Monkey Preschool

Laney loves to play monkey preschool on my phone. Although it is not a very challenging game for her I think she loves feeling like a big girl.

Thanks to Monkey preschool, the saying, "Monkey See, Monkey Do" has come true. Matthew has started playing it as well and  yesterday when we were at Julie's, he sat down and played it while Laney's friend, Beckley, sat next to him and played her mom's phone. Seeing these kids play with high tech toys makes me feel like an old lady saying, "I remember when we didn't have games on our phone." Mind you, I just got this phone about 3 months ago and I know many still don't have games on their phones, but these kids won't be able to remember a life without this technology. Ca-razy!

Walking and playing

Matching the fruit

This is the face I get when the puzzle screen below appears.

The dreaded puzzle screen

My little monkeys 

The youngest Rockettes

For as long as I can remember, I have watched the Macy's Thanksgiving parade. In the past, the girls haven't really cared about it and although they might ooh and aah for about 2 minutes, they would quickly be off to something else.

This year was completely different. I turned the parade on once we got up (which was around 8:30 am...I know, right??) and we vegged out for about 2 hours watching the balloons, talking about the dancers and singers, and of course singing along. When the Rockettes came on I was telling the girls that to be a Rockette you have to be a certain height, certain weight, have long hair to wear up and other requirements. The girls were shocked and kept asking questions about the lovely Rockettes. Ella would rewind the Rockettes number and the girls, with our neighbor Jill, kept high kicking away. I mean, it was like 20+ minutes of practicing.

One of the funniest parts though was a musical number done by overweight old guys dancing around. I don't know what they were advertising but Ella looked over and asked, "Mom, do those guys have to be a certain height and weight?" Um, no Ella...just old and overweight apparently :)

 

The first round of their high kicks.

Matthew loves this dress......we have so much material to show his future girlfriends.

Matthew quickly turned the high kicks into the "let's kick the TV stand" game.

I knew I should be worried when I heard hi-yas!

 

 I am not sure what she was doing but I think we can all agree she was having fun :)

 

In this picture, Jill & Ella are trying to figure out who the tallest dancer was :)

 

Then started kicking in a line like the Rockettes.

Definitely future Rockettes :)

Grandparents Day

The Tuesday before Thanksgiving was Grandparents Day at Ella's school. She was very lucky to have both sets of grandparents there to celebrate with her.

The turkey craft and hat.

I mean, what is a kid's Thanksgiving without some sort of hat?

There are 3 turkeys and 1 pilgrim.

How many in all?

Ella's handwriting is getting better and better.

Although still slightly behind the norm for her grade, she is catching up.

Her speech teacher works with her during the day as well because 

speech and handwriting difficulties often coincide.

I am thinking this must have to do with what your favorite things about Thanksgiving are:

Turkey, happy, apple pie, native, kindness, sharing, giving, Indiana, vegetables, inviting, grateful.

Ella and my mom worked so hard on this turkey and were both quick to point out that they were the only ones who got the turkey's head to stand up straight. Way to go, guys!!!

Should I be worried?

I love the crafts the kids come home with from school and a recent post from my friend made me realize I need to just take pictures of these crafts and then blog about them instead of trying to keep them (or do the quick throw away when they aren't looking).

Today Laney had her Thanksgiving Party at school and brought home all kinds of crafts. She made a turkey out of a pinecone (who knew?), a pilgrim hat and my personal favorite, this placemat.

Now, should I be worried that toys came before family?

 I am just assuming that the teacher wanted us in the center (that is what I am telling myself anyways)

 but I thought that was a riot!

  

Laney and her friends wearing glasses for G day.

Have a happy Turkey Day!

He-man

Last weekend Jason was helping his mom sort through some of her attic and was beyond excited when he came across his old he-man collection. And when I say collection, I mean huge collection. There are things that move, things that fly, she-ra, skeletor, man-e-faces (my personal favorite) and way more!

I think Jason always envisioned passing these toys down to his son (even after checking ebay and the case alone was going for $80...hard to resist selling that..lol) but little did he know how much his daughters would love playing with them. It was fun to watch him bring out these toys and I was shocked how he remembered all of the name of these crazy, I mean, wonderful figurines.

All week the girls have loved playing with their "boy" ish toys, Matthew has enjoyed playing with the loudest monster possible (I am sure it has a name, but since it wasn't part of she-ra's gang I don't know the name), and Laney has loved dressing up the He-man. I even found She-ra on Netflix which honestly was a riot to watch.

I have the POWER!!! Who didn't love those shows?

Jason kept his collection is such great condition

This case alone was going for $80 on e-bay.

Crazy!

This red car thingy is so loud but Matthew loves watching the old school wheels turn.

This is the un-lady like position Ella was found in most of the day--putting the dolls, I mean, the he-mans in the cars and planes.

Matthew--did you really go for She-Ra first?

He believes in womens rights :)

I am for any toy that encourages play and keeps my kids entertained. Yeah, entertained is right!

