Monday, November 28, 2011

It's More Than Just Cornfields!

One of the pleasant surprises about moving to Indiana is that it is not, in fact, all just flat cornfields. Don't get me wrong - there are plenty of those, too, but we've gone on some fun walks and found beautiful woodsy and hilly spots! So we thought we'd share a few...

How cool is this tree??

Halfway up a "mountain," taking a rest before continuing up.

Near our house - look at the size of that tree!

Seriously - look at that thing.

Friday, November 18, 2011

Fall Recap

Good news - I'm actually posting something! Want even better news? I got an iPhone 4S! Why is this good news for Eliza fans? Because the camera on this thing is amazing, so we are taking a a lot more pictures now, which hopefully means I'll post more of them here.

But anyway, here is what we've been up to this fall. Eliza started kindergarten...can you believe it??? She's doing great, becoming very fluent in French, loves her teacher, has lots of friends. Good times all around at the International School!
She also had a birthday party at her new favorite place on earth, Interactive Academy, which is where she takes gymnastics. Aunt Mary took a bunch of great pictures from the party, so if you want to see more, click here.
She's also been playing with our dog. Did I mention we got a dog? This is Scout, who is infinitely patient. (Scout is a girl, named in honor of To Kill A Mockingbird, just like Eliza)
Close to Halloween, we went to a haunted trail where Eliza was very brave and got to eat s'mores. (Come to think of it, almost everywhere we went this fall seemed to have s'mores. Must be an Indiana thing)
Mommy is doing another play, "A Christmas Story," with the local theater here in Zionsville and Eliza came down one Saturday morning to help work on the set. She painted, held doors steady, fetched tools, and learned the difference between nails and screws. She did great!
And then there was Halloween. Eliza went as Ariel, from "The Little Mermaid." She would like you all to know that this is not her real hair. It's fake hair. Just in case you weren't sure.
Our most recent adventure was a visit from Uncle Friz. He came for work and since Aunt Leslie just started a new job, she and Cousin Jack couldn't come along. So we took lots of pictures for them.

The big day out was a trip to the Children's Museum, one of our favorite places in Indiana. Even the dinosaurs can't wait to get in!
This was Uncle Friz's favorite part. He could have done this all day. As could the random kid who figured out pretty quickly that this guy is really, REALLY FUN!

Important contest at lunch...who has a bigger tongue?
We wore Eliza out pretty good.

Look out, the dinosaurs are escaping!

(Points off from the Children's Museum for decorating the dinosaurs before Thanksgiving. Boo!)



Back at home, Eliza talked Daddy and Uncle Friz into playing her new favorite game, Hedbanz. Don't ask.

So that's what we have for now. Hopefully there will be more soon (I know, I say this all the time!).

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Happy Birthday, Cousin Jack!

A couple of different birthday wishes for Eliza's favorite cousin who is 6!!! Where has the time gone?

So...I posted these and for some reason the tail ends of the videos are getting cut off (and the sound is a bit out of sync - mysterious). Our apologies, especially to Jack who should know that Eliza can't wait to see him in July!


Et en francais!


Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Vive la Revolution!

All she needs is one of those red liberty caps!



Allons enfants de la Patrie, Arise, children of the Fatherland,
Le jour de gloire est arrivé ! The day of glory has arrived!
Contre nous de la tyrannie, Against us, tyranny's
L'étendard sanglant est levé, (bis) Bloody banner is raised, (repeat)
Entendez-vous dans les campagnes Do you hear, in the countryside,
Mugir ces féroces soldats ? The howling of those ferocious soldiers?
Ils viennent jusque dans vos bras They're coming right into your arms
Égorger vos fils et vos compagnes ! To slit the throats of your sons and consorts!

Aux armes, citoyens, To arms, citizens,
Formez vos bataillons, Form your battalions,
Marchons, marchons ! Let's march, let's march!
Qu'un sang impur Let impure blood
Abreuve nos sillons !

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

New Bike!

So, for starters, I'm not sure if the video functionality on Blogger is working all that well these days. There are videos in this post, as well as the one below (from October!) - if you can't see them, try clicking on the title of the post itself and then see if the video will play. I don't know what's up.

Anyway...big day for Eliza on Sunday. She got her first big girl bike!!! Obviously the training wheels are still on - since we're still trying to master pedaling, actually balancing on the bike seems like a bit much to ask right now. But she couldn't be more thrilled and now we just need the weather to warm up so we can go out every day.

Here are a couple of stills.


A quick interview with the lucky girl...


And she's off! Or maybe not.


And she's off! For real this time.