Easter April 15, 2013

Again, not really sure where to start since we haven’t written in so long.  So Easter it is!  We went to the neighborhood Easter egg hunt, as we like to do each year.  Thought we would miss it this year as we were scheduled to be out of town, but had to cancel that trip at the last minute due to predicted snow.  So had to quickly go get Layla an Easter dress for the occasion to peak out from under her coat (since it has taken FOREVER for spring to get here!).  Layla was scared of the Easter bunny and wouldn’t sit on his lap, so bit of a bummer that we couldn’t get a photo of the kids together with him.

Easter weekend we went to Grandma and Grandpa’s on Saturday.  Normally we have a big Easter brunch with the whole family, but everyone was out of town except us and Grandma and Grandpa, so we had a little get together with Chinese food.  We were able to

throw together a post-Easter brunch with the rest of the gang the following weekend though (by now it might be apparent that the kids had PLENTY of Easter time this year).  They also had an Easter egg hunt at their day care center.  Then Sunday we went to Grandpaman’s and Grandma G’s.  Our friends the Carter’s joined us – they are here from the UK for 3 years, much to our delight.  My dad and Gretchen were kind enough to invite them over, and we had some wonderful food and play time there.

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Christmas January 5, 2012

What a wonderful Christmas!  Hayden was at the best age for the holiday.  He was so excited all month long about everything to do with Christmas – the lights, Santa, presents, Christmas songs, “candy train” (our advent calendar), Christmas cartoons…  It was really a blast to go through the Christmas season with a 4 year old – it made it feel magical, the way it did when I was little.

We tried to make the most of Christmas time by taking advantage of all the special events.  We went on the “Polar Express,” which was a train ride from the neighboring town of Fishers up to “the north pole” (Noblesville, one town up) to pick up Santa.  We did our annual neighborhood Cookies with Santa, and Hayden got to tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas (trains, trains, and more trains, because he “really loves trains” – as the month went on we were able to convince him to ask for some other things since he already has a truckload of trains).  Meanwhile, Layla got to show that she is at the exact right age to want to have nothing to do with the big, strangely dressed man, even if he does wield candy canes.  We went to a big Christmas model train exhibit at the Eiteljorg museum in Indy which was really remarkable, and right up Hayden’s alley since it encompassed his two very favorite things – Christmas and trains.  We went to the Children’s Museum “Jolly Days” Christmas experience.  One night a couple of days before Christmas we did what I hope is becoming a tradition since we also did it last year – ordered pizza and ate it on the couch while we watched the movie Elf.  Yes, a 4 year old eating pizza on the couch, I am a wild woman!  I couldn’t bring myself to let Layla loose with pizza sauce and furniture, so she was in her high chair, but I moved it so it was aaaaaalmost in the family room.  🙂

Hayden would have a lot of fun listening to Christmas songs in the car.  He would always ask for Christmas music if it wasn’t already on.  He liked to sing jingle bells or Rudolph – my mom was babysitting for us and I got a text that she was enjoying listening to his sweet voice singing Rudolph and jingle bells over the monitor while he was supposed to be sleeping.  Even Layla started doing her own singing along to jingle bells after a while (her version of singing is mostly singing “eh eh eh” to the tune, and every once in a while throwing in a word that sounds about right).

We spent Christmas Eve with Grandma and Grandpa and Dusty and Andy and their respective families.  Christmas morning we spent at our house unwrapping presents and eating cinnamon rolls.  Hayden was really quite good with it all considering the amount of waiting for other people to open and not really being able to play with everything right away.  I remember last year it really became too much for him after a while.  Then in the afternoon after Layla’s nap we went to Grandpaman’s and did some visiting with Grandma G’s family.

The whole Christmas thing was really great.  John and I also had nearly 2 weeks off work, and it was such a joy to just spend tons of time together as a family.  It was really hard to go back to the routine this week.  But, I guess if we could do that all the time it wouldn’t feel as special.

Strawberry picking June 27, 2011

Over Memorial Day weekend we went strawberry picking.  I had wanted to do it last year, but I got to the farm too late for strawberries (I guess having a 1 week old cramped my style last year 🙂 ), so last year we picked blueberries instead.  Madeline (“Nanny”) was staying with us so she came along, and Grandma and Grandpa came, too.  I thought Hayden would enjoy picking the berries, but I was wrong.  There was a lot of whining and talk about wanting to “go back in my van.”  Even the promise of ice cream when we were done picking didn’t really intice him.  Apparently he was interested long enough for us to capture one picture of him. 🙂  We got just under 10 lbs of berries, and I made 2 batches of freezer jam (which equates to… lots of jars in my freezer).  There were still tons of berries after I made jam.  I had them in tupperware to last as long as possible, which really did keep them good for a long time.  I was bound and determined to eat every last one of the berries, and eventually we did.  Thank goodness the kids are fruit junkies!

And afterwards, we did all enjoy some ice cream.  Hayden was funny because as he and I were standing in line for ice cream, everyone else was outside.  I realized I didn’t have any money, so I asked Hayden to go outside and tell Daddy we need money.  He ran outside up to John and excitedly said, “We need money, Daddy!”  I don’t think it translates as cute in writing, but you’ll have to trust me that was (so I hear, again, I was inside).  It was also funny because it was sort of a test.  It’s relatively new that you can tell him to tell someone something and he will do it at all or convey the right message, and it’s not 100%.  There was an equally good chance that he would have gotten distracted along the way and never made it to John at all, or not remembered what he was supposed to tell him.

