Lilypie Kids Birthday tickers

Monday, May 27

Swings and Slides and Lions and Bears

A big thanks to my brother Derek and Craig's teacher friend, Jake, for helping disassemble and reassemble this swing set. Craig's partner teacher offered it to us now that both of her daughters are in high school, we just had to get it from Hales Corners to our house! And that's where having a brother with a "beeg tuck" and trailer come in extra handy. The guys said it went as good as it could - which in these circumstances you never really expect it to go perfectly, without any hang ups. I think the only issue was how far they had to carry some of the heavier pieces from the front of the house to the back yard.





We had our first visit of the year to the zoo Sunday. It wasn't projected to rain but they said it would be cloudy. We decided to get the kids out and enjoy the day. It was only 50 degrees at our house that morning, so I kinda bundled up the kids. Then Craig said, "remember the zoo always seems to be warmer, especially if the sun comes out." Boy was he right. The sun came out and we all had to shed a layer of clothes. I saw people coming thru the gate in shorts and t-shirts, well let's not be ridiculous, it wasn't THAT nice out. It was a great day and we finally were able to show the kids the real animals associated with all those animal sounds they make!!


Alpacas

Lumpy Camel

Sleeping Lions

Mr. Bear taking a dip

Craig says it looks like she was taking a "selfie", trying to get the giraffe in
the pic with her! (I think she was talking to me about the giraffe)

Sometimes you just gotta get out of the wagon and push it!

FIRST ride on the train!

Kelsey lost it. I'm not sure what scared her but she cried the moment the line started moving
onto the train. She figured it out as soon as it started moving and enjoyed the rest of it :)

This little man was loving every minute - except when they blew the whistle...
which is silly since they both make "choo choo" noises but I think it was more the
intensity of the whistle; we were sitting close to the engine.

Friday, May 24

Someone's In The Kitchen

The kids have been pulling their little stools up to the counter saying, "I see. I hep. I wan hep." Which is cute except for the boiling pots of food on the stove. Or if Drew gets mad that Kelsey is on the stool and doesn't get off immediately, he tries to pull the stool out from under her! Oh yea, that's fun.

Here, Kelsey is helping by taking all the shredded cheese out of the package.
Totally helpful.

Drew is eating his string cheese snack and triking.

And I have to give a shout out (because it's been a week already) to our best good friends in Denver, Nicole and Andy. They brought this beautiful little man, Declan, into the world last Friday. We wish them the best as new parents and to remember we are only a phone call away! (I can't wait to visit them in July!)
 
 
Right now are weekend is scheduled to be pretty low-key. We may try to hit the zoo and we hope to have a swing set up by the afternoon Saturday. Here's to enjoying Memorial weekend in coats!


Monday, May 20

Birthdays and Share!

Kelsey learned the word "share" a couple months ago and would use it whenever she wanted to play with what Drew was holding. She yells, "Share!" at Drew as she's taking the toy away, thinking that she has appropriately executed the sharing policy. And Drew almost always willing gave up the toy (I say almost because come on, he's 2). But lately it sounds like she is saying "hi share" or just "share". She copies a lot of what we say so she could be saying "Hi Cher" (her aunt) or "sure" (we aren't formal people up in here). It seemed like we totally confused her when Auntie Cher was here for their birthday and we were practicing names with pictures. She was all, "you're telling me I have an Aunt Share, which is the same thing I'm supposed to do with my toys?" Mind. Blown.

Kelsey also likes to pick up a play phone and say, "Hello? Oh, hiiiiiii. Wheely (really)? Ok, bye!" - which she copied from Calliou's dad. Both kids are interested in if they or you are "hert". They have been sincerely asking us or each other, "you okay, daddy (mommy, Due, Kelty)?" Or if they bump their head or pinch a finger, they come running in by us holding the affected appendage and saying, "I hert."

It was my dad's 60th birthday Saturday and we celebrated the only way we know how - with 11 30pks of Busch light, 100 hamburgers and brats, fire pits in the driveway, and all our family and friends. We began the day with mass in memory of my dad and continued until most of us were over served! It was a great party but so sad to be missing the guest of honor.

It was also Craig's birthday today. I took the day off of work (which I've done since I met him - usually tried to surprise him by bringing a cake into his class to celebrate). It also worked in my favor to have another day to recover from the weekend;) And since the kids were with the sitter all weekend, I was able to have an extra day with them. Craig was able to schedule a special pizza party with his 6th grade class and we joined them for about an hour. The kids had fun running around and the 6th graders had fun chasing them! Then we celebrated at home with cake! The kids were in heaven:)

Being silly and SHARING the cozy coup before we visit Craig.

Totally cute and chatting it up!



Me with my brother and sister and a penguin someone left on the front lawn
of my dad's that said, "Happy 60th Bob"

It's totally normal for horses to show up to your party, right? They live around
a country corner from my dad and were out for an after dinner stroll.








