Who Needs Pinheads!

Seriously, who needs a bowling alley when you have life size bowling pins and balls (plastic of course) right in your own driveway!!! My parents kept the kids this weekend while Shawn and I worked the Brickyard race, and this is one of the "presents" they came home with. They've been a big hit - no pun intended!!!

Grant and Blake insisted Daddy help them set the pins up. You can watch the short videos below of their strikes, they were just a teeny bit excited about it - guess it's a different experience from their Wii Bowling!

Tragic Tuesday

Some people define "tragic" as catastrophic, terribly horrendous, monumentally shaking . . . and this might not be defined as one of those moments to you all, but it more than SUCKS for me!

Sorry for the rant here, but I'm so tired of the mounting dental bills due to the hereditary mouth problems I've inherited & have unfortunately passed on to my sons as well (sorry dad - no digs at you personally I hope you know, but the family history on oral upkeep isn't so great on the Elmlinger side of the family!!!). ;o)

Anyway, we're still paying off my root canal that was finished up last week - and the dentist and I even talked about this front tooth of mine as it's had a hairline crack for awhile now. The story is this: When I was 11 or 12, my friend Kelly and I were playing at her house on their swingset. Now you all remember those monkey bar swings right??? You know, the METAL ones that we used to use as a trapeze of sorts? Well, I happened to be standing behind it when Kelly let go, and it came back and smacked me right in the center of my mouth chipping my tooth. Back then, we had reasonable dentists who charged a REASONABLE amount of money for a cap - and let me also say that the dental work performed back then was (in my opinion) high quality b/c this particular cap is the same cap I got from Dr. Latta (God rest his soul) more than 25 years ago! In more recent years, a few dentists have argued that my cap is "thick", not greatly aligned with the rest of my mouth, that my gum lines don't match up, blah blah blah - but seriously, what do you expect from MORE THAN 25 YEARS AGO!!! Hello, I was a CHILD when this happened! If we had the cosmetic dentistry field figured out back then or knew what it would be today - do you really think my teeth would look the way they do now??? It's advanced just like the rest of the medical field has - which is great for the celebrities and the rest of the wealthy. But as much as I've dreamed about having beautiful bright white shiny perfectly aligned veneers, I certainly don't have the tens of thousands of dollars needed for that perfect smile!

Sooooooooooooooo here I shall poke fun at myself. I have taken a picture for your entertainment of my cracked cap/crown, or whatever they call it nowadays. I'm going to the tooth robber . . . I mean dentist, tomorrow morning to see if we can "quick fix" it so I don't look like a complete dork working the Brickyard Race this weekend! Any money we had hoped to make to pay off the last root canal and put the rest into savings will now have to be used for this issue. Or maybe I should just keep this look for posterity - what do you think???

Okay, I'm done now and I even feel a little bit better after venting my frustration. Thanks for listening!

No, my teeth aren't quite this yellow - but do you know how hard it is to take a picture of yourself of just your mouth in the bathroom (the kids bathroom too I might add, that has neon lime green walls)? Let's just say it took more than a few takes!

Sleep - no we never get enough!

So here is my random post for this Monday morning!

I don't know about the rest of you, but I haven't been sleeping all that well lately - so I wake up after a fitful night of sleep and am usually pooped out the rest of the day.

I noticed I have lots of pictures of my boys sleeping - some are just plain cute and others are hysterically funny in how they manage to sleep in certain situations or positions.

So I decided to post a few of them. Enjoy - and if you have any remedies for sleeping peacefully, let me know that too!!!

Daddy likes to catnap on occasion, this was a picture where Grant and the dog decided to join him in Napquest.

I still go into "food coma's" - looks like this starts at an early age . . . Blake: "But no, don't take my stuff, I'll keep my hands on all of it until I wake up - really, I got it."

What more could you want from a nap??? Earphones, paci, blanket and car ride = perfection in Blake's eyes!

Grant and Blake were so cute sleeping on the same aerobed while we were in Atlanta last month. Even though it was a queen sized aerobed, they were sleeping right next to each other.

This is the picture that inspired this post! I took this just a few days ago. Essentially, Blake has given up naps, but sometimes he just gets so tired that he will literally fall asleep anywhere. In this case, it was the office chair while watching iCarly on the computer!

