Five Months!

 

Miss Elizabeth is now five months!  We have had so much fun with her this month!  It seems that each day she becomes more personable and enjoyable.  The older kids still love her and fight over who can be closer to her or gain her attention.  Caroline still loves to touch her hair, and Jack hits his forehead for some reason to make her smile.  Grant loves to just snuggle up next to her and look at her while sucking his thumb.  It is very sweet to see.

As far as what she is doing now, Elizabeth is a busy girl.  She can tripod sit for a few seconds.  She is doing better on her belly and can turn herself in a circle.  She also has begun to try to push off with her feet.  That makes this mama sad--I'm not ready for my baby to even look like she's going to crawl!  She gives big smiles that light up her whole face when she sees her mommy and daddy.  She is quite the squealer and is still such a content, happy girl.  She rarely cries, and if she does, there is usually a good reason.  Our neighbor thinks she is the most laid back baby, and she really is such a pleasant little girl.  The child also loves to grab and play with her toes.  I love it!

Last night we moved her into the crib in the new "girls' room."  She did a great job and slept from 8pm to 4am, at which point she ate and went back to sleep until 7.  Yay!  When she sleeps she sucks her left thumb and snuggles with her pink puppy.  I guess she'll be like Caroline, who always needs to have her blankie in order to suck her thumb and sleep.

She has lately been chomping on her fingers and leaking like a faucet.  I think teeth are in the future for this month!

I feel truly blessed by having Elizabeth as my daughter.  It has been so fun getting to know her more and more each day and seeing her little sweet personality develop.  Time seems to going way to fast, though.  If only there were a way to slow it down for all of my kids!

PBS Kids 2013

We have gone to PBS Kids in the Park the past few years.  It's a great event for kids who love PBS shows, which perfectly describes my kiddos. 



 

It is very popular so we had to park far away from the park.  Caroline was carried in the Ergo again, much to her chagrin.

On our way we passed a fire station that had its garage doors open.  Someone said the firefighters were fine with us looking around as long as we didn't climb on the trucks and get into stuff. 

We were all impressed to see a real live fire pole.  Who knew they actually used those things?

 

One of the great things about PBS Kids in the Park is that they have all sorts of characters from their shows.  We've met Curious George, Martha, Super Why, Miss Rosa, and Mr. Steve (among others).  However, the one that has excited both Ryan and me more than the others was the person we met this year: Mr. McFeeley from Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood.  He was such a genuinely nice man.  Even though there was a long-ish line he took the time to ask questions and try to connect with each person.  It was very sweet, and I have to say Ryan and I were both quite impressed with him.  Jack was also excited because he wakes up WAY too early on Saturday mornings to watch Mr. Rogers--earlier than he wakes up during the week!

There was an animal area where the kids could pet a bearded dragon.  All three were willing to touch it.

However, once we met the Madagascar hissing cockroach, Grant may have been the only taker (even though Jack's in the picture).  Caroline, who has recently developed a HUGE FEAR of all bugs (yup, even teeny gnats!), stayed as far away from it as she could.

Caroline enjoyed watching someone from Sesame Street dancing on stage with Curious George while sitting on Ryan's shoulders. 

On way back to the car from lunch we saw all of this smoke.  It turned out there was a storage facility on fire.  We could still see the smoke from our house when we got home, and I think it ended up burning for two days or something.  It was strange to think that the same fire trucks we saw on our way into the park were probably now off fighting this huge fire.

Strawberry Fields Forever

The past couple of years I have heard about strawberry picking.  We've gone pumpkin picking and apple picking but never strawberry picking.  So this year, when I started seeing all sorts of posts and photos on Facebook from friends who had taken their kids strawberry picking, I figured it was time to go.


the boys headed out to pick strawberries

We chose a lovely, cool-ish, sunny morning to go.  I put Miss Elizabeth in the Ergo carrier and wore her while the rest of us picked strawberries. 

Have you ever picked strawberries?  I haven't.  And let me tell you, it's NOT like picking apples.  There is no standing and reaching.  There is only kneeling/squatting/sitting in dirt and leaning.  It's a lot of work.