Go fly a kite

Laney & Jack Riley are both in Mrs. Heilie's preschool class and were quite the duo on the soccer field. She has been asking for a playdate with him for a long time and last week, I thought we would give it a try. Usually Jack Riley's order sister, Emma, comes over to play with Ella, but this time it was fun to have a boy over.

If every playdate went this well, we would have playdates every single day. He was here almost 4 hours and I entertained them less than 5% of the time. They played with He-Mans, played in the kid kitchen and even though it was only 50 degrees (at the most), they played outside most of the time.

I looked out the window and saw them trying to fly a kite. It was a riot. Jack Riley would hold it and Laney would start running. They actually got it up a few times!!!

Thanks for a great time, Jack Riley!

Matthew had a playdate

Matthew rarely has playdates with a boy friend his age. When Laney is at school we almost always go to the gym and if don't go there, we have a playdate but often the child is not his age or the child is a girl. But on Monday, Will came over with my friend Jody. Jody and I went to high school together and like me, she married her high school sweetheart.  Will is the youngest of three boys so like Matthew, I am sure he was shocked by the quiet :)

But as you know, the quiet didn't last for long. The boys had so much fun, and I was glad Matthew could have some good ol' boy time!

10 on Tuesday

I haven't done one of these in ages so please bear with me:

1) Ella continues to love first grade with her favorite subject being art. She finished soccer a few weeks back and really enjoyed being with her friends more than anything. She has Daisy's once a month and last week myself and 2 other moms were in charge of the craft (we had the petal of "sisterhood"). It was a lot of fun! She starts basketball in a few weeks which I can tell she is a little unsure of. I am impressed that she wants to try so many new sports.

2) Laney has school 4 days/week and has adjusted well to the schedule. Next year she has full day kindergarten so I was glad I could get her in 4 days a week to help the transition. She has a great teacher and my two goals for her this year (know her address and write her name in lower case letters) she has mastered.

3) Matthew is either cracking me up or driving me crazy these days. He never sits down and is always jumping, hitting, diving, clapping, etc. He brings smiles to so many faces when we walk around because they love seeing his energy (I think they smile becaues they are glad they don't have to take that ball of energy home). But today he did try and bite a few kids at the gym today when they had toys he wanted :(

4) The Friday after Halloween was the Pumpkin After Dark. It is a fundraiser for our PTO and let's just say, you throw alcohol in and people spend a lot of money. Alas, we were not one of them but we did win tickets to see the Nutcracker (which the girls were dying to see anyways) and tickets for a broadway show at the Aranoff. We were excited about our wins.

5) Next weekend we are going to see Wicked with 4 other couples. We saw Wicked when I was pregos with Laney so I am excited to see it again (especially now that I know the music). Also next weekend we are having the inaugaural Dinner Club. There is a TP Dinner Club but this dinner club is my 3 closest friends and their husbands. We are going to get together once every two months and rotate homes. I have wanted to do this for a while not only to see the ladies but I think it is nice for the guys to get together too. The 3 ladies that are in this group graduated in Jason's class and one other lady married her high school sweetheart too (he is 2 years older than me). Should be a great time! Oh and NO KIDS for either Friday or Saturday and this is the second weekend in a row where the kids are all spending the night out....that is a huge HOLLA!

6) The girls have been taking a ballet/tap class on Mondays. Is is 30 minutes of ballet, 30 minutes of tap. They have really enjoyed the time and I really like it for Ella especially. She continues to have low muscle tone so I think it is good exercise for her. She rarely smiles during class; you can see she is really trying hard and concentrating on the moves. On the other hand, Laney is jumping around and smiling like crazy. They are so different!

7) I just signed up to do Spirit Wear (t-shirts for the teachers and kids) for Laney's preschool. I am thinking what the heck have I gotten myself in to as everybody has an opinion. At least it won't last forever, right? But then I was asked to join the Parent Council which meets every few weeks to organize events for the kids and their families. I am really excited to be a part of the council (I asked if there was a secret handshake or something).

8) Our latest house projects are the mudroom and the downstairs bathroom. The contractor is coming in two weeks to lay the tile in the mudroom and hang the beadboard. We still need to order the cabinets above and finish the bench but I am hoping once we see the tile, we will have motivation to order the cabinets. What a decision! Since we are getting that floor done, we are going to get the downstairs bathroom floor done as well. We have been searching for a new vanity and toilet (wow, exciting) but luckily have found something we like.

9) Last week we made cookies for an after dinner treat. Ella was loving the cookies (um, she is my daughter) and when her's was done she asked Laney, "Laney, can I have one of yours'? I will let you punch me in the face."

10) Matthew=crazy...have you gotten that memo yet? Well the other day he was crying forever before falling asleep for his nap. Once he got up, I heard the cry out, "Mama, I am up. I am stuck." I went upstairs, opened his door and didn't see him. I knew he was in there but didn't see him right away. When this happens, he is often underneath his fire truck bed and can't get out (I don't know how he gets under there but somehow he does). But today was a new one for me. He was in his closet and couldn't figure out how to get out (mind you this is a small closet, so he had pushed away the boxes of wipes to create a 1 ft x 1 ft space to lay down in). Poor guy :)

 I have to give a huge shout out to Jason's parents and my parents who have done tons of babysitting for us in the past month (watching Matthew during the girls' dance class, watching Matthew and the girls over night, staying with the kids so we can go grab dinner). We are so spoiled by our parents!

