family time Archives - Page 5 of 16

Nov 26, 2012

What A Week

November 26, 2012 By Christina

Last week at this time, I was expecting to have a relaxing Thanksgiving week. My only concern was for Wednesday, when the kids would be home from school while I was still working. I had an enormous to-do list with confidence that I would get it all done.

So then Cordy, who wasn’t feeling well Sunday night, woke up Monday morning with a high fever, cough, and headache. That meant she was home with me all day, on the couch with her Nintendo DS and watching numerous episodes of Beakman’s World on Netflix. I didn’t get as much done as I had planned because I was caring for her, too, but she clearly had the flu, so keeping her home was the right idea.

Cosmo kept watch, too.

That evening, right as she was fighting sleep on the couch, finally breaking a sweat after a 103.5 F fever, the cable/internet went out. As I tried to reset the cable box, my computer prompted me to restart for a Windows Update. I let the computer restart, hoping I could get my internet back again so that I could continue working.

But then the computer wouldn’t start again. It would try to restart, get to the point of loading Windows, hang, and then reboot. Safe Mode didn’t work, running diagnostics didn’t work…after fighting with it all night, I was computerless and lost an entire night of getting anything done.

Cordy was better on Tuesday, but still not well enough to go to school. Aaron took her with him to work, where she could hang out in his office with her games and books away from everyone else, while I figured out if my computer was dead or not. Aaron’s brother saved all of the data from the hard drive (YAY!), but the diagnosis was that the hard drive was dead.

The afternoon was spent researching new computers and working out how in the world we were going to afford a new laptop. I had been planning to buy a new laptop in a month or so, but this was just a little too early for me to be ready. Tuesday evening, I went computer shopping while Aaron entertained the kids, and by 9pm I finally had a new computer to resume my online life. The kids had no school the next day, but I hoped that at least most of my plan for the rest of the week would be back on.

I wish I could have got it without Windows 8.

And then Wednesday morning came and Aaron had been gifted with Cordy’s flu. Well…damn. To make it worse, we had my family coming over for Thanksgiving dinner the next day, and we had yet to finish cleaning the downstairs to prepare for the event.

I cranked through as much work as I could while tending to the chaos around me during the day on Wednesday. By 6pm, Aaron voluntarily went to bed feverish and achy after shivering on the couch all day. After I put the kids to bed, I dumped as much clutter as I could into boxes and hid it in the garage. (The perfect hiding place when you need a house de-cluttered quickly.)

Then I pulled out the Lysol wipes and Febreeze antimicrobial fabric spray, and completely wiped down the entire first floor of the house. No fabric or hard surface that anyone might possibly touch was forgotten. None of our visitors were going to leave with the flu. I finished this task (and a lot of internet surfing) around 3am and slept on the couch.

Thanksgiving went smoothly. Aaron was still too sick to come downstairs, so Mira and I ran care packages of food up to him while we feasted downstairs. It was great to spend time with family, although I felt bad that Aaron couldn’t join us.

I did participate in Black Friday shopping. I don’t really like the craziness or the crowds, but it does allow us to get great deals on things we need and gifts for others. Luckily, I got most of our shopping done online this year, but did have to go to the stores to get a few items for family members.

By Friday I was completely drained from the week. I had barely slept for days, I was mentally worn down from the stress of losing my computer and having my plans upended, and all I wanted to do was shut down. And for the most part I did.

It’s now Sunday night. I’m still playing catch up, but feel a little better. Everyone in the house is almost well again, and Mira and I escaped the flu. I hate having my plans changed – I can handle the little stuff, but with so many large roadblocks thrown at me this week, I wanted to scream.

Tomorrow morning the kids go back to school, Aaron and I go back to work, and everything goes back to normal. At least that’s the plan.

