Super Star Show Offs

Last week at gymnastics was Super Star Show Off week.  Bascially that means that parents, grandparents and friends are invited to watch and the class ends with each child recieving a medal after preforming one of their favorite skills for the audience.

For the regular class time Lilly showed off her skills on the bars.

Jack noticed Daddy watching from above and demonstrated a squat in perfect form.

Jack is still under three, so he has to do the Tiny Twinklers, or Mommy and Me, class.  That means I have to help him on certain skills.  Like the balance beam.

Lilly on the beam, she has, obviously, spotted Daddy the photographer.

Waiting our turn for the bars.

One of Jack's favorite things, and something that he can normally do on his own:  He puts both feet on the rope, holds onto the bar and swings.

Cartwheel!  Lilly has been working hard on this one!

A brief break to wave at Daddy.  Bryan went back and forth watching each of the kids and taking pictures.  After Lilly relized he was there she looked for him, expected him to watch her without interuption and waved every time he came back to her area.

Lilly getting her medal.

Jack getting his medal.  He loved it, was so proud, and couldn't be bothered to look up for a picture.

Super Stars!!

Lilly's The Fifth

If you are four years old, the thing you look forward to the most is turning five.  Lilly has been thinking about, talking about and looking forward to her fifth birthday for months and she had all sorts of plans as to how we should celebrate this monumental occasion.

Of course, like every other little girl turning five, Lilly wanted to celebrate in style...with a morel mushroom themed birthday party at her papaw's primitive hunting cabin an hour southwest of here.  Um...OK...not what Bryan and I had anticipated, but oh well.

We planned the outing that Lilly had asked for, but hosted a small family dinner at our house the night before so she could open gifts.  Everybody, well Jack and Samantha anyway, wanted to help open those gifts.

It's funny how things work out...  The night before I picked up a good friend to go to dinner.  She got into my car after loading a bag of hand me down dresses into the back and I ignored them and figrued I'd go through them later.  The next evening when Lilly got up from her rest she came out of her room dressed as a goth princess.  She had on faded black leggings, a black turtle neck and a black frilly skirt.  The last thing I wanted was pictures of my sweet baby girl turning five dressed as if she was going to a Marilyn Manson concert.  Enter the bag o' dresses.  None of them had been washed or pressed, but I convinced Lilly that she could go through the bag and pick out which ever one she wanted, as long as she ditched the goth garb.  She agreed...and then put this dress on backwards so she could see the bow too.

Since it was already stacking up to be a non traditional fifth birthday, I made Lilly her favorite pie for dessert and saved the cake for tomorrow at the cabin.

Jack, who doesn't care for pie, insisted  on a treat from his Easter basket.

The next morning we ghetto packed the car and headed to the cabin.  We didn't find a single mushroom as it was way too early in the season, but we had a great time anyway.  Quite a few family members made the trip to celebrate Lilly's birthday and just enjoy the first nice day in months.  We hunted, hiked and just stood around and ogled babies...Essek and Luke were quite the popular guys.

Lilly got a ride from Papaw after a walk in the woods.

Bryan got a compound bow for Christmas and this was the first time that he was really able to try it out.  When he went to the sporting goods store to get arrows and accessories he thought the salesman was just trying to earn a higher commission when he suggested a $10 wrist guard.  He wasn't.  Bryan shot the bow once, hit the bull's eye, and developed a small bruise on the inside of his wrist.  Much the the amusement of the other young men, the small bruise quickly turned into a huge welt surrounded by black, purple and blue skin.  Needless to say, Bryan went back and bought the wrist guard that would protect him from the bow string.

Lilly asked for a mushroom cake and after quite a bit of thought, this was the best I could come up with.  It's a jelly roll cake made to look like a dead elm tree with rice krispie 'mushrooms' growing all around it.  How sad that these were the only mushrooms we had that day.

After Lilly opened a toy Stihl chainsaw Jack decided that he should get in on the action too.

Jack's favorite part of the cabin?  Big surprise...it's the sandy soil.  The kid loves a sandbox.

Papaw is quickly running out of arms.

After some playing in the dirt we got out a pinata and taught the children that if you hit something hard enough with a stick, candy will fly out.

Yep, even the little ones.

Sunday was Lilly's actual birthday and in a rare lack of planning we didn't have anything to do.  So, we packed a picnic lunch and took it to the park.

And, played in some more dirt.

On the playground.

Some rocks.

We also rode bikes.  By 'we', I mean that Lilly rode her bike and Bryan carried Jack's bike.

