Year 3, April 27th, 2018: Holliday Park in Broad Ripple

Ah, yes, another perfect spring day!  And two homeschool groups decided to meet at Holliday Park, which is in the heart of the "rich" part of town, so just north of downtown.  It's a gorgeous park, with hiking trails, "ruins," 3 major play structures, a nature center, and a "rock" garden!  We visited there last year as well, so I knew what to expect.  We brought a couple of bikes, packed a lunch, and put our play sneakers on.  It was a bit chaotic trying to juggle watching our stuff, watching the fearless preschooler, and communicating with the middles about where we were and what we were doing.  Therefore, I didn't have as much mommy time as I was hoping for, but that's ok.   We plan to do more Friday playdates as we have time.  We stayed around the playgrounds for a bit, played with some friends' cars, and then drove over to the ruins and other group who were packing up after having built some forts.  Our kids begged NOT to go on a hike, and so we didn't, but I was disappointed.  I love nature walks and I'd go on more of them if I didn't have to hear the kids whine the whole time.  Sigh.  I'll put them on the "take Jared with me for back up and/or plan more date 'night' activities."  Oh well. And while the boys went back to the van, Keturah, Abishai and I explored the nature center.  Nobody was there, but it was a beautifully done interactive kid oriented exhibit.  I was thoroughly impressed.  We left right about when rush hour starts, so it took a bit to get home, but all 4 kids fell asleep on the ride home.  Yes!  Peace and quiet!

Then after dinner of yummy pork roast and baked potatoes, Benaiah and I darted off to his school's spring musical.  They performed "High School Musical," which I've never seen before so I don't know if it was anywhere close to the real musical or movie.  The kids try really, really hard, but it's not high level production.  Some can sing, some shouldn't if you know what I mean.  But I'm glad we can support their efforts.  But the best thing that happened was when we got there and we were walking in.  Before Benaiah even crossed the parking lot to the door, kids were calling his name and screaming like he was a celebrity!  Say what?!  I guess they only go crazy when they are hyped up for an event, and a lot of them were the younger middle school kids, but it's so fun watching other kids basically fawn over your oldest just because he actually cares for them.  He said he likes to hang out with the middle schoolers because other high schoolers don't (mentoring!) and they aren't jockeying for social position yet.  I said this in the last post, too, but Benaiah really cares for people.  And it shows when he's Mr. Popular and everybody knows his name and wants to "bump" into him, etc.  I got to sit with his favorite English teacher, and my friend, Mrs. McCollum and chat a bit, which was awesome.  Only 12 more days left of school for them! And then my baby will be a JUNIOR IN HIGH SCHOOL and taking his ACT's and SAT's and taking online college classes and everything! Sigh, they grow up so fast!

Springtime in Indiana!

What a blessing it ALWAYS IS to have Benaiah along with us!  Seriously, Southside Christian School will probably never understand how awesome it is to have Fridays off.  After having been a family of 6 doing life together for the first 18 months of Abishai's life, plus all those other years doing everything together, having Benaiah away from us 4 days a week and most of Sundays is just hard on developing the sibling bonds, especially between Abishai and Benaiah.  I know Benaiah would rather sleep in and play video games on his day off, and I try to give him as much space as possible to do that, but he will come with us if he's asked without too much protest.  As I stated in this blog or the next couple of blogs, he loves people, he loves his siblings, and he understands the need to spend time together.  But he's also beginning to understand the push and pull of family, work/school, needing money, and having outside friendships.  It's a hard balance but he (with our help) manages to pull it off pretty well.  Two more years and he will be graduating.  104 weeks left.  Let's make the most of it!

It's hard to capture many pictures of the others when you have to constantly track down the preschooler, so this is the best I got of Keturah.

Beautiful!  I love that this park is well established and has big trees and is like a forest in the middle of the city!

Yeah for playgrounds with big boy climbing apparatuses!

Hi, Justin!  From three stories up!

The sun was super bright and it felt warmer than it had been in a long time, but don't let Justin's attire fool you.  It was maybe 60 degrees.

Abishai went up two flights of ladders to the top of this slide and Justin would go down with him.  #fearless

Again, three stories up and Abishai is not afraid!

Ah, yes, I had forgotten about that this play structure was here.  It's exactly like the one we had in the back grassy area behind the houses where we lived on PEI.  Look at how big Keturah is!  She's in the green and black at the top!

Medium sized playground.

My babies.  Of all shapes, sizes, and personalities.  Some days I wonder if they are even all related, lol. 

Picnic lunch!  Such a big boy, too, knowing to sit still on the bench, and getting up there all by himself.

