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!

The dancing queen has retired

I bet you didn't even know she was a dancing queen! Several months ago Morgan asked if she could take dance at school. The school offers several programs throughout the week and several of her friends were already in dance so we agreed. The next time the sign up sheets went out we were very happy to sign her up. She was so excited! We went and got her a dance outfit complete with ballet shoes!

Every Monday the dance teacher would come to school and for an hour they would dance! It took awhile but Morgan finally showed me some of her moves and they included stretching and simple ballet moves. We thought she was loving it......but the last time the sign up sheets went around she said she didn't want to take dance anymore. Instead she wanted to do Tumblebus. After asking her several times we came to the decision that Morgan was over her dance phase.

So instead of signing her up for Tumble Bus we opted for soccer which was her second choice. Although now it's all she talks about. So there will be many....and I stress many more posts about Morgan's soccer career. She will be playing with the Carmel Dad's Club beginning in April. The first year her team will be co-ed and they will practice and have actual games once a week! Luckily the field is right down the street from us.

So for now Morgan's dance career is over...but we are working on our soccer skills.

The Children's Museum Outing

One of the presents we got as a family for Christmas was a Membership to the Children's Museum (Thank you Aunt Mary, Uncle Charlie and Grandpa 'B'!). And shortly after Christmas we made our first of many visits this year. We hadn't been in awhile so there were lots of new things to see including a couple of new dinosaurs climbing into the building, the Christmas Yule slide and the Barbie exhibit.

We got there a little before they opened so we actually got to see the entire opening of the museum. They have a character come out and tell you all the ways to have fun and then all the staff cheer for you- it's actually pretty cute. So the girls waited patiently to be let in. But once we were in there was lots to do!

We made a stop at the Barbie exhibit first. I made Morgan pose next to Barbie herself.

Then immediately when you walk into the exhibit there is a desk with a cool phone and if you pick up the phone Barbie will actually talk to you! So Morgan and Elizabeth both had to hang out at the desk for awhile.

They have a fashion show area with a ton of dress up clothes. The kids can go backstage, get dressed and then walk the runway and strut their stuff. There are lights, music and camera flashes! Morgan picked a pretty modest outfit compared to some of the stuff that was there. And what you can't see in the picture is the little dance she did at the end of the runway.

Our next stop was Playscape which is the exhibit designed for kids. It's full of fun stuff that they can play with including a water table. Elizabeth really liked the water! This is actually the first time we have been there and Elizabeth was actually tall enough to reach the water so she has entered a whole new world!

There was also a sand table. Elizabeth spent most of her time going back and forth between the water and the sand which as you can imagine made for some messy hands.

One of our last stops was to the top floor to ride the carousel. Morgan loves it and Elizabeth was finally able to experience it too. I broke the rules and put them both on a horse that went up and down and they both really enjoyed it. After we left Elizabeth kept telling me she wanted to go "up and down" which I finally figured out meant that she wanted to ride the carousel again.

Since the girls didn't have daycare on New Year's Eve that was the day we went to test out our membership and at noon they did a countdown to noon for all the kids. At the time we were standing in line to go down the Yuleslide so I got a good view of all the people in the lobby for the countdown.

When the clock struck noon lots of confetti and balloons were flying it was so much fun! Both girls fell asleep on the way home so I think it was a good trip!

Fun in the snow

Ever since it started getting colder (think Thanksgiving or early December) Morgan has been wishing for it to snow. She asks me all the time when it will snow and I never had a good answer for her. So finally shortly before Christmas the forecasters started to predict snow for the area. Well that turned out to be the lightest dusting ever....not even the lawn was covered. But poor Morgan really wanted to play in it. I finally convinced her that she just wasn't going to be able to make a snow angel in less then an 1/8 inch of snow so she continued to wish.

So again the forecasters started to predict snow for the weekend after Christmas. Our friends Kate, Seth and their little boy Noah were coming over to visit and while we waited for them it started to snow- and it quickly added up to more then the previous 1/8 inch. So when Noah finally got to our house we all bundled up to play outside. Special thanks to our friends Joey and Katherin for the new hats!

