Lake house

Jason's parents bought a lake cottage last winter on Beaver Dam Lake. It's located about two hours north of Indianapolis. It's a nice little house right on the lake. They plan to stay here during the summer months. Jason is really excited to have his parents close as he left home at 18 to go to Wabash and has lived in Indiana since. Summers will be a nice time not only for our kids to bond with their grandparents, but nice for Jason to get to spend some quality time with his mom and dad as well.

Jack fell in love with the bird bath outside. He filled it with rocks most of the time we were there. He also got in a little fishing time with his grandpa. It will be fun to watch him learn to fish with John as we visit more this summer.

Back to the rocks. He loved throwing them in the lake

Jason in the cold water helping put the dock in for the summer

Earth Day 2010

Earth Day set up along the Canal

Today was Indianapolis' annual Earth Day celebration. Each year the city celebrates Earth Day by setting up little booths, handing out information about different companies being Earth friendly and educating kids and adults on how they can lesson their "carbon footprint". I volunteered at Earth Day way back in college and Jason has volunteered working at the Health Department, but today we went as a family and enjoyed the event through Jack's eyes.

Checking out different animal pelts...because killing animals is "Earth friendly"

Playing a tune on a homemade musical instrument made of recycled materials

He really just liked the pinwheel

Up close and personal with the radiated tortoise from the Indianapolis Zoo

Planting a corn seed

Coloring his water cycle t-shirt

Downtown Indy

Bowling

Earlier this year my friend Cecilia posted a link to a website called www.freebowlingforkids.com This site allows you to register your kids to bowl for free all summer long. Since I'm a big fan of FREE I decided to sign Jack up for this program. Today was the first day we were able to take advantage of the offer, so Jason and I took Jack bowling.

Being an "alley kid" myself I was quite excited to take Jack bowling. For years my mom and dad bowled in Friday night leagues and Jack Pot bowled on Saturdays. I spent many a weekend running up and down the bowling alley, playing video games, trying to win stuffed animals out of the crane machine and driving my parents nuts while they were bowling. I even bowled in a Friday night league myself when Jason and I first met. So like I said, I was really excited to have Jack experience all bowling has to offer.

We got to Woodland Bowl and Jack looked around in awe at the vastness of the bowling alley. We went up to the counter to get his and Jason's shoes. (Yeah, I'm so cool, I had my very own shoes!) But once we got to the counter they told us they didn't have shoes small enough to fit Jack's feet. That made me sad! Half the fun of bowling is getting to wear the funky shoes! But we quickly got over that once they brought out a really cool ramp thing to help Jack roll the ball down the lanes!

Jason was too afraid to let Jack carry the ball to the ramp himself, so he ended up going up with Jack each time. Jack was into the ramp thing the first couple of frames, then he wanted to throw the ball like me and Jason. Obviously that didn't work so again, Jason had to help him each time. I think Jack liked when it was his turn, he just didn't like watching me and Jason roll the ball nor waiting on us to do so.

We made it through one entire game before Jack lost interest! Not too bad for his first time. It was a fun way to spend a Friday morning together as a family. I definitely want a rematch though.

Happy Birthday Jason!

Jason turned 36 today. Jack and I baked him some "happy cakes".

Coloring Eggs!

Easter was so much fun this year. Jack has gotten big enough to be able to do stuff and Jason and I just enjoy seeing things from his eyes. Sometimes I think we're more excited about doing things than he is! Last night we colored eggs with him. He did a great job putting the eggs in the cups to be colored.

After coloring the eggs, we had to let them dry because instead of decorating them the normal way, we got eggs where you put stickers on them after coloring them. So Jack took his bath and put on his jammies (yes...our child is wearing Christmas jammies at Easter! LOL) and came back to finish up his eggs. He was just as happy looking at the colorful eggs as he was putting the stickers on them.

The Easter Bunny did a great job of hiding all the eggs. And boy were there a lot of eggs for one little guy to find! Luckily our house is not very big and the Bunny hid them all around the same area...because Jack soon got tired of looking for eggs. Once he figured out there were "snacks" in the eggs and toys to be played with...he was done hunting for all of them!

It's sort of long, but hope you enjoy

Bowen and Jack

Today Jack and I met Stacy and Bowen at Holiday Park. This is one of my favorite parks in the city. It has trails that run down next to White River, three different play ground areas for different aged kids and a wonderful nature center. Stacy and I decided to take the boys out for a little nature hike today down to the river and then picnic back up by the nature center.

Jack running to meet up with Bowen by the river.

Hey, Buddy, it's good to see you!

