School has Begun!

Well, that time is finally here!  School has begun... and we have a 1st-grader!  Lexi began 1st grade on Thurs. Aug. 22 at Ft. Island Primary School.  Her teacher this year is Miss Goldstein.  She is still adjusting to the whole 'lunch-at-school' thing and also getting used to being gone from 8:30 unitl after 4pm EVERY WEEKDAY!  I suppose it will take a few weeks for her to adjust, but then hopefully she will love it!  Since none of her friends from last year ended up in her class this year, she is getting to know a lot of new friends.  She even gets to board the bus with a close friend from church 2-3 days per week (she comes to our house in the morning and rides the bus with Lexi). Jill starts her daily Pre-K routine in just 1 short week (after Labor Day) and we shall see how that goes... Good Luck Miss Emily with the crew you have this year!

 

Bus Stop Crew!

Jen Cluts Photography

This past Spring, I entered a Facebook Contest with Jen Cluts Photography for a free photo shoot. For those of you who may not know, Jen (Bollenbacher) Cluts went to my high school along with her older sisters and she actually graduated with my brother, Ben Ginter.  Well, I liked and shared her page and got entered in the contest and... I WON!  She notified me of my free 1-hour summer session and we started to look at dates.  She didn't move too far from home, so that meant making a 3-hour drive to home-sweet-Paulding county for the outdoor shoot.  We originally agreed on June 29 for the shoot, but shockingly it rained and we were forced to reschedule.  Since our July was crazy, we finally set a new date of August 10.  No rain and gorgeous weather led to the perfect evening for some great shots.  I am so happy with the results and I would recommend for ANYONE to check out Jen's work.  Enjoy the pictures!

Thomas Family Pics

Thomas Family: Pink-Eileen; Red-Nola & Gary; Brown-Ruby & Don; Blue-Bethany, Matt, Lexi, Jill, & Alli; Navy-Benny; Green-Maely, Garrett & Nick; Purple-Marty & Shannon; Yellow-Brittany, Matt, Kaitlyn & Kyle; Orange-Jace & Natalie

We had these pictures scheduled and on the calendar since before Christmas! Then, just a few short months ago, Papa Bud passed away.  We were really hoping to have the ENTIRE Thomas Family in these pictures, but alas he didn' quite hold out long enough to be included.  Nevertheless, we gathered as planned and braved the heat of the day for some family pictures!  My long-time friend Kim Troth took us under her wing for our outdoor session.  Yes, it was hot... Yes, we had old (80+ years) and young (8 months) people to deal with... and Yes, we had grumpy adults who were missing the ball game on the radio/TV, but we managed to sneak in some good pictures!  Thanks to my entire family for showing up in your assigned colors, enduring the heat, and having us place you for poses when you could have been doing other things.  It is GREATLY appreciated (and now you can hang on my wall forever)!  Love you all!

An Awesome Experience!

Some great friends of ours (and fellow Preschool parents) have it 'in' at Progressive Field! Pam (Hargrove; daughter of Mike Hargrove) and Trevor Chuna invited our family - along with 2 other Preschool families - to join them in the Hargrove Suite to watch the Indian's beat the Red's 7-1 last night. What a fun experience for the kids and I do believe Matt was in Heaven! We are so very grateful for such wonderful and generous friends! Make sure to look through the pictures to see just how spoiled we were for the night! Complete with Akron Local 'Whitey's Chili' and all the hotdogs, chicken strips, nachos, buffalo wings fresh fruit and beverages we could shove into our bellies! We had a great time and hope to get to do it again in the future! Thanks Pam and Trevor!!! We owe you one!  GO TRIBE!

Finally 4!

Jill is finally 4 years old!  She has been waiting for her birthday all school-year!  Most of her friends are already 4 and she can now join their ranks.  We celebrated with both sides of the family on April 27 (just 1 day before her actual birthday).  Both sets of grandparents were here along with most of her aunts and uncles.  She got a lot of awesome presents including a water table and a bike!

Then just a few weeks later, we had her friend party.  There were 12 little people running around our house and enjoying the party.  It was Alvin and the Chipmunks themed and everyone had a blast!  We had a treasure hunt, an obstacle course, some Chipmunk music and of course cupcakes!  Again, Jill got some wonderful gifts.  Thanks to everyone who came to both parties and we will do it again next year!  Enjoy the picutres!

Easter... Finally!

Saris Family - Easter 2013

I know it is a few weeks late, but I am finally posting about our Easter Holiday!  We started out by waking up to discover what the Easter Bunny brought to our oh-so-spoiled children... He was very generous this year!  Many Veggie Tales videos, some Batman and Star Wars things for Lexi, some LaLaLoopsy and Bubble Guppie things for Jill, and Minnie Mouse and Dora for Alli.  After checking out their loot, we headed for church.  Lexi and Jill sang with the Children's Choir for the 11am service.  They did a great job singing "He Arose" and "Christ the Lord Has Risen Today".  After church, we packed up and headed to Smithville for the day.  Chris made a wonderful spread for lunch and then the kids enjoyed hunting their 'color' of eggs filled with goodies.  Lexi found the purple eggs, Jill searched for pink, Zach had blue and Alli was left with the yellow ones.  Banky even had a few green eggs filled with treats (thanks Papa Chuck!).  All in all it was a great Easter Sunday - and let's not forget the TRUE reason for Easter.  CHRIST AROSE!
Enjoy the pictures.

