Mommy's Workcation

Two weeks ago I had to make a trip to Chicago for the ASLA (American Society of Landscape Architects) Annual Meeting. Since I am currently the Indiana Chapter President I had to be in Chicago on Wednesday night and stayed through Sunday morning so I could squeeze in all the classes I could. By chance- this was the same week that Greg had to be in the Chicago area for work. So I stayed with the girls Monday and Tuesday and my parents came up Tuesday night to watch them until Greg got back. Everyone made it out alive thankfully! I thought I would share some pics from my trip!

While most of my time was spent inside the Chicago Hilton- I made a point of getting out and walking the 6 blocks down to Millennium Park. It was the only thing I wanted to see while I was in Chicago- primarily because I am a landscape architect and the place is awesome! Lots of plazas, steps, walkways, art and plants. So I made my way down to the park, picked up some lunch along the way and had lunch in the park. While I was there I walked through the gardens. There was a woman there pruning the shrubs and someone started talking to her. She said that there was a huge push to get the plants looking nice because of the landscape architects in town. Well thanks Chicago for making it look extra pretty!

This is a few in one of the gardens along the wooden boardwalk.

More of the boardwalk and small water canal.

The Gehry amphitheater. So incredibly cool!

Another cool picturs of the amphitheater. There was a small concert going on that day at lunch and the sound was pretty impressive for an outdoor venue.

The bean! Technically it's name is "Cloud Gate" but everyone calls it the bean. It is basically a giant mirror, but the amazing thing is there are no seams on it which makes is look like it is one giant piece of sculpted mirror. Very cool.

Everyone loves the bean. While I was taking pictures of the bean, my camera died. So since there were more cool things to see I decided to "borrow" some pictures form the internet.

Right as I walked into the park there was a fountain. On either side of the fountain are these two piers that show faces. The faces change throughout the day, and at certain times the faces spit water which becomes part of the fountain. There were so many kids and adults playing in the fountain when I was there. It looked so fun! Maybe next summer we will make it up there with the girls for a weekend trip and they can play in Millenium Park.

License and Registration Please.....

Not too long ago there was a poster in Morgan's cubby at school promoting a free event sponsored by the Carmel Library. I took notice of the words "free" and figured hey- what else do I have to do on Saturday. So finally Saturday rolled around and it was a nice day and I told Greg I thought it would be fun. So we packed up and off we went. The event was called "All Things Rodeo" and the flyer said that there would be all kids of big trucks and cars that the kids could get up close and personal with. So it sounded fun- besides who wouldn't want to climb on a fire truck. So we got there and the parking lot of Carmel Elementary School was full of all sorts of big vehicles.

They had a tent where you could pick up your bingo card to keep track of all the trucks you stopped at, and if you got nine spaces checked off you won a prize. Let me take a moment to thank the Friends of Carmel Library for realizing this game was a great idea in theory. You saved the sanity of many a parent by letting kids get away with checking off one box. So thank you for the prizes even though I turned in one incomplete bingo card!

The girls were able to sit in a police car. As Morgan climbed into the back, both Greg and I told her- Morgan I hope this is the only time you are in the back of a cop car! Elizabeth chose to check out the front, so maybe she is working towards a career in law enforcement.

They had all sorts of tractors, a front loader and a lawn mower. I didn't get a picture, but Morgan was pretty excited to ride the lawn mower. I think Greg now has visions of getting out of cutting the grass.

I think the best one was the school bus. Now for a little back story: for those that don't know the Carmel schools bus stop for our neighborhood is right out in front of our house. So everyday the buses come and go. Well this year Morgan has finally taken notice in the giant yellow buses. Since school has started Morgan asks nearly every day if she can ride the school bus. We try and explain that next year (and for the next 12 years) she will ride the bus, but that she has to wait. So when we saw the giant yellow bus in the parking lot of Carmel Elementary School I figured we could live Morgan's dream- to ride the school bus.

