgic note, the first time I can remember falling for John was on a chaperoned friend's trip to Cedar Point the summer between our 7th and 8th grade year. I asked him then what he wanted to be when he grew up and he told me, "maybe a trucker," and yet somehow I still found him irresistible.

I surprised John by hacking a pair of old jeans into cut-off shorts for our special occasion and we were off to hit the coasters. Let me tell you, we had such a great time. Nothing makes you feel like a kid faster then flying through the air at 60 miles an hour screaming at the top of your lungs. We enjoyed a half empty park and quick lines and complete freedom from schedules. We did not remember experiencing such severe whiplash on the rides when we were 14, but that was the only thing that made us feel old.

 

We had originally planned to stay at the park through dinner and then drive back to our hotel downtown. But by 4pm we had ridden all the big rides, thanks to the short lines, and were ready to head back to Columbus. We upgraded our dinner plans from chicken on a stick, to Hyde Park in the city. Only problem was, we didn't pack any nice clothes, and we thought the restaurant might frown upon my cut-offs and John's bathing suit. So we stopped at the outlet malls on our way back into town and split up for 30 minutes so we could each purchase a presentable outfit to wear to dinner. I felt slightly like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, except instead of Rodeo Drive, I was at the Banana Republic... factory store....scouring the clearance rack. Same difference really.

With outfits in tow, we drove to the Westin hotel downtown and checked in. The concierge found a note in our reservation that we were celebrating our anniversary and she quickly upgraded our room to a Junior King Suite. Giddy, we headed up to shower and get ready for our late dinner out. Just as we were getting ready to leave the room, there was a knock on our door and another concierge delivered us a complimentary plate of chocolate-covered strawberries, champagne on ice, and a card signed by all the hotel staff.  Now how's that for customer service?

Dinner at Hyde Park was delicious and fancy, and we tried not to scream when the bill came. I had our waiter box up all the leftovers just on principle, and then realizing we had no place to keep them cold,  threw them away on our walk back to the car. It was a fun splurge on a place we'd always wanted to eat at someday.

Monday we slept in as late as you can sleep in once you have kids, which is 8am, and then finished off our stay-cation with breakfast on the patio at the Northstar Cafe. I finally got to try their famed praline scone, which lived up to every bit of it's best-scone-ever reputation. Just sitting at that restaurant is an ego boost because you are surrounded by trendy, artsy, cool people who assume you must be one of them.

We both agreed that this was our favorite anniversary celebration so far. It was the perfect mix of fun and romance and brought those old 7th grade heart-throb feelings right on back.