Aug 25,
Today, Bella's team once again played the team we have "affectionately" named The Moms because they are so much older, taller, and stronger. They lost 4-0 (or maybe it was 5). And Lionel was loosing it and screaming like a crazy person because the refs did not do a good job.
Aug 24,
Today was was a beautiful day for a soccer game. Not hot, no cold. Just perfect weather.
Aug 24,
This morning Emma and I went running with the group. It was a beautiful morning, with perfect running weather. We were supposed to run 7 miles, but the route was long and we were close enough to 8 so we just finished them.
Aug 19,
This year, besides taking the pictures with their 1st-day-of-school" sign, I also took a picture of Bella right before getting in the car. I figured it might be fun to look back many, many years from now, and see how cars look like now. I wish I had done the same thing before Sofia and Emma went to school, but it was too early to think.
Aug 18,
This afternoon-evening we went to an AFS picnic with the international students and their families. We don't normally opt to have hot dogs on our wedding anniversary, but that is Ok. We did celebrated last night by going out to dinner and a movie.
Aug 18,
Today we all went to see this movie. It was good. We liked it.
Aug 18,
Sofia and I had agreed that this summer we would go play tennis at least once, but hadn't found the time to do so. And since today is officially the last day of summer break, we went this morning. It was nice touching a racket again, but it was not necessarily a stress-free activity as I kept reminding Sofia to turn her body to hit the ball, and move around the court. She insisted she was already moving around, while I kept watching her stand in the exact same spot. Sigh.
Aug 17,
This afternoon Sofia, a bunch of her friends, Emma, and Bella walked to the St Mary's church festival. Bella played a bunch of games, and was happy to have won these 2 little lambs because she said it was one for her and one for Sofia.
Aug 17,
Today was the first soccer game of the fall season. They played against a team with multiple girls much bigger than them, so it was a bit of a lost cause. They ended up losing like 6-1. It was also really hot, so at the end of the game Bella wasn't feeling so great and refused to even take a picture. I took one anyway, to show that we all came to support them.
Aug 16,
Bella was sad earlier this week that she hadn't spent enough time lately with Sofia - just the two of them. So today they bought lunch at Carl's Deli and walked to the square to eat and hang out for a little while. In the meantime, Emma and I went out for lunch to PF Chang. After lunch they were going to walk around for a while at the square, but they decided that they wanted to hang out with us after all, so we picked them up on our way back.
Aug 15,
Tonight we took Alexa out for dinner to say good bye, and thank her for taking care of the girls this summer. The summer flew by, but they had a great time.
Aug 11,
This morning Lionel and Emma went running together, and later we all went to the Farmer's Market. After that, it was all hard work the rest of the day. Emma and I helped Bella clean her room, and we also moved furniture around so both her room and the playroom were more functional and had more open space. I also cleaned my closet, and between Bella'room and mine took a bunch of stuff out for donations.
Aug 10,
Today, after dinner, we walked to Graeter's. We ended up going later than we wanted, so it got dark on us on the way back, but it was Ok because we were all together.
Aug 10,
Today we had Mami-Bella day. Last Friday we actually had Mami-Sofifi day as well, but we both forgot to take pictures. For our day together Bella chose to go to IKEA, walk around, and actually eat lunch there. We got a couple of useful things for the house, some frozen smoked salmon and Swedish pancakes, and got quite a few steps in I guess.
While Bella and I hung out, Sofia and Lionel stayed home and Emma was at orientation downtown. After stopping by the house to drop off the food we went back out again, and hung out a little longer before it was time to go pick Emma up.
Aug 9,
Today I actually sat down for easily an hour and a half. I bought this outdoor love seat, and put it on the deck, and it was the perfect spot in the shade.
Aug 9,
Today Emma joined our Friday tradition, and for the first time went to Creamy Whip.
Aug 8,
After pretty much a full 24 hours of travel, Emma finally arrived in Cincinnati this morning. They arrived really early, at 6:30 am, which meant Lionel and I had to get up really early as well. Bella wanted to come, but she had a cold and needed to rest. And there was no way Sofia was getting up since over the summer she sleeps like a bear. They did help make a welcome sign the night before, and Zoey came with us.
Surprisingly, Emma hung in there without a nap most of the day. She did manage to sleep on the bus from Chicago to Cincinnati, which helped her case. She went out and about with us, but at around 4:00 pm she was finally starting to hit the wall - and so was I - so we took naps. After that she felt like new again, and even drew with chalk outside with the girls.
Aug 5,
One of the things I like about summer, besides having plenty of sunshine and warm weather, is that the evenings are great for taking a walk. And since it gets dark later, you actually have time to do something after you come home from work.
Aug 4,
After several weeks of travel we were finally here this weekend, and we finally made it to the farmers market. Sofia was still sleeping, but Bella happily came with us.
Aug 2,
After several weeks of construction, the girls bathroom is finally done!
