The Grand Slam......

Spencer's last baseball game was yesterday. There were only four kids on his team due to vacations, but they managed to pull out another win.

I want to apologize for the audio on the video, but I am a proud mom. When Spencer saw the clip he told me not to yell for him next time. Oh well, what are you going to do?

Flight over Toronto!

Brent was very generous to take the kids and I for a flight over the city. Here is a picture of Brent and Spencer in the plane. Brent was very patient and explained everything to Spencer. Spencer has loved airplanes and rockets forever. This was the best part of our visit for Spencer.

A picture of Toronto's lakeshore. The CN Tower can be seen in the distance on the right. What a great way to see the city!

Although Sydney was disappointed that she had to sit in the back, she loved the flight.

A picture of Brent with the kids before we took off.

Cousins.....

Ryan and Spencer dancing in the Candy Store at the trailer. They still correct anyone who calls them "friends", they are "COUSINS". It still makes me laugh.


Sydney and Adam playing with Thomas. It is amazing that a little piece of track and some wooden trains can entertain children for hours.


Spencer and my nephew Owen. I'm sorry that I didn't get a picture of "Super Owey" - maybe next visit.

Sydney and Riley at Grandma Marilyn's.

We can't seem to get a decent picture of all four kids at the same time. There is always one who isn't interested. Oh well, here is a picture of Owen, Spencer and Riley.

Cambridge BBQ

Our first stop on our trip home this summer was my Uncle Larry and Aunt Doreen's. We were so fortunate to be able to visit with all three of my cousins, their spouses and children. Thanks Uncle Larry for organizing and hosting a great afternoon. Good food and great company!

...and the bombs bursting in air.....

It seems we have officially started a new tradition for the Fourth of July festivities. Like the last few years, we begin with a cookout with our neighbors Doug and Lyla. If I had to describe what great neighbors are like to someone, I'd tell them about Mr. Doug and Miss Lyla (that's what Spencer and Syd have called them since they were babies). After the cookout, we get the firepit going out front. A healthy dose of bug spray on everyone, cold drinks and S'more stuff is all we need for a good time. Oh, and a few fireworks. Doug and I have been steadily increasing the size of our production each year. This year was our best yet, although not over the top. With so many people in our subdivision doing their own displays, we don't have to do much to get a good show. Once the sun went down, the kids did a few sparklers and had S'mores. We all enjoyed the show from our driveway, even if it was a little hot and humid that night.





Syd made sugar cookies for the evening fun.

Our neighbors' son Tim brought over his new pet chameleon, Zep, over for a visit with the kids. According to Tim, he'll get to be 10-12 inches long when full grown!

Tim and his girlfriend Larrissa enjoying the show.

Daddy taking a break from lighting off fireworks. It was a little muggy that night, as evidence by the sweaty shirt!





Here's what was left of our hard work. There wasn't anything left of the big mortars we set off, just the tubes that we used to shoot them off. All in all, it was a good time and I'm sure we'll do it again next year!

More friends to The Fort

Much like our friends Dena and Brent from Canada hadn't been to see us in forever, our friends Sarah and Andy also hadn't visited in a very long time. With Sarah being an OB/GYN, it's very hard to schedule free time for them to come for a visit. However, we picked a weekend in June and made it happen. We incorporated a Fort Wayne Tin Caps baseball game into the visit for Friday night. After the game, the ballpark put on one of the best fireworks displays we had seen in some time. It was the best $7 tickets we ever spent! The kids were well-behaved and all had a great time. Here are a few photos from their visit.

Memorial Day Fun

After many years of discussion, we were finally able to coordinate with our friends Dena and Brent to have them down to The Fort for a visit. Christine and Dena have been great friends for many moons and we have kids that are the same age.

When we were up to Markham (that's Canada for all those non-Canadians reading) back in March, Brent had mentioned that he wanted to attend the Indy 500. Brent and some of his friends said they'd make the trek down south if schedules permitted. Well, the moon and stars were all aligned and I was able to score tickets to the race. We made the plans and they committed to coming down for the long Memorial Day weekend.

