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!