August Heat

This month has been hot! The Community Picnic at the beginning of the month was sweltering; my cousin's bridal shower was steamy. At least the corn and hummingbirds have enjoyed it. Don't get me wrong - I love a good 85° day. 95 and humid? Not so much.

We got together with Nick's Dad's side for a cookout mid-month. Everybody but his sister in DC made an appearance. Quite impressive! The kids had fun playing in a sprinkler and the endless grazing from the buffet. We enjoyed chatting and playing bags.

We had a quiet weekend to regroup, then BAM! It was time for Nick's and my first actual trip in over 5 years. We drove up to Green Bay on Wednesday afternoon, left the kids with his parents, and flew out on Thursday morning. We spent about 2 and a half days visiting his sister in Washington, DC. Nick had never been there before and I had been there several times, so I let him pick what we saw. We walked the Mall (also sweltering at ~95°) from the Smithsonians to Lincoln and back, and spent a couple hours in the Air and Space Museum. The next day, Nick and I went to the International Spy Museum, which was fun. We ate and drank a lot - sushi, seafood assortments, raw bar, bottomless tapas-style brunch... all so good! We flew back home early on Sunday morning. Had a 3 hour layover in Chicago, but  made it back to GB and then to Rapids in good time.

Summary:
- 11 different types of seafood, over 20 different preparations all told
- Ate at Legal Sea Foods (twice!), Elephant & Castle, Zengo (bottomless brunch)
- Drank at Lou's City Bar, Meridian Pint, Penn Social, E&C, Old Ebbitt Grill
- 35 different state license plates, plus 6 bonus plates (Canadian, government)
- 48,500 steps (20.3 miles)

Iris turned 4! With the recent visits with family, we decided not to throw a party for her this year. We will have fun as a family instead. It's a busy day, with school open houses for both kids, as Felix starts 2nd grade and Iris starts 4K on Thursday. Iris got a My Little Pony sweatshirt, pony plush, jewelry box, indoor/outdoor pogo jumper, kid binoculars, and a board game from us this year.

The 31st is my mom's last day of work. Happy Retirement, Mom! Enjoy this time with Dad!

Felix: 7 yrs & Iris: 4 yrs

July Highlights

Short and sweet highlights of our summer so far!

Felix turned 7 and had his first sleepover! He invited a few friends over. They had a silly string fight, had pizza, watched Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Half of the party fell asleep around 10. The other half had to be told GO TO SLEEP around 11:30. Naturally, they were all up and raring to go around 6:30...

We were invited over for an afternoon get-together with one of Nick's coworkers. The boys went fishing on the river, and caught a couple catfish and carp. Iris ran shrieking from the flopping fish a couple of times. But now they have new friends with whom they played in the kiddie pool.

We went to a family cookout on my side, and introduced the kids to the joys and pains of tubing down the river. A few beers had to be rescued while one or two were sacrificed to the river gods. We took our inflatable kayaks, while the rest of my folks did the traditional tubing. Complete with traditional slowly-deflating tube.

Iris got a black eye! From the slides at daycare! Again! Quite the shiner this time, all from "being silly on the slide". As it heals, it's turned many glorious colors, making half her face look like she's had gaudy makeup applied.

We got to be super social with friends at the end of July, with two nights of babysitters in a row! We had classy cocktails, fondue and dominoes one night, and 1 1/2 innings of a Rafters game in between thunderstorms. Yeah, not wise to be on a big metal structure with cloud-to-ground lightning.

Stay tuned for next time... More fun with extended families! A trip to DC! Iris's birthday! Hooray!

Felix: 7 yrs & Iris: 3.5 yrs

Felix is 7!

Felix turns 7 today! Wow, time has flown! Let's go back in time...

And bam, 7 years ago I became a mama. We had Felix's family birthday party last week with far-flung family. Friend sleepover coming up!

Felix: 7 yrs & Iris: 3.5 yrs

On To Summer

Usually, I try to get in a post per month, but it seems like lately that either there's not a lot new to report. Then I wait for a bunch of updates. Like today! 

Felix's second school year has come to an end. Grade 1 is done! He did very well academically-speaking. Things have been a little challenging on the behavior side, but we have recently been advised a cause: Felix is on the ADHD spectrum. He's on the lower end, so no meds, but it's going to make us change how we communicate and react to him. That's probably going to help us all out a lot. Felix was in soccer in May (scored a couple goals!), and is starting his t-ball season with Nick as an assistant coach. He seems to like both a lot.

Iris is everywhere, as usual. She is currently obsessed with WordGirl, riding her bike, and throwing tantrums when I drop her off at daycare in the morning. *sigh* It's just a phase, it's just a phase. She's been singing a lot lately, which I find charming. We're trying to work with her on being nice to the kittens. They're pretty good about it, but there's only so much manhandling they can take. 

The family gave me a nice birthday/Mother's Day. I got my "present" a couple weeks before that - a brand new car! Gone is the micro-van that couldn't be trusted in a dusting of snow. Now, I've got a safety-feature-packed AWD Outback that makes Nick very jealous. (He'll content himself with driving the family in it until his Tesla 3 arrives).

Last weekend, we left the kids with the folks and headed up for a mini-getaway/family wedding in Minneapolis. We had a nice time visiting friends, having a grown-up dinner, and having a ton of fun at the wedding. It definitely helped us recharge our parental batteries. 

We've got a lot of fun stuff coming up this month, so I'll likely update the blog more often! Hope you have a great start to the summer!

Felix: 6.5 yrs & Iris: 3.5 yrs

Where is Spring??

