Indoctrination

As usual, I am behind on my blog posts and I promise I'll put up some pictures soon from the fabulous 4th birthday extravaganza. In the meantime, we are all adjusting well to life in Indiana...as this video should attest. Sorry, Bears fans!

Indiana Wants Us

So, we have made it to Indiana (for those of you who don't get the title reference, here it is, in a super cheesy video)! We came down on Thursday late afternoon, after a challenging week of packing, loading, etc... (and we wouldn't have made it through without Aunt Mary, whose praises we can't sing enough!). We're still in corporate housing for the moment - scheduled to close in a couple of weeks and then move. But even though we're just in temporary housing, we've packed in a quite a lot of activities already and here they are for your amusement.

First off, this is actually back in Chicago, in the July 4th parade at her school and it just cracks me up. Hopefully you all feel the same!

Also in Chicago (Evanston, actually), but I thought it was a lovely picture.
And now here we are. On Friday, her new school (the International School of Indiana, where she is in the pre-K French immersion program) held a "picnic" for the new families. By picnic, they meant bring your own food and sit in the gym to eat it, but it was still fun!
The better part came after we ate, when everyone went outside for a photo op for the school fundraiser: grape stomping!
Apparently, the grapes were really, REALLY cold.
On Sunday, we headed to downtown Indy, which is lovely, to take in an Indianapolis Indians game (appropriately they were playing Syracuse - I didn't know who to root for!). Lots to look at.
Especially the mascot, Rowdie. As you can see, she is very shy.
New BFF's.
Then Daddy took her to the gift shop where she picked out this hat. Click on the picture to enlarge so you can really experience it in its full glory. It's special. And Dippin' Dots, of course. This after a tub of popcorn and lemonade.
Which brings us to today, the first day of school! She was a little nervous, but when we got there and she saw all the kids in uniforms like hers, she got really excited and started dancing around like crazy.
Another mascot sighting, this time the Griffin of the ISI. It's like she goes to Hogwarts! With her are future classmates Miko and Montgomery. Eliza and Miko had the same Disney princess backpack, which thrilled both of them to no end.
Standing still briefly for a pic w/Daddy-O.
And one with Mom.
On the way into the building, all the kids got to ring the bell as part of the first day ceremony.
And here is her spot at one of the tables in Monsieur Robby's class.
I will try to take more pictures as we settle in and get them posted. For now, it's off to do some laundry! Hope everyone is staying cool and having a great summer.

Ballet Recital

Yeah, yeah, this was almost two months ago. Doesn't change how cute it all is, even after all this time.


And some video from the rehearsal (the performance was exactly the same).

Mexico addendum

I realized I forgot to mention a couple of things in yesterday's post...

First, definitely check the Facebook photos. In addition to more dolphin pics, you can see more shots of Ixtapa, our fabulous cooking class, AND me on a TRAPEZE! That's right. Trapeze.

Also, there was an earthquake while we were there. It was 12:15 AM on Wednesday morning (Wednesday was quite a day - earthquake, dolphins, and trapeze all in one day!). Eliza did not wake up, but Mac and I did since our whole room was shaking and there was definitely some noise along with the shaking. We found out the next day it was a 5.1, located about 50 miles away. No damage, but still legit and really, really scary!

Eating BBQ'd Iguana

Okay, so we didn't really eat bbq'd iguana, but we certainly saw lots of live iguanas, which pretty much guaranteed that the song, "Mexican Radio," was in my head most of the trip.

Anyway, we're back now and had a fabulous time. After a little bit of a rough start (being afraid of the water and not liking her "club"), things got great pretty quickly. Eliza conquered her fear of the ocean, as you will see, and Club Med graciously allowed her to move up from the 2-3 year old group into the 4-5, where she was much happier.

These pictures aren't exactly in chronological order, but still show a good time!

To begin with, this was the end of the week when they do a circus show. Eliza's age group, the Geckos, were the lions and tigers. Here she is at rehearsal.

