T-Ball

Emma's t- ball run is almost to a close, but I am going to go out on a limb and say it was a successful first season. She seems to really enjoy it, she looks forward to going each time, and she doesn't feel down or bad when something doesn't go quite right for her. As the coach said in the beginning of the season, the first years are not to make them "A" players, it is to get them to have fun and enjoy the game.

She has shown improvement the past few weeks, i.e. she hasn't been playing in the dirt as much, she has been watching the ball and even going after it when it rolls past, and this past week she hit a ball off the tee that went through the air and went past the pitcher. It really has been fun to watch, but I have to make sure I keep my competitiveness in check. No, I am not a hollering parent (yet) and they don't keep score, but I do sometimes remind Emma to "keep your eyes on the ball" or "Emma - stop throwing dirt in the air" or my favorite "Emma - run to the next base!"

Here is a pic of the team:

My two kiddo's together:




And Evan, because he always has to get his picture taken if Emma does.

The gator

This is the toy that Papa was given to use for dairy breakfast weekend. AND, it is Evan's new favorite thing. Or, it was, as Papa unfortunately had to return it after the breakfast.

Evan was always the first to hop on if someone was going for a ride or he was asking about every 5 minutes for someone to take him on a ride.

This is also the toy that Emma asked "Mama, do you have enough money to buy one of these?" it was about the size of my Corolla and we all assumed it cost as much if not more than my little Corolla.

Fun times!

It was pretty cool and fun.

worms

The kids and I were in the backyard this evening while Tim was grilling. We were running around exercising, doing cheers for Daddy (Daddy, Daddy, he is our man!) and weeding my flower garden. The kids, always having to be my big helpers, were right there along side of me. I was trying to teach them what plants were weeds and what were plants. They got it right approximately 50% of the time and the other time my poor daisys and other plants got rift. Anyway, I am pulling weeds, kids are pulling flowers and all are having a great time. (Sage included as she was eating and throwing the weeds up in the air with her nose.) I pull up a weed and discover a worm. I give it to Evan as he usually wants to collect them for fishing. Evan holds it up to Emma and gets the "EWWWWW!" response he was hoping for. So, Evan holds it closer to Emma, pretty close to her face and says, "Oh Emma, he just a little guy. Worms won't hurt you!" Emma does the "EWWWW"" again and runs away. Of course, Evan has to start chasing her, holding the worm out and yelling, "Emma! It not hurt. He a little guy!"

"EWWWW! Evan stop chasing me! It is gross"

"But, he a little guy, he not hurt you!" "He just a worm!"

Around and around and around the yard....

it was pretty funny.

I Helping Daddy and for the love of balloons

Our little man is getting so, so feisty lately. Granted, he has Emma as an example and she can get her feist on quite a bit. However, at almost 3, he can be quite dramatic. Terrible Two's FOR SURE!

Anyway, today was a doozy....

This morning, Tim was getting the kids ready as I was at work. Evan wakes up starving - every morning! Many times, his first sentence is "Mama, I HUNGY!" "Mama, my tummy hurt. I hungy!" So, Tim many times will feed the kids snacks (aka. oreo cookies) before they go to daycare. This morning, Evan wanted an apple. (he eagerly helps himself to our cupboards, our refrigerators, and our freezer now. Yesterday, he woke up from nap and of course, he was hungy, so he walked directly to the freezer and pulled out two cartons of ice cream.) Anyway, this particular morning, Evan wanted an apple. So, after much debate, Tim washed it, peeled it, and sliced it and gave it to Evan. Evan only ate half of it and Emma started lecturing him on how he was wasting food and that many kids are hungry and don't have food. (yes, I have no idea where she gets this stuff from) Anyway, Evan decides to take action. He points at her and says, "Emma - you stop talking!" over and over... "Emma, stop talking!"

Then, tonight the kids had two mylar balloons; one for each kid. Man, Evan loves balloons. Emma, doesn't really care about balloons, but lately enjoys ANYTHING that Evan does to fight with him and give him a hard time. So, Evan is playing with both balloons while Emma is playing Rapunzel. He proceeds to pop one balloon and of course, it had to be Emma's balloon. No, big deal, as Emma wasn't playing with it anyway, right? No - you are wrong. SO WRONG! Emma decides to freak out that Evan broke her balloon. So, what does Evan do? I wish he would leave it alone... but he cannot. It is not in his nature. He decides to jump on the balloon, repeatedly. Over, and over, and over. just popping it and squishing it even more. Emma starts screaming and crying because Evan popped her balloon and won't give it to her. Evan is smiling and loving life because Emma is upset and hollering at him. I, well ignore it for the most part, as I am making supper and I figure they need to get along in life. Finally, I put Evan in time out and throw away Emma's balloon away as I decided it was time for me to intervene.

