Lilypie Kids Birthday tickers

Friday, December 18

We Got It

So you know that real neat GI bug that has been going around...oh yea, it hit us too. Drew was a mess last Saturday; woke up with blood shot eyes and runny nose. I thought he was just starting a cold - awesome, let's get it out before the holidays. Sunday was their church Christmas program and we dropped them off for rehearsal at 9:30 and at 9:50 they called us to pick up Drew because he vomited. SUPER. So we headed home and Drew was sick until 3. He rallied pretty good, even went to school Monday but when I picked him up it seemed a fever had found him. He spent Tuesday at the sitter's for a day of rest. Wednesday I had worked until 10:45 pm only to be woken up by Drew at 2 am because he had diarrhea. And at 6 am Kelsey was up with diarrhea and vomiting. Drew seemed to have recovered from his 2 am mishap and was out the door to school with dad while Kelsey bought some couch time with mom. Craig texted me from school around noon saying he wasn't feeling the greatest...oh no! It sucks when the parents go down and the children aren't at 100% either. Kelsey spent the day vomiting and then ate a full dinner at 5:30. Craig was down for the count as soon as he got home Thursday. Friday everyone went to school and now mom is praying (and washing her hands incessantly) that I don't get it too! (And we are out the door right after school/work for the annual weekend-before-Christmas Bonin Christmas!)

~Totally unrelated photos. We went downtown for their tree lighting and then caught the holiday train going over the river.





Sunday, December 13

Santa! I know him!

So I was waiting for some good photos before I posted again...I know it's a little bit my fault for not taking any since the beginning of November. Last month whooshed by and now here it is almost Christmas! We had pretty low key Thanksgiving with family and picked up our Christmas tree that same weekend. The kids have been very involved with the holidays this year. They helped decorate the tree and some of the house. They are sure to turn on the Christmas lights when they get home from school. We attended the annual pancake breakfast with Santa at my step-dad's fire station in rural Beechwood. Last year, Kelsey was not on board but she did pretty good this time. Both kids were pretty shy when it came to actually talking to Santa but he knew just what to say to them!

This past weekend was a welcomed break at home before our holiday travelling really picks up. Friday night we celebrated my brother's birthday. Saturday, the kids helped me wrapped all the presents; very picky about who had which wrapping paper and gift tag! Sunday, today, was supposed to be their church Christmas program but Drew got sick during rehearsal and we had to leave :( The preschoolers were just doing a song and a poem but their Sunday school teacher said Drew and Kelsey were her strongest "performers". There's always next year.

Next weekend we head to the Dells to celebrate the Bonin Christmas in a cozy, wooded cabin. We're diligently washing our hands and disinfecting to keep everyone healthy for the holidays!

Sweet girl

Just a little shy ;)

Mr. Benson, not so sure about Santa

Thursday, November 5

Oh, Hello November

November just sneaks right up on you once you've finished Halloween! Thankfully (re: sarcasm) the kids both changed their mind about Halloween costumes about mid-month. I was all set to make Drew into a monster truck driver and convert his powerwheels truck into the Gravedigger. And then he drops on me that he wants to be Mario, actually Mario Kart Wii. (He was Luigi last year). I was gonna tell him, "hey this is life and you made a decision already and I bought stuff for it," but then I remembered our friend's kids LOVE to dress up and she has basically EVERY boy costume you can think of. Sure enough, they actually had 2 Mario costumes. So he still drove his powerwheels, which I think he thought was still part of his costume because of the Wii game. He did not trick-or-treat Saturday night with our friends because he was getting over an icky stomach bug.

Kelsey had originally told me she wanted to be Molly, from the Bubble Guppies so I bought some fabric for my mom to create the costume. She would have to spray her hair pink, all very exciting things for a little girl. Then our sitter gives Kelsey a couple cute princess dresses to play dress-up in and she tells me that she wants to be one of those for Halloween. Seriously. I told her since we were going to 2 days, she could be on of each. She totally rocked each outfit!


Kelsey with some neighborhood kids - she's all the way over to right,
in pink, of course! This was Saturday night.

Sunday afternoon  by my mom; much better weather than Saturday.
Drew and his cousin, Benson

Someone was handing out candy canes!

Seriously, this kid is cute!

She's wearing a "fin" skirt, rocking some sparkly pink shoes - Kelsey heaven.

The view on our last leg of trick-or-treating in Beechwood

Friday, October 30

Oh Dear...

