Makenna's Black Eye

Bet you didn't realize reading books with Jared could result in such a way. Elbow to the eye as he was trying to put his arm around her. Geesh reading can be dangerous:)

My big fat greek construction project

I don't write a lot about work on the blog anymore. Actually, I don't write much at all, but I'm going to try and fix that.

The biggest project I am currently working on is just south of the ISU campus, down in the Greek community area. Yes, sorority and frat land. Just east of my project is some Kappa Alpha something sorority. I know that much because I hear their "cheers" multiple times a day.

The summer was quiet, but as the students have started coming back for fall semester, so have the over zealous cheerleader wannabees. They come out several times a day. Randomly someone starts a cheer where kicking, clapping, spirit fingers and yelling are all acceptable. As I understand it, they are loudly proclaiming the prominence of their mighty sorority because people passing by may just think of their building as just another (gasp) apartment building.

This cheering comes and goes. It happens while they are inside and outside. They all will file outside, do some goofy chants and then go back in. They also will all come out and begin walking around, sometimes actually leaving, sometimes just burning calories. It's like when girls always have to go to the bathroom in groups - on steroids.

I also came across different sorority being weird. I have no explanation for this other than they knew I was driving towards them and they wanted to impress me. About 40 girls all dressed in very nice white dresses spilled out their front door, ran to the middle of the street, formed a circle, put their arms around their neighbor and kicked and chanted and waved their arms.

It's definitely made for interesting entertainment thus far on the project. It's so odd to me. If it wasn't so odd, I could really care less. However, I do know the Hispanic concrete guys have really been enjoying it.

Big Boy

Colin likes to act older than he is. This was shot when he was exactly one year, three months old.

By the way, I have created a Youtube channel called Willisfamilychannel that showcases a lot of videos shot from my phone. Here is a link

I will keep updating them as I can.

Just Like Big Sister

I would say that Makenna and Colin get along rather well for siblings. Most of the time they play together without any major fights.

That being said Colin also likes to do pretty much everything that Makenna is doing. Which has recently included wearing a tutu. At first I tired to encourage him to dance without the tutu but he was set in his ways and began to throw a fit. So because I love my son and what him to be able to explore dancing the way he finds most fun, I let him wear the tutu.

Let it also be known that when dance party was over he refused to take the tutu off and wore it the rest of the morning. I was finally able to get him to part from it when in was lunch time.

And because I love Colin so much and want him to remember that he loved his big sister so much that he wanted to be just like her, I took a ton of pictures as proof to show him when he gets to be a teenager.

Guess what? Lucky you, you get to see them.

Enjoy!

Hats

Colin LOVES hats. He wears one whenever he finds one.He even will use buckets or pasta strainers as a hat.

My mom put up a super cute blog post about Colin's hats. Click here to see it.

Below is a picture of Colin showing off his newest hat.

Notice how he is eating with it on. Yep, he even likes to wear a hat while eating.

Thanks Nana for the new hat!

What You Talkin' Bout Willis

I high-jacked Jared's "What you Talkin' Bout Willis Wednesday" today.

Why?

Because I wanted to let all the other parents of toddlers out there know about the amazing find I came across today.

What is this amazing find?

Ashby Park in Des Moines. It is only a 45 minute drive from Ames.

Oh my word if you have small children who like to play in water this is definitely a place you need to check out.

First, it is free.

Second, it has a wadding pool plus jets/fountains.

Third, it has two separate playgrounds.

Fourth, did I mention it was free?

Here are the not so great pics that I was able to take of the kiddos enjoying Ashby Park.