Fall, Friends & Fun

What could be better than my favorite time of the year spent with several of my favorite people? This past weekend we went up to Pokagon State Park and met up with my college friends (Jen, Kristy, Michelle, and Tara) and their families, between us we had 10 kids ranging in age from 10 months to 5 1/2 years old. The kids became fast friends and had so much fun together. We couldn't have asked for nicer weather, 60's and sunny. On Saturday we had a picnic lunch, the kids played on the playground equipment and jumped in piles of leaves. We went on a hike and stopped by the nature center before heading back to the inn. It just so happened that there was a Puppeteers convention going on, so we took some of the older kids to see a few puppet shows. With 10 young children we decided dinner in would be easier than a restaurant, so we ordered up some pizza. The inn has a really nice social area with table and chairs, sofas, and rockers. With our large group, we somewhat dominated the room, but we didn't mind. Our husbands graciously put the kids to bed, allowing time for the girls to have some quality time together in the evening. We gathered again for breakfast on Sunday morning before we all had to head our separate ways.

Although the miles may separate us physically, our friendships remain strong. I am so blessed to have these fine women in my life!

While we're on the topic of biting...

I am completely addicted to the Twilight series. I have already finished the first book and am now 450 pages into New Moon. I have Eclipse and Breaking Dawn waiting for me when I finish.

At first I was skeptical and wasn't planning to read these books, but I got rather curious. Working with teenagers, I like to try and keep up with them so I have some way to connect to the things they are interested in. So many of the students (mainly female) were reading these books. If you haven't seen one, they are long...I'm talking 600-750 pages each! Books that long are NOT what you typically find your run of the mill teenager reading. This alone intrigued me. Then, toward the end of the school year I was sitting in a conference for a special services student. She is a self-proclaimed non-reader. I noticed she had a Twilight book with her, so in an effort to make conversation I asked her about it. You should have seen her eyes light up. I clearly remember her saying to me, "Mrs. Renier, you have to read this book! I don't like to read, but I love this book and I can't wait to read the next one." This floored me and I decided then and there I would read Twilight.

Little Biter

Ok Mommy Friends, I need any words of wisdom you have to offer. This evening the girls were sitting at the table eating apples. Pretty soon Peyton is out of her seat and playing on the floor. Next, she is under the table and Allison screams because Peyton just bit her leg. This all happened for no apparent reason. Then when I was getting her ready for bed, she kept trying to bite my arm.

Has anyone else had a little biter? Advice?

Kindergarten for Ally & Daycare for Peyton

Last night we visited Aboite Elementary's Kindergarten Open House. Allison was excited to meet her friends and take her supplies to school. We had a self-guided tour of the classroom, found where to put her bookbag and supplies, she had to find her seat and write her name on a strip of paper. I think she was most excited about getting to ride the school bus and that she has a Hannah Montana bookbag.

This morning when we dropped Allison off at the YMCA before school, I got a little nervous. Allison was fine, waved and said "Bye Mommy" almost as soon as we walked in. Little miss Peyton however, kept saying, "Ally go to Lesa's". When I told her that Allison was going to Kindergarten, she responded with, "I go to Kindergarten". Eventually she accepted that Allison was going to school and she was going to daycare, but she was so sad. Fortunately, she had a very good day and only asked "Where Ally?" one time. Allison enjoyed school today and was sad when I picked her up from after school care at the YMCA. She told me that she made 5 new friends today and she used her manners at school. :)
It also probably didn't hurt that they had pizza for lunch and that is her current favorite thing to eat. Let's hope tomorrow goes just as well...

Is it bad when...

Is it bad when your 2 year old is playing with a cup in the bathtub pretending to drink and says, "I drink a beer"? I'm just asking...

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

Fort Wayne has a "Low-A" Minor League baseball team called the TinCaps, formerly known as The Wizards. They are part of the San Diego Padres organization. This season is the first season for the new name and a brand new ballpark downtown (this came with a lot of controversy!). Ally received four free tickets through T-ball, so today the four of us went to a TinCaps game. It was a beautiful day for a ball game at a fabulous ballpark.

Our seats were almost directly behind home plate about half way up. No zoom needed for this picture!

The seats were empty today, but above right field is a section called the TreeTops. This area is rooftop seating similar to Wrigley Field. There is a grassy area beyond the outfield where there aren't any seats, but instead you can bring a blanket and hang out on the lawn.

Peyton and Mommy

Daddy and Ally

This might have been the highlight of the day for the girls...a picture with Johnny! Johnny Appleseed is the mascot for the TinCaps.
To end the day off right, the TinCaps beat the South Bend Silverhawks 11-2 with three solo homeruns in the 5th inning. It was a very fun day!

P.S.--For the college gals, Chris Watson our old neighbor at Campus Edge works for the TinCaps. Small world, huh?

Happy 2nd Birthday, Peyton!