It's been a couple weeks, wish I could say we were busy doing something cool and fun, but no. Kelsey got some icky virus last week that kept her home one day from school. Then this past Sunday, Drew became pretty congested and when he gets sick, it's ugly. He ended up coming home from school Monday. He barely made it through school Tuesday and Wednesday. I think he then started Kelsey's virus Wed. night as he was up every 3 hrs with diarrhea. So he stayed home yesterday. Today is their first field trip to the pumpkin farm and I was praying he'd be better to be able to attend. I woke him up a little early this morning to check on him. I whispered in his ear, "are you going to the pumpkin farm today?" And with a big smile he shook his head yes. I told him I want him to pick out the shiniest, coolest, most orange pumpkin he can find! I'm excited to see them after school today and

Drew with all his girls in gymnastics class! (he's in the middle)

School pics!


I had totally forgotten our friends took us out for the last boat ride of the year
2 (3?) weeks ago. It was a bit chilly on the boat but the sun was awesome.

Drew checking out the giant cargo ship



Wednesday, October 7

Fall is here

We are a busy crew since school started. Parent-teacher conferences are this week but I don't think we will hear any surprises. We routinely see Drew's teacher outside of work and the benefit of Craig being there, we are constantly updated on their behavior and learning. Kelsey had a bad run of "accidents" while at school. Almost every day last week, she came home in different clothes. She was also wetting bed, and not getting up to use the bathroom at night like she usually does. I remembered almost exactly the same time last year, I took the kids in thinking they had UTI's because they were wetting bed for no reason and the odor was off. They ended up telling me it was just a phase, growing pains, or whatever but NOT a UTI. So then when it happened this year, the only correlation is starting school again. Maybe she is stressed or tired or all the newness had overcame her. She hasn't had an accident at school all week but she has had to wear a pull-up to bed, which is almost punishment for her because she dislikes them so much. But I.CAN.NOT wash her bedding every morning.

Otherwise we are getting ready for the end of the month. Homemade Halloween costumes and a couple trick or treating events will be keeping us busy :)


This was from the middle of September . The sun was wonderful
and the kids were determined to fly a kite.




They play so nice together when they get home from school. I attribute
this to NOT being in the same K4 classroom.

Last Friday we went out for dinner and craft beer. Kelsey entertained
these ladies (our friends/Craig's coworkers) the entire time!

Monday, September 21

Indian Summer

Every year, the weekend after Labor Day, the Summerfest grounds hosts Indian Summer. Every year, Craig's school, ICS, goes on Friday on education day to teach other students about Native Americans. We go Saturday or Sunday, mostly to eat Indian tacos and shop from the Native artists. This year Craig's parent's came along. Drew saw the sky glide "ride" and insisted on being stubborn until he got to go on it. I had a couple talks with him about how he would ride it when we were ready. After his ride, we enjoyed the yummy food, a couple drinks, and watched the competition dances.

You can see the teepee way off behind Kelsey


He's hanging on!


So this has nothing to do with Indian Summer but Kelsey started ballet at the same gymnastics studio they attend. I couldn't help but get a pic of her last week when she had her full "gear" on. Totally adorable.

Sunday, September 13

First Day of 4K

Some of you have seen these photos on Facebook. But these are all of them that I took that day. So far the first week has gone well. Both teachers called to update us and said they seem to be adjusting well. They participate in class, are making friends, appear happy during the day, Drew naps during every rest time! I expected them to be much more tired when I pick them up and even at night but they are going on like troopers. I do get scolded in the car on the way home for asking too many questions! Thankfully I see their teachers as they are walking other kids out to the buses and they update me if there was anything unusual that happened. So they are in separate 4K classes but they save seats for each other at the lunch table and play together at recess and have breakfast every morning together before going into class!




First day complete!

It's fuzzy, but this is Drew's teacher showing Kelsey how
to polka at a beer garden on Friday evening :)

Wednesday, September 9

Weekend with the Cousins!

Two weekends ago we headed to Wausau to hang with family before everyone started school. We were hoping for a little bit nicer weather but the only positive was it didn't rain like it did in Milwaukee. Since the weather wasn't all that awesome, Uncle Dale to us to where he works, to see all the tractors/farm equipment he sells. Drew was in heaven.

Hey we fit in this tractor's tire!

Of course we have to sit in it!



This was the big chopper Drew got to drive around 






Always sat in the buddy seat and always put on the seatbelt!
She's over the tractors...



It was a little rainy at home when we left that morning
and they were so cute sharing the umbrella


Drew was pretty determined to go fishing while we were there. And every time he mentioned fishing, Kelsey said the girls should go shopping. So Sunday the fog cleared up and the boys headed out. The girls did some strong work shopping, finding amazing deals and finished the day with ice cream for lunch! It was a fun little weekend and I hope we can do it more often!