Through the eyes of an almost 6 year old:

Our Family

c.2009

Our Backyard Campout

Last night, we slept outside in the tent in the backyard.  All of us.  Usually when the kids want to do this, I let their dad be the fun one and am just fine sleeping in my own bed.  But I caved in and slept out under the stars (or at least airplanes).  This was our practice run for when we go camping this weekend up in Wisconsin.  We usually go camping at least once a year, but with Caleb being the ripe old age of 2 1/2, we decided that it might be a good idea to see what we’re getting ourselves into.

Caleb and I laid in the tent looking out the window at the fireflies (while Kelsie and Brandon tried to catch them) until he fell asleep.  It was so peaceful to just lay there and enjoy our backyard.  The fireflies are always something we look forward too each year and always try to catch as  many as we can.  Eventually the older two joined us in the tent and while Brandon held the flashlight, Kelsie read us a story. 

We all slept pretty good (at least as good as you can in a tent) and woke up to a little surprise.  Remember our friendly neighborhood cat?  Well, he was all curled up in a ball at the end of Brandon’s sleeping bag, snoozing with the rest of us.  Apparently we didn’t close the tent door all the way and he found his way in.  I’m just glad it wasn’t a racoon or a skunk.

So, the moral of my story is:

1)  If you’ve never camped out in the backyard, you must try it at least once.

2)  Remember to close your tent door all the way unless you want some unwelcome visitors to spend the night with you.

MIA

Whew!  These last few weeks have gone by so fast here that I have barely had enough time to catch my breath, let alone blog.  Here’s a quick report of what has been going on here in our little corner of the world.

We officially have a “tween” living with us now.  We celebrated Kelsie’s birthday with a small family party this year.  And it rained most of the day.  Bummer.  She loves being another year older and got (almost) everything she wanted.

Wally spent a week away from us in Europe and had a fabulous time.  He enjoyed the time he had to play tourist in Amsterdam and Maastricht, but in the end decided that there really is no place like home.

The day after Wally got home from Europe, his brother and his family came for a visit from Iowa.  We had so much fun hanging out and playing with them.  It’s always fun to have cousins around and Caleb couldn’t get enough of his new favorite cousin, Caroline.  I also just have to mention how much more fun Chicago is in the summertime.  So.much.fun.

Since strawberry picking is on our list of things to do this summer, and since it is such a short season, we decided to drive up to Wisconsin just before the 4th of July and picked 12 quarts of strawberries.  Caleb ate the berries faster than we could pick them and everyone ended up with juice stains all over their shorts, but we had a great time and had lots of fun together.  We were even excited to get a $0.49 ice cream cone at McDonald’s before we headed home.

 

Then came the 4th of July.  It is one of my most favorite holidays, so we went to just about everything we could.  The parade was fun, even in the rain, and the fireworks on the beach were great (it stopped raining by then).  The kids had fun with sparklers, glow sticks, friends, and fireworks at the end of the day. 

 

A few days later, Wally’s parents came out to visit and watch our kids while we went down into Chicago for a couple of nights to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary.  We had a great time together, without any kids and they had tons of fun without the parents.  They were able to eat as much chocolate, donuts, and chips as they wanted and play as much video and computer games to their hearts content.  Just the way it should be when Grandma and Grandpa are in charge!  I have tons of pictures from our little jaunt into the city—I’ll have to post those later.

In between all of this we have also been doing a little bit of:

reading:

crafting:

taking care of bumps, bruises, and boils:

and getting as much play time in as we can!

Live Moves On

I just wanted to say thanks to all the nice comments, emails, and phone calls from everyone.  I am alive and doing much, MUCH better.  I read online that you can use soft contact solution to clean your eyes to help with the pinkeye, and it really worked!  I feel like I am starting to get back to normal now, and am just dealing with the lingering effects of a cold (cough and runny nose).  I had to go to Target to stock up on kleenex again, so now I’m good through the end of this.  None of the kids have gotten sick either, which is a huge thing for me.  I don’t know if I would have been able to make it with sick kids too.