Unfortunately, Evan decides to get out of the time out corner, just as Tim gets home from work and I have just about had enough of it. Evan pulls out Emma's balloon from the garbage and starts jumping on it again JUST TO IRRITATE EMMA. Of course, it works. So, once again, Emma is crying, Evan is smiling, and I am ready for a stiff drink. Tim takes swift action and takes away the broken balloon. Then, he takes Evan's balloon away from him (the only one still standing) and gives it to Emma proclaiming, "Evan - you don't have a balloon anymore. Your balloon is now Emma's. Evan, you sit in time out and think about what you have done." Now, by this time, Emma is smiling and taunting Evan with the balloon and Evan completely blows a gasket. Tim picks up a screaming and kicking Evan and puts him in time out. I continue making supper, but feel bad for the little boy who is getting his new favorite toy taken away and given to a girl who really doesn't care about it anyway.

The joys of having kids....

Finally, after supper, Emma let's Evan have his balloon back, she goes back to playing Rapunzel, and I am thankful that I am working from home tomorrow and can get rid of all balloons. :-)

Later tonight it was nice, as Emma and I were in the house doing our cleaning chores and Evan was outside helping Tim. Evan really does idolize Tim and wants to help him with whatever job he is doing. They were putting grass seeds in bare spots on the grass and Evan was loving this job and time with his Dad. He was carrying around a garden hoe and would find bare spots in the yard. Evan would work up the dead, brown grass and then would sprinkle some seeds in when he was done. When he was done, he proudly came in the house and proclaimed, "I helping Daddy, Mama! I finding clues and helping Daddy!"

Thankfully, a good night after a loud, energized evening. Thankfully after supper, no one gave a darn about the balloons.

The Dairy Breakfast

The Big Day for the Brunner family had arrived.... The June Dairy Breakfast. Brunner's Hillside Dairy was the sponsor or the site of the big breakfast for the County and everyone was excited! I had been wanting my parents to host it since they added on the big barn and FINALLY - they agreed to it.

So, on Saturday, June 18 roughly 1300 people visited the farm for pancakes, dairy products, and some good family fun. (i.e. petting zoo, horse wagon rides, jumpy house- the kids favorite-, barrel train, neighbors, etc)

Tim and the kids headed down to my parents on Friday to help Dad out with some errands around the house while I worked (blah for me). The kids had a great time playing with their kittens, helping out around the farm and testing out some of the June Dairy stuff before the crowds heading there on Saturday. I made the trip with my sister and her family early evening.

Anyway, Friday night was a quick supper and then a trip to the big barn to see what was going on over there. By that time, the tent was already up, some of the petting zoo animals had arrived and most importantly, the Jumpy House was blown up and ready to go.


Here is a shot of the kids jumping and having a great time.

And of course, the adults had to try it too! Come on . . . how many chances do we get to jump in something like this?

After spending a LOT of time in the jumpy house, the kids had to experience the other stuff as well. Here is a pick of them in the barrel train. They all really liked this one as well!



The one thing I don't have a picture of a the moment is the three Gator like things the local implement dealers dropped off for the event. One was a John Deere Gatore. Then there were 2 Kubota vehicles that were similar to the Gator. My children LOVED these. Emma asked at one point, "Mama - do you and Daddy have enough money to buy one of these?" The kids were constantly wanting to take a ride and go through the fields or whatever in these.

The next day arrived and the family was all a buzz with the breakfast. My hope was to get over to the barn around 6am to help set up and help wherever needed, but unfortunately little Evan didn't sleep the best. We made it over around 7:15 to start the day though, so not too bad.

First, we had pancakes and sausage. Well, I had to talk the kids OUT of going to the jumpy house so we could have breakfast. Pancakes, sausage, cheese curds, milk and pudding was on the menu for breakfast and everyone ate up pretty quickly. Then it was the jumpy house, and the animals, then for a quick Kubota ride, then a horse & carriage ride, more jumpy house and a LOT of socializing. Kristen and I competed in the Ice Cream eating contest that morning, so we gathered around a table with the rest of our team, the "Brunner's Hillside Dairy" team. It consisted of family & farm helpers. The rules? You had to eat the scoop of ice cream with no utensils and hands behind your back. First team member went, then second and so on and so forth. We, unfortunately, did not win, but we gave it our best effort!