They had a good time exploring the trails. Stacy pointed out lots of bugs to them along the way,

they threw some rocks into the river,

and Jack found lots of good places to sit and relax. The only way we could get him to keep moving was to have Bowen go take his hand and pull him along.

After so many times though...Bowen decided maybe Jack had the right idea...what's the saying...if you can't beat them...

Zoo

Once again Jack and I met up with Julie and Stacy while they were on Spring Break. This time our destination was the Zoo. What an interesting day. Jack was in his usual super mood and refusing to walk. It was really hot outside so carrying him the whole day was out of the question and of course, I didn't bring a wagon for him. Stacy DID bring her wagon, but we were never with her or Julie because Jack kept stopping and laying on the ground and refusing to walk! Even when we'd catch up with them he still didn't want to ride in her wagon..."No Mommy carry me!" I swear...Jack thinks my belly is his personal seat!

Jack on the bench, Bowen on the ground and Charlotte behind the bench

Great picture of the four kids...but we got yelled at for having them on a rock. So supervised kids on a rock are not allowed...but unsupervised kids climbing fences are allowed...great policy

Jack "unsupervised" on a fence reflecting on the brown bear

It's Toby's windmill! (He was actually laying on the ground here, but I got him to move a little by telling him that was Toby's windmill!)

Counting how many hands tall he is

His first ride on the Zoo Train...that got him moving!

The Zoo is really geared towards families with little kids. They have a pretty cool splash park or sprinkler park and a little play ground area located right next to where families eat lunch. Which just beckons the kids all through meals. So after ours ate, we let them loose in the play ground area. Like I said it was a pretty hot day and the play ground area is one of the few areas not shaded in the zoo. But never fear...my kid found some shade in the play ground area...and it went brilliantly with his laying on the ground mode today. Good thinking Jack! Just next time, please tell Mommy when you're going to hide under the play gym...

31 weeks

Hello big belly! Jack likes to sit right where my hand is resting. Guess he's already letting Graham know who's boss!

Easter Egg Hunt

Today I took Jack to his first official Easter Egg Hunt! What an experience! Before the hunt began we met the Easter Bunny and found Julie who was bringing Lincoln and Charlotte. Julie's husband Clark came as well so he could take Charlotte in her age group and Julie come with me with the boys. It was pretty chilly outside when we first got there, so standing around holding a squirmy 22 month old while 7 months pregnant was not the most comfortable thing in the world to do! I had to hold Jack for quite a while as more and more people kept pouring into the park. Finally a looong ten minutes after the hunt was supposed to begin the officials blew the whistle to release the kids.

Now...I don't know about you...but I had visions of all these sweet little toddlers skipping merrily up to the eggs and putting them in their buckets and baskets all the while laughing with big smiles looking up at their parents adoringly... That's the way it's done on TV right?!

Oh man! I could not have been more wrong! I lost Julie in about 2.8 seconds. As soon as that whistle blew parents in the front row waiting ran out with their kids, so parents behind them had to pick up their kids and run in front of them to find eggs, so parents in the third row had to pick up their kids and run up in front of parents from the second row. Now the parents who were in the first row had scavengered all the eggs in their area, so they had to pick up their kids and run up to new eggs in front of the parents who were originally from the third row...and it just kept going...in this leap frog pattern of run, grab some eggs, grab your kid and run in front of the other parents.

Sadly...I admit I was one of the parents picking up and running! I was overwhelmed by a mob mentality! I wanted Jack's first egg hunt to be successful, so I had to make sure he was in an area where he could find some eggs...right!?

Meanwhile Julie is calmly following Lincoln around picking up random eggs that were left behind by the scavengers, I mean other parents and kids. When we met back up, she was laughing and telling Clark how fast I could run and how she and Lincoln got left behind. Julie is not going to let me live this one down...she says I'm "one of THOSE parents"...

Oh well...at least I got some candy out of it!

Spring Break Kick Off!

Even though I don't teach any longer, my life is still closely tied to school holidays. That's when MY friends are off work and we get to play! Two of my closest friends, Julie and Stacy, both teach at College Park. We were all pregnant at the same time and gave birth to our sons: Lincoln, Jack and Bowen. We've done a great job of getting these boys together (along with Lincoln's big sis Charlotte) faithfully for play dates when school is on break. Granted, until recently, play dates were really an excuse for us moms to get together and have lunch or sit and chat, but now the boys are getting to a very fun age as they are all about to turn two! So to kick off Julie and Stacy's spring break, we took the kids to the Children's Museum.

Lincoln and Bowen exploring the dinosaurs

Lincoln talking to someone on the phone in the "All Aboard" exhibit

Of course...we MUST play with some trains...because we don't get enough of THAT at home

Charlotte and Jack making some "glass" sculptures