Cindy's Race

The last week in July, Cindy competed in the Louisville Iron-man. She had done one Iron-man before and felt confident in her training going into the Louisville race. The Willetts weren't able to make it but my parents and Tony served as a great cheering section!

We were tracking her online (gotta love technology) but saw that her transition time from the bike to the run seemed longer than normal. I don't know a ton about transition time so I just thought her run wasn't tracking properly. Not 2 minutes later, I get a call from my mom. I don't want to make this dramatic as Cindy said it was all blown out of proportion but after flipping into a ditch, having a concussion, taking an ambulance ride, spending some time in an inner city hospital getting x-rays, Cindy came through unharmed. Although I know she was upset she didn't get to finish the race she had trained so hard for, from our perspective we are just glad she is ok!

Cindy's race still gave us a reason to party with family (see Laney's recount below) but here are some great family pictures we took :)


Cindy and tony

Although Laney was shy with Tony for about 2 minutes, she quickly warmed up. In fact, she was flirting with him. Watch out, Cindy...you have competition :)

Laney and Aunt Cindy doing the crab.
Grr......
Yes, Laney is looking at Tony when she does this (doesn't want to let him out of her sight)

The sign Laney helped my mom make
We have become professional sign makes as my mom even got different colored electrical tape to make the letters. It was impressive and Laney enjoyed helping Nana!

Jason and Grandpa Mike took Ella to her first Reds game a few days before the race.
Not sure which she liked better--the popcorn, sitting in the top row, or the pop :)
But she had fun nonetheless

What a great time with the boys!

Laney the photographer

I am including these pictures not because they are fabulous but because my little Laney took them. She loves capturing people, and you can really see who loved helping Laney out. I love it!

Aunt Nancy was a great sport

Who doesn't love a full screen picture of mama?

Uncle Fred smiling with El

Gigi and Ella

Nancy posing with Ella (yes, Ella is still posing these days....should be interesting with picture day on Monday)

Nancy

More posing :)

Ella and Jan

Jason's shoes and the dishwasher...lol

My little Picasso and finally a room reveal

A couple of weeks ago I met a friend of mine at the outlet malls. Ella really wanted to get this butterfly canvas that could paint. She came home, set out her supplies and took her time copying the picture onto her canvas. I thought it deserved a special place in her room because I knew how hard she had worked on it and how much this is just an Ella type craft :)

Excuse the half done island in the background. That island is completed now and the new wall color is up. Pics to follow....

Ella's artwork in its place of honor
I have always wanted this artwork hanger from Ikea and although I thought we would put it in the play room, Ella asked to put in her room. I thought it turned out perfectly!

The girls' room.
This is the largest bedroom in the house (Ella has a full bed, Laney has a twin and there is still plenty of floor space for playing). We painted it light green with pink accents. The girls picked out the pink shag rugs and Kelly W. helped me with the light green color. I am really happy with the result!

Behind their beds is a Wishberry decal (Laney loves wishberries...doubt that is the real name but she loves them!). The whole family helped hang this :)

We wanted to put decals on the fan, and I found these at Target. Honestly, they aren't my favorite as they are a little too dark but since they have glitter the girls want them to stay.

I looked and looked for bookcases for the girls' room. I didn't know what I wanted except for something that held books but I couldn't find what I "wanted". I originally wanted with the Worthington's have in their basement from Ikea (the 4 cubbies) but that was too big. Ikea has one with 2 cubbies but that wasn't quite big enough. I said to J, boy I wish it had 4 smaller cubbies and then low and behold, we had one already. We had stood this up in our old house with baskets in the cubbies but putting it sideways has worked perfectly...and it was free :)

The previous homeowners (hehehehe) left a few mirrors just in case we needed them. This was was originally had a gold, ornate frame. I liked the design but thought if we painted the frame pink it would match perfectly. Luckily hip2save had mentioned free paint samples a while back so I got a pink in hopes to use it in the room. Well, Yay! Here it is :)

The high heeled shoe found a perfect place :)

It is tough to see but this is a huge closet which we will eventually get a closet organizer in.
But what is cool about this picture? No, it is not Laney's sparkly blue dress. But if you see the 2 big boxes up top, my wedding dress and my mom's wedding dress. I need to find a better home in this house for them but for now, it is pretty cool to have them nearby :)

First Day of Preschool

Although we got to meet the teacher last Thursday, today is the first day of preschool. Laney's teacher is Mrs. Heile and the helper is Mrs. Kauffman. She has a rather big class but I am not worried. Her teacher seems very organized and has concrete goals she will set for each student (like for Laney, I just want her to learn to write her name lowercase).

