24Oct
23Oct
A few weeks ago in an attempt to give Ryan some time to work on a paper, I took Ella and Frankie to the Carmel Arts Fest. It is held close to where Ella is taking swimming lessons so we had seen signs about it for weeks, but I wasn’t really sure what to expect. The Russian Ballet of Indianapolis had students giving performances, which Ella loved. Of course there were also artists with booths of their paintings/sculptures/what have you which I admired from afar, given that hands tend to fly out of my stroller without warning. Ella and I both enjoyed some treats - my stroller was christened with her chocolate ice cream cone moments after she received it so the cotton candy above was her second attempt at ingesting some sugar. One of the neatest things I saw were the audience participation artworks. Ella got to add a few daubs in the kid area and enjoyed considering where to place her paint. For older folks they had a glorified paint by number map of the world but I stayed clear due to stroller considerations. I think we all had a great time and Frankie’s already looking forward to next year when he can have some cotton candy, too!
09Oct
29Sep
My mom and dad got Ella ballet lessons for her birthday, and Friday was her first class. She has been looking forward to these lessons since she first heard about them, so it was great to finally get to go! This round of lessons is through the Monon Center which is part of the parks department for the county north of us. Even though it’s a different county, they are 10 minutes closer to our house than the class she took this winter through Indy Parks. The parents can’t really watch at this place - there aren’t windows into the classroom. There is a tv set in the waiting area so we can see what the little ballerinas are doing, though. The main reason I signed her up for these lessons is the recital. Ella will get a costume and a chance to perform on stage, which I think is all that is really missing from her life right now!
24Sep
Although we had a lot of fun on Ella’s field trip to Stuckey’s Apple Farm, we did not actually get to pick any apples. Ryan and I decided to remedy that and loaded the kids into the car to head north this past Friday. It was a beautiful day, and after stopping inside to get some apple cider slushes we walked through the trees to see what was available. Once we decided which apples were our favorites we began to pick. We got between 15 and 20 apples before we called it a day. We haven’t done any baking yet but there have been a few apples consumed as snacks that have been delicious!
On our way home we decided to try a new place for lunch, the Rusty Bucket Corner Tavern, so we didn’t take the same route that we took up. We passed a huge house crawling with police and realized it was Mel Simon’s estate - he co-owned the Pacers and Simon Malls, and passed away last week of pancreatic cancer. The funeral was Friday and it was attended by lots of VIPs such as Bill Clinton and Larry Bird. The whole thing was just not your usual scene on an Indiana country road…we made it to lunch without incident. Rusty Bucket was pretty good, typical pub fare in an airier set up than I expected.
21Sep
There were 3 festivals in town last weekend, but I came down with a wicked cold and didn’t feel up to anything Friday night or Saturday. On Sunday however, Ella had her first Sunday School class so I did get us up, fed and dressed in order to make it there on time. We got there early enough that I was able to hang out with Ellla a little before heading in to church. Ryan had gone with James on a motorcycle ride so he met us at church after popping in to say hi to Ella. This arrangement worked out great, because Ella informed me on the way there that church is boring…I did not tell her this, but going to church with her flopping all over the pew and begging for treats or going through my purse is no picnic either. Church with my 2 favorite guys on the other hand was enjoyable. Ella also enjoyed Sunday School. The first lesson was “I am special” - I’m not sure that Ella needed formal education on that point.
Since it was a beautiful day I took Ella and Frankie to the Zionsville Fall Festival for lunch. Ella dropped her hoy dog on the ground mere seconds after I gave it to her but they gave me a replacement dog free so all was well. We wandered while we ate and found a stand selling all manner of little girl stuff where Ella selected a tutu after much deliberation. I got a coupon book, then Ella did a turn in the bounce house before trying her hand at a couple of games - I helped out at the fishing pond where the prize was stuffed but left her to her own devices at the ping pong toss for a goldfish. Alas, we did not win a fish.
