Swim Lessons

Last week the girls took swim lessons at the TP Pool. The pool is a 5 minute walk from our house and unlike how we never walked Ella to Kindergarten, we actually walked to the pool most of the days. Must have been a site: Ella riding her bike, Laney riding the Barbie Jeep with my pool bag beside her, and then Matthew in the stroller with 3 rafts trailing behind him. We definitely pack for weeks ;)

Now, we aren't exactly members at the pool (ok, we are completely NOT members at the pool). And although we will be next year, this year it just didn't make much sense. We were able to take lessons there and since I became friends with the manager (who thought we were members) we would stay for an extra hour after lessons to play. I didn't feel too guilty about it until one day we were the only people at the pool and all 3 life guards were just watching us...lol.

I can not say enough wonderful things about the swim instructors. They were caring, funny, understanding and just enjoyed what they were doing. They didn't mind that the kids all needed goggles adjusted every few minutes, that some kids had to leave to go potty, that there were tears. I was beyond impressed.

Here is Laney jumping in to see Stephanie

This is how Laney looked for the whole 30 minutes.
She was so smiley, waved to the crowd (aka my mom and I) and just swam like a fish.

Yeah, I think somebody liked it

One of her classmates, Claire.
These two will be in the same preschool class which I am so excited about.
They just moved here as well and we instantly hit it off.
Of course in true 4 year old style, Claire and Laney were BFF's after 2 classes..lol

My mom was such a trooper!
It was like 95 degrees and ridiculously hot (even at 10 AM), but she came to cheer her girls on (and to keep MJ from jumping in the deep end).
Thanks for coming, Mom!

Hello ladies...check out that look

If you ever thought that my girls were very different, swimming lessons would definitely solidify that notion. Laney was jumping, loving it, doing whatever was asked. Ella was much more cautious. Yes she listened but if she got uncomfortable she would just hold on to the side of the pool or just not do it (aka, the deep end). All of the other kids would jump in and Ella would "slide" in.

3 days into the lessons, we were at the pool with our friends who have kids 8 years old and 4. Their 4 year old was swimming confidently in the deep end, and Ella came over to me and started crying. She said, "Donnie can do it and he is so much younger then me. Why can't I? I am scared!" My heart broke for her. Now if only we were members, we would get her private lessons :(

Although she was scared of the deep end and going off the diving board, she had been psyching herself up for the last day. She was going to DO IT. I was so excited for her. But alas, we showed up to find out the deep end was closed due to an "accident" the day before. Ella was bummed that she didn't get to try one more time.

Working on treading water

She did love the lessons and looked forward to them but her cautious side is so different than Laney & Matthew's personality :)

A preview of our latest project:

Where do you think we hung this? The winner gets a car!!! Or my forever long friendship :)

Monday Mash Up

**I am having issues getting my pics to format correctly into Blogger. I hope this is just a one time thing as it is so frustrating to not be able to move pictures where I want them. I have tried three different browsers and all are being difficult**


1. Ella keeps cracking me up with calling herself Big Ella (Big Ella is hungry, Big Ella wants to go outside, etc). Big Ella has now become Big Pappa, Big Laney. Just please no Big Mama..

2. When we were at the pool with some friends last week, it was time for adult swim. They blew the whistles and said adult swim. Laney said, Yay mom...it's time for A Dog Swim.

3. We have had a money system going on with the girls. They each have three rules and start the day with 10 cents. When they don't follow those rules, they lose a penny. We were going to Target and Ella wanted to bring her earned money with us. I was trying to make it a learning activity (line up the coins from the smallest to the biggest) and talking about the pictures on the back of the coins. Ella looked at me and said, "Mom, can we get this over with? I just want to put my money in a bag and write how much I have on the outside of the bag." Jason and I just busted out laughed.

4. Matthew has learned how to climb on top of his changing table to reach to the 6 foot dresser for whatever has found his attention (medicine, stuffed animal, water, music, whatever). He has fallen down once and that was enough for us to redecorate. The guest room now has the changing table in it. I wonder when the day will come when everybody will know what room they sleep in, the furniture will stay in that room and everybody wakes up in their own room? Oh things to ponder.

5. I know I promised pictures a few weeks back (I hope you weren't holding your breathe) but we have done so much redecorating and nothing is really finished so I haven't wanted to take pictures quite yet. Like the dining room wall paper is down but there is nothing replacing it yet and the wall will be knocked down soon so I would rather just wait for that to happen. There are no paintings on the walls quite yet but we slowly but surely we are getting there.

6. Jason and I dug up most of the landscaping beds a few weekends ago. We took up the ivy, repositioned bushes, spread out flowers, etc. It was funny because the neighbors were all checking out what we were doing. We did find a nice rock wall under the ivy that we are going to try and showcase more but we need some pros in here to help us with that :)

7. Our latest excitement? Now that we have gotten used to our fabulous master closet make over (it is such a small closet but we are making it work thanks to ikea!!) we are excited that we just had ceiling fans hung in our family room and MJ's room. All of the other rooms had them but not these rooms. The family room was obviously a little challenging given it is on the first floor but the fan is in and we are so happy with it! The electrician went to school with us but he was about 5 year ahead of us--yes we live in a small town (like where everybody knows your name. Keep singing the cheers song for a few minutes. It makes me happy).

