A Day of Firsts

This past Saturday was a day filled with firsts. We started the day with a bus ride. I had heard the day before that the city bus service offers a trolley bus tour of key points of interest for free on Saturday mornings. In true JeffAnna fashion, it started out as an adventure. First, we weren't sure we were going to make it on time. We did, thankfully, arrive with 5 or so minutes to spare, but my Punctuality Senses were definitely tingling. About 10 minutes later I started getting a little nervous that I'd read the pickup time wrong. We were 5 minutes past the appointed time, and there was still no bus. :-/ Thankfully, someone pointed us in the right direction. It turned out the bus was picking up passengers on the next block because of road closures for another event later in the day. So, we all boarded the bus for David and Leah's first bus ride! We didn't get to hear much of what the tour guide was saying because the bus was so loud and he didn't have a microphone, but we all enjoyed the ride nonetheless.

The bus dropped us off for our next "first." This was the first time this season that we went to the Farmer's Market. We had a nice leisurely walk as we perused the vendors' offerings. We couldn't pass up some fresh apple turnovers or cashew brittle! Jeff picked up some homemade summer sausage (one of his favorites) as a sort of Father's Day gift from Anna. It felt nice to be out in the fresh air.

Next, we took the kids to the local university Memorial Union. Along the way, they enjoyed another first—a very echoey walk through the underground tunnels from the parking garage to the Union. By "echoey" I mean that David and Leah took turns saying "echo!" to see just how much echo there was down there. Just as we were entering the Union, Jeff had an idea for another first later in the day. The Union has a bowling alley in it, and the kids had never been bowling before. ;-)

We walked around the Union for a few minutes taking note of what had changed (which was a decent amount!) since the last time Jeff and I had been there. We settled on a little shop we were somewhat familiar with for lunch. As we dined on our hamburgers and chicken fingers, I realized that none of had socks on. Why was this important? Well, we were pretty sure we'd have to have socks to wear those attractive bowling shoes. :-P

We had a big decision to make: Drive all the way home and get our own socks or drive to the local Wal-Mart to buy some new socks. It was a tough decision, but in the end, we decided to drive home for our own socks. We figured that way we could check at home for any coupons and call around to the various bowling alleys around town for the best deal.

We did get a pretty good deal for the bowling in the end, so all was good. On the way in, however, Leah announced that she hated bowling and didn't want to go. This is the way of the four-year-old. Almost daily we hear how she dislikes this or that thing that she's never tried. We gently remind her that she couldn't possibly know if she likes this thing or that thing because she's never tried! Anyway, it turns out she LOVES bowling. We had the place to ourselves, which made me feel a lot better since I S-T-I-N-K at bowling and get easily embarrassed about it. Leah even beat me once. After two games of bowling, the kids were more than ready for a rest and so were mommy and daddy.

We really enjoyed all the firsts. That is one of the fun things about being a parent: getting to see something for the first time again through your child's eyes.

Adventures in Garage Sale-ing

What's crazier than trying to run a garage sale with two preschoolers? Not much! LOL!

Seriously, we did have a good time doing our garage sale last Friday and Saturday, but I do think I earned a badge in Heat & Humidity Survival and Leah earned her badge in Young Sales-Laydship with the lemonade (and cookie and freezer pop) stand. David earned new pins for a badge he already earned long ago: New and Creative Ways to Make Your Mother's Heart Stop. This mostly had to do with him messing with things he had no business messing with and doing all he could to make sure said item made it almost into the road with him on it/in it. That's David!

Little kids amaze me in their ability to get excited about just about anything. The kids were thrilled to do their lemonade stand, including all of the steps to get it set up and going (they're good cookie baggers). Several people asked them what they were going to spend their money on. This question was generally met with a "deer in the headlights" stare. I'm not sure it had ever occurred to them that they'd get anything out of the stand beyond the joy of serving their customers.

As I mentioned above, Leah was quite the little sales lady. She had no qualms about asking our customers if they would like any cookies or lemonade. After a while, however, she got a little discouraged at hearing so many "no, thanks" (I was a little surprised so many people could resist my sweetheart….), so she got a little too aggressive in her approach for my liking. It was totally cute, but I chose to use it as a lesson in social skills. She took to following people down the driveway and asking if they were sure that they didn't want any lemonade. I'm sure people recognized that she's 4-and-a-half and cut her some slack for that, but I don't want to raise an obnoxious, pushy person, so I gently stepped in. I told her it was fine to ask people once if they'd like anything from the stand, but she needed to wait until they were at least in the vicinity of the stand to ask. Being the intelligent child that she is, she caught on right away. She didn't return to sweetly asking people if they'd like something, though. She took a more manipulative approach; when anyone cared to glance at her or came close to the stand, she'd make sure she said loudly enough to be heard, "Boy, that lemonade sure looks good" or "Man, it's hot out here. I'm thirsty!" or "Cookies are a good treat on a hot day." I couldn't help but giggle. I figured she'd had enough of a social lesson for the day, so I let it slide.