Ahhhh, life before the other 2 kids joined the family. Shawn and I used to nap with Evan a lot when he was little, this was taken shortly after moving up here to Indy.
Sometimes you don't even get to wait until that "food coma" sets in, Evan (age 3 1/2) just fell asleep before dinner was even served!
Another when Evan was almost 4. He had such a good time on the Disney Cruise that he fell asleep as soon as we got on the Disney Bus to go back to the airport - just him, the seat and his Mickey Mouse car.
Another high chair nap - this one is of Grant though. "Can someone please take this ball out of my hand while I sleep?"
More food = more sleep, or was it the car ride that did Grant in??? Gotta love the ice cream goatee!!!

Liller Fireworks Finale video taken by our next door neighbor!

My neighbor Karl took this video of the finale and posted it on YouTube. Check it out if you want below. You'll have to fast forward about 90 seconds to get to the start of the finale!

5th Annual Liller Fireworks Extravaganza

This year was even bigger than the last - which we kind-of thought it would be based on the Evite responses. We had 188 people respond yes to the Evite - but we weren't really sure how many would actually show up. I tried to count twice during the evening, my first count got lost after about 220 people, the 2nd time I tried to count it was close to 300 before I lost count again. Regardless of the actual numbers, we were thrilled with all the people who came this year!

It's always a ton of work - but we really love doing this for our friends and neighbors! Thanks to everyone who came (from as far as Maryland, Chicago, & Cincinnati - to our locals), who helped us with prayers (yay to the rain staying away) and with financial blessings! We almost can't wait to do it again next year - so put it on your calendars now - it's always on July 3rd!!!

Have a great 4th and enjoy the pictures. We have the entire show recorded (thanks to Brian Lingle for recording it and to David Paul for loaning us his video recorder) and we will put the whole thing - or at least the grand finale on YouTube later. I'll get that posted here on the blog once we get it downloaded.

Love ya all!

Fireworks Central (or our garage anyway).

Kevin and Tim doing a little prepwork before the party began.

Our wonderful keg sponsors!!! Burhenn Irrigation and Circle City Planners - they totally ROCK!!!
The Preliminary Pryo Team Meeting/Assembly
This picture was taken near the beginning of the party - just the beginning of the soon to be huge crowd!!!
Getting a little busier...
I always try to get a picture with as many kids as possible on the fenceline. Aren't they adorable?!?!
More Pyro Team prep near the pond behind the fence.
The Pryo Crew - ready for action!
The crowd - about an hour from the start of the show.
More of the crowd!
The 2 homeboys (Shawn and Kenny D) - you gotta love the hat right? It had lights too, what can you do when you have a crazy hubby!!!
Our best friends Linda and Kevin, with crazy hat boy Shawn!
Me, Linda and the girls Taylor and Alexis
The fountains at the start of the show.
Sky shot
Another sky shot

Atlanta Trip

We just got back from an awesome trip to Atlanta. My sister and her family moved there from NYC back in January, so we were finally able to make the LONG 590 mile trek down there to visit them.

Although it was a long weekend - it certainly didn't seem very long! We can't wait to go back!!! The boys had a great time with their cousin, and we had a great time learning more about the city and all it has to offer.

When we arrived on Friday, the boys went to tour a brewery, and we hung out at the house and made papaw's birthday cake (we ended up celebrating it last night).

Saturday we went to the pool and toured the city. Later that night, my sister took my mom and I to the brand new Verizon Wireless outdoor amphitheatre (which looks A LOT like our Verizon outdoor amphitheatre here in Indy). Anyway, my sister is now the Director of Media and Public Relations for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra - and this amphitheatre was built by the ASO. Not only do they book the big rock band types that we're used to seeing here, but the coolest thing is that the orchestra uses it too for outdoor concerts. Saturday night, the ASO presented all Beethoven pieces and it was AMAZING!!! Most of you probably don't know my "classical" side - but I played violin from 4th grade through high school, so it's always really cool to get back to that. My sister played in the orchestra with me when we were in high school - she played flute though. Anyway, since she's a big wig with the ASO, we got to tour the facility and go back stage after the show.

