The Paxsons in Indy

We were so excited to find out the Paxsons were flying out to visit us in Indy.  It was our first time really showing off our city to some visitors and I'm grateful they are so easy going because we have certainly learned some things for our next visitors. 

We started at the Children's Museum of Indianapolis.  This is easily one of our favorite places to go.  The toddler and baby sections are impressive and our kids LOVE it.  When I told Jane we were going to the museum, she started talking excitedly about the dinosaurs and the robots.  The Children's Museum features a couple of huge dinosaurs trying to get into the building and an enormous Bumblebee transformers statue.  I guess that what stands out to her, but if you asked me, I would say her favorite things are pushing the buttons that make the wind blow the leaves up in the air.  Peter has been obsessed with digging in our neighbors fresh soil they have ready to plant flowers in, so I was excited for him to play in the sand this time, and of course, he loved scooping it up and dumping it in the cup.  I'm anxious to get these kids back to a beach.  The toddler area has this crazy lillie pad climbing apparatus.  Jane hasn't been interested in it before, but I suggested it to her and I was so proud when she gave it a try.  She was cautious and nervous, but she was so proud of herself.  Peter followed as far as he could go with no hesitation. 

It looks like Ernest is driving a little too fast for Jane.

We went over to Chris' work just before he got off so they could see the plant.  He had a few more things to finish up, so we waited outside.  The weather was perfect.  High 70s on Friday and 80s on Saturday.  They picked the best weekend in April to come.  So while we were outside, we took some pictures of the kids on our phones.  Ernest is just four months older than Peter.  It was fun to watch their parallel play.  I think they had fun together.

United Technologies has a bit of a goose problem, so they put these wolf cutouts all over the place.  Jane loved them (enough to hug them) and desperately wanted to ride them.
When Chris emerged, we took the Paxsons to our favorite Indy restaurant: The Tamale Place.  We really LOVE this place.  So much so, that we go regularly even though they refuse to get highchairs for their restaurant.

The kids were crazy about the salsa this time.  Peter started dipping his veggie straws in it and Jane soon saw his brilliance and switched from dipping chips to dipping the veggie straws.
We finished up the evening playing in our backyard.  Our neighbors have some cars back there that are hard for any kids to resist.

The next morning we headed to White River State Park.  This section of Indianapolis includes several museums, the NCAA Hall of Champions, the zoo, the canal, and the baseball stadium.  We didn't explore it all, but it's a beautiful place to walk around and play outside.  We walked from there to the Soldiers and Sailors memorial and back.  It gave us a pretty good view of the downtown area.

We didn't realize until after that you're supposed to stand there and be the "I" in "Indy", so The Paxsons are our "I" and Chris is our exclamation point.

 It was a lot of walking for all of us, but I have to give props to Marietta for doing it all while carrying TWINS!  Way to go, girl!  She made it look easy.  We headed to north to the Arts District in Carmel.  It's a cool downtown area that has fun shops and great restaurants.  We ate at Bubs.  Chris and I had been there before and I loved it, but this time I declared my burger the best burger I have ever eaten.  You get it with the over-easy egg and the bacon and it's just divine.  We drove around and looked at nice houses a little and then stopped by to see the progress on the Indianapolis Temple.  It was pretty neat.  I'm so excited for that to be completed this August.  The kids were restless, so we stopped at a playground for a while before heading back home to Camby.

Peter LOVES slides.  It's all he wants to do.  Jane LOVES swings.  It's all she wants to do.  Neither one has any interest in the other activity.  So Chris and I hardly saw each other at the park.

Peter is just reckless and fearless, so he falls a lot, but just lately we've noticed he's really toughened up a lot.  He almost never cries when he falls anymore, even when he scrapes his knees or elbows.  I find scrapes later and I have no idea when it happened.

Easter

I'm trying to be better at preparing projects for Jane to work on and Easter gave me a few more opportunities.  I cut out a whole bunch of paper eggs that she painted and then we put them up on the walls to decorate.  Another day we colored and put together a bunny with moving arms, legs, and ears.  And then of course, we dyed easter eggs.  I let Jane paint them with the dye because that seemed more interactive and then we filled them in by dying them afterward.

On Easter morning, we let the kids look for their Easter baskets right after breakfast.  I had a string of yarn winding through the house to where the baskets were hidden in the closet.  It took Jane a bit to get the idea, but soon she was following the string and helping her little stuffed duck do the same.  When she got to the baskets she was thrilled.  She went straight for the Pez dispenser and couldn’t really focus on anything else until the cartridge was emptied.  They both got books, bubbles, and lots of candy.  Jane is pretty picky about her candy, but I knew what to get her; Laffy Taffy, Skittles, Kit Kats, and candy necklaces.  Peter is less discriminatory and appreciates sugar in all its forms.  That afternoon we did an outdoor Easter egg hunt too.   Peter didn’t really get it, but Jane had a great time running around picking up eggs without any competition.  It was a beautiful spring day and we enjoyed just being outside for a while.

Later that evening, we went out and tried out Jane's new bubbles.  She was dancing around and saying, "I LOVE bubbles, I LOVE bubbles!"