on making friends with the Mallards and others...

Our apartment faces the duck pond. I like to refer to it as lakeside living! On a nice day, it is actually lovely to open up the doors to the patio and look out at the pond and the ducks. It's a regular ole Wild Kingdom living here!! We thought our house backing up to the nature preserve was something! We are not so fond of the pooping machines that are the geese (except for one, the one footed Goose, we feed him and like him), but the ducks are funny! We have two that Zoey wanted to pet and become our friends!

I would like to introduce you to....
Bob and Bobarina! (named by Zoey)




I like their patch of purple feathers.


We told Zoey they would have to get used to her and trust her. So she fed them!



Feeding brings the geese sometimes!



The geese are big and goofy.

But we also have this guy (some sort of heron, maybe?)



I can't get close to him. If he hears me open the door, he flies away! (check out his shadow)


there he is on another day...


Bob and Bobarina came a little closer everyday. They would even knock on our sliding glass doors with their beaks! It would crack me up! They would see us open the doors and come quacking and waddling up!


Here's Bob eating an Easter Jelly Bean!





the funny thing now is, we know them. We can distinguish these two from the others. And they wait for Zoey to come home...





They finally became comfortable enough to get food from Zoey's hand... they even walked inside for a second! They poop alot too though so we shooed them out right away!



Amazing!


The other day I was driving out of the neighborhood and their was a dead duck on the road. I caught myself hoping that it wasn't Bob!

We have squirrels and jumping fish and these cute turtles too!!



enjoying the sun!



making the most of it:)

April Ten on the Tenth

The idea is to take ten photos on the tenth of the month and share it, documenting a day of your life and the ordinary moments. There is beauty in the ordinary.

hello April 10th!

Wednesdays, Ross and I take a mid-week break and have breakfast together before he goes off to work. It is always something to look forward to. So, before we head out, we both drop the kids off at school.

It's finally light out when we drop them off again. I love Zoey's expression here. Funny and silly.



And then we head to Panera Bread. We go there a lot. Hi Ross!



When I got back home, I checked on our duck friends (definitely more on that later). Zoey built them a nest...


And a favorite appointment of mine! Love my chiropractor. And Yellow Springs is always fun.


I did a little blogging. This was my view on our lovely day... Doors open;)


One of the things I am loving about living in our apartment is walking to get the kids from school and then walking home. We couldn't do that from our house at all. It is just such a nice transition from school to home...



And, last week, it was 20 degrees when the kids went to school. Today...



I like the warmth, for sure. It was a drastic change though. Back to 40s on Friday! Ohio in the spring, I guess.
I dropped the kids off at their religion class, headed to Target for a quick errand, picked up Ross and headed to...



We normally go to Chick Fil A after the kids religion class, but today we got it to go because we had to get to Zoey's soccer game!



she played well, and had a good game, but her team lost.

Italian Ice after a hot soccer game... fun treat... Zoey matches the umbrellas! And we weren't alone. Soccer and softball players galore!!



Happy April!

Ross's Birthday!

Ross had a birthday in March (Dad, too!!) and Zoey made some confetti that we rigged up to fall on him as he came through the door! He opened and entered a little too fast! Our set up worked, sort of!



And Ross's birthday treat of choice? Bill's Donuts. A local yummery (yep, that is yummy bakery right there)

Happy Birthday Ross, we love you!



ENNNNJOYYYYYY!!!

Easter Eggs 2013

As I have been mildly alluding too... we have had some changes around here. Starting in November, Ross and I were working hard to get our house ready to sell... Long story, short, we got it all ready, put it up for sale, it sold really quickly, and we had to move out... Even if it was going to sell fast, we didn't think we would have to move so quickly, but that is how it worked out, so we had to rent an apartment for a couple of months. The kids spent Spring Break with the movers! and not feeling 100% so that was really stinky, but we got it all done and are temporarily settled? Usually you have the movers pack you up and boom! your done! So this is a little weird.

One thing we learned a lot while getting ready for our house to sell was about organizing and decluttering and just realizing what we had (in excess!). We are welcoming a downsizing challenge and empasizing a more mindful, simplifying set up for the future. We are so thankful for our lovely house and the fun times we had here.  It served a great purpose, and all the good things about it will be a sweet memory.  But, it is also a little big for us personally.  The space was nice during the winter, and if we had visitors (but nobody wants to come to Ohio after they visit once -oops did I say that out loud?, sorry Ohio)  So, with that in mind, we had enough furniture to keep for the apartment, that we were planning on selling or donating when we moved anyway. I love this quote and I think it works for our family,

Love grows best in little houses, with fewer wall to separate. Where you eat and sleep so close together, you can't help but communicate. And if we had more room between us, think of all we'd miss. Love grows best in houses just like this.

All that to say... Easter came upon us at the end of our mover's week, so we didn't do much. We had Easter Sunday planned with church and then lunch with friends.











Our friends have an egg breaking competition... See that egg with the silver halo stripe? Yeah, that was my big winner! WAHOO! Egg champ!


And then Ross and Max had a wrestling match...



real men wrestle on pink blankets...







And you will have to take it from me... Zoey and Max looked lovely in their Easter outfits. I was too sleepy to think to break out my camera the whole day. Max wore his tie the entire time which always makes me smile;) Wishing you a blessed Easter season. Alleluia!

Ross vs. SUB

Ross and his team at work, try to break things up a bit from time to time and come up with food challenges. They have done a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts, the hottest wings at Buffalo Wild Wings, TWO burritoes from Chipotle... you get the idea. Well, a local sub shop was having their annual contest, official rules and all, and they decided to join in. The shop's rules was to eat this 16 inch triple meat cheesesteak sub with everything on it in 16 minutes or less. If you do that, you get the sub for free and a T-shirt. BUT, they also have a leaderboard, and if you come in the top ten times for the store, you get to come back and compete in further competitions. I actually was their to witness this undertaking!


Here's the waiver they had to sign... no fear, apparently...


Here's the sub. The 16 minutes wasn't a huge challenge, as everyone made it in time. The bigger challenge was to make the top ten leaderboard. Most people just wanted a free sub. Ross set his sights a little higher.





(i had a 4 inch sub, if you are wondering. it was tasty)

the clock didn't start until they had it in their hands and took the first bite. The waitresses were so sweet. I am sure they didn't enjoy watching people do this all the time, but they gave tips of what others do (stand up, pour water on bread)


Ross just ate it...



They actually all stopped to comment about how tasty the sub was! funny...

Here's Dan, enjoying his sub.


Ross with the serious face, having doubts?


No way...


Almost done...


All clear!


and he had to stay there to be watched for five minutes after!
Victory t-shirt!



and he made it on the board! He actually got called back to compete for the store winner, but we had our movers at the time, so he couldn't go. And although the time of 5:03 is impressive... the winners in years past are in the 2-minute range... which borders on crazy and gross and all that considering the measures needed to get it down that fast...



i'm such a proud wifey...


Success! Two others were also successful, but I had to leave before they got a shirt.



here's a big recap...