Filed Under: Aaron, Cordy, family time, holidays, plague Tagged With: sick child

Nov 5, 2012

Halloween Recap (Late, As Usual)

November 5, 2012 By Christina

Despite the cold and rain last week, the kids still insisted on going trick-or-treating on Halloween night. I’ve been getting over bronchitis, meaning walking outside in frigid, wet air probably wasn’t the best idea for me, so Aaron took the kids while I handed out candy with the dog.

Here’s what they looked like before they had to put on winter coats in order to go outside:

American Dream (took over for Captain America) and Snow White, escorted by Batman.

We had about half as many kids come to the door as we usually do. No wonder, considering the weather, but it meant long periods of waiting for the next group of kids. Cosmo stood watch patiently.

Captain Ameripup won’t ignore his duty.

My three returned after only an hour, ready to call it a night. The candy haul was still impressive, though. Both kids had full pumpkins, which we immediately dumped on the floor and began sorting. In our house, we have two different sorts – first is the standard “look for anything slightly open or that could have been tampered with” sort that I think most people do.

But then we have to sort Cordy’s candy for anything containing artificial colors, since she’s unable to eat them.

This is the “can’t eat” pile. Ugh.

I know it upsets her to take away over half of her candy. In previous years, this was much harder and involved some fairly hefty bribes to make her happy. As she’s grown, she’s started to understand just how bad she feels when she eats artificial dyes, and so she’s more willing to part with the loot. It also helps that a company called Unreal (no affiliation with them, I just like their candy) makes their own version of popular candies without the artificial dyes and junk. I bought a few large bags of their version of M&Ms right before Halloween so we’d be ready.

This year the offer of a new deck of Pokemon cards and the large bags of Unreal candy were accepted in trade for the candy she couldn’t keep. She still had about a third of her treats from going door-to-door, too.

Now it’s all over. The Halloween decorations have been put away (the pumpkins remain for now), the costumes have been moved to the dress-up toy bin, and we’re back to normal. (Well, aside from Ohio being the center of all things political at the moment.) It’s no wonder why November is so depressing for me – it’s that month between bright, happy, sparkly months.

And no, we won’t put up holiday decorations yet, even though they were being sold in stores before (!!!) Halloween. I’ll keep my less-fun November and let Thanksgiving have its day before I will put up any decorations. I’ll probably listen to Guns ‘N Roses “November Rain” a lot, too.

Filed Under: Cordy, family time, holidays, Mira

Oct 10, 2012

HalloWeekends at Cedar Point: A Screaming Good Time

October 10, 2012 By Christina

This may have been the coldest weekend so far this fall. So what did we do? Go spend all of Sunday out in the cold, of course!

When we went to Cedar Point back in August, we saw the signs for their HalloWeekends events and thought it would be fun to come back out and see the park all set up for Halloween. Halloween is one of my family’s favorite holidays: costumes, candy, spooky stuff – what’s not to love?

Don’t we all wish for one of these now and then?

The weather, though, did not cooperate with our plans. It was cold and cloudy, and we decided quickly to ditch plans for letting the kids wear their Halloween costumes to Cedar Point. Layers of warm clothing were the costume of the day.

This guy needed a jacket.

Despite the cold, HalloWeekends at Cedar Point was a lot of fun. The entire park was decorated in skeletons, pumpkins and monsters. There were Halloween-themed events all day long, as well as scary haunted houses for the older kids and grown ups later in the day. And of course most of the usual rides were open, too.

This time we took our sister-in-law and a friend of hers with us so that we could trade off kid-duty from time to time, giving Aaron and I the first chance to ride a roller coaster together in YEARS. (Seriously, super big thanks to you both!)

There are plenty of kid-friendly HalloWeekends events that are fun and not too scary. They have the Magical House on Boo Hill, which is a young kid version of a haunted house. It was mostly spooky decor with some slightly scary special effects, like a floating table, a kid-size organ that played by itself, and a skeleton who appeared and disappeared in a closet.

At the end of the house, the kids were all given a small bag of treats as a reward. I also liked that they had someone at the front door, keeping out older kids and teens who weren’t accompanying a smaller child.