We’ve been trying to stay busy here at home.  We spent the afternoon at the beach yesterday and it was so fun.  Caleb had fun in the sand, but didn’t like the water too much.  Brandon and Kelsie had fun building sand castles and then wading in and out of the lake.  It was nice and relaxing for me to just sit and watch the kids play and have fun.  Caleb did fall asleep for the last hour or so we were there.  I love living so close to the beach!

We spent this morning looking for flip flops and sandals for the kids and am happy to say we found a great deal.  I love it when we find a good deal.  It makes me feel so good!

Since I’m starting to feel better, I am getting the itch to start creating something again.  I have a few projects in mind, so I’ll post pictures when I get them done.  I really like not being tied down to any schedules.  It’s so nice to do what we want when we want. 

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Happy Father’s Day!

We miss you!

just another one to make you smile!

Perfect Timing

My goodness, this has been a long week here.  The summer weather has finally decided to come which is good, but I’ve been sick all week, which is bad.  I woke up Monday morning with a fever and sore throat.  This is very unusual for me, since I never get fevers.  Wally was starting to think there was something wrong with me since I was sick all winter and not once had a fever.  Since I was feeling pretty bad, and had a fever to prove it, I stayed in bed all day while my three kiddos ran around the house, watched TV, played computer games, and pretty much did whatever they wanted to.  And I didn’t care. 

By Wednesday, I was feeling so yucky that I went to the doctor, another big deal for me if you know me.  I was convinced that I had the flu or something worse and came out with “it’s just a really bad cold”.  The remedy?  Take a couple of advil for the discomfort and mucinex to clear it all out.  Great.  Except that mucinex doesn’t work for me.  Or Wally.  But I tried it anyway and it still didn’t work.

It’s Saturday night, and although I’m feeling a little better, I’m still going through 3 boxes of kleenex a day with no end in sight.  And speaking of sight, now I have some form of pink eye.  I’ve been putting the drops in my eye all day and looking up home remedies online (if you know any, send them my way).  Hopefully I’ll wake up tomorrow and this will all be in the past.  Except that probably isn’t going to happen.  Sigh.

To add to all my drama, Wally left yesterday afternoon for a work conference in the Netherlands and will be gone all week.  Great timing, huh?

I bet those bacteria bugs are laughing their little heads off right now. 

Summer Survival

It’s official.  The last day of school has come and gone—the whole 1 hour of it.  Summer has begun.  Since both Kelsie and Brandon did so well and actually graduated to the next grade level this year, I wanted to start the summer off right.

I am a strong believer in long, lazy, summer days—after jobs are done, of course.  Summertime is a magical time for kids to be outside, explore, get dirty, be creative, and have lots of fun.  I’ve found that with lots of other distractions (t.v., video games, computer games, etc.) I sometimes feel like I am pushing, almost bribing them (I’ll let you have another popsicle) to play outside. 

So, on the last day of school, just when the asking about said computer games started, I presented them with their very own

SUMMER SURVIVAL KITS

The kits included all the summer essentials:

• shove and pail, beach towel, and goggles (for when we go to the beach)
• a flashlight for those late nights playing in the backyard and for when we go camping
• sidewalk chalk, mini clipboard, and a florescent pad of paper for any inspiration that may come to their minds
• first-aid kits complete with antibacterial cream and colorful band-aids for all the scrapes and falls they’ll get
• The Dangerous Book for Boys and The Daring Book for Girls
• bubbles, because you always have to have bubbles
• walkie-talkies because they’re just fun
• bug kits for catching and examining those little tiny creatures
• sparklers and poppers for the 4th of July (which have been saved for that day—don’t worry!)

And finally, homemade cards from Wally and I telling them how proud we are of all their accomplishments this year.  We really are going to have a great summer and while there is time for the t.v. and video games, I was just really happy that they spent the majority of the afternoon talking in code through the walkie-talkies and looking for bugs.

Yes, my friends.  Summer has begun.