Field Trips!

This fall has been full of fun for McKinley at preschool.  His class took two field trips over the last few weeks, one to a local apple orchard, the other to a local fire station.  I was lucky enough to have my Mom join us at the orchard and Cary at the fire station...I'm getting pretty big and my balance is thrown off, so having the extra hands are wonderful. 

We all enjoyed the fire station as much as last year.  This year the station had a brand new ambulance, state of the art, and McKinley and his buddies all got to take a tour.  It was pretty exciting!  Equally as exciting was the city bus ride to and from...especially when one rider decided she needed to exit the bus and would rather walk than to ride with one big happy preschool family!  Her loss! 

The apple orchard was great too.  It had gotten cooler, the perfect fall day.  We enjoyed hearing about the picking process of the employees and seeing the entire process of how the clean, separate, bag and sell the goods.  All the visitors got to take home a nice bag of apples, we added some gourds and butternut squash to our stash before we headed home.  So much fun, it's nice to have some really great opportunities in McKinley's preschool.

I've also included a photo below of the "About Me" poster project we completed together.  Homework!  No, really, it was so fun to gather all the stuff then build it with McKinley.  I LOVE how it turned out! 

Loving the fall!

Lynn

The perfect fall weekend

Cary had the entire weekend off, so lots of fun was in order! Two of our very favorite fall traditions: Picking the perfect pumpkin at Anderson's Orchard and Zoo Boo! McKinley's AWESOME Halloween costume isn't ready yet so he chose to revisit the mail man from two years ago, but this time he asked to use his Dad's hat since the costume hat no longer fits. I must say, he certainly looked the part - and a lot like his Daddy!

We had such a wonderful weekend. I love the fall. So thankful for beautiful weather and an entire weekend to dedicate to family fun...

Lynn

Change of plans...

So, a five weeks ago we had our sonogram to see our Baby V. After a long look around our sonogram tech gave up trying to figure out if we had a boy or a girl and asked my OB to come in to weigh in on who was growing in my belly. He came in and in no time, with 98% certainty announced that we were having a baby GIRL.
Okay, no way.
From day one I've always felt that we had another boy. I'm not suggesting I have esp or anything silly like that...but sometimes a woman knows!
Cary and I both shook our heads, my Mom was stunned and McKinley happily announced, "Mom, I KNEW it was a girl. I told you!"
When my doctor saw our disbelief he offered to have us come back in for a repeat sonogram five weeks from that day. See our baby again? You betcha! In the meantime though, he said, go ahead and buy pink. It's a girl, you'll see.
Oh will we?!
The day came, McKinley and I headed off to the appointment without Cary - why would he need to be there again, it's a girl, right? My Mom met us there. We went in and got started. The tech barely put the wand on my belly when she grabbed my arm and said, "OH MY GOSH, I am SO GLAD we did this. IT'S A BOY!!!!!!!!!"
I was a little surprised but at the same time, not so much. It was strange. An odd mix of feelings (aside from the "oh crap we've got a lot of pink stuff to take back" that suddenly bubbled up in my head). My Mom - she stood up and was huddled over me, staring at the tech in a blink. McKinley was happily playing a game on my phone, I was thankful he didn't hear. He'd really been counting on a girl.
The rest of our time there was a blur. I got us in the car and just sat for a few minutes, thinking again of all that pink to take back from Ohio to Colorado. Oh my God. But another boy! What a beautiful blessing! No girl. Another cuddly, sweet, baby boy. I drove to meet Cary on his route. I said nothing, just handed him the sonogram photo with the word "BOY" above the proof. Cary stared at me, started laughing and said, "Oh! This is a joke!"
No. No joke.
Oh, okay.
So, Plan B...Plan BOY! hahahaha!
Return pink stuff, scratch girl names, nix the "I really am trying to convince myself that I want a BLUE girl nursery" and dig back into the BLUE!
We're having a BOY and there's NO denying it!
And, in hindsight and for the record...we have NO idea how our beloved OB and his tech ever saw a girl. Umbilical cord in the way or not, we know what we saw!
Full steam ahead with the blue!
Lynn

Take a little trip...