Being that Brent is an avid pilot with his own plane, it only made sense for them to fly to The Fort (a short 3 hour flight) versus making the always-long 8-hour drive. They flew down on the Saturday and we had a nice visit. Then it was early to bed for an even earlier departure to Indianapolis the next morning. It was hot that weekend, but we made the best of it. Everyone had a great time and we look forward to the next visit with them. Here are a few photos from the weekend.

Mother's Day (at the ballpark)

Another Mother's Day for the books. It started around 8:30 with breakfast in bed for Christine. The kids and I tossed around lots of ideas on what to make, from pancakes to waffles to corn dogs (yeah, corn dogs are officially one of the food groups in our house). We decided on bacon, biscuits, pineapple and raspberries. We decided to get a little creative with the presentation. Here's what Mommy had to look forward to this morning in bed:





Now, doesn't that look appetizing! A little bacon "hair," raspberry/whipped cream "eyes," and a pineapple "smile." Served up with a little bouquet of flowers and a glass of milk. Welcome to Cafe Koehrn.

After Christine enjoyed all that, it was back to a normal Sunday for us. We headed off for our usual Sunday grocery run. Then it was back for a quick lunch, as we had plans this afternoon. Earlier this year, Spencer participated in a reading program at school and was awarded a ticket to a Fort Wayne Tin Caps baseball game. The Tin Caps are our local minor league baseball team. We decided to make it a family day and got tickets for all of us to go to the game with Spencer. It was a little chilly, but the sun was shining and ultimately the Tin Caps won the game 7-5 over the Lansing Lugnuts. Suprisingly, we actually made it to the end of the game. Here are a couple of shots from the game:

Ding-dong, the Winny is dead.....

Well, not really. But the ole' Windstar was ready to go to the big minivan parade in the sky. Translation....we traded her in for a newer model. At 160,000 miles, she served us well, spending much of her time on the highways and byways of Indiana, Michigan and Canada. Here's one of the last photos we took of the old girl, doing what she did best.....our trusty tailgate partner at an MSU football game last fall!









On Saturday, we visited the local Honda dealership to test drive the van I had been researching for some time now. We liked it and the kids loved it. I tried to get Spencer to pony up 20 bucks toward the purchase price, but no dice (he claims he forgot his wallet...likely excuse). We got a decent trade-in value for the Windstar and a good deal on the new van, a 2008 Honda Odyssey EX-L. It's going to provide a little extra room and storage for the long trips we take during the year. Here's the new ride, along with a photo of the kids, who looooove the power sliding doors. Christine looooooves the fact that it has heated leather seats and a 6-disc CD player so she can finally listen to all her Canadian music groups. Aside from the DVD entertainment system and a couple of other minor details, this one has all the bells and whistles Honda offers. We like it.










By the way, you see the soccer ball in Syd's hands. She's playing on a munchkin soccer team that plays on Saturdays. She had her first game on Saturday. For not playing before, Syd did a great job her first time out. Aside from dribbling the ball the wrong way a couple of times (all the kids did this at least once), she had decent foot skills and her stamina was great, considering the kids ran around the whole time. We couldn't find the camera before we left for the game, so we'll post some soccer pictures in the coming weeks.

Punta Cana

As some of you know, Christine and I took a very well-deserved vacation trip to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic over spring break. We left the kids with Grandma Sandy and we flew out on Friday, April 2. It was definitely paradise found. One week was not long enough to enjoy the relaxing atmosphere here. We are definitely looking forward to returning some day. Here's a little movie montage of some of the photos we took while in the Dominican. We can fill you in on all the details when we talk to you next. A note of thanks to Misty Olson at Bartelt Travel for planning a great trip!

Spencer's been published

For Spencer's latest assignment in his 1st grade class, all the kids were given the opportunity to write their own book. They were given a blank book and asked to go to town on it, making it look as professional as possible. At first, Spencer wanted to write a story about Ben 10 fighting the Bakugans......,









.....but we steered him in a different direction. He chose to write about his many trips to Grandma Marilyn's house in Canada. It turned out really good and you'll have to be sure to read it when you're in The Fort.

