Where have my babies gone??

I realize it has been a while since I've randomly written about what the kids are busy with these days, and considering we hit another major milestone today...I figure it's time.

Patrick is closely approaching his 5th birthday on May 22nd. He is doing wonderful at Resurrection in preschool, recently receiving a great progress report from his teachers. He has made many nice friends as well. Patrick and Lucy are learning side by side - recognizing letters and working on letter sounds, counting, and identifying printed numbers. They are both very interested in reading and writing, and although Patrick is the only one who can actually write his name they both can very easily spell and recognize their names. And each others :) Just the other day, Patrick wrote our entire family's name without any help! Patrick is a good artist and his favorite subjects are ptyerodactyls, vehicles, and people. He is constantly building, amazing me with his Lego creations. And quick to add that he "didn't even have to look at the directions". Last night, Daddy took off the training wheels....and by lunchtime today he was speeding around the neighborhood like he had been for months. He loves to play games on the computer and on his Explorer, work on puzzles, and play make-believe. He is often in character, the most frequent one we see is a dragon :)

Lucy is three going on sixteen. As usual. Too big for her skinny britches and entering a fiercely independent stage. It's a lot of "I am NOT a baby", and resisting us carrying her most of the time. She graduated to a "training wheel bike" with her all time favorite painted on the side -- Rapunzel. We recently took her to see "Tangled", her first theater experience...and she absolutely loved it! And loved having a big soda and popcorn :) We still do tumbling/dance weekly, and her class is preparing for their recital in June. Just last week at class, I realize how much stronger and more coordinated her movements are. She is frequently dressed like a princess, complete with necklaces, bracelets, a purse and heels. Typically with a dragon on her tail! Her vocabulary continues to be ridiculous, using as many big words as she can during the day. Favorites are "did you realize....?" and "I didn't recognize...." or "such-and-such is similar..." The kids play very well together, we are so lucky for that. Lucy will start preschool next fall alongside her brother in pre-K, sharing a room for this year only until he moves onto Kindegarten.

We keep pretty busy during the day -- from playdates at MEGA gymnastics to the library and Children's Museum. With warmer days approaching, we will add the park and zoo back into our rotation, and hopefully the pool. Both kids tear up and down the street all day long on their bikes, and Lucy tackles the hills with the same drive as her brother. We are looking forward to the new swingset, which is anticipated to be up sometime in the next month. Hopefully. Naps are pretty much history, but quiet time with a movie in the afternoon seems to be a pretty good alternative. As is the earlier bedtime for Mommy and Daddy :)

Weekend Getaway

Very last minute, we decided to treat ourselves and the kids to a weekend away. After looking around a little bit, we settled on Big Splash Adventure Water Park in French Lick, Indiana. We had heard good things about it from friends, so decided to go for it. It's close, it's relatively inexpensive, it's right up the kids alley.

The kids had no idea what we were doing. That's the beauty of childhood, things are happening around you and you are totally oblivious. I was able to get the van all packed up during the day on Friday and the house set to leave town, all right under their noses with very few questions that were apparently answered with my vague responses. Friday afternoon we left with intentions of going out to dinner. Nothing different, something we do fairly regularly, but there were many complaints as to how LLLOOONNNGG the drive was. About an hour and a half. We arrived at the resort, checked in and settled down to eat at their restaurant. Which, for those of you considering visiting this place...don't eat here. Food and service is mediocre, prices are high. Talk yourselves out of the fact that it's convenient because it's within the hotel. Just use this place for breakfast, since it's included in your package. Spend half the money and eat at the DQ in town. Anyhow...kids are still clueless. We bring our stuff up to the room and it starts to sink in that we are staying. Pretty excited! The room is adequate, the built in bunk beds are a major hit. Luckily, it was decided right away that Patrick would sleep on top, so we avoided that battle.

We spent a couple hours that evening at the water park. Very cool. Again, for those of you thinking about going, know that your children under 46 inches are limited to about half the park. Which, for us, was fine. They have a wading pool with swings and fountains and another big area that has all kids of water features including two tube slides. The other half has four tube slides for bigger kids and adults, as well as some deeper pools. Brian went down those slides several times, and I humored him and did it once. Totally dark, totally enclosed, aggressive ending. Pretty cool if you are into the thrill ride scene. Not for me. Oh yeah, also the lazy river that circles the place. Both kids enjoyed that as well. Patrick really had the most fun of all. He was the perfect age and size to really enjoy all that he could do. Lucy was a little more timid (*gasp* - not really), preferring to hang out in the smaller wading pool and miffed that she had to put on a life vest to get into the lazy river. Apparently that was seriously interfering with her ability to "bounce" off the bottom of the "river". Go figure, it keeps you afloat :)