Trick or Treat November 4, 2010

Three is a fun age for Halloween.   This was the first year I feel like Hayden was quite interested in trick-or-treating, even though he definitely lost interested long before the bigger kids.  🙂

Halloween was on Sunday this year, and Saturday my mom’s church had a “trunk or treat” event where you could take your kids to the parking lot and go car to car to “trick-or-treat.”  I guess these things are getting more popular but I had never heard of it before.  We took Hayden with Mom and Jim, and Hayden’s cousins Jesse and Robby came, too.  It was really cute, and it gave Hayden a bit of a preview/reminder of what this trick-or-treating business is.  The adults who were handing out the candy had gotten all dressed up – it was a really fun time!

Sunday was the real deal.  We went to the neighborhood Halloween party, which goes for an hour before official trick-or-treat time starts.  We had some chili, hotdogs, and snacks and Hayden did some coloring and playing with neighborhood kids.  From there we started the trick-or-treating.  John took Hayden around to start with while I took the car home and met up with them after a few minutes.  He was really enjoying it.  He wanted to go to every single house, and when there was the odd house we knew wasn’t giving candy he would protest, not understanding why he couldn’t go ring their bell.

After he’d done a fair amount of trick-or-treating, we went down to the cul-de-sac where our friends live.  We decided to pass out our candy down there as our house always gets bypassed since we’re at the neighborhood entrance and off the main drag.  Our friend Kris had made some mulled cider which the adults enjoyed while the kids all played around.  It was a fun weekend!

Easter April 13, 2010

We had a fun Easter!  Hayden helped me dye some eggs.  He really enjoyed putting the color tablets into the water, but apart from that he lost interest in the actual egg coloring and was more interested in all the stickers and other things that came in the egg coloring kit.

Saturday we went to Grandma and Grandpa’s and he got to play with his cousins Jesse and Robby.  He loves going there and playing with all the different toys.  We were able to coax him outside to play some soccer with the boys for a while, but as everything outside-related is with Hayden at the moment, it only lasted a short time until he was lured back in by the thought of all the toys that weren’t being played with.

Sunday when we woke up we saw the Easter bunny had been to our house while we slept, and he left Hayden candy and presents and hid the eggs we had colored!  He had a great time finding the eggs and was very excited about his presents.  He got a scooter, soccer goal (not sure if that was more for him or Daddy?), and a couple of little cars.  He really enjoyed his scooter and soccer goal that day, but it’s been difficult to get him outside again to play on them since.  (I’m shaking my head in disbelief as I type that.)

We also planted some seeds for Hayden’s Sesame Street garden.  He has three little Sesame Street kits to grow tomatoes, watermelon, and peppers.  They are actually doing really well so far in their starter kits!  We’ll see what happens once they are transplanted.

Later in the day we went to Grandpamans and Grandma G’s for Easter dinner.  We had a lovely time and great food there.  Toward the end of the visit Hayden tripped and banged his head on a low ledge.  It seemed a pretty hard hit and we all felt really badly for him (I think we were all ready for a bit of blood when it happened), and somehow he got away with only a small bruise.

Thanksgiving December 8, 2009

We had a fun Thanksgiving holiday!  Hayden’s Grandma Goodwin (Nanny) was here with her friend Dave, and we did our usual routine of going to Grandpaman and Grandma G’s on Thanksgiving Day and Grandma and Grandpa’s on the following day.  Hayden was a pretty well behaved boy during both events, although he did find it hard to sit at the table for too long at Grandpaman’s house.  He was starving by the time we sat down to eat, so in order to keep him from going crazy we were feeding him as the dishes were still going around.  There were 19 people there (!), and by the time everyone’s plates had food piled high and we’d said our thanks and cheers, he was just about done eating.  Luckily, the way the room was arranged he could not get out of the dining room because people were blocking the exits, so he stayed near enough that we didn’t have to run after him too much.  My cousin Mandy and her parents, Aunt Marilyn and Uncle Bill, came down from Chicago as well as Grandma G’s brother and his family and her aunt and uncle.  Add to that the five of us and Grandma G’s parents, and it was certainly a full house!

Grandma’s was fun, too, and Hayden had a great time as always playing with his cousins.  There was a kid’s table set up, so he got to sit off with his cousins for dinner.  He did a good job with that.  Jesse and Robby actually finished their food much faster than Hayden, so John sat with him for a while as he felt badly he was sitting by himself. 😉

St Louis November 11, 2009

John and I went to St Louis a couple of weekends ago to see the Colts on the road.  We managed to do a lot in a very short time.  We got there about 4:00 and went straight to the Budweiser brewery for a tour, which was pretty cool.  Then we had dinner on “the hill,” which is the Italian district.  We had a great Italian meal.  Our waitress told us about an ice cream place that is apparently “famous” on Route 66 called Ted Drewes.  We couldn’t resist checking it out (especially if it meant going on infamous Route 66), and when we got there the place was ridiculously busy!  People were all over this building like ants on picnic crumbs.  John got a strawberry shortcake (“what’s the best thing you have that doesn’t have chocolate in it” – weirdo! 🙂 ) that we shared, and it was delicious!

The next day we went to the arch in the morning.  They had a really nice museum at the bottom that we toured while we waited our turn to go up.  After the arch it was game time!  There were so many Colts fans, it seemed like a home game!  St Louis is not doing well at all this year, so naturally they are not getting the home crowds that you do when you are doing well.  The Colts won easily.

Hayden stayed with Grandma and Grandpa while we were away.  He had a ball!  Grandma’s toy room wins again.  I’m not sure he was actually ready to come home when we picked him up.  He didn’t want us to leave, but he didn’t seem in a hurry to leave himself!