Pooh Sticks!

Well, the warmer weather has come and gone. Yesterday looked like a scene from a snow-globe outside. But we know the warm weather will be back, and in the meantime, we will content ourselves with memories of the fun we had during our brief taste of spring, and the promise of more fun to come.

Last Monday, we ate an early dinner together and headed over to the local park to play Pooh Sticks. This is a game that I taught Hazel on the boat dock at the State Park where we had dinner with Grammy a few weeks ago. While waiting for Grammy to pay the bill, the girls and I went outside to look at the lake. From the boat dock, we tossed sticks into the lake on one side and scooted around to see them come out from under the dock on the other side. Hazel and Elise both loved the game, and I promised them that we could play at our local park as soon as the weather permitted.

Elise wasn't very good at waiting until we counted to three. She just tended to drop her sticks in right away. We had to be right on top of things if we wanted to race her.

After the sticks had been dropped, we raced to the other side of the bridge to see whose stick appeared first.

Then it was back to the other side to drop in more sticks.

At one point, while everyone was watching for their sticks on the other side of the bridge, I noticed that Elise had run back to the tossing side and was quietly tossing all the rest of the sticks we had saved for future rounds. She was having the best time all by herself. What a clever little sneak she is!

With all our remaining sticks tossed in, we headed down to the banks of the creek to try throwing some rocks in.

Hazel particularly enjoyed finding rocks to toss.

We had a great day playing outside and are really looking forward to more days like this. I particularly like these photos because of the starkness of the world around us. They really convey the feeling of waking up from our "long winter's nap" and venturing forth slowly, timidly to be a part of the world again.

Spring is Here!

Spring has finally arrived! And we are finally coming out of hibernation. We have big things planned for this spring and summer, and can hardly wait to get it all under way. But first, we'll take a real quick look back at the past few months.

We had a fun Valentine's Day dinner party. The girls helped me decorate the table and we had pizza with a pepperoni heart on it!

Hazel is so excited for the party!

And she is so proud of the table that she helped decorate!

Daddy and Lisey are having fun with the camera.

Finally, some warm weather arrived, and we took advantage of it to get out in the sun and play.

Lisey is constantly on the go. GO! GO! Go!

For those of you who haven't heard, Lisey has some words now. Her favorite word is "cat," but she also says "hat." Usually she says "hat" just before turning her bowl over and putting it on her head. We're trying to teach her to at least wait until the bowl is empty. She's still learning. But she's awfully cute.

If I had a hammer...

I'd hammer in the morning
I'd hammer in the evening
All over this land

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas to all! The holidays have been wonderful for the Indianapolis McCains thus far. It started with the baking of hundreds of Christmas cookies, followed by a trip down to Grammy's for her Christmas Eve party, and finally the Christmas morning explosion!

Mommy's little helper / cookie taster

Lisey in her Christmas dress at Grammy's party

Lisey and Mac discuss the finer points of the Little People castle

Grammy reads the Night Before Christmas to a captive audience

The calm before the storm

Santa didn't put name tags on the doll house or the slide, so the girls decided to share them

Hazel specifically asked Santa for ChapStick, and the Big Guy came through!

Lisey helped me put together her new Little People Stand and Play Rampway. It is pretty awesome.

Uncle Kenny thought it would be a good idea to get Elise hammers (yes, there is another one not pictured)

And I have the best wife ever. She got me an XBox360!

And Lisey showing off her mad sliding skills

Christmas Party at the Children's Museum

This past week the girls started to decorate for Christmas, and the family took a trip to the Children's Museum for Lilly's Christmas party. The girls were beautiful, and we had a great time!

Cinderella and Tinkerbell helping set up the tree

Hazel rocking her new Christmas dress

Our little Who

They are so pretty!

They are very excited for the Christmas party!

Hazel's favorite part of the museum: the carousel

We met Santa and Mrs. Claus!

And by the end of the night, we were ready to head home!