8. We have been blessed with so much family time. We see both sets of parents at least twice a week and have had a date night pretty much every week since we have been back. It has been so much fun! Plus it is nice to run errands without having all three kids with us. That can be tough.

9. I have gotten in touch with friends I haven't seen in years. Some at least since I was 18 years old. One friend, Julie, was a year ahead of me in school and bought a house in Terrace Park a few years ago. Laney and her daughter are the same age and have hit it off. We see her very often as well as my best friend from high school, Karen, and a few sorority sisters. The summer has been busy but a good busy. Lots of pool time, slip and slides, the zoo, talking time, playing outside, etc. How fun to be a kid (and a mama of kids).

10. This past weekend I went to see one of my college roommates. Kelly moved to Columbus last year and had baby Joelle three months ago. Out of our group of 6 best friends from college, 4 live in Chicago and then me and Kel. I think we have always had a bond because of that :) Now she has an adorable baby girl and Kel lives less than two hours away. It is fabulous that there are outlet malls in between us...shopping anyone?

Kelly, Joelle & Brent

11. The next few weeks bring kids birthday parties, cheering Auntie Cindy on in her triathlon, our first two visitors from Indy (one next Monday/Tuesday and the other next weekend), a trip to TX for Success School, two vacation bible schools and visits to Ella's new school.

If you are still reading this, you are good! I can really ramble!!! :) To my Indy friends, I do miss you guys a ton! Although we love it here and have fit into a new life, we have not forgotten about our friends we love back in Fishers :)

Summer Party

Yesterday, Ella and her friend, Jill, rode their Barbie jeeps to all of the kids' homes. They were delivering invitation to a slide party at Jill's house. After talking to Jill's parents and confirming there was actually a party, we were excited to get planning.

We had a pool, slip and slide, games, sprinkler, popsicles and lots of dance music. The kids played outside for over 3+ hours while the parents just talked (and maybe drank some beer??).

Laney had so much fun jumping in the pool

Our neighbors down the hill--Ellie and Carrie

The sprinkler is always a hit!

Sophie (also a first grader)

Like hot potato but with a water balloon

I love this pic of Ellie and Laney

What a fun day!

Lost pictures

From our last week in Indy:

When I was out with some girlfriends, Jess pointed out this sign.

Group therapy was the name of my college house at Miami. How Jess remembered that I have no idea, but she is good!

Me, Anne-Marie, Megan, Jess, Jill & Brooke

I met these ladies 4 years ago in a mom's group.

I have formed some of the best friendships from this group.

Joan, Jen, Tina, me, Patty, Megan

Jill, Angi, Jess, Julie

We started out at a wine bar and then moved to a restaurant/bar down the street.

It was a great last night with the girls!

Our bestest buds threw us a going away party for the 'hood.

It was really nice to have one final practice for the real goodbyes :)

I couldn't decide which pic of the kids I liked the best so I put them both in :)

Happy Birthday, Pappy Stan

Today was the 20th anniversary of Pappy Stan's 40th birthday! We were thrilled to have Stan and Dean over for dinner and cake. These are the simple nights we missed when we lived out of town but now, we can just have them over whenever we want :) Dean even offered to babysit tonight (which she does quite often anyways....can I get a holla??) but we needed some downtime (Jason and I were hard at work all day, and honestly I just wanted to eat more of Pappy Stan's birthday cake).

Singing Happy Birthday!

The birthday boy's chair

And then the kids decided to put on a show for us.

They practiced for about 10 minutes and then it was show time.
We have no idea what the show was about but there was dancing, pretend play, dress up, etc.
We were all laughing like crazy.

Waiting for their turn to dance.
We will get to Matthew's attire in a few pics. Oh boy!

Laney "Cinderella" waking up Sleeping Beauty

The changing room (aka the bathroom)

Matthew wanted to dress up like his sisters.
Look how happy he is!

If you could have seen Jason's face!

Nothing like a sword fighting boy in a dress.

And in true boy fashion, he fell down face forward.
We decided that for Christmas, we are going to get him some boy pretend play clothes :)

We hope you had a great birthday, Pappy Stan!
We loved having you both over.

We started with 3, ended up with one

The kids have all been having many rough days lately. I am not sure why but by the end of the day I feel like I have fought a war (not sure most days if I have won or lost). I bought a special dessert to make with the kids on Tuesday and well, it is Saturday and they finally earned it. By earned it, I mean there were 2 hours without a meltdown, backtalk, etc.

When you have three kids that are close together in age, it is rare they all get to enjoy the same activity. Like tonight, we started with three kids making the dessert but by the end only one got to decorate it and eat it. Yeah, we are having major attitudes (Laney fell asleep during her fit and Matthew also was ready for bed). At least Ella made it from beginning to end (and enjoyed it) :)

I saw this in a magazine and thought it would be fun to make.
Notice the I Scream, You Scream...yeah, there was some screaming here too :)

Matthew loved the "spoon on the tote" technique of baking

We first mixed Rice Krispies, butter and chocolate together.
Then into the refrigerator for 10 minutues.

In those 10 minutes, Matthew found the left over chocolate chips

Then we dipped the cones with chocolate and put the Rice Krispies balls in.

This is how we STARTED :)

How could this cutie throw a fit, right?
Well....

One lone decorator at the end....