Monday, February 21, 2011

While Mom was Pre-occupied

I was busy Saturday celebrating a 'baby sprinkle' with friends. Jeremy took the opportunity to foster brainwash Addy & Lilly's love for Indiana University with adventures in Bloomington. He packed healthy lunches bought them hot-dogs, popcorn, candy and milkshakes and kept hand-sanitizer close at all times let them play in the dirt. He kept them scheduled let them skip naps. He took pictures with our fancy Nikon his blackberry and handled the girls gloriously by himself all day only called in a few reinforcements.

I knew they'd had fun when they asked me this morning when I was going to go with them to "the mecca".


Addy & Lilly--their first adventure at Lake Monroe

Lilly and Jeremy's Aunt Julie


Addy, content skipping rocks all day if she could

By the clock tower--Indiana University class of 2015--not if this mama has anything to do with it!
Checking out the history on campus


Scouting IU's future basketball talent at a high-school basketball game with Uncle Joe

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Dogs....

Let me begin by saying I'm not a dog lover. I never had a dog as a kid, never even remember wanting one. Sure, they are cute enough, but I could live my whole life without owning one and still die content. Unfortunately, my disdain for dogs has turned into a fear of dogs for Addy & Lilly. Don't get me wrong, they love to watch them through our front window walking on the nature trail by our house. They love to see them at the park catching Frisbees and will laugh for hours after watching a dog in the lake in the summer. They love these animals...at a very safe distance. However, when asked to touch or be in close quarters with these animals, they pass. They know which of our friends have dogs and will ask me to call ahead if we are going over for a play date "just make sure it's safe, k mom?". It has been this way since the beginning, no matter what we said to try and convince them otherwise. Around the holidays, the game changed.
One of their friends got a puppy from Santa, despite me telling that mom that this would FOREVER skew Addy & Lilly's view of Santa, because now her Santa is very much cooler than our Santa. But, the plan was made and executed and by my surprise Addy FELL IN LOVE WITH THIS PUPPY. It was just her size and the poor thing allowed her to carry it like a stuffed animal without a whimper. She was quickly obsessed.

Addy & her first four-legged friend

It wasn't long after that and her imagination got the best of her. She began to talk to me about her 'new house'. In her 'new house' she had a 'new mom' who didn't make her eat vegetables. She also had a baby brother, a pink flamingo and a puppy. (Most of my close friends are chuckling reading this as Addy might have better luck getting this very 'real' mom to buy the flamingo before either of the other options :-)

We knew it had reached a new level last week when her pre-school daily report log stated, "Addy shared a lot during our circle time today when we discussed LOVE. She said she loved her mommy and daddy, grandma, grandpa and two dogs." Hilarious. Only my kid would have imaginary pets like most kids have imaginary friends.

So, I wasn't surprised after a valentine's day treat visit to Target with grandma where she let them each pick out their own present that Addy came home with this. It's her new obsession, she walks it, feeds it, plays with it, reads to it, etc. When she goes to bed, she even instructs me on what I need to do with it...wait....that reminds me, Zoe needs to go outside.

Addy & Zoe (don't judge the hair, we are trying to grow out her bangs!)

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

50 Boredom Busters...

Indiana was one of many states hit last week with over 3 inches of ice and accumulating snow. We were lucky we never lost power and faired better than many of our Chicago-land friends. However, I was NOT cut out for 4 consecutive days inside with my darling girls. To top it off I got this nasty cold/cough thing that was going around so my nights were about as painful as our long days were. The good news? We lived to tell the tale! Here's a listing of some of our Boredom Busters from the week, many we did last week, others were carried over from other hostage situations, but a good list anyway.



  1. Make Monkey Bread
  2. Finger Paint
  3. Play with Play-dough
  4. Have a tea-party themed hot cocoa party

  5. Play dress-up, pretend to be your favorite princess while watching princess movies

  6. Mix food coloring in bath water, see what colors you can make

  7. Collect a bucket clean snow and bring inside to play

  8. Collect icecles from outside and bring in to eat
  9. Have a dance party

  10. Make s'mores in the oven

  11. Make catepillars out of old egg cartons


  12. Practice letter-writing, scissor cutting, glue sticking or any kind of craft!
  13. Bead necklaces

  14. Count money in your piggy bank

  15. Skype with Aunt Cat

  16. Make Valentine's Day card

  17. Bake cookies



  18. Build forts

  19. Play 'school' setting all our dolls up for circle time and reading books

  20. Look through old pictures of mommy & daddy as kids

  21. Watch mom & dad's wedding video

  22. Make heart garland

  23. Bake "Heart Tarts" (not a fan favorite)

  24. Help mom organize toys!

  25. Compile info for taxes (mom's task)

  26. Have a dinner date with our neighbors


  27. Change all the outfits on the dolls--have them do a fashion show

  28. Build our train tracks off the train table and around the first floor of the house

  29. Watch videos of Addy & Lilly as babies
  30. Make a movie video
  31. Read LOTS of books (Have You Filled a Bucket Today? is a current favorite!)

  32. Take pictures

  33. Shared popsicles with our friends


  34. Have a spa day--manis & pedis for everyone
  35. Watch A LOT of Dora the Explorer

  36. Wrap ourselves in toilet paper to pretent to be mummies

  37. Sign up for summer camp (yea!)

  38. Roll bouncy balls down the basement steps to see which one lands first (testing gravity)

  39. Squeeze our own orange juice

  40. Build pyramids out of our plastic cups

  41. Make an entire village out of our wooden blocks

  42. Paint cardboard boxes into our own houses

  43. Play super-hero's with pillow-cases as our capes

  44. Make colored pancakes with food coloring

  45. Schedule a winter get-away (Great Wolf Lodge--see you in 2 weeks!)

  46. Read blogs and let kiddos see all their online friends :-)

  47. Online shopping (mom's therapy)

  48. Host in indoor scavenger hunt

  49. Build inside snowmen with marshmallows

  50. When the ice begins to thaw and you are brave enough...head outside!

Friday, February 4, 2011

Superbowl 2011

We BLEED Blue in this house from the Colts to my Butler Bulldogs, but this weekend we are cheering for the black & gold in honor of Grandma & Grandpa Sadler! Let's be honest, me and these girls will cheer for any team if it involves a good party :-)