Here we are getting ready for the contest.

Then, after we are done, a shot of Kristen and I trying to get the ice cream out of our noses. (and no, you are not seeing things... pretty much everyone in this shot IS wearing the same shirt. All family members and farm help had a "Brunner's Hillside Dairy" t-shirt.)

The breakfast ran from 7am - 11am and afterwards, there was a picnic at my parent's house. Thankfully my children napped (like a 3 hour nap!) and everyone got a chance to relax. Here is a shot of the family afterwards.

Another shot of some of the family members, this time at the barn.

Around 6pm there was to be a barn dance. The rain delayed it a bit, but pretty soon we decided to forget about the rain and we made our way to the big tent again. Emma had a great time with her new found friends and was dancing and running around and laughing a lot. Evan had a great time snacking and playing with his balloons. He had just discovered that if you somewhat blow them up and then let them go, they fly through the air like a plane. I think he did that for about an hour!

And, that is all for tonight. I am over-tired from the weekend and am looking forward to sleeping in my own bed.

But first - Happy Anniversary to me and Tim! It is 7 years today :-)

The Nuky fairy

The time finally came when I knew I had to take away the precious Nuk's from my son. I have been talking about it on here for awhile and knew that sometime, I just had to bite the bullet and do it. Tim and I agreed that Memorial Weekend may be a good time as we would be at the cabin (different than the normal routine) and have 4 days off from work so the whole family could take naps if Evan couldn't sleep.

It was hard, I am not going to lie about that.

We arrived to the cabin on Thursday night around 9 or so in the evening. Both kids were tired, we had been telling Evan all day that the Nuky fairy was coming and the his Nuk's were gone. He looked a bit confused, sad, but seemed to be excited about what his big present would be. Thursday night actually went really well. He went to sleep okay. He maybe got up once, but then settled in pretty well.

He woke up the next day to this:

While it wasn't the big Lightning McQueen car that is in all the commercials lately (which he REALLY wants.. and the helmet the kid is wearing) he seemed pretty excited about this little track and played with it constantly.

Naptime on Friday went okay. Then came Friday night....

Friday night was horrible. He couldn't settle down. He kept getting up, he would whine, he would cry and keep up his sister. So, out went Emma to my bed. Then, Evan wanted water and he wanted to watch TV or he was hungry. He tried to lay and watch TV with me and Tim. We read stories. Then, around 10pm after Papa tried to help out with the situation, Evan started to cry and yell "Mama". This went on for about 30 - 45 minutes straight. I was in his room with him the whole time, rocking him, singing to him, or telling him stories, but he kept crying "Mama." Around 10:45 I started crying and Tim came in to help out. Eventually around 11:15, we brought him out to the living room, got him a snack with water, and settled him in the recliner with his precious B. . . the only thing he has for comfort now :-( He finally fell asleep in that chair, with Teddy Grahams in both hands, sitting up in the recliner.

I was SO relieved and Tim applauded my strength for withstanding the past 3.5 hours with a very upset little boy. (especially after comments of "Just give him his Nuk!" were uttered from family members at the cabin!)

Saturday nap went okay again and I was hoping he would be tired enough on Saturday that he would sleep well.

Alas, I was wrong.

Saturday night was just as bad, if not worse. The recliner gig didn't work it's magic like it did before. He did the same tricks and wouldn't stay in bed. He layed in bed and cried and yelled and wouldn't sit still. Funny, throughout all of this though, he didn't ask for his Nuk. He just couldn't settle down. I think it was around 11:30 on Saturday night that I pleaded with Tim, "are we doing the right thing? I don't know if I can take it!" and not much longer after that he settled down again with B. Thankfully...

Since then, it has been going better. Naptime at daycare still isn't all that good and he has been suffering there since the Nuky fairy came. He has been settling down okay at home, but has been waking up a lot during the night and not being able to fall back to sleep.

Both Tim and I are sleep deprived, but we still feel as though we did the right thing. I should have taken it away a lot sooner, but kept thinking that he would give it up on his own.

Now, Emma thinks the Nuky fairy is going to come when she is done sucking her thumb.

Memorial Weekend and the last party

Memorial weekend was spent up at the cabin and while the weather wasn't perfect, it still didn't dampen our spirits! We hadn't been to the cabin for a month or so, so everyone was very much looking forward to going up and fishing!


Evan was very excited to fish and was finding worms and putting him in a bucket for a few weeks prior. Emma was excited for her last birthday party!