The map of the park.  The ruins is to the left, and the nature center is that building in the middle towards the top.  There's a TON of trails back there!  And the playgrounds are the black mass near the bottom.  Oh, and the trails are all heavily wooded!

Abishai spent a couple of minutes in the swing of course.

We spent a few minutes on the toddler playground.

But this is where Abishai really wanted to be.  Nevermind that the recommended age of this structure starts at age 5.  Crazy child.

Way out there are our friends making forts!  Lots and lots of trees!

So here's that 3 story playground they loved.  A mother's nightmare if she has young ones and is afraid of heights.  That's why the oldest follow the youngest saving the mother from going up there.  It reminds us of the one at Kings' Castle on PEI.

The Ruins!  The kids really didn't want to explore this, but I said that we have to check things out at least once.  Then if we decide it's not worth it, then we won't go back to it.  We don't know until we try.

I love how they made this somewhat newer structure look old.

They did like the fountain and ran around it getting wet because the wind was pushing the spray.

I can't date the different items on the walls, but it reminds me of the Greek and Roman architecture we just studied, which is another reason I made them walk over to it.

See!  Cool columns!

Ooo, I got some sunspots! Nice!  In the summer, I'm guessing there is water that will run over that rounded edge near the bottom.

It would run along this trough and down and around covering up these little guys.

The life cycle of a frog!  The water would run over this platgorm and because of the curve of the ledge, I'm guessing it run backwards towards the slab and down to the grates there.

Crayfish!

Beautiful quote!

See, even Abishai knew to look at the signs.  So, when some building in New York City was being rebuilt, they had people bid on these statues on the front part of their building and do something artsy with them.  Indianapolis won the bid nearly 100 years ago.  So they built at least part of these current structures back then.  Apparently it was neglected and overrun with weeds in the late 1900's, so it was renovated and cleaned up in 2016 to what it is now.  It's taken care of by a group of volunteer gardeners.  Lots of history with the statues themselves and the actual display here.  The statues are near the top of the frontside of these ruins.  They also said some other statues, some without heads, or limbs, like you would see in ancient ruins, throughout the grassy area surrounding the ruins.

Then Keturah, Abishai and I headed over to the nature center while Benaiah and Justin went to the car.   I am so glad we went in there, just the three of us.  Justin wanted to go home and Benaiah had to study, so their whining would have made it impossible to enjoy the area that was meant for younger kids.  Abishai was thoroughly involved and happy about playing here!  He touched tanks with live animals, pretended to be a bee, touched interactive displays and ran around.  Yes!

Isn't it beautiful?  A tunnel to go through, habitats to explore, water table play for canoes to maneuver down on, and loads of education!

A working beehive like the one we saw at Tuttle's Orchard!  Abishai kept going over to it and touching the hose that let the bees outside and it was freaking me out!  I hate bee stings and although I know this is very secure, it just makes me shiver.  We couldn't find the queen bee though.  We did peek outside the window to the outside and saw the bees coming and going and Keturah noticed the shiny stuff (honey?) dripping out of the combs.

Lots of wetland/marsh animals like toads and frogs!

Big old bullfrog!

Pet real animal fur! They also had deer and beaver.

And all of this is free!  The park, the trails, the parking, the nature center, the ruins, FREEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!

Then there's this.  We could never get the others to dress up at the Children's Museum in fun costumes like this.  But Abishai jumped at the chance.  He WANTED to be a bee!

See, I'm one of you!  Complete with a stinger on the back!

Real (but dead) monarch butterflies!  I used to be fascinated with these!  I think we saw one in the yard the other day, and I'd love to get nectar feed for the butterflies and hummingbirds.

This part was awesome, too.  You touched the panels and they would light up an area of the display and make the sound of that particular animal, which was a kind of frog, toad, or bird.

That's such an awesome picture!  Cuteness overload!

Yes, live bees!

"I push it my big self!"

Sidenote: I still love the royals but had no clue that Kate was pregnant again.  This is number 3 for them.  Congrats royal family!  Louis Arthur Charles, 5th in line for the throne after his Grandpa Charles, Dad William, and his two older siblings, George and Charlotte (I had to look up their names).  Yes, the law changed so that the crown goes directly through both sons and daughters now.  That law was changed just in the last 30 years I think.

Evidence a preschooler was here.  Half eaten muffins he helped himself to and a banana that he impressively opened all by himself.

The ruins and I.

Water table/marshland and Mr. Bee.

I can't take how cute he is!

Gorgeous tree like the one we have in our yard.

I have a video of all 4 of them asleep on the way home.  Yes, all 4!  I guess they wore themselves out being outside!  Benaiah is just like Jared and can fall asleep in a moving vehicle regardless of how much caffeine he's been drinking.  Night night!