art class

This week we had our first experience with the whole "drop off-pick up" thing. I signed Max up for a 3 day art class at a local preschool. (Mini Masterpieces) He did great....I have no doubt preschool will go really well for him this fall. He went from 10:30-11:30 each day and they worked on all sorts of art projects from paint to play-doh! They read Mouse Paint each day which is one of Max's favorite books already so he enjoyed reciting the words to me in the car after school.

He had his little buddy William in the class with him so that made it easier leaving the first day knowing that he had someone there that he knew. The teacher Miss Marie had her 13 year old son helping and Max thought he was the coolest thing in the world. One night at dinner Max told us he needed to eat a lot so he could be big like Ben! Here are a couple pictures of the art projects he made. His favorite was the one where he made his footprints just like the mice in Mouse Paint did when they mixed the paint!

6 years - June 19th 2010

Beth - Happy Anniversary to my best friend, the love of my life. There have been so many great memories and experiences the last 6 years. A lot has changed since that first dance in front of all our family and friends! What hasn't changed are all the things about you that made me know that I am a lucky man to have you in my life.

the zoo goes to the zoo!

Yesterday we took a trip to the Madison Zoo with our play date buddies. It was quite the trip. We all left from a central location at 8:30. Mya was having a tough day...I offered her up for free by 8:35 so that should have been a sign of the way the day would turn out for her. Anyway...we did a little caravan to the zoo and when we were about 40 minutes into the trip, one of the moms pulled over. I decided since she was riding alone to pull over with her. Turns out her little girl (2.5 years old) threw up all over herself and the car. My rider (Beth) and I helped her get Maeli cleaned up and the car in somewhat order so she could turn around and drive home!

When we finally got to the zoo, we had 8 moms, 14 kids (Max was the oldest all the way down to 5 month old twins)1 nanny, 6 double strollers, 1 single stroller, 2 baby bjorns and a partridge in a pear tree! It was quite the sight. We got to see most everything. We couldn't see the monkeys because strollers weren't allowed in their area and the tiger was hiding. The giraffes and the black bear seemed to be the favorite of most of the kids.

Mya's first zoo experience wasn't the best. I know it was 99% my fault. We rode the carousel and she loved it. However, when I told her we had to get off, she turned into different person and threw the biggest, loudest tantrum I've ever witnessed. It was 12:30 and she was hungry, tired, hot and had a very wet diaper. I ended up having to put her on the ground to scream and people were staring big time. One curious, concerned on-looker thought she was a lost child until she saw me standing a little ways away! Another older lady came by and touched me on the arm and said, "this will pass". It was quite the sight, but then suddenly it just ended and I held her until we sat down for lunch. Seems like a diaper change and lunch was what she needed. She had a hard time settling down in the car, but eventually took a nap on the way home. I took a few pictures of her acting this way and was tempted to take a video of it, but then I figured I'd be tempted to put it on you-tube and that probably wouldn't be good...



All in all, a good day with friends at the zoo! Here's what we learned for next time...

1. Probably should take the kids on these adventures once school is in session or at least not on the one sunny day out of 10 because the zoo was super crowded.
2. We need t-shirts for our kids with numbers (Jon and Kate plus 8 style)so we can just say..."Where's number 3?" etc...:)
3. We need one of those rope things with the rings that each kid can hang on to.
4. Arrive earlier in the day so you don't have to deal with bears (the animal) and bears (the children) all at the same time.
5. Make sure every kid has the same thing to drink for lunch!
6. Bring a flask of alcohol for the moms:)

kid talk

Maxwell has been saying some really funny things lately. This past weekend we were in the car going to the twin cities and he told me he had meat balls on his legs. I had no clue what he meant, but then figured out a little while later it was goose bumps! Chris's parents have an ever popular ping pong table in their basement. We kept taking turns taking him downstairs so he could "play" which consists of him hitting the ball once and then chasing it all over the basement. After he missed the ball he would say "volleyball"! I have no idea why, but it was funny:) He has also started to "parent" Mya. When she was having a crying fit recently, he told her she needed to "take a deep bref."

The twins I used to babysit for are turning 18 this summer (makes me feel really old) and are in town for a few weeks to swim at Loras. They're staying here in between all of the swimming sessions. Hannah and MK arrived with lots of food and drinks to get them through the week and most of it was new to my kiddos. (pop tarts, sugar cereals, twizzlers, swedish fish, gatorade, etc.) Max decided this morning that he wanted a pop tart for breakfast. He couldn't think of the word,so he asked for a "pop goes the weasel" I guess it was the first thing to "pop" into his head! He also loved the introduction of gatorade. When he wanted one he asked for a "gatorade-er-nader" We laughed pretty hard. They're going to be here for about 3 weeks total so I'm guessing this is just the start of what Max and Mya will be exposed to:)

Rain rain, go away!

