Super Bowl Village

On Tuesday of Super Bowl week, we headed downtown to check out the Super Bowl Village. There was so much to see, and so easy to get around. We had a great dinner at Adobo Grill, and had fun taking in the sights and sounds. I am really regretting that we didn't get zipline tickets though!

Checking out the Colts cheerleaders on one of the stages. X-box Kinect dome. It was heated, and had a bunch of X-boxes set up that you could wait in line to play.XLIV on the circle. The letters were actually giant screens that had different pictures scrolling across them at all times. So cool!Family pic. The letters had a dark picture on them at the moment it flashed, so kind of hard to see... Flower arrangements contaning the Lombardi trophy lined the streets.The old Nordstrom building was made into 'The Huddle'. There were different food areas, bars, etc., and this is one of Channel 8's downtown broadcast studios.Another view of the Huddle. Ice sculptures. The ice bar that Jon saw on Friday had been taken down. We think that it probably melted because it has been so warm out! Oliver checking out the outdoor field. The stadium. Hitching a ride on Dad!

NFL experience

On Friday, January 27th, Jon attended the corporate preview day for the NFL Experience and Super Bowl village. At the end of Super Bowl week, the NFL Experience was the most highly attended in Super Bowl history!

Lucas Oil Stadium, ready for the big game.Zipline, ready to go! There were four lines running simultaneously, and pre-sale tickets were sold out weeks before the event.
Outdoor astroturf field for demos. There were 33 Indy cars set up, one for each NFL team, and then a Super Bowl car. Here are two of the three in the Super Bowl Village: Giants, Patriots, and Super Bowl car. All of the Super Bowl rings were on display. In the NFL experience. There were different areas for running, catching, kicking and throwing. Jeff Saturday (Colts center) was there with his kids, but was still nice enough to take pictures with fans. Gary Brackett (Colts linebacker) carrying in the Lombardi trophy. Convention center where the NFL experience was held. Budweiser ice bar. If you can't tell from the pic, the entire thing was made of ice, and the bottles were stuck into it. Ice sculpture carving demonstration.

January outings

January was also unseasonably warm, so we were able to get out and about quite a bit. Trips to the park, cupcake store, and walks home from school happened multiple times. Pretty nice after our crazy icy/snowy winter last year!

Checking out the fish at the zoo. We actually hit the zoo up twice this month. It's so nice to go when it is a little cooler out, because it seems like you get a private animal showing! Playing soccer at the Butler Bowl.Eva actually had some pretty nice soccer skills. Maybe we will have to put her in 'lil Kickers! Ollie looks like a pro. He also looks so old in this picture! GOAL!!! On MLK Day, Jenny came over and we headed up to Monkey Joe's, an indoor bounce place. We had a fun morning, even though they were packed, and everyone took a great nap afterwards!

I didn't get many pictures, because it took both of us to keep track of the kids, who like to run in opposite directions. We all had fun though jumping and climbing and going down the slides.

Random January fun around the house.

January came and went pretty quickly. It took us a little bit to get back into the swing of things after all of the Christmas extravaganzas, but we settled back into work, school, and normal life pretty quickly.

There has been a lot of eating, and a lot of sleeping. Ollie is back to napping (but I have to lie with him on the couch every day until he falls asleep), and every night before bed, he says "I'm hungry, my belly's empty", then he usually puts down 2-3 bowls of cereal (Special K with red berries) with blueberries and milk. Eva has been eating constantly also.

By the end of the month, Oliver had grown 3/4 of an inch (we measured him on 1/7 then again on 2/3. I checked multiple times to make sure I measured correctly!), and all of Eva's 18 month clothes looked like capri pants and crop tops. I'm so glad that I told everyone 'no clothes for Christmas, she still has plenty of room in her 18 month ones'... Happy January growth spurt!

Chilling together on the couch.Playing on the iPad with Daddy. Notice little miss's finger in the air ready to pounce on the screen. It's scary how tech savvy our 3 and one year old are!
Chef Oliver and Chef Eva cooking me a delicious snack in their play kitchen.I heard the cabinet open, something being grabbed and her running away. This is what I found in the living room... What, I just wanted some Pringles... Fun times in the bath. Love Ollie's fauxhawk! Oliver helped Daddy make a new shelf for the office closet. He only got a little paint on his legs! How we found Ollie asleep one night. He dumped every toy out of their toy bins in his bed, and ended up lying on the plastic car bed scrunched up in the corner. Too cute!

Model train show

The first weekend of January, the Model Train Expo was at the State Fairgrounds. Since Oliver is still super obsessed with trains (he pretends to be one most of the time), Jon took him over on Sunday afternoon to check it out. He said that the displays were amazing, and of course Ollie loved it!

Swim class!

After seeing how Mr. Timid was around the water in the Dells over Christmas, we decided that he should probably take some swim lessons. We initially signed both kiddos up for Parent and Tot lessons, but both classes were cancelled, and Oliver ended up in the 3-5 year old Beginner Swimming Class. He is doing well. There are 6 kids in the class, and they take turns practicing arm circles, kicking, and putting their face in the water with the teacher. For the rest of the class they are supposed to sit quietly by the side of the pool. The one day I went to watch, I was for sure that Ollie was going to fall in, but he did well. If nothing else, hopefully swim class will help him learn to sit still and listen a bit better!

Waiting his turn to swim. Kick, kick, kick!
Go, Ollie!

Sayonara Injays!

January 3 was a very sad day for us. Trish, Mike, Luke and Kate took off for a 24 month stint in Kobe where Mike was offered a great role at Lilly Japan. I miss Trish dearly. I have always called her my lifeline because whenever I needed anything at all, I could call and she would run down the street and help me. We leaned on each other so much as new mommies, and she will always be one of my besties. Even sadder than her leaving was that Luke had to go too. Ollie and Lukey have been best buds since this:

Here they are at one of their last playdates. Of course, sitting on top of each other. You can bet that we are counting the days until they return. But for now, thank God for facetime!