These girls are nuts

Ella has met some great girls so far, and she has formed a friendship rather quickly with Elise. There are 3 girls who she has seemed to gravitate towards and all of them are such sweet girls. We have rotated having all of these girls over and when Elise came over, I thought it was time to make a yummy fall treat.

I saw these acorn treats in the recent Family Fun Magazine.
You take Hershey kisses, attach them to mini wafers with frosting, and then break a pretzel apart and attach that with frosting (to make the stem).
Of course we all had more fun eating the ingredients :)

Laney just loved eating them

Chocolate faces and all, they smiled for one picture

We all know how Ella loves to pose for pics and obviously so does Elise :)

Thanks for coming over Elise!
We look forward to many more playdates.

Visit to Indy

A few weeks ago we got to go to Indy to stay with the Powells. The kids ask about their Indy friends often so it was fun to get them all together again. On Friday, we played outside with our old neighbors (I mean, previous neighbors). Baby Christopher Clarke has grown so much, and it was fun to meet the people that bought our house. Although we didn't get to talk much it was nice to know they love the house (and nothing had broken yet..lol). The Worthingtons, the Renniers and Kenny came over as well which was really fun. It just felt really good and comfortable to be back. The Powell and Willett kids then had a 2 night sleep over. They were in kid heaven.

On Saturday, Troy had a great idea to go pick apples at Stuckey Farms. We have never picked apples before so we were all raring to go.

Too many comments I could put on this one....

Laney brought one of the Powell's buckets to the farm because she was worried they wouldn't have enough bags for all of the apples she wanted. She filled up the bucket but "somehow" those apples were not purchased. It was funny trying to distract her while J would toss some out.

Oh the attempt for the family picture.
We actually have family pictures in a few weeks at a nearby park but
based on this picture above, we have our work cut out for us.

There were many different maneuvers to grab the apples.
Here is the lean.

Jack mastered the squat

Jen had the reach and bend down

Laney just went for the full out reach

Matthew had the 2 year old roll and grab mastered

Carly did a great job picking a variety of apples

These two girls are such great friends; I love how kids just pick up right where they left off.

A great view!

We got to the car and hear a wrapper being unwrapped. Matthew had not only stolen these wax lips but was eating them. What a clepto! For the record, I went back to pay for them :)

Thank you Powells for a wonderful weekend.
We love you all and can't imagine our lives without your friendship.

On Sunday we went to Grace Church where we got to see many of our friends. We just love Grace and to be back there felt like coming home. I look forward to many more visits to Indy :)

The TP Historical Society 10 year anniversary celebration

A few weeks back the Terrace Park Historical Society celebrated its 10 year anniversary with a celebration on the green. My mom is the secretary for the Society, or hysterical society as we often call it, so we were happy to not only support her, but also share in the festivities: magician, balloon maker, popcorn, cotton candy, ice cream and then concert afterwards. It was a beautiful day for this event.

I think someone was happy with the cotton candy :)

Our neighbor, Willow, joined us
She is such a good girl and the girls love having her around

What should I eat to further ruin my dinner? Popcorn of course.

Then we had to top off this nutritious pre dinner meal by
getting ice cream from the cutest ice cream server out there :)

Ella waited every bit of an hour to get this made.
Not because there were a ton of kids in front of her but because the balloon maker was quite a balloon artist. She loved making these amazing balloon hats that took at least 5 minutes per kid. I couldn't believe so many kids waited as long as they did. I have a feeling the balloon maker was paid by the hour :)

These balloons were for decoration outside of the gazebo
but Matthew had a different idea for the balloons.

At first he just played with them on the steps and the ground near the gazebo.


But then I spotted him and a friend sitting in the grass playing with them.

They were having a blast rolling around with these balloons.

Probably my favorite picture of the balloons...you see them, but where is Matthew? He loved that he could be in the tree and the balloons be out of the tree.

But with one wrong move, the balloons were off, way into the sky.