We have not had a very nice June around here. Somebody told me that it has rained 10 of the first 15 days of the month! Not the weather we were hoping for when all the kids got out of school in our neighborhood, but hopefully it improves. There are a few positives to come out of all this rain. Max has learned to sing 2 new songs--"Rain, rain go away.." and "It's raining, it's pouring...", Mya's curls are wound as tight as can be, and the garden is growing really well!

Tomorrow we're going to the zoo and the forecast is for sun and high 70's so I hope the overpaid meterologists are right this time! (j/k about the overpaid part..I have no idea what they make, but it seems like they have the only profession where they can be totally wrong day after day and not get fired:)

For now...enjoy a couple pictures of the kids playing on the deck in the rain today. Hopefully tomorrow you'll see some pictures of the kids at the zoo wearing sunglasses!

My little tennis stars....almost:)

Max has become more and more interested in tennis lately. We took him to the courts while in Decorah a few weeks ago and he seemed to really like it. So, I went out and bought some big foam tennis balls that go a lot slower than the real deal and we headed out to the courts. Mya just ran around collecting balls and whining that I wouldn't pick her up. Max did pretty well for about 15 minutes and then he realized we were at the park and he wanted to play on the slide instead. I think he was sick of picking up balls and saying "bounce, hit" too! So..it was short lived, but worth it nonetheless. Hopefully he'll want to keep going back!

Last Day of School...

Today was the last day of school for kids in Dubuque. We have been counting down the days until the kids are home every day and can play all the time! We have really enjoyed watching the bus pick the kids up and drop them off, so since we were up at 6am today, I decided to bring the Max and Mya to the bus stop to watch the kids get on for the last day. We made Sam and Jake some pictures and gave them a little treat for finishing 1st grade! Here are a couple of pictures. Max knows he's going to school next fall, but I have yet to break it to him that he's not riding the bus. That should go over real well:)

parents

Eventually we are all going to turn into our parents. I just didn't think it would happen at 2:06 am on a Wednesday morning when I was 30:) Sure...I have been noticing some tendencies that remind me so much of my mom. Like how we cancelled our netflix subscription because it took us 2 weeks to watch a movie and every time we did, I was folding laundry or trying to get something else done. If I didn't have anything to do, I was asleep in the first 10 minutes. Totally my mom. Last Saturday night we were in the Quad Cities during the thunderstorm. What was I worried about? My flowers and my garden. Never in a million years would I have imagined I'd be worried about flowers during a storm. My mom would rather sleep on the mattress and use her sheets to cover her flowers than take a chance on her flowers getting ruined during a frost. I've also been taking pictures of my flowers lately. Something I have made fun of her for years about!

What happened last night put me over the edge. I woke up at 2:06 and instead of rolling over and going back to sleep, I started thinking about the things I needed to get done. So...I got up and filled the dishwasher with some cups and ran it. I knew this morning the kids would want their milk/juice fix and we didn't have any clean cups. I also went and got a loaf of bread out of the freezer so Max could have his toast this morning. My mom used to actually do laundry through the night so we'd have that special pair of jeans or uniform clean the next morning.

Now...if only I could golf like her, get up and work out at 5:30am, and have her patience I'd be set! Here are a few pictures of her and Maxwell working in her flowers earlier this spring. She made sure the kids each had their own garden gloves and other garden tools because helping is their favorite thing to do!

Garden update

Awhile ago I posted about our new garden venture! We are starting to get some produce and it's so much fun! Here's an updated picture of how things are looking. Right now we have lettuce (not doing very well) brocoli, onions and green beans in one bed. In the other one there are 2 tomato plants, 4 pepper plants, carrots and cucumbers. We also have 4 raspberry bushes which I'm looking forward to the most! Come the beginning of July to my house and it will be like a farmers market!






Our other big lawn/garden thing going on right now is that we finally caved and bought a John Deere riding lawn mower! 2 weeks ago I mowed and it took 2.5 hours. Then later that night Chris mowed the neighbor's yard who were out of town with their rider and that whole thing took him 22 minutes. The next day we went out and bought one:) It finally arrived yesterday so Chris mowed ours and the next door neighbor's yard in under an hour. Totally worth it to me!!

baptism

What a gorgeous Memorial Day weekend we had! We headed up to Decorah on Sunday morning for Grace's baptism. It was a wonderful service and the kids both got A's which was a first for them!! Both Chris and I said afterwards that the excuse that our kids are terrible in church isn't going to work much longer...:) Baby Grace did really well and even got excited when they poured the water over her head! After church we had a wondeful lunch at Brian and Amanda's house with friends and family. The kids all got into their baby pool with their church clothes on so of course there was some mischief:)

Grace is telling us to get that itchy dress off of her right now!


After the lunch and naps, we headed to the Decorah pool! It was opening day so lots of people came out for it. The kids loved every minute of it...jumping off the side, eating popsicles and popcorn, and going down the slide were their favorites:) Olivia isn't afraid of the water at all. She was jumping in and going completely under water. Max would have flipped a lid if we got his hair wet. Mya was a little more daring than Max, but not by much.