My Daddy, the hero

Oh, the innocence of children. It is a wonderful, beautiful thing. Especially when my daughter looks up at her daddy with her big blue adoring eyes and thinks that he can do no wrong. But then Tim looks at me with his guilty eyes and it is all over...

So, we had a new pet introduced to our family over the weekend - a pheasant that Emma decided to name Lucy. How we got this pheasant and why is an interesting story. On the way up to the cabin this past weekend, Tim saw a pheasant that flew up and hit a car on the road. The car drove off and Tim decided to stop and look at the pheasant. The pheasant had a broken wing, so Tim decided to put the pheasant in the back of the truck and take it to the cabin. Now, one would say that was very nice and noble of Tim. Others could say he had ulterior motives because Tim was worried that Sage was not going to be a hunting dog and wanted to give him, let's say some practice.

So, the kids see the pheasant on Friday when Tim arrives at the cabin with Sage and pheasant in tow. I shoot him a dirty look and the kids are instantly excited at the bird. Sage LOVES the bird and constantly is barking and chasing after it. I feel bad for the bird, am slightly irritated at Tim, but love how Emma looks up at Tim and says "Wow Daddy - you saved Lucy because she had a broken wing!" with her adoring big, blue eyes. After getting a dog kennel to put Lucy in, Emma feeds her worms, and puts a bowl of water in the kennel for her, and she is settled. Tim and I have the discussion of how it is probably NOT a good idea for Emma to get to attached to the bird as her prognosis is not good. So, Emma and I have the discussion of how Lucy is sick and she may not make it. Alas, she didn't. Lucy unfortunately passed away on Sunday. Emma was sad, but I don't think it affected her too badly. We seem to have a few pets come and go in our house, so she is used it.

We had a great weekend up at the cabin. Tim went golfing on Saturday morning, so my Mom and I took the kids to Grantsburg, WI for Grantoberfest. Basically, a fall celebration with jumpy houses (which were the kids favorite) food, small petting zoo, hay rides, clowns, etc. Sure, there were a few kid meltdowns, but overall, everyone had a great time. They also had some local art students do some face painting. Here is Emma as a green cat and Evan with a car on his face.

The kids are great - really great. Emma is doing many preschool workbooks and enjoys spending time doing her homework. Sometimes I let her stay up a bit later than Evan at night so her and I can do a few worksheets to let her practice writing her letters. She is constantly singing songs from Mama Mia and while it is cute, gets somewhat old. She told me tonight as she was banging on the piano and singing Mama Mia that she wants to learn how to play piano. So, maybe we will look into that in a few months.

Evan is good as well - he is still trying to string together words and constantly repeats the last words that people say. I am trying to teach him colors, but to him everything is blue. He loves his choo choos and Cars of course.

As for me, the second night of class went well. There is a lot of homework to do and so far we are studying a lot of philosophy, which I cannot say I enjoy. I have never had a philosophical mind.

A rebirth

Good news for everyone that has been concerned about our departed Megans (the caterpillars). They did NOT die - they have formed cocoons! Or, so we think. Tim and I have differing opinions on this. I think they are resting in their cocoons and are soon to be presenting themselves as magnificent, colorful butterflies. Tim, however, thinks they have died are, well, molding. I am hoping that my glass-half-full mentality will prove victorious and in a few weeks we will have a butterfly.. or moth.

I have had a great birthday week so far; for the most part. The kids are at my parents for a few days, as daycare is closed, and they are having a fabulous time... but I miss them dearly. I know that them being gone is harder on me than them and that is great. Emma was so excited and could not stop talking about the farm. She and Evan instantly started playing when they arrived at the farm and barely noticed that we left. I usually call them twice a day to check and make sure they are doing well (and listening to Nana & Papa!) and Emma says to me "Mama, why do you keep calling all the time? We are fine!" Very reassuring, so that is great.

Last night was the start of a very long 4 to 5 years of grad school. It went great - really great. I am taking statistics and originally was dreading it. However, my professor seems awesome and is using this class as more of a quantitative decision making class versus a stats class. The first few words that came out of his mouth were wonderful. "I know you that most of you work full time and have families. So, your priorities are such. #1 - Family. #2 - Work. If you can fit me in for #3, that is great." Whew! Wonderful! Then, he proceeded to say this, which is equally as great. "I know you are not number crunchers. We have a wonderful thing called a calculator for that. My job is to teach you how to analyze numbers that are presented to you and to shoot holes in data that is given to you at work in an intellectual way." Perfect. I can easily buy into this class. Wish me luck, but so far my first class sounds awesome.