Throughout the summer we were lucky enough to meet a few kids from her class. One of the girls, Megan, is the daugther of a sorority sister of mine from college. We have gotten the girls together throughout the summer and they hit it off. She is also in class with a daughter of a friend of mine from high school and a few kids from her soccer team. She is so excited. Although it is only 2 1/2 hours (insert a big BOO here as our preschool in Indy was 4 hours) it is 4 days a week, gearing her up for full day Kindergarten next year.

She was so excited to head inside.

After hanging her coat and back pack up, she ran to the class pet (a hamster) and started playing. She was ready to see her friends :)

Then it was just me and little man.
What are we to do?

We picked Laney up and the first thing she said was, "Mom, I had a great first day. Mrs. Kauffman and Mrs. Heile are my teachers. They are really nice. We played outside, did story time, had a snack of pretzels, painted and had circle time." Yes, she said that it one sentence without any pulling or prodding about what she did (with Ella I have to ask a bazillion questions to find out even one detail about what happened in school).

Here's to a great school year, Laney Bug!

I did it!

Matthew has been piecing words together and his latest saying "I did it" cracks me up.
I love when he not only uses it correctly but in a funny way. I asked him "Who pooped?" and he said "I did it. Sorry." Love that little man!

What every 4 year old should know

Last night I was talking to a great friend about our 4 year old girls and what a 4 year old should know for Kindergarten. This is my friend's first daughter and with your children, especially your first, you always wonder what is normal academic development. I know with Ella I worried like crazy what was typical for a girl her age but I have learned by watching Ella and her friends grow is that kids all figure it out...just on their own schedule.

I found this on a blog I was reading today and it really hit home.
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What should a 4 year old know?

I was on a parenting bulletin board recently and read a post by a mother who was worried that her 4 1/2 year old did not know enough. “What should a 4 year old know?” she asked.

Most of the answers left me not only saddened but pretty soundly annoyed. One mom posted a laundry list of all of the things her son knew. Counting to 100, planets, how to write his first and last name, and on and on. Others chimed in with how much more their children already knew, some who were only 3. A few posted URL’s to lists of what each age should know. The fewest yet said that each child develops at his own pace and not to worry.

It bothered me greatly to see these mothers responding to a worried mom by adding to her concern, with lists of all the things their children could do that hers couldn’t. We are such a competitive culture that even our preschoolers have become trophies and bragging rights. Childhood shouldn’t be a race.

So here, I offer my list of what a 4 year old should know.

1. She should know that she is loved wholly and unconditionally, all of the time.
2. He should know that he is safe and he should know how to keep himself safe in public, with others, and in varied situations. He should know that he can trust his instincts about people and that he never has to do something that doesn’t feel right, no matter who is asking. He should know his personal rights and that his family will back them up.
3. She should know how to laugh, act silly, be goofy and use her imagination. She should know that it is always okay to paint the sky orange and give cats 6 legs.
4. He should know his own interests and be encouraged to follow them. If he could care less about learning his numbers, his parents should realize he’ll learn them accidentally soon enough and let him immerse himself instead in rocket ships, drawing, dinosaurs or playing in the mud.
5. She should know that the world is magical and that so is she. She should know that she’s wonderful, brilliant, creative, compassionate and marvelous. She should know that it’s just as worthy to spend the day outside making daisy chains, mud pies and fairy houses as it is to practice phonics. Scratch that– way more worthy.

But more important, here’s what parents need to know.

1. That every child learns to walk, talk, read and do algebra at his own pace and that it will have no bearing on how well he walks, talks, reads or does algebra.
2. That the single biggest predictor of high academic achievement and high ACT scores is reading to children. Not flash cards, not workbooks, not fancy preschools, not blinking toys or computers, but mom or dad taking the time every day or night (or both!) to sit and read them wonderful books.
3. That being the smartest or most accomplished kid in class has never had any bearing on being the happiest. We are so caught up in trying to give our children “advantages” that we’re giving them lives as multi-tasked and stressful as ours. One of the biggest advantages we can give our children is a simple, carefree childhood.
4. That our children deserve to be surrounded by books, nature, art supplies and the freedom to explore them. Most of us could get rid of 90% of our children’s toys and they wouldn’t be missed, but some things are important– building toys like legos and blocks, creative toys like all types of art materials (good stuff), musical instruments (real ones and multicultural ones), dress up clothes and books, books, books. (Incidentally, much of this can be picked up quite cheaply at thrift shops.) They need to have the freedom to explore with these things too– to play with scoops of dried beans in the high chair (supervised, of course), to knead bread and make messes, to use paint and play dough and glitter at the kitchen table while we make supper even though it gets everywhere, to have a spot in the yard where it’s absolutely fine to dig up all the grass and make a mud pit.
5. That our children need more of us. We have become so good at saying that we need to take care of ourselves that some of us have used it as an excuse to have the rest of the world take care of our kids. Yes, we all need undisturbed baths, time with friends, sanity breaks and an occasional life outside of parenthood. But we live in a time when parenting magazines recommend trying to commit to 10 minutes a day with each child and scheduling one Saturday a month as family day. That’s not okay! Our children don’t need Nintendos, computers, after school activities, ballet lessons, play groups and soccer practice nearly as much as they need US. They need fathers who sit and listen to their days, mothers who join in and make crafts with them, parents who take the time to read them stories and act like idiots with them. They need us to take walks with them and not mind the .1 MPH pace of a toddler on a spring night. They deserve to help us make supper even though it takes twice as long and makes it twice as much work. They deserve to know that they’re a priority for us and that we truly love to be with them.