I can still hear him now: Balloon, up, bye balloons

In fact every time we drive by the green, he points and says,
"Bye bye balloons. Balloons went up."

A barber shop quartet entertained us all

A story was read

Here is one of our favorite families that we have just recently met. Laura e-mailed me out of the blue inviting us over so the kids could play. Although we had never met, we have a few friends in common. Laura and her husband, Steve, definitely embody what Terrace Park is all about. They are such a neat family! It is also fun because Amanda and Laney will be in Kindergarten together next year.

I used to play on these cannons as a kid so it was fun to now see my son
play on those same cannons.

What a small town, fun event!

What have we been up to?

So the last 2ish weeks I have been without my computer. My old one died (I am sure it has nothing to do with Matthew constantly standing on it) and as much as I loved attempting to keep the battery plugged in while I was typing, that trick had stopped working and the computer literally died.

Jason ordered me a new lap top 2 weeks ago. It was here, and I loved how easy it is to use. But after a week, the mouse pad thingy stopped working. It was weird. So we sent it back and today the computer arrived fixed. Yay! Although I still have had connection to the outside world via my phone and the ipad, it is still hard to write e-mails without actually typing (vs using the touch screen on the ipad).

So let's catch up on the Willetts:

--Both Ella and Laney are in soccer. Ella practices twice a week with one to two games each weekend. It is a much bigger commitment than we anticipated :) She enjoys soccer and although really just runs around the field chasing the ball, she does have fun. She got to play goalie last weekend and made a great stop. We have been really proud of her for trying her best although honestly, this probably isn't the sport for her. Ella said she likes sitting out of the game so she can sit and talk to her friends. She is truly a girl :)

--On the other hand, there is Laney. Laney practices once a week and has a "game" on Saturday. The games are a riot. 4 year olds running around, usually with the ball out of bounds by a field or two. There is one player on her team, Jack Riley, who really gets the game. He is aggressive, goes after the ball, plays offense and defense, tackles...you know the typical :) Well often Laney and Jack compete for the ball and the parents are all shouting "you are on the same team." Laney usually cries for a bit but once she gets in the game, she gets into it. She has scored at least one goal every game but I have a feeling her favorite part is the snack at the end.

--Matthew remains my typical 2 year old. He is talking up a storm, often 3 words at a time. The other day I changed his diaper and asked him when he was going to be potty trained (mind you I have started training him though). He said "I potty trained, mama. I did it."

--We celebrated Jason's 35th birthday with a night out on the town. We did a segway tour around Eden Park, a breathtaking park that overlooks the city and river. Then we went to dinner at Song Long (yes that is the real name), a Vietnamese restaurant. Jason had Vietnamese once on a road trip and has raved about it ever since. I must admit, it was wonderful! It is a lot like Chinese food but less frying.

Between the cold weather gear, the awesome helmet and wonderful construction worker vest, I was feeling h-o-t!



What was I thinking?
Around the :48 mark, check the guy that falls off of his SegWay. He had ridden one a few times before and thought he was all that and a bag of chips. In ironic fashion, he fell off a few times and one time even fell off into the road with cars coming. He had a smile the whole time though and no worries, he left the event injury free.

In the middle of our tour...looking sporty :)

Overlooking the Ohio River
It was about this point I was starting to freak out...there was a huge hill we needed to ride down. I went so slow, and being the good guy Jason is, he hung in the back with me.

--I have kept myself busy with the elementary school PTO where I am helping with their book drive and their annual fundraiser. I have also enjoyed Laney's Preschool School Council and am in charge of ordering their school wear (t-shirts with school logo on them). I have really enjoyed getting to know so many new people :)

Basically, that is us in a nutshell. Didn't miss much but we have enjoyed the past few weeks. But I have to say, I am dreading catching up on the blog. For motivation I read through my old blog books and realized why I do this blogging thing.

Thanks for reading and for those who asked where my blog posts had been, I appreciate my following (lol...Kristi like I told you, I only have like 6 readers but apparently they are loyal and faithful readers...thanks all!!!).

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!