Morgan patiently waited her turn to climb on board the bus.

Once she climbed on the first stop was to drive the bus. And every bus driver has to honk their horn! I'm not kidding every 30-45 seconds that horn was going off because every kid that sat there had to honk the horn.

Even Elizabeth drove the bus.

Then we took a seat so Morgan could pretend she was riding the bus to school.

All in all the day was pretty fun. All together the girls were able to check out a fire truck (both a new one and a historic one), a police car, a dump truck, a street cleaner, an ambulance, a front loader, a tractor, a lawn mower, and a school bus.
Later that afternoon we went home and enjoyed our free prizes (again thank you Carmel Library!). Morgan picked a bouncy ball and Elizabeth picked her favorite thing- bubbles. In an attempt to capture the wonderful day I tried to get the girls to pose for a picture- this was the result.

Not too bad. On a side note: this was the first day that Elizabeth wanted to wear a specific outfit. Normally she is fine with whatever I pick out, but today she had to wear this pick lady bug dress. Nothing else would suffice. Then when Morgan saw Elizabeth in her dress, she had to wear hers. Thanks Mimi for the wonderful dresses!

The rest of the day was spent being silly and posing for the camera. This is Elizabeth at her finest.

Abby Clark- a little update

It has been about a month and a half since we gained a new member to our family. Since then I have only done one post about her so I figured I better get on it! Since we've had her she has been to the vet twice and it growing like a weed! Seriously she is worse the the girls. At her last visit which was a couple of weeks ago she was a whopping 14 pounds!

At the moment Abby lives in the kitchen. We have the luxury of closing the door to the dining room and are putting our baby gates to good use in the other openings. This gives Abby plenty of room to run around while also letting the rest of the house adjust to her. And when I say "the rest of the house" I mean Belle, Morgan and Elizabeth.

In the kitchen we have a crate for her to sleep in. She also hangs out in there while we eat dinner. It took her a little while to get used to it, but now she knows that's where she goes when it's time for bed. If it isn't bed time and she is in her cage the girls make sure she has plenty of toys. Elizabeth especially likes to shove Abby's stuffed toys through the slats of the cage.

We are really working on getting the girls used to Abby. Now we chose a golden retriever because they are known to do well around children and we have no fear that over time Abby will mellow out just like Belle. It's been a little tough explaining to Elizabeth that Abby isn't trying to bite her. Just lick her! Abby is sometimes over excited around the girls and they get scared. So we have been working on calming Abby down and giving Morgan and Elizabeth a chance to interact with her.

Elizabeth was especially hamming it up for this photo opportunity!

Elizabeth loves to give Abby her toys.

On a side note, Elizabeth also is really into piggy back rides. So whenever she gets the chance she will climb on your back. So watch out!


We are also working on getting Belle used to Abby. Most of the time they spend together is when they are outside and Belle normally find herself in the opposite corner of the yard. But lately we have been playing ball with both of the dogs and they get a chance to run together. Belle is still pretty quick for a 7 year old dog!


Abby is also retrieving really well. The girls love throwing her ball for her and I think they are amazed that she always brings it back. In a few months we will get Abby her own collar for the invisible fence and she will have full run of the yard. I've also been taking her on warm up runs. We've done a couple ten minute jogs, and she loves it! She can't go too hard or too fast yet because she is still pretty little, but by this time next year she will be a great running partner.

This post was a lot of text and not many pictures. I'll work on that for next time!

The Monkeys go to the Zoo!

A few weeks ago we were faced with the decision of going to the State Fair and wandering through food lines and animal pens, or visit the zoo. We wanted to do both, but ultimately decided the zoo would be much more fun! So we bundled ourselves up (okay so maybe we didn't have to bundle up, but it was the first chilly weekend of the year!) and headed to the zoo.

