Nap Time in Naptown: A Cherry on Top

Adorable, thy Hoosier name is A Cherry on Top.

Madeline received these big M and little bird pillows as birthday gifts last week from her Dallas-dwelling aunts and uncle. For mama and daughter, these squeezably-soft pillows were love at first sight.

The pillows are simply wonderful on their own but to me, the best part is they were sewn locally by Micah at A Cherry on Top.

Micah is a dear friend of my sister-in-law and while we've never met, I've stalked her online for quite awhile.

Photo credit: A Cherry on Top

Personalized chenille throw pillow - $45.00

If we were to ever meet, it might be awkward for her to hear that confession in person so I better get it out online where it's not weird at all.

(Right?)

Photo credit: A Cherry on Top

Rainy Days pillow - $25.00

While I know absolutely nothing about sewing techniques or material, I am an expert in buying and consuming. (Especially in the fields of Target and IKEA.) With that credibility behind me, I can say these pillows are flawless, from the super-soft fabric to the perfect seams.

I love cute, personalized items. I love buying handmade items. And I love buying local.

A Cherry on Top is like a Katie trifecta.

I'm fairly certain I will have a personalized chenille pillow in hand at the next baby shower I attend. Now, who wants to invite me?

The girl turned three

It's hard to believe, isn't it? My daughter is a 3-year-old.

I know it's crazy but I'm kinda expecting her to start smacking gum while talking and wanting to go to the movies with friends now that she's so grown up.

The truth is she's now insisting on putting her socks on by herself. I should be grateful.

We had a wonderful birthday celebration with her that stretched from last Friday through today. Here's the rundown of her actual birthday:

On Friday, Madeline woke up to her room filled with balloons again. This is definitely my favorite birthday tradition so far and she loves it. Joe took the day off of work and made her favorite breakfast: pancakes from scratch, potatoes from scratch and eggs from chickens.

I married a man who cooks a killer breakfast. I definitely married up.

Her breakfast was served on the Red Plate, another birthday tradition in our home.

We spent the morning at Eagle Creek Park by playing on the playground, touring the nature center and ornithology center, spotting four deer (who Madeline greeted with a loud "Happy birthday Deer!") and singing "Happy Birthday" to our girl when the clock turned 12:25 p.m.

At this time, I would like to address my daughter directly:

Dearest Madeline,
When you are 12 and think I don't care about your happiness because I won't let you wear five inch heels and heavy eyeliner, please know that on your third birthday, I loved you enough to go to a nature center where I endured "fun" displays like this.

Love,
Mom

Actually, now that I think of it, I would like to write a second letter.

Dear Eagle Creek Nature Center Staff,
Please review the enclosed photo I took at your facility last week.

I have one question: What is the point?!

Signed,
Hyperventilating and confused in Indy

One of Madeline's birthday gifts was a Cinderella kite so after the park, we headed to an open field to let her fly it.

This is one of my favorite memories ever with her and Joe. I didn't take any still photos and instead captured most of it on video. However, the image is burned in my memory.

She wore her fancy orange dress with tiny pink flowers and her long hair was completely down without clips or bows (she calls this the princess look). After her daddy would lift the kite into a gust of wind, he would yell, "Go, Madeline, go!" and she would take off running while singing, "Let's go fly a princess kite! Up to the highest height!"

Meanwhile, I was sitting cross-legged in the grass swooning at the two of them with tears in my eyes.

The rest of the day included a princess birthday cake, my brother's high school graduation, pink ice cream with sprinkles and one exhausted 3-year-old.

And just when I thought I couldn't love her anymore, I fall head over heels again with this little creature who made me a mom.

"Blog already."

That was a text (in its entirety) sent by my sweet but apparently not verbose sister-in-law tonight.

Yes, dear blog friends, it's been awhile. I'm sorry.

I stopped writing a couple weeks ago when my days were consumed with some digestive issues with Madeline. There really was no delicate or humorous way to explain all of what was going on without 13-year-old future Madeline reading it and wanting to shrivel up in humiliation with the possible outcome of her never speaking to me again.

So I chose to not write anything. For a really unfortunate and unnecessary amount of time.

Which is why I'm sworry (as Gilbert Blythe would say).

In case you were wondering, she is 100 percent better and my sanity would like to thank the following:

• modern medicine
  
• effective laundry detergent
• Miralax
  
• mini Snickers
• microwave S'mores
• InsideRedbox.com and their free codes
• McDonald's diet Cokes in styrofoam cups
• Madeline who managed to stay completely adorable during a very rough time
  
• my husband who listened to whiny phone calls that interrupted his important and busy day with ramblings like "And then there was poop all over her! And there was poop all over me!"

So now you know the reason for my absence. Let's get to a super crucial and riveting story about what we did exactly three weeks ago today.

(Disclaimer: the following includes many pictures. If you believe I took a single one, then you must be new to my blog and I want to welcome you personally. For the record, Lani took all of them. I'm so grateful to be friends with people who use cameras. Especially when my daughter is in them and I can pretend to document her life later.)