Saturday afternoon we went over and explored around the Railroad Museum. Kind of disappointing, all that entails is walking around a bunch of parked train cars. But free. We got back to the resort after stopping for ice cream and let the kids play in the arcade while we sipped on Bud Light Limes (another perk in our book). Spent 10 bucks to win a couple of junk toys that they were totally thrilled about. Saturday night we ate at Chicago's pizza, a tiny restaurant at the bottom of the very steep drive leading up to the resort. VERY good pizza, great service. Would absolutely recommend this place and will be eating here again the next time.

All in all, a great time despite the kids fighting winter colds. They enjoyed the water park, slept very well in the room, all we could ask for. We are rejuvenated and ready for spring!!

Merry Christmas!

Ice cream parlor set from Santa!

Patrick and Morgan at McNulty Family Christmas, best buddies :)

Sledding at Ellenberger Park...wheeee!

...and sledding some more...

Enjoying the White Christmas morning...

Very happy with his Sky Racers airplane!

Our typical Christmas Eve was a bust this year, being that the kids were still feverish and battling a viral infection. Instead of mass and celebrating with the Bretz side, we stayed home and made our own snacks, watched Christmas movies, and enjoyed the snow coming down. Some Bretz family stopped by with gifts and to wish us a Merry Christmas. All in all, being home was actually a very nice alternative. But prefer the tradition :)

Christmas morning the kids were up before 6...the second time. Patrick was at our bedside around 3 am to tell me that he "didn't hear anything". Santa was very good to them, bringing Patrick's desired Imaginext Sky Racers Carrier and Optimus Prime and Lucy's baby doll and multiple accessories as well as an ice cream parlor set. For the first time, we opened gifts fairly slowly and enjoyed the kids glee (especially Patrick, who announced that most of his gifts he "wanted his whole life") and surprise. Other favorites included a shared Lego set, Leapfrog Explorers, a RC monster truck, and many puzzles and other crafts. Lucy was mostly impressed with a small spiral bound Princess notebook and a LED flashlight that Santa left in her stocking. Who knew. Daddy and I made out good as well! My big gift was supposed to be a food processor (which made pizza dough quite nicely last night, I might add)...but there was a small box pulled out of the tree after all the other gifts were opened. Big, beautiful diamond earrings! To replace...and then some...the ones that Daddy gave me several years ago that I lost. Love that man. I felt a little silly giving him his hiking GPS, which I thought I was secretly splurging on. Oh well.

Celebrating continued later that evening with Christmas dinner at my parents house. The next morning we had a second Christmas morning with the McNulty side. Later that afternoon, we took the kids sledding over at Ellenberger, their first experience on a decent size hill which they really enjoyed. For about 30 mins :) Sunday family dinner was that night as usual at Mom and Dad's and we headed back home on Monday morning.

Fevers broke Christmas weekend, an end to the illness that we felt had been lurking since, well, Lucy's birthday, really. We enjoyed lazying around the house and watching the kids play with the new toys. Totally ready for spring now, unfortunately winter has just begun. We finally decided on a swingset and anticipate it's arrival after the first of the year. The last of our Christmas to the kids, something that we will enjoy this spring and many years to come.

Christmas Fun!

Yeah for some snow! The kids enjoyed the little bit of time we were able to spend outside late last week...but a little disappointed it wasn't perfect snowman-making snow. Friday night we enjoyed pizza at Turoni's on Main and then headed to Garvin Park for the Fantasy of Lights. This has become a tradition for us, something Brian and I look forward to doing with the kids right before Christmas. Saturday night we prepared our holiday cookie dough so we could decorate our Santa cookies tonight. Yummy!

Some of the less fun parts of the weekend include battling winter colds. Patrick is coughing up a lung, which has become expected from him every cold season. Luckily, we wised up after that first winter and are the proud owners of a nebulizer and take stock in Albuterol and Flovent as well as Mucinex...which has spared us trips to the pediatrician as well as more money out of pocket. Lucy rebounded from her stomach bug on her birthday just to find a cold involving the chills and fever at 103. Again, thank God for Motrin....which has allowed us to enjoy Christmas preparations isolated in our own home :) And, for myself, the joys of braces. I have found a new appreciation for oatmeal and soup....but am very much looking forward to the prettier smile over the course of the next 12-15 months.