Wow, can she really be two years old already? On May 18 Peyton Mary will turn 2. She is so feisty with all kinds of personality! As a newborn, Peyton was a quiet and content baby. However, she has found her voice and talks to us all the time now. She loves to say hi to people and continues to say hi until you respond to her. Peyton is a very determined little girl. If she wants something, she's going to persist until she gets her way. She loves cheese, yogurt (yogee), and salami (lami). We've been working on colors lately...I think blue must be her favorite because if you ask her what color something is the answer is almost always "blue". I know she can identify other colors though because if I ask her to show me the yellow one or the green one, she usually gets those right. Peyton also likes to sing the ABC's and Taylor Swift's Love Story with Ally (we really listen to that song WAY too much!). Needless to say, there is never a dull moment when Peyton is around! We love you , Peyt! Happy 2nd Birthday!

1 year old

1 year old

Allison pointed out that we have a lot of pictures with Peyton's mouth open!

2 years old

sitting pretty...for the moment!

So sweet!
Eating Strawberry Shortcake, which we put a candle in at Peyton's request. She also helped us sing to her tonight after dinner.

An Idea from a Co-worker

A co-worker of mine shared with me a special gift she will be giving her daughter for her high school graduation this year. I think it's an amazing idea and hope I remember to do something like this for my girls. She purchased the Dr. Seuss book Oh The Places You Will Go when her daughter was in Kindergarten. Every year she asked her daughter's teachers to write a short note to her inside the cover of the book (similar to a yearbook). Her daughter has no idea that her mom has been doing this all these years. I can't wait to her what her reaction will be when she receives this gift.

Sun & Fun in Florida

Over Spring Break we traveled to Florida for a much needed vacation. I was a little unsure about driving since we had never taken such a long trip with the girls, but they were absolutely perfect! Who knew they would be such good little travelers?! While in Florida we enjoyed some very nice weather most days. Within a half hour of arriving, Darren and Ally were in the pool and then out on the beach. We stayed with Darren's parents and as you can see, there was a wonderful view of the ocean from the balcony.

Ally & Daddy ready to catch some rays.

I love all the palm trees!

We just had to take a few pictures by the "lomster" at Our Deck Down Under. This is one of our favorite places for dinner right on the water.

We also have a picture "pre-Peyton" when Ally was 2 by the lobster in our scrapbook.

On a chilly day we headed to the jetty. The sun was bright, but it was very windy and cold to be out there for too long. That didn't stop us from spotting a few dolphins though!

Peyton loved the birds. Here we had a good view of a pelican sunning on the rocks.

Peyton and Ally spent lots of time digging in the sand. Ally had no problem getting coated in sand, but Peyton kept saying "yucky".

Looking for seashells. We collected a lot...I think we managed to leave a few in Florida.

Peyton examines a shell she picked up.

During low tide, there were two sections of water. You could walk out on the sand, into the water, back on the sand, and then back in the water. It was nice to have a shallow area for the kids to play in. In the center of this picture you can see Darren and Ally playing in the water.

Grandpa said this was his favorite part of our visit! The girls are drinking their smoothies we made for dessert one evening.

This is one of my favorite pictures.

Thank you, Ron & MaryLou for inviting us to stay with you. Ally keeps talking about when we go back to Florida...

My Spring Break Reading

I had several suggestions as to some good books for Spring Break reading, but haven't gotten to any of those yet. I did manage to read two books over break, both were good, but they were VERY different! The first book I read was a good "beach read"...John Grisham's Playing for Pizza.

Basically it's an easy read about an NFL 3rd string quarterback who goes to play football in Italy where it's pretty much a club sport. I wouldn't really consider this a sports book, more a life story with life lessons (fictional).

The second book I read was also a life story with life lessons, but much more heart wrenching and depressing...Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns. I would not consider this book a "beach read", not light hearted enough, although I do recommend this book.

This book is mainly about the lives and treatment of people (primarily women) in Afghanistan over the past 35 years. It is a history lesson in the most personal of ways. At one point I wanted to put this book down and never finish reading it, but I am glad I read through to the end.

"I'm five years old today!"

And she sang..."I'm five years old today...and tomorrow I'll still be five...ready, set, go.."

Happy 5th Birthday, Allison! What a blessing it is to have you in our lives. You are so sweet, smart, and caring. We love you more every day!

3 months old and nothing but smiles

Still smiling at 6 months

I thought you were going to eat the flower when this picture was taken!

So big...learning to stand on your own at 9 months. This picture made Grandpa Renier so sad because you were getting too big too fast for his liking.


Our first "real" family photo. Look at all those curls you had when you were 1.

18 months old

2 years old...our little doll

Our brown eyed girl

A little lady at 3 years old

Our beautiful Ally~4 years old

Finally 5! Ally is all smiles...she got a Taylor Swift CD.

Making her birthday wish

Happy 5th Birthday, Ally!

