Cincinnati

At the end of our week with Emma, we drove down to Cincinnati to return her and to visit with the rest of the Smiths. They just put in a new pool and poolhouse. Between that, the Smith's toys, and all the attention they received, my girls may as well have been at Disney World. Kate asked to go back in four days. :)

They played with toys inside.

Then hit the pool outside to float,

and dunk,

(That's Owen)

(And this is Liam)

and jump,

(Obviously that's Annie)

and torture Uncle Mike,

and float some more,

and have chicken fights,

and give me a heart attack,

and get tossed around by Matt,

(That's Owen acting as a human hole-in-one)

and just generally have a great time with their cousins.

Emma and Evie

Liam gave the girls plenty of rides on his little ATV. He and Owen could not have been sweeter with Annie and Kate. They played and played and shared all their cool stuff.

Annie and Liam.

Uncle Mike got in some solid snuggling time with Evie right before we left.

And Owen wore out his BFF, Uncle Jeff.

Thanks for having us to visit and for giving us Emma for a week! We can't wait to do it again!



Ann Arbor Art Fair 2012

I love the Ann Arbor Art Fair. I love wandering around and looking at all the interesting works. I love taking the kids to the kids' art tent. I love watching all the crazy Ann Arbor-ites and street performers.

We made a quick stop there on Friday morning before we left for Cincinnati.

We got there as soon as it opened, so not everything was quite ready to go. We passed some time by getting these little faces painted.

Then, we went over to watch a potter doing a clay demonstration. We didn't realize it was interactive, so everyone was pretty excited to get a chance to play with the clay.

Annie and Kate stuck to hand molding little pieces.

Emma tried out the wheel. She described it as having your hand in a fan, but not getting hurt. Sounds like it was pretty cool.

She did a nice job, too! She made this little pot!

Another craft table.

They made their own bubble wands, too.

And tried them out.

Evie loved Emma. They were good buddies.

Safety Town

Annie finished Safety Town last week. Our Cincinnati family asked what Safety Town was, and I was floored! I couldn't believe kids knew anything about safety without attending! We're hoping Safety Town makes an impression on Annie. She gave a friendly man pretty much every pertinent piece of information about our life except our address the other day. Uh oh!

At graduation, Annie was by far the most enthusiastic participant. She yelled the responses the loudest and sang the songs right out. It was almost as if she was doing a solo and all the other kids were backing her up. At least we don't have to worry about shyness being a problem for her...

Annie and Charlie. Safety Town buddies.

Emma was in town for the week, so she got to take it in, too!



Starting Year 5

Matt's work year starts over every July. He is just starting year five of his residency. Oy. Anyway, this year's kick-off event for the resident group at the hospital was a tour of the Big House and a little tailgate party. The girls loved it! It was pretty cool to walk around and get a full tour!

Heading to the locker room

In the locker room

Annie loves Hail to the Victors :)

Annie hanging out in Denard Robinson's locker

Evie scoring a touchdown!

Another resident's wife has a photography business, and she took pictures of everyone at the 50-yard-line. Eve's face is priceless.

So here's to another fabulous year of medical training :)



Ralls Family Fun

I think it was technically Kascak family fun? But either way, it was fun. We went to Aunt Judy's place in southern Ohio for an outdoor weekend and small family reunion.

If I had to sum it up in one word, it would be HOT. Oh my, was it ever hot. It was 102 degrees on Saturday. It really wasn't too bad except at night. Evie was a sweaty mess when we put her to bed at dusk. And she drank about a gallon of water in the evening. We stayed cool by hanging out at the lake, swimming and going for boat rides.

Piedmont

Matt went out fishing with the boys the first morning and caught a big fish of some sort, which he then ate. Outdoorsy.

That's Annie flying through the air in her pink lifejacket. Obviously, there was no hesitation. Just straight flinging herself off the floating dock.

Annie and Mallory

All of us except Laura. We missed her. I'm pretty sure she didn't miss us from her air conditioned home and place of work. :)

The girls. Maddee, Ella, Annie, Evie, Mallory and Kate

The boys. Adam and Brady.

All the monsters.

Mallory and Kate.

All the kids took a turn driving the boat.

Adam and Ed.

Mal and Ed.

Annie and Matt.

Kate and Matt.

Matt and Evie.

Maddee and Matt Parke

Ella and Matt

Brady and Matt

Sibling love.

Ed, Matt and Carol.

Kelly and Evie. Thank goodness for Kelly. Evie loved her, and Kelly was so wonderful to hold her and play with her while we were jumping off the boat with the big kids.

Sitting at the campfire. Hot, smelly and tired. Successful camping weekend.