Morgan had been asking to go to the zoo for awhile, add to that the memories I had of her going to the Evansville zoo and I figured we were in for a good time. We got there around 10:30 or 11 and I brought snacks and we decided we would go out to lunch after our trip. So I loaded the kids up with snacks and juice and we were off!

First stop- the Oceans exhibit. Which is pretty darn cool. Plenty of fish in huge tanks- all of which are colorful and beautiful. Morgan was vaguely interested. She did appreciate the sea horses though. We wandered through the building and got to the pool where you can actually pet a shark. Morgan was pretty interested in the idea of petting a shark, but when it came right down to it, she refused to put her hand in the water. (On a side note: those sharks are smart and have figured out that if they swim in the middle of the pool no kid can touch them! Smart shark!)

Also in the Oceans building are the penguins. I think we could have stayed in the penguin area all day. She loved them!

Another picture of the penguins because personally I like them too!

Morgan also really liked the walrus exhibit. There were two huge walruses that were in a tank that could be viewed from the inside and the outside. If you were inside you were basically standing underwater looking into the pool. Then all of the sudden a huge walrus would swim within inches of you! We both really liked that. She was also pretty interested by the walruses giant tusks.

On our way through the zoo we passed some ducks that were just hanging out and eating crackers. So Morgan had to stop and see them.

We went to the kids section (which is pretty much a petting zoo) and visited the chickens, bunnies, turkey, donkeys and ponies. This is Morgan looking at the chicken and recounting the entire process of the chicken in the incubator from school.

The other exciting point of the day was when Morgan got to feed the giraffe! The lady standing in front of the camera is the zoo photographer- but I couldn't find the booth where you pick up your pictures, so I'm stuck with half a giraffe head. Morgan was pretty excited!

As I was pulling the pictures together for this blog post I thought back to our trip to the Evansville zoo. While we were there Morgan tried to feed a giraffe a stick (and almost succeeded). Maybe I have a future zoologist on my hands.

By the mid point of our trip I started to hear "Mommy I'm tired." or "Mommy will you carry me?". So while she walked for a good chunk of the trip at the end Morgan had to hitch a ride with Daddy. And for those family members reading this blog- the girl comes by this idea honestly. I've heard many times how I was carried through Disney World on people's shoulders. Hey a girl gets tired of walking sometimes!

And as for Elizabeth- well she enjoyed the trip so much that she fell asleep.

School days are here again!

This week Morgan started in her new junior kindergarten class and they have already been doing so much! She switched school in July and for the most part the summer was filled with lots of playtime. She would bring home the occasional colored page, or painting, but it was all pretty non-structured, so I was surprised to see that this week they started their "curriculum".

(Note- for some reason the colors are slightly messed up so use your imagination!)

Well maybe this picture isn't really a learning activity, but you can see that she is trying to write her name. The letters on the bottom of the page are her first attempts!

The started out with the letter 'A'. (See her name in the upper right corner!)

And I promise this apple is really red in the original. But this is one of the first pictures that she actually stayed in the lines!

And they are learning the #3. She got incredibly upset when she was telling me about it because she pointed to the ones on the bottom and said "But I didn't do it correctly!" I tried to assure her that she did great, but she wasn't having it. It sounds like she is going to be a perfectionist....not sure where she gets that! (said with a hint of sarcasm- I know right where she gets that...me!)

This picture is much better in person but I had to include it. I think it is a family picture. There is the sun, and Elizabeth is the smaller person in the left corner, and Morgan is the one in the middle. They are wearing stripped shirts. I can only assume that the other two figures are me and Greg, but she wouldn't go into that much descriptive detail. Only, "this is Lizzy, this is me and there's the sun!"

I can't wait to see how much Morgan learns this year. It should be pretty exciting!

And since Elizabeth is going to be 2, and is the second oldest at her daycare she gets to start the pre-preschool program. It's the same thing Morgan did when she was there. Her school program won't start until September, but they are trying to let her and Riley (the oldest at daycare) do a few projects to keep them occupied. Elizabeth gets pretty proud of her crafts when she brings them home.

