Craftin' it up!

The other day the kids were working on cards.
By kids, I mean all 3 of them :)

Run, baby, Run

As you all know, Cindy completed an ironman this past Sunday. The girls were watching the live feed for a long time but weren't able to stay up to see Cindy cross the finish line. So we got it on tape and the girls have loved watching their Aunt Cindy cross (I tried to download it to the blog but I wasn't able to. As you know though, it is on Facebook).

The past few nights, Ella has asked me to play the video while she runs around the house screaming with joy. She tries to see who finishes first...her or Aunt Cindy. It is adorable! Of course Ella's run is 15 seconds while Cindy's event was over 15 hours but still, adorable :)

When the people crossed the finish line, the announcer would say most of their names, followed by you're an iron man. He couldn't announce everyone's name but he did announce Cindy's number (but no, Cindy Pope, you are an Iron Man).

So Cindy, since the announcer didn't get it right, here you go:

CINDY POPE, YOU'RE AN IRONMAN (does that make it official?).

Working our way to 7 AM

For the past few months, the girls have started to creep into our room earlier and earlier. There were times when Ella was up at 5:30 or 6:00 and although she wouldn't wake us up, she would be on our floor when we would wake up (many a times I tripped on her when I would get out of bed). Other times, they would be at the side of our bed wanting us to get up at 6:00am. No way girls! Matthew gets up like clock work at 6:30am so although I understand them getting up when they hear him, I still wanted them to stay in bed until 7 am (plus Laney really needs to sleep in longer to get her needed sleep).

Well, what should we do? Oh yes, the sticker chart!

No it's not a pretty chart, but it gets the job done. At the end of the first week completed, they got to the "star column". I had no idea what I wanted the little incentive to be but Ella had a few ideas of her own 1) a sleepover with a friend (at the friend's house...I thought that was a win for me!) 2) ice cream 3) play-a- lot (aka dirty lot). We then thought a mom/daughter pool outing would be fun but alas, there were storm clouds. Laney said she wanted to ride a merry go round and although I immediately thought of the one at Forrest Park, I thought, let's go to the Children's Museum. We haven't been there in months so the girls were crazy excited!

At the new exhibit: cars & guitars

Completely blurry but you can see how happy she is to dance around in her 70s outfit

This was BY FAR their favorite exhibit: karaoke. The girls didn't care what song they should be singing but just started singing the Black Eyed Peas song that I posted about last week. They were singing their hearts out!

We have been through the Barbie exhibit many times but I never realized that if you text Barbie (who knew she had a cell phone?) she will call your cell phone back. I did this and Barbie called within 1 minute. Ella was so confused.

Although we had visited the Planetarium a few times, I didn't know about the Children's Lilly Theater (how could I have not known about this? oh yeah, because I usually have three kids with me and I can't imagine Matthew sitting through a show). Well, we got tickets to see Winnie the Pooh. After many questions about whether or not the characters were real, the girls sat and enjoyed the 40 minute show. It was rather cute but after it was over, we were all exhausted and ready to go home.

Thanks for a fun time, girls!

So what do they get when they complete the whole chart? They both want pillow pets, which their Nana Dean has graciously offered to buy them once we hit that point. It is probably a month or so off, but they girls are really doing a great job of staying in bed until 7 AM! Yay!

Visit from Kelly

This past week one of my best friends from college, Kelly, did a tour de babies. She saw 8 babies in 1-2 weeks (or something crazy like that). Many of these babies she had never met. She started off in Canton, OH, then to Chicago and we rounded out the trip. Kelly hadn't seen Ella since she was less than a year old so it was exciting for Kelly to see her again as well as to meet Laney and Matthew!

Thanks for making the trip to see our family, Kel!
As always, we pick up right where we left off and it was wonderful to spend time with you.

Name that tune with guest singer: Laney Willett

I thought this video was of something completely different, but once I downloaded it I had to keep it.

The title should be: Deep Thoughts With Laney

This is what I thought the video was:

Seriously...how is he THIS big?

It's a girl, it's a plane, no...it's a fish!

Last week Ella took swim lessons at Forest Park Pool. For 10 straight days she swam her heart out. Before these classes she enjoyed the water but did like to bobb up and down or go under water. As the classes approached Ella was starting to say that she was scared of the water. With that being said, I had NO idea what to expect. Well, the first day came and she was put in the level 1 group (this is where I enrolled her since it was her first lesson). She was with another girl her age and they went into the deep end of the baby pool (3 1/2 feet or so). She bobbed up and down and you could tell was very comfortable with the teacher. After 10 minutes there, she was moved to level 2 which was in the big pool. Most kids her age were in level two where they learn to float on their stomachs and on their backs. The criteria to move up to level 3 was holding their breathe under water for 10 seconds.