Caroline searching for the best strawberries.  You can't tell, but her shirt has strawberries on it.  Just pointing it out so you can appreciate it.

A friend of mine stated it best when she said her kids would make terrible migrant workers.  That is how we were.  I saw people leaving with two boxes full of strawberries weighing 20 pounds or something. 

Ryan and Grant working hard to find the best fruit

Jack digging deep into the plant to find a great strawberry

Really??  What will you do with that many strawberries?  How much do you love strawberries that you are willing and able to pick that many?  Not so much for us.  We were good with our five pounds.  We ate strawberry shortcake and put the strawberries on ice cream.  We also ate them plain.  The thing is, my kids like strawberries, but even they got burned out on the tasty red fruit.  I am thinking, unlike apple and pumpkin picking, this may be something we DON'T do annually.  I think I'm actually good paying a bit more to buy the pre-picked organic strawberries at the grocery store.

This was our first attempt at the nice family picture--notice who did not want to participate.  (In fairness to him, he was not feeling so great, but we think it's a funny picture.)

For the next one we just asked the guy to take a picture of those of us looking at the camera.  Maybe the next time we do this we'll all be smiling at the camera!

Go Colts!

Last summer I heard about a free Colts mini camp at Lucas Oil Stadium--about a week after the fact.  I was so bummed that we missed out on it that I took note to make sure we did not miss it again this year.

  

So the other day I was wasting time perusing a blog and happened upon the date for the mini camp this year.  I mean, hello--FREE entrance to the stadium and a chance to see a Colts practice??  Sorry kiddos.  This is probably more for mom and dad.  Actually, maybe it is an opportunity for the boys to catch the "football bug."  It is a well-known fact in our house that Ryan loves football and the boys (mostly Jack) do not (mainly because it takes away Ryan's attention on a Sunday afternoon).  Ryan dreams of the day that he can sit down with the boys and watch a game.  I say it will probably be his girls, not his boys, who share his interest.

 

Anyway...

 

We got to the stadium around 3:15 and were super excited to be greeted immediately upon arrival with an invitation to eat free Blue Bell ice cream.  Who doesn't love that?  We found some great seats where we could sit, eat, and watch all the fun activities (bounce houses, games, etc.) on the field.  After finishing our treat we planned to go onto the field ourselves, but they closed it right when we were done so they could get things set up for practice.  Bummer!

 

We watched an NFL film about last year's Colts season (we moved to the 50 yard line just before it started--gotta sit in the best seats if you can!)  The kids even did a good job sitting still and watching it.

 

The best part of the day was after the movie.  The players came out to sign autographs, and everyone formed a line to wait for the players.  The boys and Ryan had grabbed FREE Colts posters on the way in and took them down to get them signed.  After awhile it appeared our efforts to get autographs would be in vain as the attendant wouldn't let our section line up along the wall where the players were signing.  Finally, someone took pity on our group and let Ryan, the kids, and the others in the line go up against the wall.  And who should come over but ANDREW LUCK, the quarterback!  Ryan and the boys were all excited to get his autograph (he signed three posters) and get his picture. 

 

After they came back to the seats (I'd stayed back with a sleeping Elizabeth) we watched a little bit of the practice before deciding we'd been there long enough.  We packed up our stuff and headed back home, posters in hand with great memories of our time there. 

 

I'm not sure the boys will be any more enthusiastic about football in the fall, but I guess we'll see.  We can always hope!

We had to park a little bit away from the stadium so Ryan wore Caroline.  Here is the front of the stadium.

sitting in our awesome seats at the 50 yd. line

Andrew Luck!

part of the practice

 

even Elizabeth enjoyed the festivities!

The red shirt is Andrew Luck.  They had different squads out there running plays at different times.

There was a big dune buggy-type thing the kids climbed into and pretended to drive.  Grant looks pretty serious about his driving.

I just think Caroline looks pretty sweet here.  By this point, though, she was being a bit mischievous.  It had been a long afternoon of sitting.

 

We had a really fun time, and I would love to go again next year to get a chance to actually get onto the field.  I love the Colts!