Cordy and Mira also loved the hay maze and ran through it several times.

The HalloWeekends monsters came out a few times during the day to interact with kids and dance.

Cordy even followed along to learn the Thriller dance.

There was a costume contest for the kids, but we didn’t bring costumes due to the cold so we didn’t enter. At 4pm, the HalloWeekends parade came through the midway, filled with bands, dance teams, monsters, floats and of course the Peanuts gang. Even though there were monsters and zombies, the kids weren’t scared seeing them marching in a parade.

But of course the main attraction is still the rides, and Cedar Point has some of the best. Aaron and I were thrilled to ride the Raptor, a suspended coaster that has several loops in it. And thanks to shorter lines we were able to experience the 195 foot drop of the Magnum XL twice. (Back car, naturally. It’s a must for that roller coaster.)

The kids had plenty of fun in Camp Snoopy, too:

Cordy opted out of any roller coasters, even the Cedar Creek Mine Ride. Mira, still not quite tall enough for most of the roller coasters, was limited to the Iron Dragon (a suspended coaster with no loops) for her thrill experience. And she went on it three times. It would have been four, but a late day rain shower stopped her fourth attempt. Hopefully she’ll grow another inch by next year to gain access to several other roller coasters.

Aaron and I also went through one of the more scary haunted houses. It was appropriately spooky and we jumped several times as we wound our way through all of the tight spaces.

Despite the cold, we had a fantastic time. HalloWeekends still has all of the fun of any day at Cedar Point, with the addition of some great Halloween themed events and attractions. The decorations are amazing, the shows and haunted houses are fun, and I paused for a moment to pay tribute to the recently closed Disaster Transport in the Rides Graveyard.

You will be missed…

HalloWeekends at Cedar Point is open Friday-Sunday through October 28.

Full disclosure: We received complimentary passes to attend Cedar Point. Parking, travel, food, and an amount of money I’d rather not discuss to win our kids two Pokemon toys in the games area were covered entirely by us.

Filed Under: family time, holidays, local fun, reviews

Oct 2, 2012

LEGO Castle Adventure at COSI (Giveaway!)

October 2, 2012 By Christina

I’m not sure why, but the last weekend of September is probably the busiest weekend of the entire year. No one in Columbus coordinated their calendars and as a result there were a billion things to do. (That may not be an accurate count of events, but isn’t too far off.)

We had so many activities going on this weekend that we were forced to pick only a few and turn down all other offers. I’m still exhausted as I look around my messy house and wonder when will I have an empty weekend to get any cleaning done?

But one exciting event of the weekend was visiting COSI for the opening of their new LEGO Castle Adventure exhibit. LEGOs? Castles? Science? It was like some of our favorite things came together in one big package for us.

The exhibit features the science of castle building, allowing older kids to practice building virtual castle walls to withstand a catapult, while also having lots of real LEGOs to build and play with. Professionally built LEGO castles and medieval scenes were on display, as well as a giant LEGO dragon and her baby.

There was also a throne room perfect for photos, and a smaller castle to climb with a slide on the other side.

Did I mention Mira was being a ham that day?

They even had a jousting arena, where kids could face off against targets or each other.

Bins of dress up clothing ensured that most of the kids in the exhibit were looking the part as a knight, king or queen. Mira especially liked dressing up and pretending to be a knight, using her pink unicorn shield to protect me from the dragon.

Cordy preferred to stay in the LEGO building area, creating a fortress to hide a small box she built. She said the box was filled with treasures. Very small treasures.

The LEGO Castle Adventure exhibit was a lot of fun, but after half an hour they were ready to see more at COSI. It’s a huge building, filled with different areas to explore, so we spent the next few hours wandering the exhibits.

We shot water at King Neptune in Ocean.

Mira tried to make a phone call in a 1962 phone booth in Progress.

We looked at tasty works of art, all created from Jelly Belly jelly beans.

And they hammed it up in front of a green screen in the WOSU studio.