Band Aid Time

Matthew has been all about Band Aids lately. I know many kids go threw this but I love that he usually wants them on his face. We went to church this past weekend with one on his nose. The sitter asked him what he did and he kept telling them he broke it. When I came in, he had gotten an extra car and craft from them because the ladies fell for his "broken" nose. They had a good chuckle when I told them he wasn't saying, "broke" but rather "broom." His nose got in the way of the broom.

No mark even left on his nose but he had to get a bandaid.

He has had a new bandaid on his forehead for at least 2 weeks straight.

I have found it is just easier to give in then to fight it....it is so cute!

You never know where the bandaids might be (forehead, nose, ear, fingers, knees) but he almost always has one on. Oh our little man!

A Fun Fall Day

So our new house has tons of leaves. And I mean tons! I never noticed how many until we owned it (as opposed to my parents...my mom loves to rake leaves). 

Maybe we should have negotiated a weekly leaf raking into the purchase agreement :)

Ok, back to the point...we have lots of leaves which has meant that we have tons of fun jumping in leaves! 

I realized that I don't think I have posted a true picture of the outside of our new house.

Although the door is open and Matthew is shouting, "Mama", here it is. 

We just love the history of the house, the street with only 4 homes on it, the privacy of it yet still being in walking distance to the heart of the Park, brick (I don't even know when it rains which is a nice change as in our old house it seemed like a train was coming every time it rained), how we know the history of every tree (my dad planted the magnolia right after they moved in 33 years ago) yet we have enjoyed making it our own (the landscaping was changed after we moved in...basically to make it lower maintenance for yours' truly).

Next summer we will probably change the shutter color...any ideas?

Happy Halloween 2011

The weather this sure cooperated perfectly for a gorgeous Halloween. In Terrace Park, there is always the Terrace Park Elementary parade where the students get their costumes on (usually they go home for lunch to get changed) and parade around the block of the elementary school. The neighbors all come out of their homes to watch and it is a great way to start off the Halloween Day.

Laney was excited to see the parade. In her hands is the doll I used to play with as a little girl that I found in the basement, complete with many outfits. Luckily there were two dolls saved (it's like my mom knew I was going to have two girls) so each girl had a "new" to them doll. Laney has yet to put this doll down :)

Here are two of our favorite Kindergartners: Willow as Pocahontas and Ellie as a witch

Next was the first grade class.

Miss Bimm, Ella's teacher, was a construction worker.

All of the teachers were construction workers given that the new school is being built.

And there is our favorite fairy.

Ella and I had so much fun picking out the wings, putting on her makeup, finding the perfect knee socks and leggings, and spray painting her hair.

It was a great time!

My mom and dad were able to make it to the parade. Ella was so excited to see them on her route.

The progress of the new school: the gym walls are up!

After school, we had some time to take pictures before we headed to our neighbor's for a Halloween party.

Hunter joined the Willetts kiddos :)

You know Matthew loved being Buzz.

He kept saying, I am buzz, I am buzz!

 

Amy Evans and myself drinking wine before trick or treating.

Nothing says Halloween like alcohol!

The kids enjoy a pre-trick or treating meal.

Jason's parents joined us for trick or treating.

It was great to have them around and since the weather was wonderful, we all actually enjoyed it

 (as opposed to years' past when it was just too stinkin' cold to enjoy).

My Uncle Jim lives right up the street over so after the party, we ran to his house.

Jim gave my kids tons of candy and to me he gave a carrot :)

Gotta love it!

Yes, Uncle Jim gave Laney 3 pieces

Part of our crew:

Donnie, Hunter, Sophie, Jill and Laney

Carrie and the cutest lion, Evan

Mrs. Lyons and Matthew

Mrs. Lyons has been there since I was a little girl.

Seeing Laney is deja vous for a few of my neighbors as they

 think she looks just like me when I was a kid and went trick or treating :)

Me and Kim 

Laney, Ella & Willow

Laney at the Valentine's House

Our newest neighbors: GA and Kim McClung with their 2 year old Karis

 (they have 3 other kiddos who were running like crazy with our kids)

Our crew before we split up.

We did the 4 streets right near us (about 20 homes) and since these homes usually see only our kids for trick or treating, our kids were given tons of candy.

One of the special treats of only having a few trick or treaters: candy bracelets and free happy meal

Sally & Susan

I had to fit in the awesome pumpkins Jason did.

Way to go, J!

After hitting the few homes near us, we headed into the park. My parents were at a friends' home so we stopped there to say hi. We ran into my friend and her 3 boys there. It was funny because in all of the times I have seen Jody in the past month, we didn't talk about what our kids were being for Halloween. We then saw that Max was Buzz....too funny! The boys ran right to each other like they knew one of "their kind."

Matthew attacking the blow up ghost. They put this ghost to shame. 

By this point it was dark, cold and time for us to go home.

Laney's Halloween Party at preschool.

Hope you all had a Happy Halloween!