In the end, we did make a little money, and we got rid of some things that have been sitting around for a while, including our air hockey table. We were thrilled to sell it to some friends from church since we know their grandsons will really enjoy playing with it. As I like to tell everyone, it had been relegated to a laundry folding table here. :-/ I cried like a baby after a couple of ladies (one obviously in the third trimester of her pregnancy) bought the kids' Intellitainer (kind of like an exersaucer). I just had to keep reminding myself that we weren't getting rid of it because there will be no more babies in our home. The kids had just worn out the electronic part of it, and it was silly to keep it if we could have something just as good that would take up less space. *sigh*

The weekend would not have been complete if we hadn't taken some time to peruse the other garage sales in the neighborhood. As such, I'm not sure we didn't actually increase the number of toys in our home, but maybe the kids will at least play more with the items they acquired than they did with the things we passed on to someone else. ;-)

It's The Little Things

Many times it is the little things that I find to be most special about the relationship I have with Jeff. A knowing look here, a finished sentence there (although, I'm usually accused of interrupting him!).

One of the things Jeff has done for me over the years is make me various mixes of music. They started off as mix tapes, but we've since moved on to CDs. ;-) One of these mix tapes was actually one of the first gifts he ever gave me when we were dating. We're now approaching 30 of these creative compilations, the most recent of which I just received a couple of weeks ago.

I appreciate how much thought he puts into these projects. It's not simply some of his favorite stuff thrown on a CD. Oh no; nothing of the like would ever satisfy Jeff's appetite for creativity and perfection. He painstakingly creates artwork for each CD, and the music itself adheres to some kind of theme. Recent examples include one on which each song represents a different genre and one on which each song is somehow related to the previous song. The latter was a fun one because I got to try to figure out how each one related to the previous.

Of course, I enjoy the music, and I enjoy getting presents, but the most significant part of it all is how much time and effort he puts into these mix CDs for little, old me. He loves making me smile and laugh. I honestly think some of the best moments in his life have been seeing my face the first time I see what he has made for me, and that makes me feel more loved than probably anything else in the universe.

Grandma and Pop

I finally have my laptop back, so I'll be playing a little catch up!

Grandma and Pop (Jeff's parents) drove out to spend a few days with us on Monday May 17th. As usual, their visit was packed with lots of fun stuff!

We went out for pizza and Monkey Joe's Monday evening. Leah, in typical fashion, made a friend while we were at Monkey Joe's. However, I'm not sure the friend considered herself Leah's friend. It wasn't clear from my vantage point whether the girl was trying to run away from Leah or if she was leading Leah to the different jumps a little too quickly. ;-) Either way, Leah was happy.

Tuesday we spent most of the day at the Children's Museum of Indianapolis. That day was especially fun because Jeff took the day off to go with us. We ate our sack lunches in the museum cafeteria. That was followed by the obligatory cotton candy. We spent some time at the Etch-a-Sketch, Barbie, and Bob the Builder exhibits. We also rode on the vintage carousel and spent some time in the playscape (a cool play area with a water table area, a sand table area, and other types of play areas). We finished up the adventure with some Dairy Queen on the way home.

Wednesday we went to our local zoo. They have several new exhibits this year, so Leah and David wanted to show the new animals to Grandma and Pop. We got to see a Wallaby Joey stick his little head out of his mother's pouch. The kids also loved crawling through the tunnel under the river otter exhibit and watching the otters swim around. David was especially intrigued by the prairie dogs digging a new hole for their home. Pop loved watching the bald eagles. Jeff didn't get to spend this trip with us, so we still need to go as a family to show him the new exhibits. The kids had a great time playing at the nearby playground after we'd covered all of the zoo exhibits. We finished up the day with a trip to one of our favorite restaurants and some games at Chuck E Cheese's. Leah and David had their favorite meal: pancakes and bacon. Everyone is always amazed at how they gobble up every, single bite! The final treat of the day was a trip to Cold Stone Creamery.

Thursday was Grandma and Pop's last day with us. They took the kids "out" to breakfast at their hotel's fabulous breakfast buffet. Jeff and I took the opportunity to go out for breakfast just as the two of us. It was a nice break from routine, but I did find myself wondering how the kids were doing, etc. It turns out they did a great job of stuffing themselves. ;-)

We're all looking forward to Grandma and Pop's next visit in early July. I'm sure we'll have plenty of adventures then as well. Thankfully, we have time for our sleep schedules and waistlines to recover before then. ;-)

I will post photos as soon as a) I figure out how to get them from the camera into the computer myself, or b) Jeff has/takes the time to do it for me. :-p