Scenes From Takeoff

Didn't get THE video, but I loved something in each one of these...

First Flight

Obsession

Have I mentioned she's obsessed with Peter Pan?  GaGa has the original Disney movie on VHS and I've been searching high and low for a DVD copy.  I finally found one on ebay and it should arrive shortly. In the meantime she enjoys watching it EVERY time she goes to Grandma and Grandpa's.  

She gets so into it!  She talks to the movie (and, of course, to Peter Pan), she giggles, she squeals.  It's truly fun to listen to her watch this movie. 

She also pretends Peter Pan lives at our house.  Well, truth be told, he does.  The cat that was formerly known as "Max" is now "Peter Pan."  Everytime I say something to Max, I am corrected, "No, it's Peter Pan."  All evening I hear her talk about our Peter Pan kitty:  "Can I hold Peter Pan?",  "Get out of my room, Peter Pan!", "Get down, Peter Pan",  "I love Peter Pan."  I keep calling him Max so that when she gets past this obsession, the cat will still know his real name...

GaGa also gave her these cute PJ's recently.  They are boy pajama's, but Camden LOVES dinosaurs (and water guns) so they are perfect.  You also know it's been a good play day by the state of Camden hair.  She definitely had fun this day!

Heart Box

I picked up the heart box Camden made for me on her date with Daddy.  It's absolutely beautiful!

I only wish the lighting was better in my house so that the beautiful colors were really reflected.  I so love this gift (and the giver even more!).

Grandpa's Birthday

I volunteered to make Grandpa's birthday cake.  He wanted chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.  Camden thought he needed a Peter Pan cake.  I told her she had to call Grandpa and aske if it was okay that he had a Peter pan cake.  He and GaGa said it was fine.  She wanted green frosting, but we went with chocolate cream cheese.  I couldn't find any Peter Pan cake decorations at the store, so I printed a few on the computer and attached to toothpicks.  Everyone got their desired results.

It was also Aunt Tammy's birthday.  She got a funfetti heart cake and some funfetti cake balls.

Camden and Grandpa waiting to blow out candles.

A few huffs and puffs and all the candles were out.

Aunt Shirley and Uncle John, Jena, Amanda, Hali, Preslee, Sara, Emily, and Uncle Brian were also there.

Grandpa got a few pictures with all his girls.

The whole gang (minus GaGa who took the picture and Kevin who's in Atlanta).

Turtle Park!

I realized we missed the opening day of Dairilicious (1/2 price milkshakes) this week.  But when the temperatures hit a warm 51 degrees on Friday after work, Camden decided a visit to Turtle Park and an extra-thick raspberry milkshake was on the evening slate. 

We (read, "I") only last about 30 minutes, but we both had a good time getting some fresh air, swinging on swings, sliding down slides, and sipping on a delicious treat. 

V-Day Clearance

Camden and I stopped at Kroger to pick up a few things before heading home for the evening.  An employee in the floral department called me over and asked if I was interested in this big bag full of valentine's gifts, including a large stuffed tiger, a big heart box of chocolates, and a bag of twix/M&M's.  I wasn't really, until he flipped the tag over and revealed that it cost $3.  So I splurged.

There was also a small sign (I think that you put out in your flower garden/front porch).  Camden calls it her wand.

Lily and Evelyn

We stopped recently for a brief visit with Beverly and Steve, plus their two new little ones.

First, we met Evelyn.  She has a head full of dark hair and big chipmunk cheeks.  She is the smaller of the two twins.

Lily has a more fair complexion with reddish-blond hair.

Camden entertained them both for about 2 minutes, then was OBSESSED with Rupert...the dog!

She spent most of the rest of the visit chasing after him and making him chase after toys.

Valentine's Love

Camden is in love with Peter Pan.  So when I saw this heart, I knew this was the Valentine for her.

When I gave it to her, she ooohhhed and aaahhhhed.  Then she opened the lid, looked at her 5 pieces of chocolate, and exclaimed, "Wow...look at my treasure!"  I soooo love my little pirate.

The ring and rose were small trinkets from my bosses wife.  She made them to give to her kid's daycare teachers, but had extras and spread the love to the women in our office.  We wore our big diamond rings all day!

Invitation

Late on Friday afternoon, I received this text from Kevin, "Camden said it would be ok if u joined us for dinner on our date." 

How could I pass up dinner with my two favorite people!

