Winter offers fewer options on our weekly visits with our grandkids; outside activities become more limited, as colds & runny noses suggest that it is wiser to stay inside, but we still have a lot of fun! Our time with Cate & Baylie usually center around visits to Boonshoft, Carriage Hill Farm [inside] and the Museum Center in Cincinnati, with time to make cupcakes, draw pictures and play with our rapidly increasing collection of Barbie Dolls. Lunch always means a visit to any MacDonalds or Burger King that includes an indoor play area. If our menu is a bit limited, our fun is not.

Our trips to Columbus to spend the day with Kellen and Reilly often begin with a lot of playtime at home, where there are always plenty of fun things to play & play with: dinosaurs, wild animals, Kellen's aquarium, and wrestling. Once we hit the road, our travels usually take us to COSI, the Ohio Historical Center, or the Botanical Gardens. On a rare winter 'warm day', we even get to the zoo! Lunchtime is either Arby's or MacDonalds, and our day always starts with a stop at Tim Horton's for those 'Timbits' that both boys love!

Thanksgiving at Grandma & Grandpa Flaum's house was a treat, with 3 of our 4 little 'turkeys' to chase around in games of 'hide 'n seek' and 'follow the leader'. Thanksgiving weekend was spent in New Orleans with the Perkins family. We began our Saturday morning with an all time favorite treat - coffee and beignets at the Cafe Du Monde!

A rainy day in the river city of "Nawlins" did not stop us from having a good time with the Perkins family. It is fun to see how Emma Kate & Ethan have grown since we last saw them, and the chance to be around Mike, Tina, Destiny & Matt always makes the long drive worthwhile!

Baylie sees the WIGGLES !

Baylie went to see "The Wiggles" on her birthday. It turned out to be quite an event. She sat entranced for the first part of the show, not quite beliving that she was actually seeing Jeff, Murray, Anthony, & Sam, plus her personal favorite, Captain Feathersword! We brought a sign to hold up, telling the Wiggles it was her birthday, which Murray read onstage, and then when he came down into the audience, he shook her hand! It was a great show - for kids and adults, and a special birthday treat.

Baylie's 3rd Birthday Party

Baylie celebrated her 3rd birthday with a party at Marion's Pizza, complete with balloons, pizza, and of course cake - much to the delight of her cousins! Her big present was a bike from her Mom & Dad.

Cate & Baylie visit Sunwatch

On Thursday, Nov. 6, 2008 we took the girls to visit the re-constructed village of the Ft. Ancient Indians, Sunwatch. The girls enjoyed exploring the mud, straw & thatch huts . . . grinding Indian corn, 'paddling' a dugout canoe, trying on the latest outdoor fashions, and just plain 'hanging out' for a while, before we had lunch at Burger King, and tried out their new indoor playground.

Kels & Reilly visit Lancaster

Our first November adventure was a visit to "Ah-Ha", the new childrens' indoor play center in Lancaster, Ohio. It is a smal building, with lots of low-tech, high quality hands on activities for kids aged 1-7. Kellen and Reilly both loved it, as the nearly two hours we spent there will attest. Kellen loved the childrens' stage best of all - he is a complete 'ham sandwich', with the emphasis on the 'ham'. He sang songs from "Nightmare before Christmas", complete with acting, and performed a disco dance while dressed as a cowboy. He is very entertaining, and may have a future in show business someday, in between his work as a dinosaur bone hunter, or zoologist. Reilly loved the messy stuff - water and sand activities, and never tired of knocking over walls of foam bricks as fast as we could pile them up. It is a fun place to visit, and we plan on returning!