We recently found out that we are having a girl, so what better way to get 'geared' up in pink (because everything we have for a baby is blue!) than to hit one of our favorite outlets...the one with Pottery Barn. Enough said.

We hit the road for a little trip across the border into Ohio for the weekend. It was a quiet trip, the best part about the drive was the horses...we were behind a truck pulling a horse trailer. I noticed right away that the trailer's windows were open, which I found odd. Then suddenly, out pops a horse head! Then another! Then another! And just as quickly as they'd appeared, the went right back inside, like a turtle hiding in its shell. Then, as we are getting closer, all three horses pop their heads out the windows again! In unison! And back in! In unison! This continued for so long that Cary and I both were laughing hysterically, so much so that I had tears rolling down my face. I quickly grabbed my phone to take a picture and could barely hold still enough to snap one. We could not stop laughing. McKinley was in the back seat begging to know what was so funny, but we were laughing so hard we couldn't even explain until we were side-by-side with the horses, who were still doing their funny head popping game. We drove beside them for a while, laughing hysterically, as we finally passed the truck we discovered the driver was laughing just as hard as we were and waved. Those horses were so happy and just precious, it was such a good laugh for us all.

We settled in for an evening of swimming and a fun dinner together despite the yucky, cold rain. It was a nice evening, we got rested up for a whole day of shopping the following morning. For some reason the weather wasn't so nice to us, it was really cold. Low 40's and we were unprepared. Fortunately I purchased a maternity coat while we were shopping and we were able to let McKinley use the coat to bundle up. It was a funny sight but man am I glad we had it!
By the time we had to head home we were all really ready to crawl into the warm car with some hot chocolate and hit the road. We had a super fun getaway and enjoyed some relaxation time together.

Lynn

McKinley's First Nine

It's no secret that McKinley likes golf. He just does. No one pushed him into it, we just gave him one of his clubs a few years ago and "WHACK!" he was hooked. We've taken him to the driving range many times (and yes, he drives WAY better than I do) and Cary has taken him along for a few holes. But today was special...his first nine. Just McKinley and his Daddy (Mommy got some shopping time). When I came back to meet them at the course I was literally laughing out loud at what I saw. McKinley was standing up in the golf cart, foot on the pedal, Cary steering with a death grip on McKinley's back. My boys were smiling from ear to ear. Totally made me cry.

Snapped this photo and I absolutely adore it.

My boys!

Lynn

A Weekend Adventure

To continue our annual month-long celebration of McKinley's birthday, we headed to French Lick for the weekend. We all had a total blast at the city's water park and hotel Big Splash Adventure. Well, a blast except for the rash of flies that seemed to be at every eatery in the city. Yuck.

We swam, we slid (okay, well, I didn't...not a good idea to go peeling down a giant 3 story slide while pregnant...), we played in the outdoor pool and went around on the lazy river 3,413 times. Honest. It was awesome. We broke only to find fly-free food or to sleep, visit the historic resorts of West Baden and French Lick, or to hit the nearby train museum.

We had one little incident where some teens were literally making waves in the lazy river and got it going so hard that they knocked McKinley right off his raft. He was fine, but I was hot. When I was done with those little stinkers they left! I remember being "young" like that, but I would like to think I didn't act like that. Aside from that brief mishap the trip was super fun. And we even made a stop a "McKinley's Market" in Oaktown...which is where my Grandfather (Clarence McKinley Crecelius, McKinley's namesake) was born! A great little escape on a long weekend. I think the photos say it all!

Happy Summer!!!!!!!!!

Lynn

A four year old?

Can it really be? Our baby boy is four years old?
He's such a big boy now...and so very much fun.

Happy 4th Birthday to our precious McKinley, we love you so very much.

Love,
Mom & Dad

Lunch with Nonna & Mommy, Dinner with Daddy & Mommy at Texas Roadhouse (McKinley's choice - because you KNOW he wanted to hear them give a great big YEEEEEE-HAAAAAA) and hours of playtime at Bogey's where he literally hit the jackpot over and over and over. Awesome day!

Birthday Party #4...Golf!

