More "fourth" fun!

Aw heck yea! Just figured out how to easily get my Instagram pics on my computer. (Instaport.me)

So, here are some more pics from my phone of all that Austin/Schneider goodness. Enjoy!

Some top Josie & Lyla moments:

Some Jack & Bea bathtime fun: 

 The great beadwork disaster of 2012:

The neighborhood parade:

(And there was a neighborhood pool party. And it was great. And there was a great video of Jack jumping in the water and Josie & Lyla going under together a million times but my camera broke. Boo hoo.)

Fireworks over Sawyer Point:

4, 3, 2, 1 week!

(Let the great blog catch-up begin!) For the days surrounding the Fourth of July, we had the little Austins in town while the big Austins moved from Chicago-city to Chicago-burb. With special guests Grandma and DD, the week was jam-packed with four kiddos ages four and under. (Or 4, 3, 2, 1 which are roughly their ages.) Ha, I'm tired just thinking about it.  It was really really really great to spend so much time with LylaBird and JackPot. They are all starting to really play well together. And we had some great adventures - although I totally didn't have the time to take as many photos as I normally do (you called that one Tia). Here are some highlights. Enjoy!

 THE ZOO TRIP (If you haven't checked out the new Cat Canyon exhibit, it is seriously awesome. Look how close the tigers get - inspiring Lyla's now classic line, "Kiwi, these tigers are freakin me out!")

Riding in style (worth every bit of the $20 rental):

Grandma & Uncle LouLou show the babies the gorillas while the big girls run around:

Everyone had a blast mimicking the gorilla sounds:

The carousel never disappoints!

Time to cool off and get a little manatee smooch:

The babies were BEAT so I got to keep the big girls with me while the babies went home to nap. I had so much fun with Lyla and Josie. They are SO hilarious together! We rode the back of the train together, and I pushed them around in the double stroller while they sang "Three Little Birds" as loud as they could. They jumped about a gazillion times off of the backs of the turtles in the children's zoo playground. And they were so tired they wanted me to carry both of them to the car. (And there are photos of that afternoon somewhere - On instagram? Or did I text them? Crap, are they on my old phone?)

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We spent a lot of time playing outside until it got too hot each day (like 100 degrees with full humidity hot).  The kiddos spent a lot of time only partially dressed!

On our big last night we ventured downtown for the Sawyer Point fireworks. Considering we ended up their on a total whim, we were a little unprepared but everything worked out okay.  You can see just how hot it was in the pics - sweaty little sweeties.  The park was a fun and the fireworks were pretty (and loud).

Waiting (about 10pm after a loooong day) for the big show:

 Matching outfits courtesy of Grandma (thanks Grandma)!

Told you it was hot!

The closest we got to all four (uber-tired) kids in one pic:

Awwww Jacky!

Beyond Babbling

Little Baby Beatrice is talking up a storm. New words are popping up every day and this really is just such an unbelievably fun age. We thought we'd share some of our favorite words that she says here. (Oh & I finally figured out the trick to filming her - letting her watch herself on the ipad camera on record. It was not working out to hold the camera phone in front her; she kept just trying to grab it. So, expect more videos now that I have this trick up my sleeve.) Enjoy!

House Update

So, I put it out there that we were moving but I haven't really said much here since. When it's all said and done and we're moved into our new urban oasis next month, I'll go into more of the full story. Suffice it to say now we are busy with all the details of buying and selling and haven't even begun to think about the actual logistics of moving (remembering how horribly exhausting the process was two years ago & getting reminded recently from my dear sister about the horribly exhausting part). So, now we are focusing on the excitement of starting over somewhere new, and we're totally sticking our fingers in our ears and covering our eyes to the realities of leaving our favorite neighbors ever, packing up three floors of house, etc, etc.

For those just dying to know, we close on our current house a week from tomorrow BUT we don't have to be out of here for another month after that. We close on our new house the first week of August. The plan as it exists now is to slowly move little things over and prep the new house in early August and not move "for reals" until Josie starts back to school on the 16th.  Sound like a plan? Glad you agree. :)

Here's a little new house sneaky peeky.

View of the front:

View of the back (seriously, this little gal came walking through our backyard as I was taking photos): 

Super Cool New & Improved Washington Park!

The new Washington Park is so unbelievably awesome that it is almost impossible to remember how it was before.  The city has totally blossomed and it's just really cool. I think we earned some urban pioneer cred considering we bought our condo downtown almost a decade before the big revitalization.

We headed down on Sunday to check it out, since the grand opening was just last week. Courtesy of social media, we knew swimming suits were an important part of enjoying the fun and away we went!

Check out our girlies enjoying our city's latest  investment in beautification and restoration! (That's Music Hall behind Bea for your reference.)

Super cool interactive fountain, very unique playground equipment, giant instruments, outdoor stage & gazebo, free music, nice facilities, walking distance to all the hip new OtR stuff, easy underground parking...GET YOUR BUNS TO WASHINGTON PARK! 

Grab your flux capacitor

What do this blog, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, A Christmas Carol and Back to the Future all have in common? That's right - they all travel back and forth in time.  So in my never-ending quest to document the fleeting moments of life as the Four Schneiders, I'm just going to have to stick with organized chaos here on the blog.  (Some sage advice from my dear friend Linda echos through my mind right now, but I'm keeping it to myself.)  

So, with that - let's travel through time a little. Because it's the quickest thing to post in my long line of potential blogs, here's the little collage from our trip to the Parade of Nations last night for the World Choir Games. Long story short, it's like the Olympics - only with singing. And this was the first time it has ever been in America and it was in Cincinnati. As the ads say "The Hills Are Alive With the Sound of Music" in our "City That Sings."  It is truly incredible to see the city teeming with every nationality you can imagine. I'm proud of our city for hosting!

We had dinner at Mccormick and Schmicks and literally watched the world pass by outside the window.  Then there was a big party on Fountain Square and our little ones danced and clapped along with people from across the planet. Good stuff Cincinnati, Good stuff!