19Sep
17Sep
Our friends Kathy and Michael told us about swimming lessons at Carmel High School this summer, so when the fall sessions started we signed Ella up. Last Tuesday was her first lesson so I got the kids from day care, hustled up to Carmel and wandered the perimeter until I found the natatorium - there are colleges with smaller campuses! The pool itself seems bigger than the Water Cube - it’s a pretty impressive operation. After Ella got changed and pottied, we waited in the lobby for further directions and a little girl from Ella’s pre-school came up to her. They chatted away, comparing swimsuits until the doors opened and the students were allowed into the pool area. Then Ella walked in on her own, like she didn’t even need a mama. Part of me was celebrating only having 1 body clinging to me for the half hour, but another part was flashing forward to dropping her off at college - this was a big step towards her independence, at least in my eyes!
Ella really enjoyed being in the water and did a good job of listening to the teacher. So far she’s worked on floating on her back and kicking with “ballerina legs” but there are several other classes going on at the same time so I can kind of see the different things she will (hopefully) learn in weeks to come. Now that Ryan switched one of his classes from Tuesday to Wednesday, he was able to go to swimming this week. Ella loved having everyone there, and we were able to go out for dinner at Bazbeaux Pizza in the Carmel Arts & Design District afterwards.
15Sep
Labor Day weekend we headed to Morgantown to visit my family. We had a surprisingly good trip out and while the guys tailgated, Frankie and the ladies had lunch (and pie!) at Apple Annie’s and headed to the Pittsburgh Zoo. It had been about 20 years since I had been there so my only memory was the escalator up from the parking lot…it is a really nice zoo, there’s much more to it than an escalator! Aside from getting lost about 4 times on the way home - GPS has it’s limitations when there are 8 lanes all going different directions and they’re labeled about 50 feet from where you exit - we had a great day. We stopped in Canonsburg on the way home and stopped at Sarris Candy for ice cream, then at the Perry Como statue. I taught Ella to sing “Catch a Falling Star” so when Mom told me that there was a statue commemorating Mr. C there, I knew we had to stop and do a little performance. Another highlight of Saturday was Frankie’s first documented roll-over…I missed it, but Mom was trying to wipe his nose and in his attempt to get away from her tissue, he rolled right over!
After church on Sunday, Mom and Cara watched the girls play at the playground while Dad, Frankie and I took a little walk on the rails to trails path. That was my first experience of it, and it was really neat. Mom, Cara and I went to Gabes then while Dad and Ben took the girls to the rec center pool. Everyone had a great time until the little fecal incident perpetrated by my daughter! Once all that excitement died down we had a nice cookout followed by a Dairy Queen cake which Ben got to celebrate Cara’s birthday. Oh, don’t let me forget that we also got to watch the Hannah Montana movie so I had “boom-boom-clap” stuck in my head for a week!
We had a nice breakfast at Eat’n'Park complete with grilled stickies on Monday before we all headed home. The drive home was a little more tedious than the drive out but Ryan drove so I was able to nap some. It was a wonderful weekend and we’re already missing everyone!
27Aug
Ella and Frankie both had check-ups on Monday, so I took the day off and scheduled a portrait session for them as well. We went to Target and had the same photographer that did their pictures in May, who we really liked. Ella had us both cracking up while the photog was taking pictures of the two of them together because Ella could not stop kissing Frankie! Later, when it was time for her solo pictures, Ella was posing like a fashion model…she definitely enjoys having her picture taken!
From Target, we headed to the doctor, where Ella got to pee in a cup and have her blood pressure taken for the first time. The doctor said both kids looked great. Frankie is up to 16 pounds now and got the go-ahead to try rice cereal and Ella opted to get the Flu-mist. She didn’t know that was in lieu of a shot later, I think she just wanted it because it was one of her new rights as a 4 year old. Frankie had no choice on the 2 shots he needed, but he took them quite bravely.
After lunch we embarked on a nice, long walk in my new double stroller that my fabulous family gave my for my birthday - long enough that both kids got a little nap in. It was a fun and productive hooky day for all of us!
