Oh Dear

I laugh at myself because I let this blog go for 3 weeks!!! Usually I feel compelled to post when I have collected some nice pictures of the kids doing something new or exciting but I didn't have anything substantial; I guess we could say we were "living in the moment" instead of taking photos of the moment. Anyhoo, I have a couple of cute pics of them over the past couple weeks.

Of course the kids have switched roles and now Kelsey is totally ready for school and Drew is telling us he doesn't want to go; that he is NOT a big boy. I figure the first week will be rough and then it will be part of their routine and they are creatures of habit! We had orientation last night, met their teacher (who is also the preschool program director/principal) and signed up for our volunteer days. Their personalities have switched AGAIN, and Kelsey was much more outgoing, waving good-bye to all the kids as we left yelling, "see you next week!" And Drew was clinging to Dad. Craig started his first day back Monday, mostly meetings for him until the students start after Labor Day.

Last weekend Craig and I took a long weekend jaunt to Vegas to celebrate our friend's birthday. For as quick as it was, we were actually able to enjoy the time away; took naps, ate great food, and couldn't beat the company!

We have lots of fun stuff coming up (first day of preschool, gymnastics, Labor day weekend) so I should have more to report soon!

How does one get up on the window sill?

Hmmm, anything you can do I can do better!

Playing games at our friends' block party

And then enjoying an ice cream sundae

Making s'mores in a purple sequence dress, complete with matching tiara

August Already

I've really got to sit down and research cameras. The camera on my phone just doesn't cut it and are sub par; I feel I'm missing some memories.

Two weekends ago we went back to Craig's hometown for the annual softball tournament. It was such a nice time with family and friends, minus the fact the boys didn't get home until after 10 Sunday night.

This past weekend we went to a wedding on the west coast of Lake Michigan. The kids stayed with our awesome sitter and we left Friday night so we could spend Saturday with old friends we haven't seen in a while.

Now we are in full swing completing preschool registration, school supply lists, and preparing the kids for us to not be with them during school. They change their minds between wanting to be big kids and go to school and just wanting to stay home! Oh well, I figure as soon as they see the other kids, they will forget I even brought them:)

Arlene sent these pictures to us Friday as we were sitting in Chicago traffic for 2 hours. Above Drew (in the blue) is petting an armadillo. And below Kelsey is petting a wallaby. She took them to her library. Apparently it was exotic pet day and Kelsey has let her braid her hair more than me!

Where, Oh Where, Has the Summer Gone?

The days are somehow going faster! I couldn't believe 2 weeks had passed since the last post...and then I thought back to everything that happened since the weekend of the fourth, and WOW - where did those days go?

We were able to visit with my dear friend and her 1 year old son, who now live in Colorado. Our other high school friend came with his family, including his 2 year old daughter. It was super cute to see the 1, 2, and my 3 year olds all playing together and how our lives have changed so much! My friend's mom ramped up her grandma mode and had all 3 kids following her around the yard so the adults could spend time chatting instead of chasing little ones. We were so busy talking, we didn't take any pictures :( boo. Then the next day we celebrated our favorite boy twins' 6th birthday. You can't argue fun when there is a bounce house, pinata, and Lego candy/cake/favors!

When the kids were younger, it was pretty obvious that Kelsey hit the "milestones" before Drew. Sometimes he would be a week behind; sometimes months. As they get older, it hasn't been as noticeable. Until recently... Drew had been driving me nuts with his incessant talking, mostly about nothing but words were constantly coming out of his mouth! I looked over at Craig as we were driving and said, "remember a couple months ago...Kelsey was doing the SAME THING!" I just thought it was her personality, not necessarily a phase some kids go through.

About milestones...the potty-training thing happened at the same time for them. Of course the first month or 2 they had their accidents, but overall we felt they had it under control. They both refused pull-ups for nighttime. Which is okay for Kelsey but Drew continues to wet the bed.every.morning. He just doesn't wake up to pee, even during nap time. I put pads under his sheets to protect the mattress and mattress pad so I'm only washing pads and sheets. It is now a rare occurrence for him to wake up dry. We take away any liquids after 5 so that his last pee before bed should be all that's left but that isn't helping. I'm not mad at him; I understand his system is still immature but it is getting very old with him waking up soaked in urine.

Sometimes the couch cushions work better on the floor

At the ZOO! and rare pic together

First carousel ride!

I said, "oh, Drew's shoe came off." She said, "oh no, again?"

She's such a mom - helping Drew put his Croc back on

Keeping cool this past weekend

Small Town 4th

The past weekend was just one that I would bottle up and save for "rainy days." I took the kids back home for the local parade and picnic. Craig almost always has to work on the 4th, since the pool also hosts a 4th of July party. So I prefer to head home and spread the love around with my family :) The kids were up late the night before playing with sparklers and jumping on the trampoline with the neighbors, which made Drew a little whiny before the parade - he wanted his daddy, he wanted to go home, he wanted his blankie. We headed down to the parade early to get a spot so I was trying my darndest to keep Drew busy and it ended with him curled up on my lap...on an 80 degree day. So thankfully we were in the company of the fam and Tara was more than willing to sit in the street with Kelsey, watch the parade, and get candy! I hired Uncle Matt to pull the wagon up to the park for the picnic. The kids were totally zoned in on the jump house and inflatable slide. It was their first time on "rides" so the second time they went in the bounce house, I had to go in after them when their time was up :( They are use to the neighbor's, where they just play in it until it's time to go home or eat! I know they were just having a good time and didn't want to stop. We ate hamburgers and popcorn and after a couple hours decided it was nap time. I wanted them to be able to stay up to see fireworks so taking a later nap was ideal. Tara and I put the kids down and headed back outside to relax on the patio, wait for Craig to come once work finished and the rest of the family to saunter back from the picnic. The weather was gorgeous. To watch fireworks, we headed over to my cousin's house with a whole mess of other little ones to play with. Kelsey and Drew are finally at the age where they play with other kids. Listening to the giggling, the yelling as they ran around the house with glow sticks, the ooh's and ahh's over the fireworks was totally worth the small bits of whining and tears earlier in the day.