I write this post on a day where yet again, I woke up to fresh snow on the ground. C’mon, Winter! Give it a rest! The kids and I long to be outside, but this slushy wetness doesn’t make going out very appealing.

We’ve had a few adventures in the last few weeks. The Adventure of Felix with a Marker at Quiet Time! The Adventure Finding Felix’s Artwork in the Elementary School Art Show! Visiting Grandma and her New Knee! The Adventure of Getting Blue Hair! Taking the Kids Curling!

Our biggest adventure was going for a mini-vacation down to Madison over Spring Break. Felix spent the first part of break up in Green Bay, then I collected him on Wednesday, and immediately got ready to go down to Madison on Thursday. The hotel we stayed in had a little waterpark inside, which the kids were raring to get to the minute we checked in. A million thanks to whomever invented Puddle Jumpers for kids. It was a huge relief to know Iris would float if she fell in while no one was watching. And she did get away from us and go down the big slide all by her-little-self. After swimming, we took the kids out to dinner*, then spent the next several hours trying to get them to sleep in the unfamiliar environment*. *I’m not sure if we should do that more to get them used to it, or less because it’s such a pain. 

Friday morning, we got some breakfast then headed to the Vilas Zoo, where we met Cassie. We got there just as the gates opened and the ice that had formed on the trees started thawing and pelting us from above. The kids liked the monkeys, prairie dogs and snakes, but everything else was pretty quiet. The kids were disappointed the carousel wasn’t working and the playground was closed, and Iris got accidentally pushed into a puddle by Felix. (insert head-banging emoticon here). But, with a new pair of pants and a lunch of Indian buffet, things were much better. After quiet time, we went swimming again, this time with Cass while Grandma & Geepa watched. We spent the evening between our two connecting rooms, getting take-out pizza and watching the Badgers’ tourney run die. Alas! The next morning, it was Bloodies and breakfast at Paul’s, and headed back home.

We had a quiet, cold Easter with a lovely brunch. Last weekend, we went to the Kienert Cousin Reunion and the kids started ice skating lessons. Both kids want to play hockey, and according to Nick, are doing pretty well on the ice already. :o)

Felix: 6.5 yrs & Iris: 3.5 yrs

Leap Day

It's hard to believe, but it was four years ago on Leap Day that we announced we were going to have another baby. And now we have a 3-and-a-half year old Iris, and she's a year older than Felix was in that picture. Wow, time flies!

We've had a big change to report since my last post: Nick has taken and started a new job! He was offered a position at La Chapelle Kryshak & Nettesheim here in Wisconsin Rapids. It's a great opportunity for him, and he's excited about keeping the firm going strong for another generation. (Personally, I like that he's going to be doing more of the work he wants to do and that he'll be working a bit closer to home.)

Other than that, things have been pretty much sticking to the status quo. We had a nice visit from Nick's parents last weekend.  The kids are still slowly working through their piles of Valentine's Day candy. 

And the kittens have settled in well. I've learned that our mild-mannered Roary reacts to laundry folding add some cats react to catnip. They are getting bigger! Amy is little and feisty, a feline version of Iris. With big pointy teeth. 

I'm enjoying the mild weather - my brand-new fitness tracker is giving me motivation to keep moving. And we'll keep cheering on the Badgers as far as they go! 

Felix: 6.5 yrs & Iris: 3.5 yrs

Kittens!

Holidays: survived. We stayed pretty close to home this year, and had a nice time. It was very unusual to get so much rain around the holidays. We didn't do anything special for New Year's. This year, as a present to ourselves, we sent the kids to daycare for three days between the holidays and stayed home ourselves. :D And those days were filled with visits with friends, Star Wars, and... kittens!

We decided the day after Christmas that it might be nice to add a couple of kittens to our house, now that we have more finished space. We went to the Humane Society as a family on the 26th to see what animals were available, and two little kittens caught our eyes. We put in an application, but there were some things that needed to be done first, like getting Cricket checked out at the vet. I was able to get him in Monday morning, much to his chagrin. The Humane Society okayed our application on Monday afternoon, and we got the kittens when they opened on Tuesday! Such little things. We named them Amewlia Pond (Amy) and Roary Williams (Roary). [Yes, I am a huge Doctor Who fan].

Amy and Roary

The first few days were interesting, getting to know the kittens, them getting to know the house and especially Cricket. But now we've had them for two weeks, and they seem to tolerate each other. Cricket and Roary seem to get along well, even playing together - they have similar laid-back personalities. Amy is a feisty one. And so far a naughty girl who keeps wanting to use well-chosen spots as a litter box. She's not quite 3 months old, so I'm hoping that stops with a little more maturity. And they are very cuddly.

Iris has finished extra swimming lessons, but started tumbling again last week. It's pretty basic stuff - run around a little, jump on the trampoline, swing on the bar. She's in a huge class, so I'm afraid she won't enjoy it too much, having to wait a long time between turns. I'm hoping that with the number of teachers they had last week, they can split the kids into smaller groups.

Felix lost another tooth, giving him a decidedly vampirish appearance. He's still doing well in school and in swimming, and he just turned 6.5 this week. He's still drawing and playing and roughhousing and being every inch himself.

I recommend... The Detectorists on Netflix if you like your humor dry and British. Watch Sherlock: The Abominable Bride on PBS before it disappears!! 

Final notes.... Nick celebrated his birthday last week by being out of town all day at a speaking engagement. Work's been quiet for me lately. ​

​And no, we did not win the Powerball jackpot​, although we did have a pleasant conversation discussing what we would do with it. Invest! Donate! No handouts, you slackers!​

Felix: 6.5 yrs & Iris: 3 yrs