Other than that, I know nothing. I have a lot of homework and reading to do the next few days, but I am also going to squeeze in some final celebrating and shopping with a dear friend of mine to round out my birthday week. I think it is funny that many times when I go out shopping now, I buy for the kids. Kristen and I went out shopping last Saturday, on my actual birthday!, and what did I buy? A Halloween costume for Evan and stretchy leggings for Emma. Hopefully this Sunday I will treat myself also :-)

The birthday weekend

Lucky Evan. He was able to celebrate his birthday twice :-) Once last weekend with his Daddy's sisters and once this weekend along with my birthday! We had a nice joint birthday party. I did have everything Cars themed again, but we split ideas for a cake. I ordered a Cars decorated Cold Stone Creamery Cake. All I can say is YUM! It was great!

It is the official start of my birthday week (which yes, I ripped from my cousin Jess, but seriously?! Who doesn't want a whole birthday week!) First: party! which was a Mexican fiesta and much fun. Second: presents.. an iPod touch, which I can tell, I love! Third - adult fun - aka.. time without kiddo conversation (get your mind out of the gutter!) Tim and I had a date night and went to Wicked and the Rock Bottom Brewery. It was awesome and fun. For the upcoming week? My first night of class, the kids at my parents since daycare is closed (which is sad, but good too. I have homework to do!) and Tim and I will enjoy another date night. Then, hopefully some shopping for me for a birthday present for myself!

Today we all had a great day. I started it out with some exercise and great conversation with a great friend. Then, we were outside... a lot! Tim was cleaning one garage, the kids and I were cleaning another. Let me tell you - they were great helpers! Evan was driving his little Lightning McQueen car all around, watering flowers, and Emma was helping me sweep. It is nice when they can contribute a bit to what is going on. This afternoon was the Packer game, which ended well!, and helping Tim wrap trees. That is a favorite yearly ritual that is enjoyed by all.

Let's see - back to the party. Here are some pictures of the weekend:

First, the party:

Evan after eating his cake. He loved it. It had a Lightning car and a Mater car on top that he could play with. He was in heaven.. and very, very messy.

One of his presents?? A Thomas the Train set that is an add-on set to the one Tim and I got him. He loved it and was carrying it around until someone would open it. He received more track from the Kelloggs also.



So, I ask you... how many people does it take to put together a train set?

The final product which Tim finished yesterday during the kids nap time:

Now, the problem is that it is sitting in my living room and basically takes up the whole space.

And some lovely flowers I received from my new group at work! How nice and what a great surprise! I have never had flowers delivered to me before.

I had a fun conversation with Emma yesterday morning about my birthday. We were sitting at the dinner table eating breakfast and she says out of the blue:

"You know, Mom, it isn't fair that you don't have presents to open because it is your birthday today." So, I tell her that I got to open up my presents the night before so it was okay. However, if she thinks it isn't fair, she should tell Daddy. (yes, maybe thinking I could get another present!) she responds "Well Mom, I did, but he said that you got to open them yesterday so you were fine." So, I ask her what she would buy me if she could pick out a present for me. "Mom, I would buy you a Barbie. A mermaid barbie!" Of course! I am not surprised at all that she would pick that out for me!

Here are some pics from today in the yard:

Tim and the kids on the lawnmower in our backyard.

A fun picture of Emma:

And Evan closely guarding the tool he uses to trim the trees. It was lost for a few weeks and he definitely missed it. Now he proclaims "Found it! Found it! Daddy!" as Tim found it in a bucket today when we were cleaning.

And Emma and Evan helping out...

And Emma annoying her brother and giving him a hug. She tends to love him too much. She likes to put her arms around Evan, hug him, or give him a kiss and he always shrugs her off or pushes her away. Actually, she may just do it to annoy him.

And Sage was there too.

Here is another adventure from the past weekend: Megans.

On our parsley plants in the herb garden, we have these unusual looking caterpillars. The kids love the book "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" so they are constantly looking at the caterpillars, picking them up, moving them, talking to them, whatever. We have tons of them on there - probably about 10 in total. So, we decided to put two of them in a jar and take care of them to see if we could see them turn into a butterfly or moth... whatever they are. The kids were so excited at their new pets and Emma was constantly carrying them around. Evan is always saying "Megum!! Megum!!" and wanting to carry them around also. All was good for 2 days. Then, yesterday it turned deadly.... We brought both Megans outside to feed them and forgot about them. They were exposed in their jar for about 20 hours and they subsequently died due to exposure (or so I think). Emma was very sad, but what can you do? Our fault for not being good caterpillar owners.





A close up of the two Megans. Look closely one above her hand and one below.