Heading up the big slide

Getting ready to slide down

Pile up at the bottom

Kelsey going by herself (about half way down she looks totally petrified but
always had a smile when she got to the bottom)

Getting ready for the parade (and wearing a pony tail - FINALLY)

Waving to the firetrucks

Checking out the loot

Mr. Benson, rocking his first 4th

A Sailor's Life for Me!

Aside from a major storm on Saturday, we had nice little weekend. Craig had grad class so the kids and I were bumming around, beating the humidity. Unfortunately, that ended in Kelsey misplacing her favorite stuffed animal - a mini purple care bear, sweetly named after "Baby Benson." I Google searched for a replacement while the kids took a bath and had to play it off that a new Baby Benson was going to come in the mail and, "Oh! How fun it will be to get the mail!" So I was slightly worried about nap/bed time since she ALWAYS has him with her but she seems to be dealing okay. It was shipped already via snail mail, so we'll see how long it takes for it to get here!

On Sunday we headed out to the farmer's market, before meeting some friends for lunch. I received a text as we were about to leave, asking if we had life jackets for the kids, we could meet them for a boat ride on the Milwaukee River. Fortunately, we had a couple hand-me-downs in the house and the kids were excited. I was preparing for them to not want to wear the life jackets than to dislike the actual boat ride. Drew is obsessed with any vehicle that moves so we were pretty sure this would be the ride of his life. It ended up being such a nice time and the kids handled it all so well - we even drove FAST:) We took the boat down the river to a local pub/brewery and ended up having to wait to be seated. The friends we were with don't have small children so they were concerned when they told us we might be waiting over 30 min for a table and it was already one o'clock. But Kelsey and Drew were content with the sand volleyball courts, cups of ice, a couple of pet dogs to say hi to, and an oversize Jenga set!

You can also keep yourself busy with the shotguns from Big Buck Hunter

Checking out the river from the dock

Drew checking out Capt'n Rich's fancy boat

Boatin' life is rough

He sat on the sun pad facing backwards on the way home

Bouncing Back

Craig's mom was scheduled for carotid surgery last Friday so the family all came down Thursday night to be closer to the hospital for the 5 a.m. admission! Miriam had a blockage in her carotid artery and I had referred her to a vascular surgeon I trusted here in Milwaukee. She was in ICU by 9 and everything had gone pretty much as planned. The kids were excited to finally see mom's hospital, since they had already seen Grandma Linda's hospital when Baby Benson was born.

Miriam was awake and talking and recovering great. I took the kids home to nap and everyone else headed back to the hospital. She had a little episode where she started to cough and her blood pressure went up. Craig and his sister came home for dinner, let their mom rest and Craig's dad was planning to stay just a while longer. Craig got a call that they were taking Miriam back to surgery because her neck was much more swollen and they wanted to check things out. The coughing and high blood pressure were not a good combination on a fresh neck surgical site so the surgeon cleaned things up and she was brought back to her room.

Now Grandma Miriam is home and recovering like a champ! The kids did so well with all of our extra visits to the hospital and were even given crayons by the ICU nurses to draw pictures for grandma. Even thought it wasn't the ideal scenario, we enjoyed seeing grandma every day and having grandpa stay at the house.

In the waiting room - the tablet was a life saver to keep Drew occupied.

This is what you do when you have to go back to the hospital when it's almost bedtime.

They were pretty much convinced someone knew they were coming and purposely
put this kid-sized table in the waiting room for THEM!

The kids are adverse to coming in our bed. And those mornings when they are up
just a smidge too early, I always wished they would crawl into our bed with us until we are
ready to get up. Well, it was late after we came home from the hospital and to get them to wind them
down, I put a favorite cartoon on in our bedroom. They snuggled in and we moved them to their beds
 a short time later. Except now they are asking to watch that cartoon in our bed every night :/whoops!

School's Out

We were bumming about what to do last weekend because the weather seemed so wishy-washy. So we started out by having dinner at Friday's Front Row, which over looks the field of Miller Park. Drew was excited to be there but also confused as to why there wasn't any baseball being played and "how come Bernie Brewer wasn't going down the slide?" The kids worked off their dinner on the playground in the outfield of Helfaer Field (the old County Stadium). It is really nice play area for small kids - we basically dragged them off it and had to promise ice cream in order to get them in the car!

We also made a game-time decision to go to the Milwaukee Mile for ARCA fest - basically a car show and race. My friend had been talking about taking her 4 year old son there and that they had gone last year. When I heard there was going to be a monster truck show too, I was in. Drew has a monster truck book that Craig reads to him every night and he knows all the names of the trucks - Gravedigger, Jurassic Attack, Monster Mutt. When we got there, they had just started the 107-lap car race. Talk about NOISY!! It was so loud, I put Drew and Kelsey's hearing protectors on before we climbed into the stands - otherwise I was afraid they would be too scared to go in! But they really enjoyed all of it.

Summer break begins at 3 pm for us! No real plans for the weekend, maybe some softball. Since it's Father's Day Sunday, Craig has free reign to do what he wants. (Just hoping not to see rain and 55 in the weather forecast until November:))

Watching the grounds crew work on Miller Park while eating our dinner.

Hanging with Bernie Brewer (they look big/tall in this pic)

SO EXCITED for monster trucks!

A couple of street and motor bikes doing tricks.

Cookies are always good while you watch cars zoom past :)