Sunday we all went to the Georgia Aquarium. It's the largest aquarium in the world and it was pretty amazing! I'm probably going to do another post on that later - I took way too many pictures there, so it deserves it's own post!!! After that, we went back to the pool for awhile before heading out to dinner with some of our extended family. My cousin Mike and his wife and family live near Atlanta too - and his parents (my aunt and uncle) were there visiting at the same time, so we all met for dinner. When we got home, we celebrated my dad's birthday (which was on the 25th). Then we had to pack up all our junk to head back home the next morning.

Here are a few pics from the weekend. Thanks Melissa, Mark and Kyle for being such awesome hosts - we can't wait to come back to see you!!!

The boys outside the aquarium near Centennial Park where the Olympics were held.

Preparing to bake the birthday cake and cupcakes. Who knew my kids would be into the whole baking thing? Aunt Melissa supervised while the boys "helped".

Now this was funny! This is called the Georgia White House. It is a real house that is 3/4ths scale of the real White House. Apparently some guy from Iran built this when he became an American citizen as a tribute to living the american dream - or something like that. It's literally a mile from my sister's place. I thought it was cool looking, but I guess the majority of GA thinks it's gaudy! I should've tried to get a better pic of it, b/c off to the right is another "guest" house (which is probably 3 times the size of my house) and a gate house at the entrance to the driveway.

Melissa, Mom and I at the brand new Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre at Encore Park.

It pays to know someone on the inside. My sister got us FANTASTIC seats to see the show!

Okay, call me cheesy, but after the show backstage, my sister introduced us to the orchestra's conductor (Robert Spano on the left) and the special pianist who performed with them on Beethoven's Emperor Concerto (Dejan Lazic on the right). Dejan was just here in Indy 2 weeks ago performing with our orchestra - now that I've seen him play, I'm going to take him up on his offer to come see him in Indy next year!!! The whole concert was unbelievable, but even more than that - the entire staff and orchestra members were so personable! The ASO all seem to love having Melissa on their staff - and of course I agree! I'm proud of you sis!!!

The bigger family at dinner Sunday night.

I guess these would be cousins and 2nd cousins. From the left is my sister's little boy Kyle, Blake, Grant, Evan, Ava, and Alex (Ava and Alex are my cousin Mike's kids).

The "original" cousins: Melissa, Mike and me.

The ending to the weekend - we finally got to sing Happy Birthday - and the kids helped Papaw blow out the candles.

Georgia Aquarium Excursion

Here is the post I promised on the "World's Largest Aquarium"

Really, these pictures don't do this place justice. I have never seen so many HUGE tanks of fish, whales, sharks, etc... it was just an awesome place - I don't think we'll ever be able to go back home to the Newport Aquarium, this place just RULES - there is no comparison!!!

We always call Grant "G" - so we got this picture of him in front of the aquarium with the G fish behind him (you can't see it too well, but the fins are to the left of the letter G - pretty cute marketing).

The aquarium had all kinds of fish floating above you in just about every exhibit. This one was a long tunnel that had whales and sharks among other fish swimming overhead. It even had a slow moving walkway you could just stand on and you could look as it moved you down the corridor.

Some of the glass encasements had "caves" around them to make it seem more like you were underwater with the fish. The boys loved climbing up onto them to see everything.

One of the HUGE WALLS of glass - seriously, these pictures don't do this justice - it was absolutely gigantic, you almost felt like you were underwater (the boys are in the striped shirts by the glass).

These seals were crazy! You could view them from inside, or you cold go outside (where I was to take these pictures). Anyway, they were funny b/c they were playing "King (or seal) of the Mountain". One of the seals would get up on the rocks, and the other would try to take over until one of them ended up back in the water. We were crackin' up!

In addition to all the glass, they also had these tubes scattered throughout the exhibits. The kids could literally climb under one of the exhibits (penguins in this case) and pop up in a tube so it looks like you're in the exhibit with the penguins. The boys LOVED this!
One of the balconies overlooking part of the main floor - again, doesn't do the place justice - but kind of shows you how big and cool the place is.
The alligator exhibit - even with the glass, these things were a little too close to comfort for me!
Weird lighting, but it was designed this way to get a better picture of the jellyfish. Grant and Evan loved trying to "touch" them.
They had a 3D show called Deepo (who looked just like Nemo without the stripes). Blake loved him - he was giving him a hug here, and later we got him a stuffed one to take home as a souvenir.


Evan & Kyle in the penguin tube. You can actually see the penguins to the right in this picture.