Saturday, May 18

2 Year Appointment

The results of the check-up went well. As for their attitudes...that's another story. I knew Kelsey would be apprehensive; she always is at first in new situations with new faces. And I thought there is no way she is beginning to remember the doctor's office. But as soon as we headed into the exam room, the tears started flowing. Drew on the other hand was a mess from the moment we entered the waiting room. I think he was still tired because he got up from his nap a little early so that he would be "awake" when I picked him up. Usually he is very interactive with the doctor and has no problems with the poking and prodding.

Well, we were that family. We were the kids you could hear crying from the hallway. We had crocodile tears, snot, and drool running down faces and stickers only made Kelsey stop for a few seconds. I have to admit I was a little embarrassed. I did not think both of my kids would act that way. Thankfully there was only one shot and one finger prick. (And to save the day and instantly dry the tears, a Saf-T sucker afterwards.)

Kelsey is 26lbs 2oz (45%)
                35 3/4in (95%) - really, who are her parents? She's been in the 90th percentile for height
                                            since she was 6 mo old.
                47cm head circumference (50%)

Drew is 25lbs 8oz (25%) - he eats the most too! (And I hate to say I told you so, mom!)
              35 1/2in (80%)
              47.3cm head circumference (25%)

Monday, May 13

A Horse of Course!



A picture left over from last weekend when we were cleaning up the yard.

We had a very chill weekend, especially since the weather was so icky. Mother's day was relaxing and fun socializing with all the fam at my mom's. It is so obvious now that Drew is more comfortable/mellow around people he doesn't know or see very often, where Kelsey is attached to my side and will cry the minute she feels constricted or overwhelmed. We are gearing up for their 2 year doctor's appt (I know it's like 6 wks late but we had to reschedule their 18mo appt and the appts need to be 6 mo apart because of shots). So I'm excited to hear how their growing and what to look forward to in the next year. Hope everyone had a beautiful Mother's Day.


Auntie Cassandra saw this for FREE at a rummage sale, and of course
had my brother stop so they could pick it up for the kids. You wonder
a little about why it was free....but we thoroughly checked it out and
couldn't find anything wrong with it - except if they try to get on it
without an adult around!

My daper dude triking away Mother's Day morning

He was really getting into the bouncing!

We were pulling patio furniture out and the kids crawled right up, like
mini bunk beds!

There was fake snoring coming from the bottom "bed"!




Monday, May 6

Buh-Bye Potty

I found a picture of the kids sitting on the potty, side by side, taking their sweet time reading. They "sit" on them a lot but there isn't much action. Once in a while Kelsey will go and sometimes she will just stand up and start walking with her pants around her ankles. Apparently at the sitter's, Drew likes to brush his teeth while sitting on the potty - which doesn't make sense since he's a man and they don't multi-task very well!!;) I recently picked up a second potty at a resale and let's be serious, how could I not with its pink crown! But I will surely see Drew using the pink one only because it is different and new. Their favorite part is flushing the pee down the toilet, ya know you have to get right in there so you can see it and say, "buh-bye potty".



With all this fantastic spring weather, we have been spending lots of time outdoors. We spent two full days on the lawn; trying to get grass to grow where we had the landscape trench put in to keep water away from the house (i.e. NO MORE FLOODED BASEMENT!). And we could start a "stick garden" with all the branches that fall from the huge, mature trees in the yard - honestly it is a full-time job picking the sticks off the lawn (I'm sensing a future chore for the kids in the next couple years). I've been working on flower beds since we bought the house - we've been dealing with a shady yard, like what wants to grow in "mostly shady" areas. Well I'll tell you not a lot and not a lot of pretty flowering things. So I dug up some plants that didn't make it - R.I.P. - and I'm going to suck it up and realize that I will just have a green flower bed and color will come from the annuals.


Our bright orange fence to discourage any kids from running down the driveway
without us.

A robin that built her nest right on the corner of our house. Drew always looks for
her to be in it. Hopefully we will get to see her babies!


We also finally updated the last of our fuses. What? What's that - you don't know what a fuse is or that houses have them? Well, I believe you are not able to sell a house these days without updating to breakers so you shouldn't be seeing them anymore. Oh wait, you are wondering how we bought ours without knowing there were still fuses? I'll tell you how - it was trickery! There are 2 breaker boxes in the basement so one would assume that was that! Even the home inspector didn't notice anything. A couple months after living here we were having some issues with our first floor switches so I had my grandpa come down and take a look. He went to turn off the power to those switches and couldn't find it in the breaker box so he spent hours looking around the house and found a fuse box in the hall closet! The previous owners remodeled the kitchen so they updated the electrical for that room. The  problem is that when you "blow a fuse", you can't just flip the breaker switch, you have to replace the fuse. Long story short, after 9 hours, a co-worker's electrician husband, and a fat check, our house is electrically updated!