Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Merry Christmas!

All I want for Christmas....

Over the weekend we made our traditional trip to the Sheridan Public Library to go see Santa. Our neighbor is the director of the library and invites us to come see Santa every Christmas. We had high hopes this year that Ari would really have a good time, but silly us! Should we really have expected him to sit on a strange man's lap and happily report what he would like for Christmas? After much persuasion, and Uncle Stephen sitting on Santas lap, we were able to get the kids to cooperate, although neither were thrilled.

What did they ask for?



Ari wants a house to go into and a robot and he said Emilie want's baby dolls.

Speaking of Cardboard Boxes

For Ari's second birthday we wanted to get him a toy box so I scoured the interent looking for the perfect one. I found one I liked and what made it even better was that I could order it online and get free shipping. When it came in the mail we were so excited to put it to work. We opened the box and pulled out the toy box, put it where we wanted it and loaded it with toys. We were left with a HUGE box so Luke, remembering how much fun it was to play in a box, cut a door into the side and a window into another side and made it Ari's "house". It was his favorite toy for a long time.

We finally had to throw it out because it had been taped and re-taped and was falling apart rapidly. But I think it lasted a good 6 months! What a gift!

Cheap Toy

One laundry basket + 2 kids = FUN!

Mario & Luigi

Happy Halloween!

We had a hectic but very nice Halloween this year. Ari was so fun to Trick or Treat with. He was so grateful for the candy! He said"Trick or Treat" at every house we went to and when a lady gave him a sucker he hugged her and told her he loved lollipops! Emilie had a good time as well, but she was a little less vocal about it. And what were they you ask?? Ari was Luigi (surprise, surprise) and Em was a bee.

Halloween's Past

I got this idea from another blogger... I liked it so much I decided to do it myself!

2006

2007

2008

What are they going to be this year? You'll just have to wait and see!

Daddy is Much Cooler than Me

Ari asked me to spell his name in legos....I gave up at "R". I had no idea how to make one with legos. He asked Daddy and.... Wa La!

Pumpkin Patch

This weekend we went to a pumpkin patch in southern Indiana on the way to Louisville. To call it a pumpkin patch doesn't really do it justice, it had an apple orchard, winery, baked goods, cheese and ice cream, restaurant and a corn maze.

We took a ride in a wagon to pick our own pumpkins and bought some yummy fresh baked bread. We also walked through a corn maze that had cartoon characters posted throughout it, and at the first bend there was people dressed as Bugs Bunny and Sylvester.

They really freaked Ari out and we had to carry him through the rest of the maze! Poor Guy! Never the less we all had a great time!

My Baby

One year ago... time sure flies!

I WON!

I won the Snuggle Me Stories!!!

Twilight

I first heard of the Twilight series when the movie was coming out and all I really knew about it was that it was for teenagers and it was about vampires. So very not my thing. I don't care for any kind of horror movie or book for that matter so I completely disregarded the whole thing. A couple of weeks ago a friend of mine was over and she started talking about Twilight and I asked her what I was missing because it appeared that everyone was crazy about it. She proceeded to tell me a little bit about the story and said I ought to just read the first book and see if I liked it. So I went to the library and got the first book. I think it took me all of 3 days to read all 500 pages of it. I loved it. I then had to request the next book from the library because it was checked out. To my dismay it wasn't due back until the middle of October and I couldn't wait that long! So I did what any reasonable person would do... I ordered all 4 of the books from Amazon. Yesterday they came in the mail and I am already half way through the 2nd book, New Moon.

After reading the first book I decided it wasn't so much about vampires as it was a love story. Yes, some of the main characters are vampires, but I guess I just don't notice. Maybe it will change... I haven't read all the books yet. So I guess I will join the trendy teenagers and see the movies too.

I am looking at the bright side, at least I have something to talk to Molly about now.

Snuggle Me Stories

For Easter Emilie got a book called Peek A Boo I Love You by Sandra Magasmen. It quickly became a favorite and still is.
When I started blogging I also started reading other people's blogs and I came across 2 women whose blogs I really enjoy. They both blog about their lives and families and I can really relate to them. One of them, Prairie Mama, is doing a give away for Sandra Magasmen books and I am really hoping to win them. I get an extra entry for blogging about it, so here it is!

Fresh Beat

This is Emilie's favorite TV show (The Fresh Beat Band). I have to admit the songs are quite catchy. And she LOVES to dance!

What Are You Going to be for Halloween?

I found Luke's old Brutus mask when I was getting out the fall decorations. Ari LOVED it!Emilie's thoughts on the mask.....

Ft. Wayne Zoo

It has become a tradition for Vicki and I to take the kids to the Ft. Wayne Zoo every summer. My Grandma Rose has a grandparents season pass so we all get in free, which is a nice bonus! Last year the African branch of the zoo was closed for remodeling which was a bummer because that is my personal favorite part of the zoo. We made our annual trip last week and the African part of the zoo was reopened and boy was it AWESOME! It was by far the best zoo experience I have ever had. Our Uncle Mark was here from Thiland when we went so he came too and took some awesome pictures!