What an awesome day and a labor of love for all of us since JANUARY. Yes, January. That was when I offhandedly asked what kind of birthday party McKinley wanted this year. He instantly answered, "Golf! I want a GOLF birthday party, with a real golf course and a golf cake and lots of golf balls." Immediately my brain went into overdrive. Honestly, I don't think on the way home (we'd been out for dinner) I was able to think of anything else. I set out to brainstorm and search the internet for unique ideas since McKinley had chosen such a unique theme - which I LOVE. Suffice it to say, I didn't find much. I did find golf ball cake pops and eventually a back yard mini golf course, courtesy of Martha herself. Cary and I discussed our plans and moved forward with them. It was such a joy to create a day like this for McKinley, we were all so excited for the theme and McKinley loved having input on everything! My favorite thing has to be the invitations...I had a vision of what I wanted and was able to execute it with the help of a graphic designer in California. What she put together was exactly what I asked for. I could not have been more pleased. I was so happy in fact that she and I worked together to design the printable paper products (signage, etc) for the party and I'm so happy with how it turned out. The only problem was I was so excited for the entire day that I never took the chance to snap photos of the decor or set up or anything. I'm so upset, but that wasn't the point anyway...McKinley, our friends and family all had a wonderful time. Seeing the smile on that boy's face was enough to make me have a party like that every single day. But, oh, would we be tired...

As guests started to arrive the kids immediately took to the 'make-your-own station' that I always enjoy putting together. This year it was a golf visor...apropos, no? And all the guests were invited to take a guess as to how many golf balls were inside the candy jar. We chose one adult winner (who won the Caddy Shack DVD) and a one 'youth' winner (who won a big selection of toys and games chosen by McKinley). Brent (my Godfather and McKinley's "Papa") won the Caddy Shack DVD when he chose the EXACT number of balls inside the jar! I was shocked when he won because I have fond memories of watching that movie (parts of it...) in my Godparents home on a particular visit. Brent always loved that movie, so I was tickled that he won. Our nephew Logan was the 'youth' winner and was pretty excited with McKinley's little bag of goodies.

We asked Brent to lead us in prayer again this year, it's a nice little tradition and we so enjoy the efforts made by our friends and family to share this day with us, so it's nice for us to be thankful for that as well. We had a golf club-ish lunch of "Club" sandwiches, pasta salad, chips and veggies and dip.

As everyone finished many of our guests - especially the kids - played in our little back yard golf range. We had a putting range and a chipping range and clubs for everyone! While they played we got the piece de resistance ready...McKinley's AWESOME golf cake (that he picked out himself!) and the adorable cake pops that were truly the most difficult thing to find (mold ordered from amazon, turned down by 3 local bakeries, turned down by cake pop maker in Indy, quoted $100 for 12 by a cake pop maker in Memphis, Tn., and finally able to place the order four days before the party with a new cake pop maker in Indy --Sticky Sweet Cake Pops--, shipped the mold to her, had my Godmother pick them up from her home and drive them here! They were NOT $100...Ha!). Cary had been the one to pick up the cake from Baesler's and he could NOT believe the attention this cake had gotten. Apparently the entire bakery had been enthralled by this cake as it was being made and decorated, so much so that they even took photos of it and the owner of Baesler's himself carried it out to Cary's truck. It was awesome, more awesome than I had pictured...when McKinley said he loved the photo I'd found he was certain it's what he wanted. When we walked out with that thing there was no doubt in my mind he was happy. He couldn't stop smiling! He was squealing with delight! It was a good moment...

I think it was the photo booth that really brought out the humor in everyone though. We always enjoy taking photos with McKinley and his guests and I've recently become obsessed with photo booths, so we put together an array of mustaches and other "on a stick" items along with props and a chalk board. I LOVE how they turned out! We have some really creative friends and family!

We sang Happy Birthday and McKinley watched his candles (that I had to continuously light due to the stupid wind...) and his cake with intent. He blew his candles out after making a wish and everyone dug into that yummy cake! Oh it was so good.

Things began to wind down as McKinley opened his gifts and we once again brought a special birthday to a close. It truly is the happiest day of the year for Cary and I - and so worth the absolute exhaustion from the weeks and weeks of work we lovingly put into it.

Fourth birthday party down, one happy, happy boy as a result...and two parents full of love for their precious boy!

So...too early to make plans for #5??????

Lynn