Tim and I had Friday off, so we made the trip up on Thursday. First to avoid the horrible traffic that comes with holiday weekends and second to get there and enjoy some time before the company arrived.


We had a great, relaxing time! We had movie nights, spent time with family, fished, and the kids had to play in the lake. Yes, the lake was freezing; no the kids didn't care.


Here is the little man fishing... check out the socks.

And then... some pics of the kids in the freezing lake. Seriously, it was freezing. They played in there for maybe a half an hour at a time and then called it quits.

Here is Emma jumping in the lake!

And.. the little monkey that has to do everything that his beloved sister does!

And finally, Emma's birthday party. She had about 20 people there for this bash and we celebrated with yummy appetizers, 2 pudding desserts, 1 cake, and cookie dough ice cream!

Emma received many nice presents, two "American Girl Dolls" (yes, note the quotes) some rapunzel dolls, a nice big bath towel and fun Barbies to play with.

So... the American Girl dolls.... she has wanted an American Girl doll since her best friend at daycare inherited her older sisters American Girl Dolls. Plus, we received a catalog in the mail from the American Girl doll store and Emma would carry that catalog around, point out the doll she wanted, and show me the newest doll outfit she just found. Sigh.... Damn commercialization! Luckily, Target and Walmart have some dolls that look just like American Girl dolls. Sigh to the little kids that KNOW when they see a fake American Girl dolls and have to tell my sweet innocent daughter that "your doll doesn't look like an American Girl doll!" I just knew that would happen. I told Tim that some little punk is going to tell Emma that the doll she believed was an American Girl doll really wasn't. ANYWAY - our daycare provider did a good job of diffusing the situation and Emma doesn't know any different. However, I am thinking of telling Emma about her dolls. In a conversatin with Emma the other day, I did elude to the fact that her precious Molly and Jaycee were not American Girl dolls when Emma wanted to find the catalog and figure out which dolls she received. It was something like "Emma, even if your dolls are not in the catalog, it doesn't mean you will love them less." But, with kindergarten coming, I think I have to tell Emma the truth. I hate lying to her about some silly dolls.

Two Lunches

About two weeks or so ago, Emma was invited to go to the Zoo with her friend Kaylee. She eagerly said yes and was so excited about the trip and the time on her own with her cousin (and Kristen, and Nana, and Kate and Charley! A big crew went :-)

So to get ready for the event, I told Emma that she and I would pack a lunch for her to bring along. Boy, you would have thought I said we were going to Disney World or something, she was so excited for this!

I had recently bought some Lunchables, which the kids love to bring along to the park or something, so we got out a brown paper bag and put that in there first. Then, I let Emma go through our cupboards to pick out other healthy things to go along. First, a banana. (good choice!) Then, a mini bag of chips. Not so good of a choice. Then, some oreo's to share with the group, juice box, water, and then I let her make her own peanut butter and jelly sandwich. She really enjoys helping out with things like that.

Now, Evan, not to be left out of anything, has to make his OWN lunch. He pulls up a chair next to Emma at the counter, grabs two pieces of bread and starts to make his own sandwich. He does make a mean pb&j. After that, he grabbed a bag of chips, pack of cookies, apple, and juice box and he felt pretty proud of himself. Both kids put their treasured lunch in a brown paper bag and all was set.

The next morning Emma went to Kristen's with her sack lunch and Evan went to daycare with his. I was told at pick-up that he kept telling Theresa all day about his lunch and how "I help Mama make dat!" and he sat down and ate it all very happily!

Emma too.

Fun in the Sun

Finally! We have some summer and some heat! The kids have been taking advantage of it!

Every night we get bombarded with questions: "Can we play in the sprinklers Mom?" "Can you turn on the sprinklers for us?" "Can we drive the gator in the sprinklers?" Usually, the answer is yes. I am fine with them running and playing in the sprinklers. Because who I am kidding? It DOES look like fun!

The advantage of being a man... or little boy

While Tim will deny this, he had said since Evan was born that he could not wait to teach Evan how to pee outside. For some reason, because it is a God given right, peeing outside is a big deal for men and the first time Evan did it, Tim was very, very proud.

Ever since that one time, Evan thinks it is pretty cool to pee outside. (or, the big barn at Papa's. Just ask Nana to tell you that story!) In the past, Tim or I have always been around to help... except this one time....

