Our little mermaids...

A little before Christmas I decided that the girls needed a winter activity. Something that would occupy some time on the weekends and be something that they could look forward to. In order to kill two birds with one stone I opted for swimming lessons. The two "birds" were 1. The girls would have something fun to do, and 2. they would learn the basics of swimming so that this summer when we are at the pool I won't worry so much about them when we are in the water.

So after the first of the year our first lesson started. I signed Elizabeth up for a Level 1 and Morgan up for a Level 2 since she had done a lesson at daycare the previous summer. I wasn't sure what to expect but they loved it. The lessons were held in the indoor pool at the Monon Center. They have a huge indoor pool with a slide and some fun spray jet toys. So lucky for us, while one girl was in the lesson the other got to play. This meant two hours of activity!

Elizabeth loved the water. She is fearless anyway, so I wasn't too worried. Morgan loved swimming too. She improved the most I would say because she can now swim on her back without help! She is still working on swimming on her stomach, but I am sure with a little practice this summer she will be doing it with no problem.

I took a video of Elizabeth swimming so everyone could see her skills.

I have more pictures I will have to upload later, but the girls had a blast. We did two sessions (one the month of January, and one the month of February). By the end Morgan had passed Level 3! Elizabeth didn't pass her level 2 class, simply because the teacher thought she was just too small to master some of the skills. But she said it was normal because her muscle dexterity just wasn't developed yet. The best part of the lessons was that by the end of the two hours the girls were beat! Most of the time Elizabeth never made it through Morgan's class. One evening I was able to get a picture of her resting while she was waiting for her sister to be done.

We took a break from swimming for a month or so, but I think the next opportunity we have to sign up we will. Plus we joined the YMCA and they have an outdoor pool and splash area so guess where we will be for the majority of the summer.....that's right THE POOL!

Morgan....a self portrait

So once Morgan started Kindergarten Greg and I decided it was time to treat ourselves to new, fancy phones. Since we weren't paying for daycare every week we decided we owed it to ourselves so we both got new iPhones. While the phones do work great and keep us entertained they also provide numerous ways for the girls to occupy their time. They have their own set of games, they can watch videos and they can take pictures. One day I made the mistake of showing Morgan how to take a picture, so ever since then she loves to take pictures with my phone. At first all we got were pictures like these:

She spent a lot of time taking pictures of the back of my car seat, pictures of her sister, or random things nearby- blankets, food, toys etc. Then I showed her how to switch the camera around so she could see herself and take a picture. One evening I was scrolling through the photos on my phone and I realized that Morgan has been taking a lot of pictures! Below is what I found- I like to call it "Morgan- a self portrait"

There were about 20 pictures like this, so I only chose to include a few. And just last night I realized that she now knows how to take videos with the phone, so I'm sure there will be hilarious videos to add in the future.

We're Back!

After a long hiatus we are finally back! I blame myself for not updating more often, but between computer problems, the wonderful summer weather, work and keeping two little girls entertained, blogging took a back seat for awhile. But I'm recommitting myself to posting interesting tidbits about the Clark Family. Sooooo, you are probably wondering what we have been up to all of these months. I figured it would be easier to summarize our summer and fall in pictures because we have been busy!

We spend a lot of time playing with Daddy's tools. Some of the favorite things are the headlamp and ear phones. For whatever reason the girls love to put the headphones on and then deliberately not pay attention to what I am saying. They think it is hilarious.

We played dress up a lot too. Awhile ago Grandma 'C' and Aunt Kathy sent up a huge box full of dress up stuff. Now that Elizabeth is older, she and Morgan love to dress up. They even pick out shoes and hand bags to match!

We went out for ice cream a lot too. It always seemed to be the go-to event when we were out of ideas. And just so you know, if you take the girls out for ice cream don't plan on them sharing. I was always told "Mommy, get your own!".

We took advantage of the wonderful weather and spent some evenings on the deck of the Broad Ripple Drew Pub. The girls are regulars there and they love it. They even order for themselves now- Hot dog with Brew Pub chips and grapes. And lemonade to drink!

A couple of different times, we took the girls to pick apples at the U-Pick farm. They loved finding the right apples on the tree and then grabbing them. Once we got them home the girls and I made apple crisp for dessert. I think out of these trips I created apple addicts, because Elizabeth could eat at least an apple a day if not more!

We also spent a lot of time at the park or outside. While we have a big swing set at our house, the girls still love to go to different parks to play. I think one of their favorites is West Park in Carmel. They have a huge slide and plenty of open area to run. The girls love to swing, slide and run, and the park has a huge pond so the girls can see the ducks and geese that hang out there. One time we even took bread to feed the ducks.

We've been doing lots of things lately and I will have more specific posts later....I promise!

The newest Clark...

About a month ago a new Clark joined the household and I have to admit he is the most maintenance free one in the bunch. For the longest time Morgan has said she wanted a hamster. I'm not entirely sure where the idea came from, because to my knowledge she hasn't known anyone that had one and they didn't have one at school. So my best guess is that she saw them at the pet store and got it stuck in her head that it would be a fun thing to have.