I thought this was a great reminder to us moms that we are doing it right and we are all raising happy, healthy, growing, smart children :)

Here is my happy 4 year old as we went to go meet her preschool teacher. I had set up a phone call from Cinderella this AM and after she heard this, she has been on cloud 9. Of course this call required a quick outfit change so she could be like Cinderella!

School starts Monday.
Laney is beyond excited; she is bored with me and jealous that her other friends are in school. I can't wait for her to have her own friends to play with :)

Matthew vs. the puddle

These pics are from my phone so I apologize for their size and blurriness (I am just impressed I can get them on here to be honest, let alone make them bigger) :) Next time I might just have to e-mail them to get better quality because these are really grainy...sorry!

Today was a wet, wet day. While Ella was at school, Laney, Matthew and I stayed in our PJs until 1 pm. We vegged, watched a few movies (one being Tangled....gosh I love that one!) and just cuddled. I can't remember when we did this for a whole day so it was nice to just veg. We had workers here installing our new island (holla!) so it gave me motivation to make NO plans in the AM.

But when the kids got home from school, Laney and Matthew were ready to play. We walked down to the bus stop to get Ella and as we were walking it started to rain harder than I thought it would. We had a blast as all of the kids (think like 12 kids) started jumping in puddles and splashing around. It was a great time to be a kid (and a mom of a kid).

After I got inside and changed the kids, Matthew took those clothes off and went outside with our neighbor, Garrett. He jumped with Garrett and Sophie in the biggest puddle in the circle. It was awesome to watch, and it just made me happy I don't miss these simple moments. Many times I want to pull my hair out when he does "boy" things, but this time I just loved it!

Here he was after the puddle jump. Yep, straight to the bath :)

Sorry this is so small but there is Sophie and Garrett laying down in the puddle. I forwarded this to Sophie's mom and the next thing I hear is a huge scream from Sophie's mom to go home. It was kinda funny :)

Willett Family Fun

A few weeks ago (where does the time go) we had some of Jason's family over. His cousin, Mike, his girlfriend, Barbara, and their newborn baby, Lauren, were in town from California. Mike's other two daughters, Kayla and Emma, were here as well. We just had such a blast hanging out, catching up and enjoying the nice night.

We wish we could see them more often but yet we cherish the time with them that we have. We moved here to be near family, and it is this kind of night that makes me incredibly happy we did.

Jason's cousin, Mike, and his girlfriend, Barbara.
Could there be a more gorgeous couple?

Jason's cousin, Angi, and her daughter, Annie

Brothers Stan & Clyde

Clyde & Laney having a heart to heart
It was about this point in the night when Clyde was done with my picture taking. He started to say I was a Japanese tourist in disguise as a blonde, suburbanite.

Another Willett photographer in training--poor Clyde!

Barbara and baby Lauren

I had to include this pic of the knock out roses.
We transplanted them and both appeared to be dying.
Jason and I watered them and fed them and ok, I talked to them.
Both came back and bloomed this summer. Yay!


Matthew's favorite toy these days is the stomp rocket.
We have two of them which he takes to the circle and stomps away.
Oh, and he doesn't wear shoes at all. I have to keep baby wipes by all the doors to wipe his feet down when he comes in. Crazy boy!

Um, where did it go?

Pretty soon everybody was doing the stomp rocket :)

Cousins!

This night was a great night for many reason, but it was really nice because all 3 of our neighbors were out of town; we had the whole circle to ourselves. We are happy to report though that the Circus House next to us is now rented to a fabulous family with 4 kids (ages 8,5,5 and 2). They are even talking about buying it already...yay!

Mike and J
I am so bummed this is out of focus. I wish I could say Laney took it but alas, it was me :(