Franklin Park Conservatory

Last summer, Franklin Park Conservatory opened a new Children's Garden.  We typically would visit the Conservatory yearly to see the butterflies but this new garden finally prompted me to purchase a membership.  We have been putting that membership to good use because the butterflies and garden are so much fun! The outdoor garden has tons of stuff for kids to do, including a "sandstone creek" for the kids to splash in and explore. On this particular trip, I didn't think to bring swimsuits.  However, I always pack extra clothes so I told the kids that they could just get wet anyway. We can always dry off and change later!

 They loved this water area! It is a great way to cool off on a hot summer day. We explored the garden a little more that day. Laney ate the rest of the chocolate donut we had had for breakfast. Our last stop was the fairy garden, where you can help build fairy houses.  They kids really delighted in this area especially with the gems.  Will kept asking if fairies were real, but Eliana told him the only real fairy is the Tooth Fairy. We sure get the kids to believe some wild stuff...

These pictures are from our most recent visit with Uncle Roger and Aunt Hannah. The Conservatory has always featured glass artwork by Dale Chihuly (Indianapolis residents may be familiar with his glass sculpture in the Children's Museum). But recently they have incorporated even more of his art in a feature display.  It was so beautiful! I'm not sure the kids appreciated it as much as the grown ups did. But we all had a good time.

Eliana (wearing a butterfly dress in honor of the butterflies in the conservatory) holding a butterfly!

The kids with Aunt Hannah and Uncle Roger. Will refused to turn around for the picture and started waving his rear end at me... Note Laney is wearing a butterfly dress too! Also note the beautiful Chihuly glass in the background!

 We spent a long time playing outside in the water. I even remembered the swimsuits this time. After, the kids explored the float/sink pond, the birds nest, this shelter building area, and the raised balance beams.

 It was a really hot and humid day. I can tell you, after several hours outside, I was ready for a break inside! We were really happy to spend the day with Roger and Hannah and enjoy this chance to be outside.

Trip to Switzerland

David's next conference was in Lugano, Switzerland. In total, David was gone for almost two weeks. That was just a little too long for me to be apart from the kids. Plus the second conference was much more important and much busier. David didn't really have time to be sightseeing. So after Amsterdam, we traveled to Milan, Italy, where I hopped on a flight back to Indiana and David took a train to Lugano. On our way to Italy, we spent a night in Zurich, Switzerland, and a day visiting the Alps in Lucerne.

Our view from our hotel room in Zurich

 From Zurich, we rented a BMW for the day to drive to Lucerne. David was excited to try out the German car, but unfortunately we never made it to the Autobahn to really put it to the test. Maybe our next European vacation...

The right side of this map shows the trip we took to the top of Pilatus Kulm (7000 ft). We took a gondola up two parts of the way. Then we took a cable car the last leg.

David, who is not a fan of dangling from high heights, was a little nervous to get in the gondola.

Lucerne below me in the gondola.

Our view of the city as we traveled higher.

You can see Lake Lucerne in the background. Beautiful views of the lake the whole way up!

At the second station, we got off the gondola, and enjoyed to view along with some food and drinks.Next we will be heading up that mountain behind David.

See the cable car on the way up?

The trip up the mountain was so peaceful - you could hear birds singing, the bells on the cows grazing on the mountain side ringing, and the occasional Alpine horn playing a song.

The view of the cable station from the side of the mountain. See the cable car almost at the top?

We hiked around the top for a couple of hours.

Many of the Alpine peaks around us were much higher than this mountain top.

I loved the Alpine horn!

Lake Lucerne down in the valley.

After Lucerne, we took a train the rest of the way to Milan. We spent one night in Milan before heading different directions. We did get to enjoy some Napolese pizza in Milan our one night there. David had a little time to explore the city but I did not. My flight left early in the morning for the long journey back home. I was so excited to see the kids! It seemed like they had a great time visiting their grandparents. They went swimming, went to the zoo and Children's Museum, ate ice cream, and splashed in the splash pad. So it was a good vacation for everyone! The night we got back to Columbus everyone slept in until after 8am, so I think we all were ready to be home in our own beds!!