Morgan immediately wanted to make snowballs.

There was enough cover on the ground to make some small snowballs.

They played outside for all of 10 minutes before we were all cold and wanted to go inside. They had fun but there still wasn't enough snow to really warrant snow angles or snow balls. But it at least calmed down Morgan's intense desire for snow.

Then a couple of weeks ago we got a lot of snow and on Saturday when I could tell the girls couldn't stand to be inside any longer I bundled them up and we went outside again. It was much better this time because there was more snow, and the sun was out so it didn't seem as cold.

And in true big sister style, Morgan showed Elizabeth how much fun the snow could be.

They walked together...

They chased each other....

They made snow angels together....

Finally Elizabeth took off on her own to explore the snow covered yard...

Even Belle played outside....

Finally the girls figured out that they could gang up on me and throw snow my way....this is them bringing snowballs to my feet. They have little arms so they can't throw that far.

Elizabeth's reaction to her throwing a snowball at me.

We didn't get to make a snowman which is one thing Morgan wanted to do. But hopefully we will get another good snowfall this year and we can take care of that. Otherwise it was a pretty fun time out in the snow!

Christmas 2009 Extravaganza Part Two!

I thought it would be better to break the Christmas post into two because there are so many good things to show! Yet again the girls got so many wonderful gifts. Santa must not have been looking when they threw that fit at the grocery store.

Morgan was able to open all her gifts- and believe me she wanted to open them all the minute she saw them. Elizabeth needed some help and spent most of Christmas morning sitting with me. After an hour she gave up and started playing with some of her new toys. It took her until 1pm to want to open anything else.

I thought I would share some of their favorite gifts via picture.

The girl's got matching footie pajamas from Great Grandma and Great Grandpa O. Sadly they weren't able to see them because Great Grandpa got the flu and weren't able to leave Buffalo!

Morgan got a Crayola Color Explosion thingy (now that's technical) that lets you draw scenes in 3-D! It took me forever to figure it out- But she loves it.

Elizabeth got a new Leap Frog Reader. You just put that white gadget on the books and it reads it for you. She especially liked the Curious George book. She even dances to the music it plays.

Morgan got a whole set of Polly Pockets and a carrier to put the dolls and their clothes in. She really liked them and before the holiday was over everyone played Polly Pockets at least once. Even Greg!

I'm sure he will just love that I shared this picture!

Elizabeth got a Sponge Bob Round Pants doll. I didn't even know there was a Sponge Bob Round pants, but not too long ago I actually saw the episode this doll is based on. Basically Sponge Bob shrank all his square pants and then had to buy round pants because that's all the store had. ( I know you were all wondering about that!)

Both girl's got a Barbie. The Barbies can pose now and it actually freaks me out a bit. They look to jointy, but the girl's loved them!

Elizabeth got her first baby doll. To date she has just been stealing her sister's but now she has her very own. And she takes very good care of it- she feeds her, changes her and puts her to bed. Thanks to Greg and my dad her baby now has a bed. They made Elizabeth a baby cradle for her dolls. I'll try to remember to post pictures.

The girls got a couple of different board games. Elizabeth is showing off er Connect 4 skills. They haven't quite gotten the idea down yet but they love to put all the chips in together. We also now have Hungry, Hungry Hippos and Trouble. But again I warn you- Morgan doesn't play fair, and neither does Elizabeth!

The girls also got sleeping bags which they love! They use them constantly when they are watching TV, and they have even started using them in the middle of the night. For awhile they were tucked away in our bedroom and in the middle of the night we would wake up to find Morgan or Elizabeth asleep on the floor in their sleeping bags. They know we don't let them in our bed in the middle of the night, so they take the next best thing- a sleeping bag right next to Mommy and Daddy!

The other truly great gift we got was a family membership to the Children's Museum. The girls love it and we have already been twice! Don't worry that is a whole post to itself! Thanks again to everyone that helped the girls (and us) have a wonderful Christmas.