Evie and Annalise Taller: February 2010

The 14th Anniversary of Jim's 21st Birthday

The morning started a little later than normal for us. Jim and I were out pretty late with all the other grade school parents whooping it up while the grandmas and grandpas of Carmel tucked the kiddos into bed.

We did bid on and "won" the basket that Evie's class created. It was called Spring Break in Indiana. There were lots of gift cards for fun things to do in the area.

After we recovered from the previous evening, we went to church and then went out for lunch at Buca's.

We stuffed ourselves silly with lots of delicous food but still had room for dessert of a giant cupcake and some tiramisu.

Annalise also visited both the men's and women's bathrooms. Mom and Dad ate cold food.

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for taking us out to lunch (and see how well my Salon Hair held up over night? I wonder if I can get one more day out of it)

After lunch, we walked to the Soldiers and Sailors monument in downtown. It's the one that is smack downtown with the big roundabout in it.

Inside the monument is the Col. Eli Lilly Civil war museum complete with cannons and a place to take ye olde timey picture.

We learned that we could climb to the top of the monument for free, but everyone in our group decided to take the elevator instead.

Here we are at the top overlooking the home of the Colts and the Pacers and a bunch of other buildings south of Downtown.

If you look really closely, you can see our house, 13 miles north of this site. The girls said they could see Canada.

Evie signed her name to the board of people who made it to the top of Indiana.

Evie's Birthday Party

Evie has been invited to several birthday parties this school year. So when her birthday rolled around she also wanted to have a party. We wanted to do it on a budget so we decided to have her party at the house. We started with a guest list of 6 which grew up to 12. I figured that some kids wouldn't be able to come. They all came so we had a nice loud party.

I had lots of games planned. In all, they took about 15 minutes. the kids mostly ran around, wrestled and yelled. They had fun, so it didn't really matter. It was fun to watch them interact with each other. They all have matured so much during the course of this school year. This game here was called shrinking Island. It was kind of like musical chairs but the "island" kept getting smaller and smaller. It was fun to watch them all crowd on.

We also played a game of Hot Potato. This is the only picture that we got of most of the kids. The rest was a blur.

We did the toliet paper roll too. That took about 5 minutes and they had more fun busting out of the toliet paper and throwing it around.

Instead of pin the tail on the donkey, we pinned the bird in the nest of Evie's tree. She also made the nest and colored 14 birds.

A lot of the birds in the nest.

Before cake, we had one last game, moving the cotton ball without using your hands or feet.

They came upstairs and we had cake, fruit and lemonade. We squeezed 14 kids into the kitchen.

then it was presnet time. Everyone wanted to see what Evie received. She got a lot of nice presents and a lot of crafts.

You'd think a few days of this birthday business and Annalise would figure out that she wasn't getting anything.

A few more presents to open.

The kids were all so fun and good. When the parents came, I think everyone was ready for a break and a nap. A fun time, but we are glad it's 365 days until the next birthday party.

After a nap and a shower, Jim and I got all dressed up to go to the school PTO fundraiser dinner. I just wanted to show Aunt Becky my "Salon Hair"

Happy 6th Birthday Evie!

Our sweet Evelyn turned 6 today. The days went by slow, but the years have gone so fast.

Evie woke up to the customary birthday car wash and then came down to a stack of presents at the table.

We asked her if she wanted to wait until after dinner, but she decided to open them before school. She was thrilled to get a box of Legos that weren't flat and space like.

She also got skates,but it is still snowing here so they will have to wait for a warmer day.

And for breakfast, we had birthday pancakes. It took Jim a couple of tries to get the six just right.

After school, Evie didn't waste any time getting into the Legos. Of course, she opened them up right in the middle of the walkway. She and Annalise had lots of fun playing with them.

Jim came home from work and we opened the rest of the presents. Grandma and Grandpa Taller are here too. Evie starts in on a package from them first.

Annalise is having a hard time with this birthday. She doesn't get that she doesn't get any presents or packages.

Evie checks out a work book from G and G Taller

Annalise still didn't get a present so she hid under a blanket until the painful present opening was over.

Evie got a latch hook kit from G and G Seibert. Thanks!

Aunt Becky and Uncle Bran's package came. Lots of air!

the girls had fun popping all the big bubbles.

And she opened up her cards! Thanks Great Grandma Koch and Bray family!

Annalise makes sure that all the air bladders are popped.

For dinner, we had squid dogs. The adults had spaghetti and meatballs. Then dessert. Evie designed her cake and I was just in charge of getting the frosting in the right places. The sun is upper left, then Haley's comet is the streak. The big yellow spot is supposed to be the moon. Evie made a Lego rocket to put on top of the cake. It tasted as good as it looks.

Happy Birthday to our beautiful 6 year old girl. We love you!

Fat Tuesday

Well, I am still battling a bad back. I finally went to the dr. and got some muscle relaxers. In addition to having the best night sleep ever, I am feeling better. But, I still needed a little more laying around on the heating pad. This morning, Annalise had a date with Aunt Kathy. When they returned from their date, they brought a King Cake. Aunt Becky, I'm sure it wasn't as good as yours, but it was pretty.

Annalise and Evie try to guess where the baby is hidden

Evie tried to listen for the baby

So did Annalise. We haven't found it yet. Our running joke is "don't eat the baby!"

This past weekend

Evie had her last official skating lesson this weekend. She does pretty well considering she is wearing heavy rental skates and really doesn't know what she is doing.

She mastered skating backwards and turning. (she's in the green coat)

She's still pretty choppy and hasn't gotten to the point of gliding on the ice. The Olympics are very inspirational to her. Maybe she will try again next winter. Next up is spring soccer--if we ever thaw out of the snow.

On Sunday, we went to an action packed volleyball game featuring Marin and some of her classmates.

These two must have the same forehead in their genes.

Marin and Evie. It was fun to watch and even more fun to have some fresh popped corn and hear the squeak of a wood gym floor.

Just another Wednesday

Uncle Kevin and his herd of kids are still hanging around. They are pretty fun and Uncle Kevin proved to be useful. Today, he fixed my lazy susan that has only spinned in one direction. After 3 years, it finally spins in both directions without getting stuck! That's awesome.

There was no school yesterday, but thankfully, there was only a 2 hour delay today. That gave the kids enough time to play together and then get some time apart.

During the delay, Natalie, Evie and Tessa made valentines. Oliver and Annalise were too busy picking fights with one another to participate.

Evie worked hard on her valentine.

Tessa even got in on the action with some stickers and lots of marker lid removal.

She is clearly confused as to wear the stickers go.

And by the looks of this purple streak and red dot on her lip, she is also confused about where the markers belong.

Later, the kids went outside and played. OF course, when they came in, they needed hot chocolate. I thought it would be fun to float some frothed milk in their cups.