It was a cool day so we actually got to see the animals that are typically hiding in the shade. We got to see the lions. The male was just on the other side of the glass. I couldn't believe my luck!

The kids got to feed the giraffes and play drums. We finished up the day with the usual ride on the carousal. It was a great day!

New Dress For Em!

I had found a lady on Etsy who took old adult t-shirts and made them into dresses for little girls. I loved this idea since I have so many shirts that I have been hanging onto because I can't bring myself to part with them. So I mentioned this to my Mom and she said to order one so she could see how they were made and maybe she could replicate it. So I sent off an old Lucky shirt and waited. In the meantime I mentioned it to Katie too and she has since tried her hand at making Em some "pillowcase" dresses with success. I love this style of dress for Em because they look to be really comfortable. I received the one I ordered in the mail last week and Em looks so cute in it. I am excited to see what Katie comes up with as well, the trial dresses were great!

Bugg Books

Recently my Mom brought over a series of books that she had found when cleaning out her house, The Bugg Books, by Stephen Cosgrove. I had forgotten about these books until she brought them over. I enjoyed them so much as a child! The first night Mom brought them over I read a couple to Ari before bed. These books have great stories and they teach basic human values. So many children books today are plain and pointless it was nice to read stories to Ari that teach something... anything. My personal favorite is Jitterbugg. It is a story about a bugg, Jitterburg, who loves to dance but because of a series of events has to take his sister to a dance he is attending. He pouts and is mean to his sister all day and when they get to the dance she showed him she really could boogie.

Our other favorite books to read are Dr. Seuss, of course, and The Berenstain Bears.

Louisville

We went t0 Louisville over the weekend and went to eat at a restaurant on the Ohio River. It was a very kid friendly place. They had a playground complete with swings and a slide.

There was a large hill and we thought the Ohio River was on the other side, but when we got to the top all we saw were railroad tracks! The kids thought they were pretty neat so it all worked out. We opted to not walk through the woods to the river because the trail was very narrow and we didn't want anyone to get poison ivy.

After lunch we went back to Jeff and Mary Lee's and played crochet and the kids had their first encounter with the ice cream man. Ari had a Tweety Bird ice cream bar, Piper had Sponge Bob ice cream bar and Em and I shared a chocolate eclair bar. I hope they don't realize the ice cream man drives around Kokomo too!

All in all, it was another great Louisville Trip!

Big, Bigger, Biggest!

Today I asked Ari if he could stay my little boy forever. He said, "No Mommy I have to get bigger!" It's sad but true!August 2006

August 2007

August 2008

August 2009

Play Time

The time I have been waiting on has finally come! The Ari and Emilie are finally playing together. It is so much fun to watch them interact. Ari loves to make Em laugh and can't stand it when she is unhappy. She loves copying what he is doing and you can watch her watch him and see her brain working to figure out how she can do it too.

Twinkle Toes

We have noticed this week that Old Em's croc like shoes are too small for her, so I went down to the basement and unearthed Lilli's hand me down shoes. Let me tell you this, Lilli is a shoe collector like her mother (we all have our vices!) and in this case it spans multiple generations. My Mom is also a shoe collector! I of course did not inherit this gene... Emilie had a grand time trying on all the shoes and Ari said her wished he had some to try on. I remembered that I had some shoes that were too big for Ari earlier in the summer so I dug them out and he got in on the action too!

Funny Faces

Let's Hear it for the "Little People"

Fisher Price first introduced the Little People Play Family in 1960 and since then there have been 6 major body style changes. In the beginning they were small wooden cylinders with only minor differences between male and females. In 1968 Fisher Price began making the figures out of plastic and they also created the first playset, which was a barn.

This style of Little People lasted the longest, until in 1991 Fisher Price once again redesigned them making them chunkier and more colorful because of pressures from consumer advocacy groups for safer toy designs.

The Little People on the market today were created in 1997 and are smaller in height but larger around than the "chunky" people. In 2000 Little People were brought to life on DVD and the people were given names (Eddie, Sarah Lynn, Maggie, Michael and Sonya Lee) and personalities.

The lesson... if you have Little People hang on to them, one day your grandchildren will probably play with them!

Busy Weekend!

Boy did we have a busy weekend! Saturday morning we were up and running, we went to the farmers market (which was pretty lame) and got a cantaloupe and then went to Top Banana to get what the farmers market lacked and then we went swimming. Em took a nap and then the kids were off to Nana's so Luke and I could go play cards at Jan & Marty's. I successfully lost most of my money there for like the 3rd time!

Yesterday we were off again to the Anderson's for a cookout and then back to Jan & Marty's to swim! Ari is big enough this year to really enjoy jumping on the trampoline and Piper got into the action too.

The kids also got some volleyball lessons from their Dads.

As for Em... you know her... she is too girly for this stuff!