Madeline and I drove up to Muncie, the home to my beloved alma mater, Ball State University. One of my college roommates' son turned three so we spent the day up there with them and met his gorgeous little sister.

It was kinda strange to go back to a place where you have so many fun and crazy memories with so many fun and crazy people but take your kid with you.

Years ago, never once did I sit in Muncie IHOP in the wee hours of the morning thinking one day my order might include "and a Funny Face pancake but hold the Go-Gurt."

Actually, now that I'm looking at these pictures, I realize she's behaving exactly like her mom did in those very same booths.

All I can say is, "It's in the genes, baby. It's in the genes."

The kids discovered one of the greatest joys on a beautiful day at Ball State: Frog Baby.

When I splashed through it at 1 a.m. in flip-flops about seven or eight years ago, I never imagined my daughter would one day beg me to do the same.

I do believe we have a future Cardinal in our future.

I do believe this picture will make an appearance at her high school graduation open house.

I do believe after this picture was snapped, I headed straight to the bookstore to buy her a small bright pink BSU t-shirt.

I love this picture because we met up with Bridget (a fellow Linden Lady) who adores our kids and is willing to lie on the ground just to be next to them.

Clearly, they adore her too. Who wouldn't?

We took a group picture in Woodworth which has been remodeled beyond recognition.

Ending on that note meant I drove home with a nagging reminder that I am getting old (as if the sleeping toddler in the back seat wasn't enough).

Even though I like to complain about getting old, I really don't mind it.

I feel so lucky and so blessed and so fortunate to have so many wonderful memories. They are memories I wouldn't have if I didn't age.

So I will gladly trade years for memories any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

P.S. So much more has happened in the past several weeks including the last fact that the last time I blogged, I was mom to a 2-year-old but now there's a 3-year-old in the house who continues to follow me around the house asking for food. More on that later.

How to make a birthday pennant banner

Alternatively titled: How to be crafty without a crafty bone in your body.

Last weekend, we stopped by Big Hat Books in Broad Ripple and they had several adorable paper pennant banners hanging around the shop.

Since I'm kinda a spur-of-the-moment person, I decided to run over to Jo-Ann Fabrics that night and make a similar banner for Madeline's upcoming birthday.

Sometimes I get these ideas to be crafty and they totally flop. (Evidence of these prior attempts are in my basement in plastic tubs.)

But this idea turned out very cute.

I bought five patterned sheets of 12" x 12" scrapbook paper, five solid sheets of 12" x 12" cardstock, one roll of ribbon and 20 chipboard buttons. The paper was on sale for $1 for four sheets and the buttons were $.99. All together, this project was under $8.

My crafting supplies include scalloped scrapbook scissors, X-acto knife, straight-edge ruler, glue and cardboard box {for a cutting surface}.

I'm not a big fan of the whole measuring-and-be-really-really-specific thing so I eyeballed the entire project. I wanted the solid cardstock to have a straight edge and used the X-acto knife after tracing the pennant shape.

Using scalloped scissors, I cut the patterned paper to be slightly smaller to allow the solid cardstock to show as a border.

I glued the solid and patterned paper together, cut two holes on the top corners and fed the ribbon through the pennants and chipboard buttons.

Overall, it took less than an hour and I love the result.

Madeline is already in birthday fever and hanging this banner up just to see how it looked didn't help. She loved it!

We still have nine more days until her birthday so the banner will be hung up the night before the big day. Now I just need to figure out how to do that without ugly masking tape!

Nap Time in Naptown: Holliday Park Nature Center

Photo credit: Indy Parks

If your kids need a new place to spend yet another rainy day in Indianapolis, you need to take them to Holliday Park's Nature Center.

I've been to Holliday Park numerous times for the playgrounds, trails and gardens but I had never been inside the nature center. Joe was there for a meeting recently and after seeing everything it had to offer, he wanted to take Madeline there.

It was a perfect way to spend a rainy afternoon. It's completely free and I was very impressed with the amount of fun learning tools crammed in a deceptively small space.

The interactive tour "Keying Into Nature" was a big hit since it contained real snakes, frogs and fish, a dark cave to crawl through and one completely fake singing sunflower.

To the employees working that day: I deeply apologize for the repeated sunflower performances. Madeline simply could not get enough.

I nearly wet my pants when I pulled open a door and discovered a busy bee hive underneath a thin sheet of plastic. It's amazing to watch but if you don't know what you're about to see, the closeness is totally slightly alarming.

In the play area, there are tons of puzzles, books and toys so bring your littlest ones too. You'll want to grab a camera because there's a big box of puppets and a puppet stage for performances and... there are costumes.

You definitely don't want to miss out on capturing your little cutie dressed up as a stinkin' adorable skunk or frog.

My favorite spot is the bird-watching room. It's filled with cushy leather sofas and has a window wall which looks into a beautiful garden packed with bird feeders. I might have fallen asleep in that peaceful room but there was a little girl jabbering in my ear about going back to the singing sunflower.

Go there and love it. And tell the employees again that I'm so very sorry.