Birthdays and Baptisms

This past President's Day weekend, we made the trip to Perrysburg for Kyle's 3rd Birthday Party and also to Genoa for Nick's Baptism.  Kyle's party was on Saturday.  Brittany made a taco buffet for dinner and then we had Toy Story Birthday Cake for dessert.  He got some great presents and the girls always love to stay at Kaitlyn and Kyle's house!  Then on Sunday morning we woke up and headed out to Genoa for Nick's Baptism.  Matt stayed home in bed due to waking up with the flu!  Maely and Garrett then hosted over 50 people in the church gym after the service for a carry-in lunch.  Lots of good food!  Congrats to Kyle for making it through 3 years of life and to Nick on his Baptism.  It was great to see everyone!
Birthday

Baptism

My Baby is ONE!

Alli is now officially ONE!  We had a small celebration on her actual birthday (Jan. 2) at home with some great church friends.  Then, of course I had to get the official One-year old pictures taken.  Once again, we went to Portrait Innovations in Medina.  All 3 girls were VERY cooperative this time.  We got some good shots.  Here are the results... I highlighted a few at the top! Not too bad for 3 girls!

Lexi is SIX!

 

Our big girl is SIX already!!!  Time is just flying by for this family.  Her actual birthday was on Thanksgiving day this year, so we celebrated with family during our Turkey day gatherings.  Her friend party, however was pushed back to this past Friday evening.  She and 13 friends (including Jill) celebrated at Amazone!  She decided on six special school friends and then we threw in some family friends as well.  A mommy couldn't have asked for nicer, more well-behaved friends for her daughter!  A huge thanks to Addison, Anna, Emma, Reece, Jayce, Dominic, Logan, Kaela, Emily, Elijah, Ava, and Sophia (and of course Jill and Alli) for coming and for all the wonderful gifts you gave Lexi.  She said it was her best birthday yet!  Oh, and parents... Amazone is the way to go!  All we did was show up and bring the cupcakes - which of course had Star Wars logos on them!

Where has the time gone?

Wow! I guess I am slacking on the posts! It has been busy, to say the least. Lexi will complete her 1st session of swim lessons (every Tue. and Thurs. evening) at Copley High School Natatorium tomorrow. She has come a long way in the last 6 weeks! She now can 'bob' her head completely under water and even stay under water for a few seconds! She is learning to float and she LOVES her lessons! I think we will keep her enrolled for another session (beginning in January). Jill still loves her gymnastics classes. She goes every Wednesday and she also is progressing! Coach Joi (Joey) has all the girls in her class (there are 6 of them!) doing flips over the bar and also doing forward and backward rolls with no assistance! Jill has also mastered the jump-bounce-jump move on the trampoline (where you jump on you feet, bounce on your butt, then jump immediately back to your feet). She is one of the few in her class that can do this move! As for Alli, she now has EIGHT teeth and wants so badly to walk... just put her in her walker and she is all over the house! I fear this one will be into everything! It is a good thing that she is a go-with-the-flow kind'a girl. If only she would master the sippy cup?! This too shall come! Well, Lexi's 6th birthday party is Friday, so I will try to update with pictures. Check back soon!

Our Fall Family Pictures!

I finally got around to getting these up on the the blog... we only had them done the last weekend in September!  Again, I just want to send out a HUGE 'Thanks' to Kim and her amazing talent.  She got some good ones and it will be difficult to choose which ones to print out.  In these pictues, Lexi is almost 6, Jill is 3½ and Alli is 9 months old!  Enjoy!!!

October Fun!

We usually manage to get one weekend in the Fall and spend it with Brittany and her family.  Well, this was that weekend!  The Gurtz's came in on Friday evening.  After putting the 3 older girls to bed on the floor in Lexi's room in their sleeping bags and putting Kyle in Jill's bed (ah, a room to himself!), we finally got some sleep.  Saturday morning we were up bright and early for Lexi's LAST - freezing cold - soccer game of the season!  They pulled out another win against the Bulls making their record 8 - 1.  Lexi even got to be goalie one last time and after the game received her 'trophy' from coach Mike.












The weather warmed up, so we made the drive to Smithville where we went to Ramseyer's Farm.  There is so much to do there!  I think they add something new every year we go!  The kids loved it - even Alli!  We had to get fresh cut fries and of course Lerch's Donuts before leaving.  The older 2 girls were able to go on the "big" slide and the middle 2 kiddos enjoyed the playground slides.  All liked the wagon ride and the animals.  I think we wore them out, because they all went right to sleep Sat. night!  Up for church on Sunday and then the Gurtz's left for home. 