Once Upon a Lilypad

Thursday, Feb 18 was the night of Spencer's school play, Once Upon a Lilypad. The first graders put on a play at school about a frog trying to learn how to be a better jumper and learn from his mistakes, not letting people put you down. It involved all of the first grade classes. There were 3 microphones on stage, with a couple of kids on each microphone at one time with small speaking parts.

Here's a picture of Spencer, his best friend Max and their teacher Mrs. Uhey ("you-ee"). The kids in her class were alligators, hence the rockin' hats.

Snow Day

Due to the "white death" (as predicted by our local idiot weather forecasters), both Christine and Spencer's schools were closed today. Last night, they were calling for up to 12 inches of snow today. I think we got 4-5 inches. For those of us who grew up in Michigan and Toronto, that's a typical afternoon in winter. However, here in Indiana, all hell breaks loose. The grocery stores are overrun with people stocking up for the 2 months they will be stranded and drivers either go 40-50 miles under the speed limit or they cruise around like nothing's happened. Either way, accidents will and do happen.

Christine decided to bundle everyone up and get a little fresh air.

We've had this blow-up tube for some time and the kids had used it in the pool during the summer. It is actually a snow tube and they put it to good use today. Here's a video from the improvised sledding hill on the driveway.

After all that, it was time to come in and warm up. The kids love hot chocolate, especially with marshmallows. A mess is usually made, but I suppose it's all worth it.

Y-ball

We signed Spencer up to play basketball through the YMCA, hence Y-ball. It's first and second graders on the team. There's a lot of traveling, fouling, and double dribbling, but the kids have a great time. The refs let them play through most of it, only stopping play if someone steals the ball or steps out of bounds. Spencers's team, the Nets, has done pretty well through 4 games, winning all of them. In fact, last weekend, Spencer got the game winning shot with a minute to go. This week was pictures before his game. Here's a photo of the team. Spencer's sportin' the wicked red crocs. They all get along great and are pretty tired out afterwards. Makes for a quiet afternoon at home!

We love Transformers!

We love Grandma Sandy! Due to bad weather and sick kids we just now were able to do Christmas with Grandma. The kids were excited with all the great gifts they got. After all the ripped wrapping paper and toy boxes were cleaned up, we noticed one gift unopened. It was for Spencer. Seeing as how Spencer really likes his Transformers, Grandma saw a really cool Transformer poster in the store and thought Spencer might like it for his room. We weren't exactly sure which Transformer it was gonna be, as Grandma said she didn't know all the characters but thought Spencer would know the difference. So, I take off the plastic wrapping and begin to unravel the poster. The first thing I saw was what looked like cleavage. I don't remember any of the Transformers going without clothes, so I was confused (and slightly excited at the same time). I proceeded to unravel the poster completely and, to Daddy's delight, saw a lovely poster of the hottie Megan Fox, human co-star from Transformers. After the prolonged laughter and teary eyes from said laughter, Christine snapped a photo of Spencer and I showing our surprise to Ms. Fox. Like I said to open the post, We love Grandma Sandy!

Beware democracy....she can vote now!

Yep, it's official. As of 11:00am yesterday, Christine has gained her US citizenship. She still has her Canadian citizenship, so she's now dual. Here are a couple of photos from the ceremony. There were 52 people from 22 countries who were becoming citizens. We had to be at the US District Courthouse in Fort Wayne at 10am. Little did we know, the actual ceremony didn't start until 11:00am. We briefly debated on whether to take either/both of the kids and we decided against it. I'm glad, as we had roughly an hour and a half to kill before everything started. There were several families in attendance who brought small kids and they were a bit cranky to say the least. At 11am, the judge came in. He spoke for a bit, then we heard from representative Mark Souder's spokesperson and a lady from the Daughters of the American Revolution. They are charged with making sure all new citizens are given a small US flag and a booklet on flying/caring for the flag. Then, after saying the oath of citizenship and the Pledge of Allegiance, each new citizen was called up to receive their citizenship certificate. The judge made a few more remarks then dismissed the group. Afterwards, he hung around to take photos with anyone who wanted to. We're glad the process is done. Now, when we win the Powerball and I keep my promise of moving us to Canada, it'll be my turn to start the process again for myself!