And finally, three pictures from tonight. My sister and I shared babysitting this weekend so Tim and I could go out for my birthday and she could enjoy a night out with her hubby. All the kids were at our house playing outside and were having a ball. It was so much fun to watch and listen. They were climbing up and down the slides, running into each other, doing slide trains with each other and having a great time. It is moments like this that I love. No, my kids don't have the life I did when I was young. My Mom stayed home as did my aunts and we played together with the cousins all the time. I was not in daycare, but my kids are. However, when I see them play and laugh and have a great relationship with their cousins, I realize that they are still okay. They are fine and developing normally and have a great life. They don't have the idyllic farm life that I had, but they still have it very good. Not quite Norman Rockwell, but pretty damn close in my mind. So, when I think that we should move closer to my job as it would make things easier at times, it is nights like this when I know I never could.

A Toddler

Happy Birthday Evan! Ahh - I now have a terrible two year old! But, unfortunately, I saw it coming. We were at the cabin for a long weekend and had a wonderful time. We had a birthday party for Evan up there - Lightning McQueen of course - and he had a great time. He helped me pick out the decorations and was very excited for people to come over and open presents. We even let him open up a few early so he had some to play with while the adults snacked on some appetizers and visited.

Here are some pics:

The Lightning McQueen Cake that I tried to make. He did awesome with the cake/singing/candle bit. He had the candles blown out by the time the first Happy Birthday words were sung. It took maybe 5 seconds.


He did seem a bit concerned that the car Doc was on the cake. He kept trying to take him off. Then, he decided it was kind of cool and tried to drive it on the chocolate shavings road.
Licking off the frosting on the plate he decided should sit on the cake.

The balloons! He loved the balloons! He did have a large Lightning McQueen balloon, but in the 5 minutes he and Emma had it in the house, it had a hole and was slowly losing helium.

A Thomas the Train glow-in-the-dark train set that Tim and I got him for his birthday! He loved that! He was constantly carrying around the big box until Tim or I would put it together. He also received some Cars Shake-n-Go cars (Doc & Ramone), a remote control Caterpillar truck thing, a fishing pole, Toy Story toys and movie.

Today I stayed home with him and we had an Evan/Mommy day. We played trains, cars, had 2 year pictures taken and met Tim for lunch. He wasn't all the excited to have his picture taken and was more interested in playing or watching the movie that was playing in the waiting room. However, we did get a few nice pics. Now he is napping and I have a bit of time to clean up, update blog, and maybe squeeze in some homework. Here are a few more pics of the weekend.

Evan and Mama
Fishing with Papa. Evan still loves fishing and gets so excited when there is a fish on his line. His breathing changes and he goes "Ooh.. Ooh.. Ooh!" until he reels it in. He is not afraid to touch the fish now or throws them back. No matter what the size of the fish they are "BIG! BIG! ISH! ISH!" (just like a fisherman, exaggerating the size of the fish!)

And, my little man now and then.... Happy Birthday Evan!

The diary of a Two Year Old

Ahhh... what a great night's sleep. I Love morning! I love laying in my crib and sucking on my Nuk. My Mom keeps saying that a two year old doesn't need a Nuk, but I am not sure what that means. I LOVE it and as far as I am concerned, it isn't going anywhere. Hey, what a minute... where are my cars?? I better stand up and start yelling for Mom so she can find my cars.

"MAMA!" "MAMA!" "Cars!"

Hmmm... where is my Mama? Why isn't she coming the second I call for her? I better yell louder.

"MAMA!" Cars!"

Perfect... here she comes. Shoot.. she is laying me back down. NO! It is not night-night time again. I just woke up! Seriously - find my cars. I better start whining a bit.... that always works to get my way.

Ha! It worked. Here are my cars - nice! AND, she is bringing me back to her bed so I can watch some TV! I got it good - yes-siree- I do.

We lay down for a bit so I can watch Mickey Mouse Club House (that Mickey is so funny!) and then we head downstairs. I always wake up hungry, but Mommy does not understand that. Can you believe it? I have to hunt down my own food. It is a good thing that I can climb up the shelves in the snack closet to find my goodies. Let's see... crackers? Nope! Goldfish?? Nope! Where did she hide the suckers?? I better climb higher so I can find them.

Crap - here she comes to get me down! I better kick my feet back and forth as fast as I can to see if that will stop her. Nope. Darn. Oh well... at least she is getting me some cereal.

Now, I get to play while I snack on cereal, harrass the dog (ha! he is locked up and I love tormenting her), and while Mommy gets my breakfast. Emma is awake and her and I love fighting over toys and wrestling with each other. I cannot wait until I am bigger than her and I can really fight back!

They keep saying something about it being my birthday, so that is cool. The last time they talked about that I got fun boxes wrapped up in paper. Plus (get this!) they had toys inside!! I see my new Cars that shake, go, and make lots of noise. I better go play with those while Mommy makes me food. Hmmm.. my cereal is all gone, so I better climb back up again to find more things to eat. Will write more later.... Evan