Happy Valentine's Day, Daddy.

We love you!

Date Night

Kevin and I have been having more frequent "date nights" in the last month or so.  I think it must be because he has weekends off.  Camden asked one night at dinner how our date was.  I told her it was fun and Daddy and I had a good time.  I then asked her if she would like to go on a date with Daddy.  She lit up!  She clapped!  She exclaimed, "Yes!"  So Friday afternoon, Camden and Kevin had a date.  He let her choose from a few options, and she decided they would go to "All Fired Up" in Lafayette.

She picked out a heart box to paint for me!

She is so in her element when she paints.  She is so careful and concentrates.

She picked the 5 colors she would use and decided where each went.  Kevin thinks the colors will "pop" a little more once it's fired.

She also selected 2 tiny hearts to put on the lid.

A special bottle of paint let her make polka dots.  Kevin said once she did this, they had a hard time stopping her.  She wanted to put dots on everything!

We pick up the finished product on Friday.  I just can't wait to have this keepsake treasure!

Smile

Super Bowl

GaGa watched Camden last night so Kevin and I could watch the Super Bowl uninterrupted.  Aunt Carole called this week and said they would be in Crawfordsville on Sunday afternoon...could they come over and watch the game too.  Of course!  So Uncle Ric, Aunt Carole, Joe-Joe (cause everyone in that family now has the double name thanks to Camden) and Amanda came over for chili, panini's, and chocolate nachos (to name a few items on the spread).

The plan was to have Camden stay the night at GaGa's since it was going to be late, but Camden got to missing her mama.  After watching a movie about her new favorite person (Peter Pan), she came home.  Boy was she excited to see everyone (even if only for 15 mintues). 

Amanda had a red laser pointer that she teased Max with all evening.  He was in love (and kept us entertained).  Camden took a few turns at it, too.

She got the giggles watching Max go crazy chasing the light.  We may have to get one of those sooner-than-later. 

Super Bowl Village

UPDATE:  Kevin was offered the job!  He interviewed this morning and got a phone call this afternoon.  He heads to Atlanta shortly for several weeks of training.  Congratulations, Yardmaster!

Kevin has an all-day job interview today (Thursday) for a new position at CSX so he took Wednesday night off in order to be rested.  Our church group was also cancelled on Wednesday night, so we decided we would head down to the Super Bowl Village in Indy and brave the crowds.  We wanted to be part of this celebration in some way since it was so close to home.

The town and buildings downtown are all decked out. 

Our parking garage was overlooking the Village, so we got some good pictures of the happenings while it was still daylight.

We walked over to Monument Circle to see the huge XLVI numbers.  During the day it looked just like big pillows...and was fairly impressive.

Down the main Village street were more cool signs.  It was just at 6pm when we passed this sign which was hung near the Channel 8 studio.  We got close to the window and waved with the crowd as the news cast went on.  I don't think you could actually see the crowd very well behind the anchor, but we made an attempt to be on local news.

The weather has been uncommonly warm this week, so some of the ice features have not been maintained, but we did come upon the Food Network ice guys still working to maintain their creations.

The special Indy race cars decked out in team gear were impressive.

We also watched many people go down the infamous zip line. 

We had dinner at Sushi On the Rocks just a block off the main drag.  It was good, but we both were wanting GREAT sushi and were fairly disappointed not to have that experience.  Plus it was fairly expensive and we are kicking ourselves for not trying something else (even one of the big steak houses would have been comparable pricing - if we could get a table).  We got a flaming roll which was one of the better options, but still just okay.  We had post-decisional regret on this restaurant choice all evening!

Especially when we went into "The Huddle" - an old department store in Circle Center Mall that had the downstairs converted to a restaurant of sorts.  It had some really good food offerings - everything from gourmet mac & cheese to foot-long brats to an extravagant dessert table - at good prices and more part of the "Super Bowl Experience".  Upstairs was the main Super Bowl gift store with lots of hats, shirts, mugs, etc.  We wish we had discovered this place before we had the sushi we selected. 

We walked the Village a little more than headed back to the circle to see the big numbers at night.  The crowds were much harder to negotiate now, but I was so glad to see how things had been transformed.

A few more pictures from our garage as we left.  Lucas Oil Stadium is so impressive.

But probably our favorite signage of the evening was on the JW Marriott as we drove out of downtown.  Hard to believe this effect was created with a sign on the side of a very tall hotel.  Stunning!