Climbed on giant stumps.

After engaging in all of the fun that the park had to offer we came home for some much needed rest and then walked to the restaurant across the street for dinner, and a giant ice cream topped cookie.

On the way home from dinner Lilly declared that it had been the best birthday ever.  And, then she reminded us that we failed to play Pin The Tail On The Donkey at the cabin (the only thing that she actually requested to do).  So, while Bryan bathed the kids I set up the game.

Happy 5th Birthday, Lilly!  I can't wait to see what this year holds in store for you!

Disney Dad

As most of you know, Bryan took a new job at the beginning of this year.  He was offered a better position at a better bank and, so far, it has been a positive change for everyone involved.  Well, except for the first month or so.  The company, Centier Bank (check it and Bryan out at www.bryantraylor.com) is based out of Merrillville Indiana and Bryan spent most of February and some of early March out of town for training, interviews and hiring. 

The kids and I stuck to our normal schedule and aside from less laundry barely noticed that he was gone.  Just kidding, we spent most of our time crying and pining for him.  One aspect of Bryan being gone from Monday to Friday every week was that he was eager to spend as much fun time with the kids as possible while he was home.  This lead him to take on the roll of a "Disney Dad"  You know, the term that describes a dad that only sees his kids on the weekends so he does whatever the kids want.  Yep, that was Bryan.  I was exhausted and just wanted to stay home and rest up for the following week, but it didn't take much arm twisting to get me to ditch my chores and head to the Children's Museum and the Indianapolis Zoo.

Bryan and Jack at the dinosaur dig.

 I think the museum requires that children wear the safety goggles just  because they are so cute.

 Well, cute and disfiguring.

 There's always a dad, probably another Disney Dad, that just can't stay out of the dig. 

Lilly hatching her dino eggs.  It was the stillest that she sat all week.

 What's more fun than dinosaurs?

 Not sure if she's protecting the eggs or doing some sort of a rain dance.

 Trains...that's something that's better than dinosaurs, at least for Jack.  He cried when we finally left the train area.

 Ticket saleswoman.  She sold me a train ticket to London...London Kentucky, I assume.

Pretending to be geckos with sticky fingers.

 And, Hot Wheels, those are better than dinosaurs and trains.  Yes, another exhibit that ended with Jack crying.

 So much joy to be had in a giant room filled with toy cars!

 I had just informed Lilly that this was the exact room that housed the Barbie exhibit.  It took only a few moments for her to grasp the meaning of that.  No Barbie exhibit. 

Disney Dad, aka body guard, made sure no one took Jack's car or ramp.

 Excavating.  Yeah, excavating is better than dinosaurs too.

 Lilly is my child.  She, along with a couple other little girls, spent her time at the construction site collecting stray 'rocks' and depositing them neatly into an empty hole.

 Then, Jack helped many of the other kids redistribute the rocks to the floor.

 At the tree house on the next floor Jack made a friend.  We still have no idea who was inside the tree house, but whoever it was kept Jack entertained for a long time by poking the puppet's head out of a hole and then disappearing as soon as Jack reaching in for him.

Carousel.

 The chicken freaked him out a little and definitely wasn't better than the dinosaurs.

 "Lilly, get off your ass!"

 Playing dress up in the Egypt exhibit made up for the lack of Barbie.

Riding a giant Nile crocodile.  Brave girl.  Jack has the baby crocodile and has since pretended to be a baby crocodile several times.  I can only assume that he is much more cuddly and cute than an actual baby crocodile.

 Jack had to stand on the crocodile too.  I think they were locking the doors at closing time as we were leaving this exhibit.

That night we said our good byes to Daddy and he was up and heading to Merrillville before the rest of us were awake.

But, he was home on Friday night, and already talking about the zoo on Sunday.

Before we left that house Bryan asked the kids if they wanted to go to the zoo.  "Yes!"  Lilly said and then rattled off a laundry list of the things she wanted to see and do.  Jack's response, "Me ride the train?  Yes."

So, we rode the train.

 Of course the zoo has a carousel too.  Had to ride that.  I hate carousels, when I take the kids to these places without Bryan I strategically avoid the area with the carousel.  Glad everyone got to ride this time.

 A very special thanks to Daddy for all of the fun during 'Disney Dad February' and a great big thanks to the grandparents who made both of these locations absolutely free for us.  Every year for Lilly's and my birthday we get a Zoo membership from my mom and dad and a Children's Museum membership from Bryan's parents.