It’s easy to spend most of a day at COSI, and we didn’t even have time to check out a movie in their Extreme Screen theater.

Giveaway!

Want to check out the LEGO Castle Adventure and COSI for yourself? I have a four pack of general admission passes, along with four Extreme Screen passes, to give to one lucky reader!

Obviously this is more convenient for readers local to the area, but if you’re planning a family trip to Columbus at any point this year (hey, why not?), these passes are good through the end of the year.

To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment below telling me what part of COSI you would most like to explore with your kids. That’s it, easy-peasy. One entry per person. I’ll accept entries until end of the day on Monday, October 8, then select one winner at random. Please make sure I have a way to contact you if you’re the winner.

Good luck!

Full disclosure: the kids and I received a free one-day admission to COSI and COSI provided the giveaway passes. All opinions are my own.

Filed Under: family time, geek paradise, giveaways, local fun, reviews

Sep 24, 2012

Birthday Weekend Extravaganza

September 24, 2012 By Christina

I probably should have written a post on Friday, but I was still too in shock over the realization that I was now the mother of an eight year old. Cordy’s birthday was Friday and I spent the early morning just staring at her and wondering where all of the time went.

You mean she’s not a baby anymore?

Eight feels so much more grown up than seven. She’s crossing that threshold into big kid now (I can’t even think of the word tween yet) which is both exciting and frightening. Cordy gained so many new skills in the past year and pushes for more independence, but at the same time she’s still so very innocent and unsure of the world.

We didn’t have an official party for her this year. She doesn’t really like parties. Besides, we had a big reunion of friends to attend on Saturday – including several kids she’s friends with – so we were happy to combine occasions and just bring a cake with us to the gathering. Then on Sunday we had family visiting, so Cordy had the chance to celebrate her birthday with them, too.

Instead of one day of celebrating, it turned into a weekend-long birthday extravaganza.

On Friday, after she received a few presents from us, we took her out to dinner at her favorite restaurant with her uncle and aunt. As we sat down and the server handed us menus, Cordy got her attention and brightly exclaimed, “Hi, it’s my birthday today, but please don’t sing to me!” She has never liked people singing to her – it’s a sensory issue she’s had since she was young. Singing to her usually results in her hiding under a table for awhile.

Thankfully, the server understood, and when the meal was done she quietly slipped Cordy a hot fudge sundae and a balloon with no crowd of servers to sing at her. And so dinner ended with everyone happy and Cordy still in her seat and not under the table.

On Saturday we made the drive up to northern Ohio to spend the day with friends. The house we go to is just outside of a small town, with lots of backyard to run and play in. What started as a semi-warm, sunny day quickly turned into rain for over an hour. After it stopped, the kids quickly ran outside again, ignoring the drop in temperature. (How do their small bodies keep from freezing?) It wasn’t long before we were all being ordered by the kids to come outside and see the amazing sky.

The kids were right:

You could see both ends of the rainbow.

Completely unedited photos shot with my iPhone.

As we marveled at the most beautiful rainbow I’ve ever seen, Cordy ran to me and said, “Look, mommy! The sky gave me a rainbow for my birthday! That’s such a nice gift!” She was right, it was a lovely gift.

On Sunday the festivities continued. Aaron took Cordy and Mira to Chuck E Cheese for an early lunch (another request from Cordy) while I straightened up the house. They came home just as family arrived to spend time with Cordy, and different family members cycled through as the day went on.

As much as she wanted her birthday to last forever, Cordy was also showing signs of overload by mid-day. She spent much of the late afternoon in the dining room working in one of her new workbooks while everyone else was in the living room, and later went to her room to be alone for a bit. I was able to coax her back down before dinner, though.

By 8:30pm, the house was finally quiet again. And I was exhausted. I’m still exhausted. It was great to see friends and family this weekend, but I’m looking forward to spending much of the next few days working by myself.

But Cordy had a great birthday, and that’s what matters the most. Happy birthday to the warrior princess!