Finally a place for them to play!

For at least a year I have been telling Greg that we should get the girls a swing set. Last year we decided against it and since then we had been scouring the classifieds for a used one with no luck. Well after a trip to the park one weekend that left the girls utterly exhausted we brought the idea back up and decided it was time. So the next day we piled into the car and headed to Costco. Now when we got to Costco we saw what we wanted because it was all set up inside the store. Every time we go there the girls have said how much they wanted it so they were pretty excited to hear that they were actually getting it! At first Morgan didn't understand that there were going to be two swings (one for her and one for Elizabeth) so she actually wanted us to buy two swing sets because she didn't want to share. We quickly put an end to that idea!

We scoped it out to see how we were going to get this thing home and then later that day Greg went back with his friend to pick it up. This swing set came in 6 boxes and so while I made dinner Greg began the process of unpacking six boxes worth of wood, screws and bolts. First he laid out the directions and the numerous packages of hardware.

Then he and Morgan laid out all the wood pieces and matched them up based on their size. This part was hard for Morgan- she didn't really understand that Greg was trying to organize everything. She just wanted it out of the box!

Then Greg made the smart decision to read the instructions before we started anything. And I think it is funny that the instructions begin with a giant Stop sign. We joked that it should really say "Stop! Hire someone to do this for you!"

The directions said that it would take approximately 10-12 hours to put the entire thing together. It was a little intimidating at first but after the girls were in bed we decided to go ahead and start the construction. We worked for two hours or so and got the rock wall, wooden ladder and picnic table put together. We were pretty excited with our progress, but the next morning Morgan was a little disappointed with the amount of work we got done. It seems that we were working for a slave driver!

Later that week Greg's friend came over to help put the bulk of the structure together. By the time I got home a big part of the swing set was up- but wasn't ready for playing yet. Finally after a few more days our garage looked like this....

but the girls had a place to play! By Thursday (and remember we bought this thing on a Sunday) the structure was up, the ladder and rock wall were attached and the picnic table was out. The girls couldn't wait anymore so we let them climb on it. We quickly realized that the next priority was to attach the slide because they could climb up but they couldn't get down!

So by Friday after work pretty much everything was ready to go. And the girls immediately started swinging.

And then they decided to swing some more....

And then they decided that they would let Mommy and Daddy play on their swing set.

So far the girls have used the swing set almost every day. In the beginning Morgan would even sneak out in the morning to swing before we went to school! By far their favorite thing to do is swing. The only catch is that Mommy or Daddy has to push them. Looking back this will be a great investment!

Even Belle likes it because it means she can be outside a whole lot more!

Introductions are in order....

A couple of weeks ago we were forced to let Zeppelin (our cat) go. She had gotten really sick, really fast and we decided not to let her endure anymore pain or discomfort. This was difficult because Zeppelin was the first animal Greg and I got together. He bought her as a Valentine's Day present in 2001 and she had been with us ever since.

While it was hard to say goodbye to her we (or at least I) didn't think we would miss her as much as we did. Turns out we missed having a low maintenance, mellow animal to cuddle with. Sooooo.....we would like to introduce DeWalt Rainbow Sparkles Clark.

Like the name?? It was a combination of all of us. Morgan really wanted to name him Rainbow Sparkles, but Greg and I didn't really think it was manly enough for him. So we named him after Greg's favorite tool company. We adopted him from a shelter (via Petsmart) and he is slightly more then a year old. So far he has taken to us pretty well and the girls LOVE HIM! He is pretty frisky and we thought that would fit in well with our household. So welcome to the Clark House DeWalt!

2028 US Olympic Soccer Team Here We Come!

Well this weekend Greg and I officially became soccer parents! For awhile Morgan has been wanting to try soccer for awhile and since she gave up dance we decided to enroll her in the Carmel Dad's Soccer Program. Soccer seems to be big up here in Carmel and we had heard a lot of good things about the program so we were pretty excited about our first game! Last weekend Greg took Morgan to Soccer Village to get all her gear and since then she has been wanting to wear the shorts and play with ball pretty much non stop.

We walked to the field yesterday (because the field is right down the road!) and finally figured out where our field was. It was mass craziness with tons of teams playing, practicing and people coming and going. Morgan met her coach and got her jersey and soccer socks. She is #2!

Morgan's team is the Pre-K team and is co-ed. I think she might be one of the youngest on the team because they are mostly 4 and 5 year olds. They start off with a short practice which consists of a little kicking, throwing and general craziness. Here is Morgan getting her ball to go line up with her team.

Here she is lined up with her teammates and listening to a little advice from her coach Raphael!

As a side note- see #8, he is huge! He has to be the oldest kid on the team and the entire time he dominated the game!

Morgan liked practice! And I was even able to get a little video of her practicing her skills. Look how good she was kicking the ball and getting it down to the goal.

After practice they split up into two groups and play three on three on two different mini sized fields. The coach asked for a volunteer to help on the second field (which basically consisted of making sure the kids didn't get too sidetracked) so Greg volunteered to help on Morgan's field. Since she was pretty good in practice and seemed to be enjoying herself we figured the game would be no problem...right??? WRONG!

She actually did okay on the first play. She helped kick it to start and ran down the field and then at some point she either got pushed, or fell (we aren't really sure) but she started to cry.

Once she started to cry she ran to Greg who was still on the field. He tried his best to make sure she wasn't hurt and he gave her a little pep talk and she seemed ready to keep going.

But then the next play started and instead of running down field, she ran behind Greg to hide.

Then after awhile she just sat down in the middle of the field and cried.

We both tried to help her but she pretty much spent most of the game in tears. She was able to continue to try and get out there and while she was I was able to get a little bit of her game on video.

We aren't really sure what the problem was. She was so excited! I think it was partly her being tired, she was with all new people, it was cold and she really, really, really wanted to score and couldn't. We had a lot of talks about not quiting and just trying to go out there and have fun and she seemed to get it. Later that night she did say she had a good time so it must not have been an experience that scarred her for life!