Then we costumed up the 3 girls and headed to the Akron Zoo to enjoy Boo! at the Zoo.  So cute!  We managed to get our visit in before the rain hit.  It was windy, but a warm 70 degrees.  I don't know about Brittany, but I am exhausted!  Love our get-togethers and am so glad our kids play (fairly) well together!  All in all a great weekend!  Enjoy the pictures.

Photo Session Preview!

This past weekend, we traveled back to Haviland for my dear friend Kim Troth to take our family (and Alli's 9 month)pictures.  It was a gorgeous day and we got some great shots.  Thanks Kim for taking time out of your busy Saturday to photo our family!  Can't wait til you get all the pics edited!  Click on this link to see just a quick preview of what we did on Saturday and check back in a week or 2 to see the whole shoot!

Cincinnatti Weekend!

The whole Ginter clan (except for Matt) ventured to Cincinnatti this past weekend.  Benny's company (GE) buys out King's Island for 1 day each September and GE employees and their families get discounted tickets and also get the park to themselves for the day!  Well, we took advantage of that this year.  We left Friday after school and drove the 3½ hour drive to the hotel.  I asked my friend Michele to go with us because Matt had to work all weekend.  She was my "hubby" for the weekend!  The older 2 girls (along with uncle Benny and Kyle and aunt Brittany) enjoyed the pool yet Friday night.  Then we got up on Saturday and made our way to the Zoo.  We were there for several hours and enjoyed a packed lunch while we were there.  The kiddos even got to feed the giraffes!!!  After the zoo, we went back to the hotel for another swim.  This time Alli also got in and LOVED the water!  Papa Gary and Gra-Nola bought KFC for dinner and we were ALL in bed by 10pm!  Finally on Sunday we got to King's Island before the rides started up at 10.  The kids were all pretty good.  We decided to leave Alli and Gra-Nola at uncle Benny's house - great idea!  The kiddos rode lots of rides and we had pizza for lunch.  Then by 3pm, the kids were tired and we packed it up and left.  After picking up Alli, we made our way home and dropped into bed to start another week.  Lots of fun, but not much relaxing!  Huge thanks to Michele for joining in on the chaos that is our family!!!  Enjoy the pictures!

Jill starts Pre-school!

Well, Lexi's first day came and went without a hitch... and so did Jill's!  Jill began her Preschool career on Wednesday with her wonderful teachers Ms. Sharon and Ms. Co-Wefa!  She was so excited and could hardly wait to go to school.  Mommy and Alli had a wonderful morning of grocery shopping and chillin' together until it was time to pick Jill up from school.  I think it is going to be a GREAT year!

Everitt Rd. Covered Bridge and Chagrin "Falls"

Last weekend, we actually didn't go out of town for the holiday!  We just stayed home and found things to do "in our own backyard"!!  Lexi and Jill went with me to the Everitt Rd. Covered Bridge in Penninsula.  We met up with Lexi's friend Logan and his family when we got there.  The kids LOVED going in under the bridge and exploring the rocks and fossils & wading in the water.  Lexi even 'learned' how to skip flat rocks from Logan's dad!  She still needs a lot of practice!  After the kids were done playing, we jumped in the car and headed to Jeni's Ice Cream Place in Chagrin Falls.  They had some very interesting flavors... both the girls ended up getting a lemon flavored ice cream.  Never thought that would happen!  Anyway, we had a great Saturday with the Rathbun's and can't wait til our next adventure together!

Our Soccer Player!

Despite a few tears at first, we now have a soccer player!  Lexi's first practice came and went and she was smiling at the end!  There are 10 Kindergarten children on her team - The Timbers - and her coach (Coach Mike Foster) is actually the Copley HS Band Director!  I think she is going to like soccer.  We shall see in a few weeks when she actually has a game!

Lexi goes to Kindergarten!

Well, the time has come!  Lexi got on the bus this morning for the first time!  No tears, but we will see how her day goes.  Hopefully we make it through the morning and back home with no tears!  She is growing up!!!  Good luck Lexi and Mrs. School and hopefully it will be a wonderful year!

Clear Lake '12

Last weekend, the Saris family traveled to Fremont, Indiana to spend the weekend with the Culler clan!  We love our yearly trips to Clear Lake and the girls look forward to swimming, riding on the boat, and playing with the Culler boys for a whole year!  This was Alli's first trip and she did extremely well!  Erin got in her cuddle time and Alli took her first boat ride.  It was a little chilly for tons of swimming and the girls didn't so much like the tubing this year (they liked it last year).  However, we still managed to have a great time with some great friends.  Can't wait for you to come our way this winter!

Maely's Baby Shower

Last weekend, the girls and I traveled to Haviland for 2 nights to attend Maely's baby shower.  There was a great turn-out - close to 50 people!  All the decor was so cute... animal theme.  Marty and Shannon even constructed an Ark complete with rainbow to house all the books and cards that were brought by shower-goers for the new mommy and baby Nick.  We had lots of good food (and lots left over).  I especially liked the table set up to decorate onesies for Nick.  There were some REALLY cute ideas put onto the onesies.  Nick will be a stylin' dude!  Thanks to everyone for coming out and congrats to Maely (and of course Garrett, too).  We can't wait to meet baby Nick!