Trip to Amsterdam, Netherlands

Through work, David had two hematology conferences to attend this June that were both in Europe. The conferences were just three days apart, and David had all his expenses paid for by the university. So we decided to make a vacation of his work trips and enjoy some time just the two of us! We are so lucky that his parents and my parents were able to watch the kids for us while we were in Europe. What an unbelievable vacation! The beginning of June was also our 9 year anniversary, so I thought of this as a little anniversary trip. It will be hard to top this for next year, our 10 year anniversary!

I started off the trip by driving 3 hours to Indianapolis to drop the kids off with his parents. Shortly after we arrived in Indy, I was dropped off at the airport to begin my 17 hour journey to Amsterdam, where David's first conference was. David flew out of Columbus, and we were lucky to be able to meet up in Detroit to take our overnight flight to Amsterdam together. We arrived on a Wednesday morning, jet-lagged and ready for a nap. But we managed to do a little sight seeing that day and enjoy some local flavors. David had a research presentation for the conference, but other than that, he just attended a few sessions that interested him the most. That meant lots of time to explore the city together.

Amsterdam is a beautiful city full of canals, bikes, and old houses. I thought it was absolutely gorgeous, and was impressed by how clean the city was and how nice the locals were. We visited several museums including the Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh Museum, and the Anne Frank House. The artwork and history were amazing, but my favorite by far was the Van Gogh Museum. If you have any interest in impressionist art, this is the museum for you! We also went on a "Lovers' Cruise" on the canal (pretty cheesy but fun), ate at two different pancake houses, explored the "Bloemenmarkt" (flower market) for some shopping, relaxed in the Vondelpark, and visited several Catholic Churches. We took all different modes of transportation (except the one Amsterdam is know for - bikes! Seemed a little to crazy for me!) including plane, train, bus, metro, tram, boat, and walking.

Look who tried to be a stowaway in my suitcase!

Houseboats on the canal.

Savory pancakes at our first pancake house. David thought I was weird for taking pictures of our food, so I had to stop after this first one.  We ate some pretty crazy things in Amsterdam including a pink paste called "American Beef" that we later found out was raw beef blended with spices and spread on a piece of bread with an egg on top!

Lovers' Cruise. This was a great way to see the city from a different vantage point, especially while it was raining.

View from our cruise window.

St. Nicholas Basilica - we went to mass here in Dutch on Sunday.

The church was beautifully decorated with layer upon layer of biblical illustrations on the walls and the ceiling.

In Vondelpark. I think all of Amsterdam was at the park that evening! Lots of people laying around enjoying a smoke and a picnic. Smoking was one part of Amsterdam that we did not take part in.

Bloemenmarkt - the flower market. We had arrived just after tulip season, which was probably a good thing because it can be quite crazy in Holland during the spring.

Beautiful!

Sidenote - we were in Amsterdam for Father's Day which meant that the kids were not with David on Father's Day. So Eliana had given me a book she had made for him to hold on to. I gave it to David that Sunday and he was quite surprised. It was a cute "All about my Dad" book written by "your happy child Eliana." She actually knew David quite well.  One of my favorite parts was the questions "What has your Dad taught you?" and Eliana's answer was "wrestle monster" which is a silly game David plays with the kids. It's a special type of horsing around for just David and the kids (which I am quite glad I am not allowed to play!). What a neat memory for Eliana (and all the kids) to have with her father. Also what a neat idea for Eliana to give the book to me so that they could celebrate Father's Day even an ocean apart!

Opening day at the pool!

The Saturday before Memorial Day, our neighborhood pools opened for the season.  We were there at 10:30am, suits on and ready to swim! Everyone is done with school, so we will likely be at the pool practically every day for the rest of the summer!

Last day of school!