During the third lesson, I noticed Ella get out of the pool and move to level 3. The teacher said she held her breath for more than 10 seconds and was blowing bubbles. Level 3 was just her and one other boy. She did more of the same as in level 2, but just longer distances. The teacher tried to have both kids lay on their belly and kick but both kids' legs just sunk to the bottom. Something to work on for next year :)

Catching a breath between bobbs

Kicking against the wall

Nature at its finest

We were all outside playing in our pool when Windsor started climbing up the tree (literally). He was barking like crazy but from my angle I couldn't tell what he was barking at. I walked to the other side of the tree and this is what I saw:

1 baby bird with her mama



Another baby bird with her mama

2 baby birds with their mama

I personally think the mama felt this was a safe place for her babies because of the cute birdhouses on the branch below :)

Rocking down memory lane

*Thank you, Erin, for the inspiration for this post*

A piece of family memorabilia can instantly bring back memories. Whether it's artwork your great grandma gave you, a piece of china passed down through generations, a bracelet from your mom or something else special, the memories evoked can be very special.

We have a piece of furniture that makes us smile and think back to all of the times we have used it. From rocking the girls to sleep when they were sick or reading them book after book, not to mention all the hours I spent sitting there before Ella was born just thinking how blessed we were (and how quickly our lives would change), our rocking chair has been a very special item to our family.

As I was rocking Matthew recently I was touched just thinking of the babies rocked there: Ella, Laney, Matthew, my sister Cindy and myself. Yes, this was the rocking chair my parents kept and passed down to us for our children. Is it the most comfortable? No. Is it the style I would have picked out if we were to buy one? No. Do I absolutely love it and the memories it brings with it: Yes!

My parents had it repainted in fun, child like colors when I was pregnant with Ella, so it has matched every room it has been in. I am not sure what we will do with it once Matthew decides he doesn't want to be held anymore but I know that it will remain with us and the girls will have it someday to rock their babies to sleep.

Do you have any items that evoke such happy memories? Would love to hear about them.....

Fun Filled Friday

Today was not a day for a kid who wanted to stay home. I generally do not overschedule us as I like playing outside in our yard and having free time but today was not one of those days. We went from sun up till sun down (ok, the kids were all asleep by 5:45 pm so not quite sun down but you get the point).

1) Ella's swim lessons were from 9:45-10:15. She started on Wednesday in the level 1 group (since this was her first swim experience) but each day she has gone up a level and today she was in level 3. She was the youngest in her group by a good couple years so I was a proud mama to see the coach tell her to join the bigger kids. She had one on one instruction which was nice and they actually worked on some strokes.

2) After swim lessons, we dropped Matthew off at home for a nap (no need to call CPS as Jason was home) and the girls and I went to Connor Prairie. It was free admission day and although we had planned to catch up with friends, after doing a few activities and eating our lunch, we realized it was way too crowded and headed home.

The girls each got a picture of the both of them playing dress up.
At this special activity there was also a computer game, drawings and a goody bag filled with activities, crayons and information for the parents on the benefit of healthy eating and activity every day.

3) After Connor Prairie, Matthew woke up and off we went to Inlow Park. We had never been to this sprinkler park (so that alone was nice) but we pulled into the parking lot to find we had the whole place to ourselves. I thought it might be broken since there were no kids there, but then I quickly remembered it was 2pm (when most kids are having quiet time or naps....not those crazy Willetts). We played in the water park for about 45 minutes and then thanks to Kristy, who told us there were play sets there, we were off to the playsets. I wouldn't have even noticed the playsets as they were so nicely hidden amongst the trees. We didn't stay too terribly long in the play area though as it had just rained and the mosquitoes were after us (and left their marks on our legs).

A sprinkler park all to ourselves....heaven!

4) After we made it home, Matthew took a power nap. It was then off to Chick-fil-A for dinner. Chick-fil-A had a special; if you dressed up like a cow you got a free meal (sandwich or salad, drink, fries). We would have spent over $30 and got it all for free! Jason and the girls were into the costumes, I was less than enthused about wearing one cow spot and Matthew tried to eat his paper costume. But it all worked and we were extremely happy with the promotion :)

Mooooooo--they even had tails on their backsides

We beat the rush into Chick-Filet-A (we were there by 4) but the workers said that lunch time was crazy with cow costumes all around. There were about 15 other families when we were there, all wearing some sort of cow costume. I loved the creativity!

Thanks for a fun filled Friday, Willett kiddos!