a saturday with our cousins

My dad and my step-mom gave Katie and Carter the most amazing present. Not the best toy, or an even bigger box to play in :) but a family pass to the Children's Museum for the whole year. I have been planning week-end after week-end to take them (remember I only have them every other weekend), but inevitably one of them was sick, or we had something else going on. Finally, we set a date to go to The Children's Museum with Auntie MoMo, Matt, Robbie, Jacob, Brady and Matthew. Yes that means, that with Katie and Carter there were 3 people over the age of ten and six under. Note to self....try not to be outnumbered in large public places that are very very busy.
The kids, as evidenced by the pictures below, were very excited! I'm not sure exactly how much they understood about what we were doing, but they knew they were going to get to see their cousins!!

This is truly one of her most beautiful smiles. Sometimes I see my reflection in her eyes.
I love this girl.

Brady! Yeah! I get to see Brady! (and Robbie and Jake of course)

The current exhibit at The Children's Museum right now is the Lego Castle and needless to say it was a huge hit. Matthew, Carter, Katie and Brady loved this play place set up with huge Legos that were soft and easy to stack. We easily played here for an hour.


so sweet...why can't they share like this at home?

matt, brady, carter and katie helping to build the biggest tower they can (again...)

carter looks up to brady so much...I'm so glad that Carter is getting old enough to really interact.

matt and brady

kj collecting blocks (notice all the same color...)

brady crashing his tower

matt helping katie with her tower

do you think it can get any taller?

nope! kj is going to crash the tower! you should have heard the giggles :)

even after the "big crash" she was right back to building a new tower....

...even letting her little brother help...

another favorite exhibit....the slide

carter was pumped!

KJ in her dress up battle gear... (I don't think I've ever seen a pink shield before :)

she's adorable (in case you didn't know)

my little "knight" with a crown! He had so much fun dressing up

the crown was too cute...it looks like it is covering his eyes, but he actually could see...

peek a boo!

brady the dragon

the whole crew on our fun saturday. I tried to label them but I think it's hard to see. From left to right: Katie, Robbie holding Carter, Jake, Matthew and Brady. Wow we have a lot of kids.

The kids were out before we had left the parking garage. Overall, the trip was long enough that the kids had an absolutely amazing time and I didn't lose my mind. I would love to go back at a time when it's not that busy...we kinda forgot before we went that it was the weekend of the Big Ten Championship, so I think that it increased the crowds even more. It was literally body to body every inch of the museum. The kids can't wait to go back...I'm mustering up the excitement :)

future picasso....or maybe van gogh?

This week Katie and Carter celebrated their very first Indianapolis Hebrew Congregation Early Childhood Center's Annual Art Fair & Auction. This is really an adorable idea...all year long the kids work on special projects at school, and while some come home, the teachers save the majority of them and then set up the whole school like it is an art museum. We met Daddy and Grandma Jodi at the temple and had a delicious dinner with all of the teachers and students, and then toured the "museum" with one "sold" sign for each child. The kids were so proud of their hard work (and I was pretty impressed!) and loved that we got to choose our favorite piece of art...(they were actually all my favorite :) I am continually impressed by the preschool that we chose, and how much the kids have learned. Enjoy the works of my budding artists! Mommy, Katie and Carter outside of their school.

Katie (looking very pensive) as she practices writing her name (see below)


my adorable boy

pretty good for an almost four year old...and she did it all by herself!

Grammy Jodi helping Carter with his name

Carter's classroom. He adores his teacher, Miss Michelle. His class is filled with boys and only one girl! (wow...I feel sorry for her). Carter is by far the smallest, but almost the oldest in the class. He loves to play with Parker and Cameron and talks about them daily.

very post-modern...don't you think?

I'm actually really impressed by Carter's balloons....I can tell how hard he worked

This needs no other caption then Carter is two. Still pretty good if you ask me, but I might be biased.

I think it's safe to say he liked this kind of painting (see masterpiece #1)

drumroll please....my favorite of the night...Carter's rendition of the beach complete with seashells. Maybe one day we will get to go on vacation, and he will actually see sand and seashells....(I'm keeping my fingers crossed on that one)

At the kid's preschool, they name each of the classrooms with the name of an animal. Carter is a "bumblebee" and Katie is a "cheetah." I thought Miss Angela did such a cute job introducing Katie's class' artwork.

So..the story about the "points of interest" on this sign. Apparently, each of the kids were given a shoebox, and they had to tell Miss Angela what they wanted their "store" to be in Cheetah town. It's so funny to see what all of the kids chose. It's pretty clear to see Danny likes video games, and Katie C. is all about pizza. At first, I was confused as to why KJ would tell Miss Angela she wanted to be "Cakes and Candles" but I realized we have been talking about her turning four for awhile...and everytime I ask her what she wants for her birthday, she always tells me candles (easy to please??). She must have had birthday on the brain...