Will finished up his last day of Teddy Bears preschool in mid May.  He had an amazing spring concert! In the past, Will has not sung the songs that they have worked on at school at home. This spring, however, he would often be signing his songs and wanting me to watch him do the hand motions. I could tell he was really excited. The concert was the beginning of May, and he did great! He sang most of the songs and knew the hand motions as well! I remember last year he would often do the hand motions but couldn't sing at the same time. So I was really proud of him.  Will will have one more year of preschool next year.  He is technically eligible for kindergarten, but he has a summer birthday and will really benefit from another year of preschool.  He is really excited to be in the Polar Bear class next year.  They are the big kids at school, and have a special classroom located downstairs! If you ask him about school, he will always tell you that he will be going DOWNSTAIRS next year! Several of his classmates this year will be going to Polar Bears as well, so I think he is really going to have a lot of fun. I'm really glad he will have another year of half day school before he has to go all day long (I'll miss my little buddy!).

Laney will also be starting preschool next year.  She will go to the Pandas class just like her older siblings did.  I will have two kiddos at BEARS Preschool and no one at home two days a week!  What will I do with myself? Laney is really excited and can't wait to start school like her big siblings. She has already told me that she will be taking her fox lunch box and Paw Patrol backpack to school.  She's ready to be a big girl!

The preschool has a picnic to celebrate the end of the year, and this year included snow cones!  Will had a blast running around with all of his guy friends (which I don't usually get to see).  He has really blossomed this year and made a lot of friends.  I'm excited for him coming back and doing one more year as a Polar Bear!

Gymnastics for All

This winter and spring, all three kids participated in gymnastics. The younger two basically took a tumbling class t ogetherwith the gymnastics equipment, but it was absolutely perfect for them.  Will and Laney loved it so much.

Laney really liked wearing her leotard for class

While it was fun to have a class they could take together, this was a constant problem - Will wanting to wrestle Laney.

Assisted handstand! Laney was fearless and loved doing things that involved going upside down (this handstand mat and hanging upside down from the bars).

About halfway through the class, Will decided gymnastics were actually a ninja training class.  He loved jumping from different equipment and doing ninja kicks and chops.  He wanted me to capture him in action in this picture.

Ninja chop!

Eliana's class was much more structured and geared toward learning actual skills, not just running around. Eliana also enjoyed her class, but she is definitely not as fearless as Laney.  A gymnast needs a certain amount of confidence and lack of fear in able to commit to some moves (like a cartwheel - you can't do that slowly - you have to basically throw your body into the move or you can't get enough momentum to carry your legs around). She definitely improved as the year went on, but I'm not sure she is exactly Olympic gymnast material! She does have great balance though and always excelled at the balance beam.

I'll definitely continue gymnastics with Laney next fall.  She will have a lot more choices of classes besides just a tumbling class since she will be three.  Eliana said she might be interested in trying soccer again (because her friend Adele is playing now!) or possibly tennis. We will see what Will wants to do.

Easter 2019

Per Eliana's request, we started off the Easter Triduum by dying Easter eggs.  This year went much better than years past. Everyone was mostly old enough to dye eggs successfully without cracking too many. And Eliana was happy to dye the cracked ones too.  Laney had the most fun with just taking the same egg and putting it in every color. Eliana was also happy to "help" her with the rest of her eggs while she focused on just the one.

I was supposed to work Easter this year, but due to some last minute changes, I managed to have the weekend off.  We went to Indianapolis for Easter and saw lots and lots of family. All of my siblings and their spouses were at my parents' house as well as their kids.  Then all of David's siblings and significant others were at his parents' house. It was like a double family reunion!

We spent Friday night with my family and managed to get all of the cousins in one picture with just a few tears.

Saturday we went to David's parents house. His siblings had planned a little Easter egg hunt for the kids with the amazing surprise of little containers slime in the eggs instead of candy! What a great idea! The kids played for a long time after the hunt with the slime, which worked out much better than gorging on candy while waiting for dinner. 

The Easter Bunny left baskets for the kids in the morning.

We got dressed up so nicely for church, but when I asked the kids to stand for a picture, this is what I got. 

Eliana felt bad after for sticking her tongue out and asked for a redo.

We ended the trip by heading over to my Aunt Karen's house for a large family gathering, meal, and Easter Egg hunt.

Cousins Hannah and Naomi