We have a winner!

It's done, it's done, it's done! After a year of toiling, I've finished tiling the floor. Granted, there were many weekends where no work took place, but it's done nonetheless. With Christine and the kids gone to Canada last week, I felt it was a great time to finish up the work without the pitter-patter of little feet to get in the way. They left Saturday morning and I got to work. I had a little tile cutting/setting to finish before I could start grouting. Once the area under the stove was tiled/grouted, I moved it back into place and began the arduous grouting process. Long story short, I was finished putting all the trim back down around the perimeter literally minutes before they got home the afternoon of the 24th. Here are a couple of pics of the final product.

I think it's safe to say that grouting is one of my very least favorite home improvement activities. It wasn't so bad when I did the bathroom and laundry room. But doing the hallway and entire kitchen was a different story. My shoulders are still sore from it. No pain, no gain.

We're still not done working on the kitchen. We were at Menard's today looking around, and saw some nice countertops we liked. It's either countertops or appliances. Whichever "dies" first I guess. Thanks to all who have given compliments on the floor. I know it's not perfect and there are little blemishes here and there, but I'm pretty sure I saved a fortune by doing it myself. Plus, Christine and I both think it turned out great. I'm done with home improvement for a while. However, we've discussed ripping up the carpet in the living room to put down hardwood. I'll stop now while I'm ahead.

Holiday Fun in the Fort

We've had a busy couple of weekends, as I'm sure everyone has. The time between Thanksgiving and Christmas has absolutely flown by. This weekend has been the only weekend we haven't had something on the calendar to do. Still, we were quite busy with last minute shopping and visiting Santa.

Last weekend, the kids made gingerbread houses. Actually, Spencer and I made a gingerbread house and Syd and Christine made a gingerbread train. They both turned out pretty good.









Today, we planned on going out to see Santa at Jefferson Pointe. First, we took a couple of photos in front of the tree (you know, before clothes, hair and faces got dirty!).








So, it was off to see Santa. We were third in line so we didn't have to wait long. The weather was a bit misty and foggy, but otherwise not bad. We were worried about Syd, as it's been crying and clutching my neck for the last 3 years. She made Spencer hold her hand, and a little reluctantly, she made her way to Santa's lap. A note about Santa this year. It might be noticeable from the pictures, but this guy creeped me out. He wasn't really sitting per se, but more like lounging in his chair. Legs were thrown over the one side and he was slouched to the other side. And there were two fans blowing on him, like they have on a model's photo shoot to blow their hair around. The one fan was blowing right in the kids' faces. I was keeping a close eye on him. I didn't want to have to lay Santa out with a right hook, but I wasn't going to let Santa take advantage of anyone. Either way, the kids had a good time and got a sucker out of the deal. Plus, we dropped $20 on a couple of cheezy photos taken by Santa's helpers. The photos we took with our own camera turned out better.







Here's one of the kids outside by the big tree at the mall.










This Saturday, Christine and the kids are off to Canada to visit her family. I'll be home alone, just me and the christmas lights. By the way, I got all my electrical issues figured out (I think). No breakers have tripped, no more smoke, no more burnt GFI outlets. And after seeing lots of LED lights on people's houses, it's convinced me to stick with the old fashion ceramic bulbs. They are brighter, more colorful and just more fun to look at. This means getting an electrician in here next summer to run a couple of 40 amp circuits, dedicated to outdoor lighting. Please save your speeches. I know the old bulbs cost more to run, burn more electricity and are all-around bad for the environment. Call me a traditionalist, call me old fashioned, or call me Clark. All would be compliments in my book. Thanks, Dad, for putting up the big bulbs when we were little. I can only hope Spencer has the chance to do it when he's grown!





Have a great Christmas!!