Archive for September 2008
For those keeping score on Verde, we’ve “let him go,” …metaphorically. We decided after being 9 days overdue, it was time to take him outside and let him be free. No worries though, because we captured Herb on Friday and he is already in his chrysalis. We’ll keep you posted on any arrival that might occur!
It has been a while since my last post, and I a few fun things to share. First, here are a few pics from Family Night and Central Elementary School. All of the parents came over to the school to hear us sing our color songs and to help make tie dye shirts. It was cool to have Mommy, Daddy, and Parker there to see my school and I was super-excited to show them around my classroom.
CentralFamilyNight
Flash forward to Friday night of this past week when I told Mommy that my light was green at school all day! That deserved a trip down to Carmel to Daddy’s work for Fall Festival. Daddy was keeping the craps table warm until we got there and hooked us up with a handful of ride & game tickets as soon as we walked in. Shortly thereafter, we ran in to Jennifer and Adam! They showed us around and we worked through some of the crazy things they had set up like the bounce house and huge inflatable slide, and a monster-sized obstacle course. We snagged a hot dog and chips before heading back to the Byrne’s house to crash their Friday night. We topped the night off with some roasted marshmallows over the fire and scouting around the backyard with flashlights to find their nest of baby bunnies. We didn’t get home and to bed until about 11 that night…waaaaay past bed time!
The next day, we planned to head up to Lafayette to go to a party with Mema and Pepa. We didn’t know these people, but Pepa did, so we rode in on his coat tails. The first thing we noticed…bounce house! Because we weren’t worn out from the hopping from the night before, we “jumped” right in to this one and put it through the paces. After our faces were plenty red and panting, we decided it was time to grab a drink and look around. After some hydration and milling around the pond, we took in a safety lesson from the Conservation Officer and grabbed some stickers. Then, the main event…the helicopter. Parker about jumped right out of his diaper when he saw that thing swoop overhead! Everyone scrambled over to the field to line up for helicopter rides! I got in line, but wasn’t quite sure about the whole thing until I saw a few people go before me. They jumped right in, rode around, and always had a huge smile on their faces when they climbed out. So, I thought, “I can do this, too.” When my turn came up, I was brave like a knight and ran right out to get buckled in. We lifted off…and it was awesome! I was way up in the air and could see everything. We circled around and came in for a landing that was soft as a feather. I waved to Mommy so that she knew I was OK, then waited to be unbuckled. I climbed out and ran straight to Daddy saying, “I did it!” Everyone was so proud of me and wanted me to tell them all about it over and over again. Shortly thereafter, we had to jet to run some errands, but thanks very much to Mema and Pepa for letting us come and party with them!
Helicopter
Mommy and Aunt Carrie had been kicking around the idea of traveling up to the metropolis of Monticello to visit Indiana Beach. No solid plans, but we were going to wing it as far as times and travel. Well, just like hooking up on 65 at 4:00 am within about a quarter mile of each other for our Florida trip, we were in perfect Lawson synchronicity and ended up at the parking lot within minutes of each other. Our day was just about ruined, though, when we learned that Wabash National had rented out THE WHOLE PARK for their company picnic! Big props, though, to Aunt Carrie and Uncle Manata for being in the right place at the right time. When someone strolled by and asked, “How many tickets do you need?”, they instinctively announced “Eight!”. That’s right, folks. Eight pre-paid, all-access passes to the beach that included all rides and activities as well as lunch, snacks, and drinks! The scoring-est score to ever have scored!
Daddy stumbled in dumbfounded for about the first 20 minutes. Had we really just saved about $200+ in admission, ride passes, food, and drinks? We were about 2-3 rides deep before it all sunk in and we started hitting full stride. Carousel, cars, airplanes, boats, convoy ride, whales…it was awesome! After a sprint of rides, we slowed the roll with a visit to feed the big, nasty fish and a ride on the Shafer Queen. After the boat, antique autos and the giant gondola wheel were the places to hit. Then, a quick stop for some tacos from the Taco Shoppe before making another run at Kiddieland. Daddy and Uncle Manata went to check out one of the big boy roller coasters while the mommies and kiddos totally dominated the rides with no lines. We hit ride after ride, back to back…often getting off, swinging around the exit back to the entrance for another whirl.
At 6:00, the spell wore of and the park was closing down, bringing an end to our epic win of a day. Everyone was very, very good in a day filled with smiles, laughs, waves, rides, and fun! Thanks very much to Wabash National for one of the best company picnics ever! (keep scrolling down for the complete multimedia experience!)
IndianaBeach
Today it was my special day…it was very fun. Would you like to hear about it? First, we put new parsley in to our jar…I’ll tell you about what is in the jar later.
It was a big day…it was brown day, and picture day, and Mystery Bag day. So, we had to put up a brown sign in kindergarten. We have computers at our school and they play games with us, like clicking on the color of an object. Mine was a purple umbrella. Brown day means that you have to wear something brown.
Know what else, it was picture day and I had to put on my smile. When we got our picture taken, the lady called me sweetie pie and cutie pie and princess. Oh, yea, it was also gym day and I had to wear my tennis shoes. We got to do stretches, dodging, be a plane, frog, football player, basketball player, and bubbles.
The Mystery Bag is where you have to put clues on a piece of paper. Then, the class has to guess what is in the Mystery Bag. My clues were:
- It was as long as my index finger
- It is green, yellow, and black
- It eats green, leafy plants
Can you guess it? It is a caterpillar! I have a swallow tail caterpillar in our very own parsley bush growing at our house. He eats and grows and eats and grows and sheds his skin. We have him in a jar and I’m raising him until he becomes a butterfly. We made holes in the top of the jar and put in parsley and a stick. I named him Verde because he is green. Daddy wanted to name him Leeroy Jenkins.
We decided that we needed a little family time today, so we dragged Daddy out of the infirmary (he has a bad cold that he has been whining about) and everyone went out on the town. First stop was Pirate’s Cove for some miniature golf! We played 18 holes at Red Beard’s course. I think Parker won…he had the most hits. Well, that is, before he gave up and decided just to carry his ball around everywhere, walk up, and plop it right in to every hole. I had a really great time playing and was sad when it was over, but was instantly cheered up when we headed inside for some bowling!
This is a little different than Wii because the ball weighed a whole 6 pounds! Whew, that is a lot of work! Especially since, again, Parker quickly lost interest at about the 4th frame and I bowled double-time. At the end, Mommy had Daddy on the ropes but Daddy was able to crank up the skillz and pull ahead just in time.
After that whole extravaganza, we decided that it was time for grub. We packed up and headed over to Red Robin (Yummm!) to meet the Byrnes! We hadn’t seen them in forever, and Parker was so excited that he fell asleep on the 4 minute car ride over to the restaurant. He perked right back up, though, when Jude walked in. He was right up in his grill saying “bebee, bebee”. Adam and I managed to color masterwork pictures on just about every available place mat, napkin, and spare slip of paper on the table.
After lunch, we scooted across the street to Cold Stone to fill in any empty cracks in our bellies with frosty goodness. Adam and I sat at the Kids Table (no adults allowed!) while the little kids squirreled around with the grown ups as they fantasized about vacations, pool time, and nights out in Las Vegas 
Thanks for the Byrnes for hooking up with us today, and thanks to the family for one of the best days in what has been a hectic week. We needed that!