This is one of Elizabeth's first pictures. You can see she was pretty into it!

One day when I brought one of Elizabeth's pictures home I showed Morgan and said "Morgan, look what your sister did today." Morgan replied "She didn't do a good job Mom." Apparently since Elizabeth didn't stay in the lines on the coloring page Morgan was not impressed. Poor Elizabeth.

It should be an exciting year at the Clark house!

Let me tell you about it....

So for awhile I was wondering if Miss Elizabeth would ever talk. Don't get me wrong, there was lots of jabbering on but no real words. It wasn't until our stay-cation in June that she really started to put sentences together- and she hasn't stopped since!

She started with small sentences:

"I want Mommy."

"I want mo (which really means milk)."

"Where's Mommy?"

And since then she has mastered many more. Here is just a sampling of Elizabeth's conversation skills.

"Mommy....Get me out!" She says this in the morning. So nearly everyday this is what I wake up to.

"Mommy...I want yo-yos." Which means I want those crackers that are on the table.

"Where's Kathy?" Kathy is our neighbor who is incredibly friendly to both Morgan and Elizabeth.

"No Belle- out pool!" This weekend she came up with this while Belle was swimming in her pool.

"I want waffle." Again I hear this nearly everyday. Elizabeth loves waffles!

"I want Sissy." We haven't mastered Morgan's name yet, but she definitely knows who her sister is. And she loves her.

"I wanna Wiiiii!" No she doesn't love playing the Wii, she loves the slide. And instead of calling it a slide- she calls it a wiii. Probably because that is the large shrieking sound she makes while going down the slide.

There are so many more but they have become a part of my normal day that I can't think of them. But next time you see Elizabeth be prepared- she might just talk your ear off.

Introducing.....Abby Clark!

Some may know this already- but there is a new Clark in town. Her name is Abby and she is an eight week old Golden Retriever. We were able to bring her home this past Tuesday.

A few months ago Greg decided we should add to our clan and found a wonderful breeder here in Carmel- and to our surprise her dog Lizzy was due shortly after Greg found her. Once Lizzy had the puppies (9 total!) we found out that we did indeed get the female we wanted. The litter had 7 boys and 2 girls. At about 3-4 weeks old we were invited over to see the puppies- Morgan and Elizabeth loved it. Not only did we get to visit once, but we went twice! And the entire time we waited to bring our puppy home, the breeder provided us with pictures of our puppy and her brothers and sister.

The puppies taking advantage of the nice weather we have had recently.

The nine puppies trying to drink from the same water bowl.

Sleepy time (Turns out that one with the red mark on her hip is our Abby!)

All piled on top of each other.

Once the puppies were born, we still didn't know which puppy was ours. We were second on the list for a female so we had to wait until the first person chose her puppy. So this was the first official picture of Abby Clark. Otherwise she was know as right- hip female.

Since she has been home we have been acclimating her to the Clark household. We've been spending a lot of time outside with her and the girls because the weather has been so nice! Here are a couple of peaks into life with Abby.

We showed her the deck and she got to splash in the water that Elizabeth spilled from the hose.

She has been investigating (and tasting) the flower pots on the deck.

She followed the flower tasting up with a little drink from a puddle.

And she has been enjoying chewing on the many sticks found in our back yard.

Now for those familiar with the Clark house you knew we already had a wonderful yellow Labrador retriever named Belle. After several weeks of worrying how Belle would take to a new puppy- she surprised us all and did wonderfully! For the most part Belle leaves Abby alone, but is getting better about interacting with Abby. Today I saw the two of them touch noses! I think the two of them will become friends in a matter of a week or two.

I think for the most part Abby is adjusting well to life with two kids, two adults, a dog and a cat. And the rest of us are adjusting to our new addition. I'm sure there will be many more posts to come on life with the newest Clark.