Now when I say the "longest time" I mean over a year....at least! So I guess I wasn't too surprised by our latest addition. Morgan and Greg went to the pet store to get food for the dogs, and while they were gone I got a phone call. It was Greg saying that Morgan was begging for a hamster. Apparently she got to his heartstrings, because about 20 minutes later they walked in the house with this.....

Of course I immediately knew what was in that little white box, because I had this little face smiling at me.....

Morgan was so excited to show me what was in the box....so we carefully opened the lid and inside this is what we found!

A tiny dwarf hamster was huddling in the corner of the box. I think he was a little afraid of the shrieking and screaming that was coming from Morgan and Elizabeth. While they were at the pet store they picked up a cage for him, some pine shavings for his bed, food etc. So Morgan patiently waited for Greg to construct the cage so we could get her new hamster out.

Finally it was done, and we were able to introduce the hamster to his new home. For awhile Morgan just sat there and watched him investigate his new digs.

Now in case you didn't notice in that picture above, there was another member of the Clark family that was interested in the new addition......

That's right, DeWalt was very interested in this new creature, but more about that later.

In order for you to get a sense of how excited she was I grabbed this little video.

Now it wasn't too long after this video was taken that Morgan decided that instead of calling him "Rhino" (which was inspired by the hamster in the movie Bolt) that she would rather name him "Rainbow". So the hamster will forever be known as Rainbow Clark.

Now onto Rainbow's adventures......

Probably about a week and a half after we got Rainbow set up in Morgan's room (he lives in his cage which is on Morgan's bookshelf) Greg came across a near catastrophe. Now before I tell the whole story, think back to that picture of DeWalt introducing himself to Rainbow. Well every since that moment DeWalt has been sticking pretty close to Rainbow. He sleeps that the foot of Morgan's bed so he can watch the cage, he pretty much lives in Morgan's room now. So one Morgan after we had all gone, Greg walked into Morgan's room and saw that DeWalt had someone popped off one of the tubes to Rainbow's cage. Right as he walked in he saw Rainbow poke his little head out of the tube....I'm sure you can guess who was patiently waiting for this to happen....DeWalt! As soon as Rainbow popped his little head out, DeWalt hit him and knocked him out of the tunnel. Greg quickly threw something to scare DeWalt and grabbed Rainbow and put him back in his cage. It was a near catastrophe.

Since then DeWalt climbs on the bookshelf, lays on the floor beneath it and sleeps at the end of Morgan's bed all in hopes that he will have another chance at Rainbow.

Since Rainbow made it through his near death experience about a week or so later I decided he needed a new toy. So I got him a ball. Every hamster needs a ball, right? Morgan was pretty excited to see him in there, so when Greg was cleaning out his cage, Morgan brought him downstairs in the ball and we watched him move around. It was pretty funny, and the girls quickly lost interest but what was even better was when Belle got a chance to come face to face with Rainbow.




I think she was scared. Rainbow had to go back to his cage, mainly because Morgan kept forgetting that he was in the ball and would walk off and leave him. So for now his exercise consists of nightly running on his wheel. That little guy is loud!

So surprisingly Rainbow has been with us for over a month and the girls are still interested in him. For all those visiting over the holidays we hope you can meet Rainbow in person.

Funny things kids say...

So since I figured out that I can make a hardback book out of all of these blog posts I am trying to make more of an effort to capture the funny moments of my girls. So here goes...

Morgan: Mommy there is a spot on my pillowcase.

Me: I know Morgan, I tried to get it out in the washer and it didn't come out.

Morgan: Well Mom did you try OxyClean?

No joke- she actually said this. Maybe she is watching too many commercials.

The school bell is ringing!

Our monumental year of events just keeps going! This August- August 10 to be exact- Morgan started kindergarten. Morgan has known she was going to her "big girl school" for awhile. We drive by it almost every day so she has been pretty excited. She actually was confused why she didn't get to go to her new school the day she turned five. We probably should have explained a little better, because we did tell her she got to go to her new school when she was 5- we just didn't say how long she would be five before she went.

So she was pretty excited when we started picking out her supplies. Greg ordered her a new backpack- which of course had to be pink. And we got her a Hello Kitty lunchbox and thermos and a couple of notebooks. Then the day came that she got a postcard from her new teacher. After that we found out that Lauren the girl who lives across the street was in Morgan's class too!

Morgan was pretty excited about starting school until we went to the pediatrician. The poor girl had to get three booster shots. She was less then happy, but we celebrated the appointment with Dairy Queen which is conveniently right across the street from the pediatrician's office.

Greg and I attended Kindergarten back to school night and got to meet her teacher and hear about the curriculum. Greg was pretty surprised that there is homework in kindergarten! And we found out that two of Morgan's old classmates from daycare were in her new class. The Sunday before school started the elementary school had a back to school carnival so Morgan got to go see her class, meet her teacher, eat some yummy carnival food and play on the playground. All that was left was the task of actually putting her on the bus!

