Over the past few months.....

Well, since I have been awful about updating this blog, I thought I would post the condensed version of the recent events.

March:
After returning to Ohio for my Grandmother's funeral, we traveled to the greater Chicago area and visited Michigan City, Legoland Discovery Center, and the Jelly Belly facility.







April:
We visited the Children's Museum for the costumes exhibit (there were some cool old school costumes and props there) and the Dora the Explorer exhibit, played outside (when it was not raining), and celebrated Easter.





May:
AJT04 finished her first year of school and my Mom was able to come visit for several days (and to give me my annual perm). I think my Mom would say that bigger highlight for her was being able to go to the Early Learning Center and meet AJT04's teacher and see what AJT04 has done over the school year. Since Mommy had some curls from the perm, the girls decided to try curls as well; however, they decided that it was ALOT of work and only worth it for special occasions. We also attended Civil War Days at Conner Prairie where the girls learned about the very earliest text messaging (via Morse Code and telegraph wire). Last, but not least, we visited my parents where AJT07 decided to try to communicate with Buddy, the resident feline, and we happened to see the Goodyear blimp at the regional airport closest to our house (we also happened to see the DirecTV blimp there at the end of July).











June:
After school was done, we were rather busy with Vacation Bible School (both girls helped me by creating sample crafts and building the lighthouse), but we did make time for PBS Kids Let's Meet in the Park where we saw MANY characters but more importantly two brothers who are the girls' favorites -- Chris and Martin Kratt. While the girls had fun that day, the evening proved quite different when AJT07 fell in the shower and fractured her clavicle. So, right before VBS and our trip to Holiday World, I took AJT07 to the doctor for the x-rays and the sling. Fortunately, the sling did not slow her down at VBS or on our abbreviated trip.



The start of our trip was great when we met my parents and one uncle for a trip to Falls of the Ohio State Park where both girls were QUITE willing to walk around on the rocks looking for fossils or interesting features (even if it was a rather warm day). We then visited Angel Mounds and traveled along the Ohio River to Newburgh where we were able to watch a barge "lock through". After that we were able to spend a great day at Holiday World and then....we received the phone call that our basement was flooded, so back home we went.













July:
While working to clear out the debris from the basement, the girls and I visited my parents to celebrate AJT07's birthday, went to the church's Fish Fry (after making 6 pies and brownies), and managed to go to South Carolina for a few days where the girls met some cousins and visited the beach. (On our way down we did make a detour and visited Cowpens -- a REVOLUTIONARY WAR battlefield -- if there was more time, I'm sure I would have subjected the girls to many CIVIL WAR sites.) After a good time in South Carolina, on our way home, we stopped at that virtual shrine to fried chicken -- the original Sanders Cafe aka birthplace of KFC.