With some other geckos at rehearsal.
After the rehearsals, Eliza announced she didn't want to be in the show, just to watch, and kept up this assertion right until 8:45 PM when the show actually started, at which point she began sobbing, "I want to be in the show!" They would have let her, but we opted to remind her that choices have consequences and that she could do the show next year. So she is counting the days.

Early in the week with the younger kids, Eliza was part of the Earth Day parade.
Hanging out at lunch with the Geckos. Eliza definitely enjoyed eating ice cream twice a day or so!
Highlight of the trip on Wednesday. We went swimming with dolphins! Eliza and Mac did a 20 minute kids program while I did the full 45 minute extravaganza. Pictures are here on Facebook.
Ummmm....so she liked the IDEA of the dolphin better than the actual being in the water with the dolphin...
Snack time!
Another important event of the week was getting our vacation hair. Eliza was much braver than I thought she'd be and we both enjoyed our low maintenance do's the whole week.

A lovely girl in green in all the lovely green. The lagoon behind her is actually home to a crocodile who only showed himself when we did not have the camera. Of course.
Enjoying the sunset.

Snack time for Geckos.
The Geckos also had a great Eliza size pool. Unfortunately, she would only swim in it with Daddy, not with her actual friends.

Then there was the ocean!
Undertow run!
She was also a huge fan of digging in the sand and generally making a mess. What else is vacation for?
And to take us out, here is some actual running on the beach for your enjoyment.

Bathroom Remodel

Okay, so this doesn't have all that much to do with Eliza, other than she got a new(ish) bathroom and is super excited about it. But I thought people might enjoy a trip through our latest home improvement project (and by project, I mean something we paid other people to do). It was much less painful than the kitchen, I have to say.

So, this is what Eliza's bathroom looked like when we bought the place. Yes, that is high gloss, fluorescent aqua, in case you were wondering. Walls AND ceiling. Ugh.

All we did when we moved in was repaint, which something of an improvement, although we were still stuck with hideous floor tiles and ugly vanity.

So, here is the "new" bathroom - i.e. new, big, white tiles on the floor and a nice white vanity. Clean and simple and she loves it.

Then there was our bathroom. Again, here is what it was when we moved in (yes, that is the vanity that is now in Eliza's bathroom - reuse and recycle!):

After a coat of paint, still not great, but less fuzzy at least.

Demolition begins - gone are the ugly floor tiles and the ridiculous gigantic mirror. A huge improvement already.

Jump ahead to the finished product!

Happy Birthday, Nan!

Since we forgot to call yesterday and say it in person, here is Miss E's video card for Nan. (and you can all see her healing boo boo - note the nice bruises around the eyes now too)

BIG OUCH!!!

Sometimes it is really, really hard to be three. Now, you know we all love our Eliza dearly, but she can be a bit athletically challenged at times and her running style closely resembles that of an emu, which is to say that she pinballs and careens off things all over the place. And she trips a lot. A lot.

Today she was running to her room, emu style, when she tripped and did a header right into our front door. I have never seen an actual knot on someone's forehead until today and wow, is it something!

No worries - we called the doctor and they are not concerned. So Eliza gets to take it easy today and (of course) watch "Sleeping Beauty" (Aunt Mary, she eagerly awaits your company in this endeavor).

They're kinda like mug shots from a bar fight, aren't they?

Snowy Day

Now, I know this doesn't compare with what is happening on the East Coast with your fancy blizzards and all (and I never thought in a million years that I'd move to Chicago and consistently get LESS snow than in NJ), but we did get a nice snowfall yesterday.

Eliza and Mac went out to shovel some snow.

Eliza quickly realized she'd gotten the raw end of the shovel vs. broom deal.

So they swapped, but after a few seconds of toiling...

...she wised up completely and resigned her position...

...for the much more rewarding task of making snow angels.

Then she proceeded to eat about a pound of snow (only safe in fresh snowfall, before the dogs come a walkin'). Afterwards, she came back inside for some hot chocolate, most of which ended up on her face, and a new movie to watch, "Sleeping Beauty."