My Katie's "store" "Cakes and Candles."

Katie's classroom...it is so cute...I just love it!

Another shot of KJ's classroom. Short commentary on having two Katie's in the same class... I grew up with a very unique name (clearly) so I never had to be Corinne T....and share with someone else in the class. I knew when we chose Katie Jade as her name, that this would happen, she would probably inevitably live most of her school life being Katie M. instead of just Katie. It used to bother me...but it's worth it to have honored my very first best-friend that I have remained in contact with on and off through the years.

This is definitely one of my favorites. Apparently, as Miss Angela tells me, the kids did a painting and then had to pick a caption. Apparently, in this picture, Mommy and Daddy are going swimming and swinging at the same time! It made me feel very good to know that these are good memories for her.

Geez...I hope this isn't a portrait of me :) Although I guess...having one leg AND a purple shoe wouldn't be that bad :)

Katie's "abstract" painting.

Stained glass window...I can't help it I loved them all!

her "pasta man". Grammy Jodi especially liked this one!

pretty red flowers (and a pretty good job at painting them). Maybe I really do have a future artist on my hands.

My KJ's footprints, all covered in pink sparkles (just the way she would have wanted it :) For those of you who have seen the tattoo on my foot of Katie's footprint when she was born (it's about four inches long and real life size) it's hard to believe she's gotten this big!

Katie's pretty purple butterfly

It was really a wonderful, wonderful night, and I'm so proud of BOTH of my kiddos. I'm excited for the end of the school year when I get to have all of these art projects. I've already started a huge folder for them and all their projects that they bring home...at this rate, we'll need a storage unit by the time they are out of elementary school :)

is there anything better than a new box of crayons?

Maybe we should develop a Crayola bomb as our next secret weapon. A happiness weapon. A beauty bomb. And every time a crisis developed, we would launch one. It would explode high in the air - explode softly - and send thousands, millions, of little parachutes into the air. Floating down to earth - boxes of Crayolas. And we wouldn't go cheap, either - not little boxes of eight. Boxes of sixty-four, with the sharpener built right in. With silver and gold and copper, magenta and peach and lime, amber and umber and all the rest. And people would smile and get a little funny look on their faces and cover the world with imagination.

~Robert Fulghum

the "good choices" bracelet

Perhaps it is has been my six years of experience being a teacher, or perhaps being one of many siblings in a generally strict family, but I've never really believed that all parents think their child is perfect, flawless... I've been humbled this week...and it hurt a little bit...not like a tack in the bottom of your shoe, but an ache, slow and steady.

I've decided recently that there is NO honest book regarding parenthood. Sure there's advice about feeding and fevers...but the real stuff...nope.
No one told me that becoming a mother would nearly cost me my life and yet would inspire in me such a love and protectiveness that I would lay it down in a single heartbeat.
No one told me that when I became a mother my children would be taken from me, without ever seeing their faces, to be poked and prodded, stuck with needles, covered in oxygen masks, all behind the safe walls of an incubator that kept me out.
No one told me that post-partum depression sucks the very life out of you.
No one told me how very much having children changes your life.

And lest you think I am feeling sorry for myself, nope. I've been humbled. And I've been grateful every single day of their lives.

When I picked up KJ from preschool last week, her face was covered in alligator tears and a big yellow note was affixed to her backpack. For the very first time in her "school" life (believe me...home life is much much different), KJ was in "trouble." Her teacher, Miss Angela, decided to implement a new system where the kids get a piece of yarn tied around their wrists every day as a bracelet, and if they don't make good choices, it gets cut off and they don't get a stamp that day. My Katie, praised many many times by her teacher AND the director of the preschool...had her bracelet cut off for not listening. I'm embarassed almost to say I was devestated. Sure, I know she has her faults...what three year old doesn't???....but I guess I just hadn't prepared myself. This probably all sounds very silly...perhaps just the musing of a parent that is growing, even as she watches her own children grow. Katie and I had a long talk, and I was beaming with pride when the next day she came running to the car with her good choices bracelet and TWO stamps for being very good :)

I know this won't be the first time I will be confronted with difficult situations as a mother. I pray I do what's best...I pray somehow I always find that answer. They are my greatest gifts...and my greatest responsibilities. One step at a time...

loving this weather!

Having lived in Indiana for most of my life, I've become quite accustomed to the changing weather. One day it will be a beautiful 70 degrees....the next day, snowing....you just get used to it after awhile. This has felt like an especially long winter...and the kids (and I) couldn't have been more excited to finally get outside! Katie has recently mastered her trike, and can now push the pedals with ease. I find this remarkable....when she first got the trike, her toes barely fit on the pedals. She's getting so tall like her mama! Our front walk is pretty long, and the kids had a blast just riding up and down, up and down the sidewalk. We even opened up the privacy fence to the backyard and let the kids make loops. It was a fun evening.... (and what mom isn't looking for a way for the kids to burn off energy:)