School started on Tuesday so I stayed home late that morning so I could watcher her leave on the bus. She picked out her outfit, ate breakfast and then we patiently waited until 7:50 for the bus to pull up outside. Lucky for us the bus stop is right out in front of our house!

Finally the bus came down the street and Morgan was so excited she wanted to run the half block just to get to it. We forced her to stay put and when the bus driver got to our stop she opened the door and introduced herself to the Morgan and Lauren (who lives across the street). The older kids that pick up the bus at our stop were so nice and let the girls go first.

Both Morgan and Lauren had assigned seats and Morgan plopped herself right down and was ready to go. Once she drove away I packed up Elizabeth so we could go on about our day. Poor Elizabeth has struggled the most with this transition. The first day she didn't understand why she couldn't ride the bus, and when it was time to go to daycare she wanted to know where Morgan was.

Elizabeth does really like riding with mommy in the morning all by herself, but once she gets to school she isn't excited and cries pretty much every time I drop her off. It probably didn't help matters that Elizabeth switched her daycare class the day before Morgan went to kindergarten. So now Elizabeth cries every morning....the good news is that she has a blast during the day!

Since Morgan gets out of school around 2:30 we decided to try having her take the bus home since Greg works at home. Her first day he was able to get a picture of her existing the bus after her long hard day!

He gets her ready in the morning and waits with her at the bus while I leave earlier to take Elizabeth. Then he meets her at the bus stop in the afternoon. Since he has to work for a little while longer, Morgan gets to chill out upstairs and watch her cartoons. Then when Elizabeth and I get home she comes downstairs and tells me all about her day. So far our new schedule is working out great!

Happy Birthday Day Morgan!

This year marked a memorable year- Morgan turned 5! This girl was lucky enough to celebrate her birthday numerous times too! We had a party in Florida and then a few weeks later we celebrated at home on the night of her birthday. It was pretty low key and we let her pick the dinner menu which was Chinese food and we followed it up with a giant cupcake! And I was even nice enough to give Elizabeth her own cupcake.

That night we sang Happy Birthday and gave her a few presents from us- Two new Zhu Zhu pets and some other things that I can't even remember! But we new her big day was that weekend. Since Morgan started at her new day care her social calendar became pretty full. She was invited to four or five other birthday parties, so she caught on quick that her turn would come. We told her she could have a party, and since we just got back from Disney World we decided to keep it fairly low key. I asked her what she wanted to have (since we were doing it at home) and she said she wanted her friends to come over, she wanted a pinata, balloons and cake. Seemed pretty easy so we set the date and invited all the girls in her class.

In the end we had about 10 girls RSVP and Morgan was so excited. We came to find out later that she was talking up her party at school to all the parents. Since Morgan and Elizabeth are normally one of the last to get picked up Morgan realized she had the attention of nearly every parent in her class. So she made a pretty detailed birthday list for each parent. She was so detailed that she even had different items for different parents! Luckily the parents thought it was funny.

So the day finally came (we had the party on a Friday night) and I had everything set up. Morgan picked out the pinata and helped me fill it with candy. She also helped make the goodie bags for her friends.

Against my better judgement I got horn blowers for the party. I am still finding horns throughout the house...sometimes the girls find them first and scare the living daylights out of me when they blow them. Every year I also try and make the girls a special cake for their big day. I asked Morgan what kind of cake she wanted and her response was chocolate. I dug a little deeper and she said she wanted a Strawberry Shortcake themed cake. After searching around the Internet for a good idea I landed on one and was able to create this for Morgan's party.

I thought it turned out pretty great if I do say so myself- and all the other moms were pretty impressed. The kids thought it tasted great so it was a gold star in my book!

I also let Morgan pick the menu for the evening. She wanted corn dogs, ketchup, chips, applesauce and pizza. Seemed like a weird combination, but we went to Costco stocked up on bagel pizzas and corn dogs and the kids loved it.

Before we ate we turned the kids loose in the backyard which we tried to turn into a water park of sorts. We have several sprinkles and water toys and I bought a new inflatable pool for the backyard. The kids had a great time playing in the water, and playing on the playground.

They even tried to turn the slide into a water slide!

Elizabeth was even able to invite a friend. One of Morgan's classmates has a younger sister who is in the same class, so Elizabeth was able to invite Annie along for the fun.

After splashing, playing and eating it was finally time to break the pinata! Morgan had done this at other parties so I figured it would work out well. This poor pinata took so many hits! I'm not sure if it was our bat, or the fact that I might have overfilled the thing with candy, but it took forever to open.

After what seemed like an hour Morgan finally hit the pinata and it's head came off. At that point I called it quits, and ripped open the pinata. From there the kids found every single piece of candy that made it onto the ground.

After the pinata there was present opening and more playing in the basement. All the kids had to try out the new stuff they got Morgan! All in all she had a great party and was pretty happy- which in turn made me pretty happy.