Smoothies & Sunshine

Sunday was a really nice day so we made smoothies and sat outside to drink them.

Ally LOVES smoothies! Especially with "whooped cream" on top!

Peyton LOVES to drink through a straw.

Peyton kept looking for planes in the sky. She would say "plane, plane". Another favorite phrase of hers is "Do it!" which means "I'll do it myself!". If you look closely, you can see her mismatched outfit which is a result of "Do it!". Her shirt matches Ally's--black and white stars and stripes, pink pajama pants, striped socks (the right one is upside down with the rubber grips on the top of her foot), and brown shoes. What a character!

I took a few videos of the kids outside too, but can't seem to get them to transfer properly to my computer from my camera. I'll have to keep trying!

One year Anniversary

As I was going through the archives of my blog this evening, I came to the realization that I started this blog exactly one year ago today. While I may not update as often I had hoped I would, I do enjoy posting and reading the posts of my friends. I had no idea if I would like blogging, but it's fun and sort of scratches my scrapbooking itch (if you think I'm behind in blogging, you have no idea how far behind my scrapbooks are!!!). So, thanks to Kristy and Michelle for getting me on the bandwagon and to Jen and Tara for joining too. I feel like I still know what's going on in your lives even though we only see each other about once a year.

That's My Grandpa!

This week my Grandpa was inducted into the Hammond Sports Hall of Fame. Unfortunately we were unable to attend since the ceremony fell during the week and was in NW Indiana. Several members of our family were there to celebrate with him and said that the ceremony was wonderful. My Uncle Bob had the privilege of introducing Grandpa during the ceremony. We're very proud of you, Grandpa! We love you!

Below is what was listed in The Times about him:
Robert E. Burns
During his first season running high school cross country, the 1948 Hammond Tech graduate placed fifth in the state meet. He would be a state finalist again the following year and also go on to star in track and field, earning third place in the state meet. Offered university scholarships to continue his athletic career, he declined to remain at home to help support his mother and siblings following the premature death of his father. He is a retired Hammond police sergeant.

There is also a video online. My Uncle Bob comes on to introduce Grandpa Burns around the 5 1/2 minute mark.
http://www.regionsports.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1718&Itemid=200

Spring Break Reading List

Alright girls, I'm looking for some help here. We're driving to Florida for Spring Break in a few weeks and I want to take some light, entertaining reading material. I am open to suggestions...please help.

I LOVE my kids!!

I'm feeling like a bad blogger lately. I do check in on my fellow-bloggers and read their posts on a fairly regular basis, but I've been bad about updating mine. I always tell myself, "I'll get to it this weekend when I have more time." Do you know what? The weekend comes and goes much faster than I ever wanted it to! So here we are a month and a half after my last post...

I've certainly got lots to report on after all that time, but here are the highlights:

Allison is going to be 5 in about 5 weeks. She will start Kindergarten in the fall and I'm starting to feel some internal conflict with that. How in the world could she possibly be turning 5 already?! She was telling me tonight about how she baked a cake at the babysitter's house and she got to crack an egg all by herself (something I have not yet let her try at home when we're baking). When I commented to her about how proud I am of her and how big she's getting, she said to me sweetly, "You think I should just stay little and not get big." Obviously I've said this to her a billion times! It's not that I don't want her to get bigger, it's just that I want her to stay little for a while longer. Ok, Fellow-Moms-of-little-ones-about-to-be-bigger-ones, does this seem like such an unreasonable request???

Allison has also been progressing quite well through swim lessons this past fall and winter. She spent one final session in Pike, moved up to Eel for one 7-week session, and has been moved up once more to Ray. This is very exciting when you're not quite 5 and you might get to be with the 6-8 year olds! I love you and am so proud of you, Ally!

And then there's little Miss Peyton Mary...this kid is a handful! She'll be getting into something or squaking at the top of her lungs and then flash you the sweetest, most innocent smile. One of her favorite things to do right now is put things in the kitchen cabinets. By things, I of course am referring to items which would not normally be found in kitchen cabinets such as shoes, her toys, the TV remote, sippy cups full of milk or juice, her hat and gloves, etc. She is talking A LOT and has tons of recognizable words now. She enjoys talking on the phone, usually though it's when no one is really on the other end to talk back to her. She's very good at having a pretend conversation though! Peyton also seems to have an obsession with Dora, or as she says "doh wa", and Elmo. Peyt also loves her "no man" sweater which now seems to be a bit more 3/4 length sleeve that long-sleeve, but it's been through a lot. At one point in time, the sweater belonged to her big cousin McKenna who will be turning 11 this summer.

Peyton's most recent trick is climbing out of her crib at naptime on the weekends. I am not ready to move her to a big girl bed yet, for fear that she will NEVER stay in it and naptime as we know it will be gone for good. Oh the trials of the mommy of a not-quite-2-year-old! Love you, Peyt! Thanks for keeping me on my toes.