I am making lunch on Sunday, helping Tim in the house, while watching the kids play outside. I am slicing onions or something and I take a quick peek out the window to make sure both kids are safe. As I glance outside, I see Evan pulling down his pants and undies right next to the sandbox. I shake my head and make a dash for the door as we have cousins over playing AND the neighbors next door are having a garden party. I make it outside just as Evan sticks out his little tummy and starts peeing. "Evan!! NO!" I yell as I try to make it there.

He jumps a bit, looks up and smiles, " I peeing Mama! I pee outside!"

I make it over to him as he finishes and proudly exclaims, "My tummy empty. I done peeing!"

And one more quick story...

Evan and Tim are in bed one morning after I have already left for work. Tim (I am sure) is wishing he was sleeping and Evan is jabbering away.

"I have a little butt Daddy. You have a big butt."

"Yeah, I guess Evan. Go to sleep."

"I have little foots Daddy. You have BIG foots."

"Yes Evan, You are right."

more catch up to come!

Laziness has set in

There has been so much going on the past two weeks, but I have been lazy. No real excuse for it, just lazy. I am attributing it to the fact that I just got done with my last class and I am enjoying not studying. Unfortunately, I have 2 tests I want to pass this summer to waive out of a class, so I am not off the hook for anything. Anyway - my goal is to start studying and doing my online class next week, so I am enjoying my laziness while I can :-)

Emma is 5 and so happy! She looked at me on her birthday and said, "So Mama... are you sad that I am 5 and that I can go to school now?!" with her bright blue eyes shining! Yes, so I am a bit sad, but not really. I know she is so excited for school and that she will excel in school, but I still do the "How can my Baby be 5?!" She had a great birthday. I took off from work and we had a Mama/Emma day. That started out with Evan going to daycare and Emma and I picking up Kaylee and heading to Perkins for breakfast! The girls had fun eating their sprinkle pancakes and drawing silly notes to each other and just having fun together. After that was Emma's 5 year pictures. She did okay with pictures. The first 8 or so were cute, the last 30 roughly were strained goofy smiles and bulging eyes. Oh well, at least I got a few to hang on the wall!

Then, lunch with Daddy! She loves going to Daddy's office because the women that work for him completely adore her and give her candy. She draws them pictures, writes on Daddy's wipe board and really, all is right with the world. We went to Applebee's for lunch where she happily dined on a Corn Dog and applesauce. Then, the BIG surprise... the waitstaff singing happy birthday to her! She wasn't expecting it at all and had the biggest smile on her face the whole time. She loved the sundae and wants to go back next year.

After Daddy's was rest time (watching Tangled) and taking her birthday money to Target to buy a special gift. (Thanks all for the wonderful cards and gifts to her! I am patiently waiting for some little pictures to come in before we send the Thank You notes. Sorry for the delay!) She picked out a Barbie and decided that we could go and pick up Evan. She was really sad to see the day go by so fast and honestly, so was I! We don't get a lot of one-on-one time and I need to make more of an effort to do it.

Evan was a bit jealous with Emma's birthday. He didn't really understand why he didn't get presents and constantly wanted to open hers. He thinks that his birthday is pretty soon and that he will be turning 6. This infuriates Emma because "MAMA! I am older than Evan. He will never be older than me. He is not 6!"

Quick tidbits:

Emma still loves t-ball and we signed her up for another session of swimming lessons as she is really starting to swim like a fish in the water. She proudly tells me that she now has a boyfriend at t-ball. Truthfully, there is one little guy that is adorable with big brown eyes and long eyelashes and is just a peanut! He hangs around Emma a lot and she likes the attention. She is starting to interact more with the other boys on her team, which I am happy to see, but don't care for their play. They chase each other, throw dirt at each other, and just rough-house together. Normal behavior I understand, but still not that nice.

Evan is doing really well as well. He seems to be talking more every day and understanding more of what is going on. He is potty-trained with sporadic accidents, but overall is doing awesome. He enjoys doing all things boy, such as digging, playing with cars, getting dirty, trains, running around, and being loud. We were walking at the farm the other day and every step he would stop and look at rocks. He would turn some over, pick some up, then replace them and continue on. It was such a slow, slow walk and I was getting frustrated and finally said, "Evan! Come on! What are you doing buddy?" "Mama! I lookin for tweasure! Where the tweasure, Mama?" Ahh.. such sweet innocence! Looking back I feel bad for rushing that sweet time! He was literally turning over tiny rocks, stones, crushed rocks, whatever, looking for treasure! I asked him what kind of treasure he was looking for and what did he say? "Cookies!" So, I had to warn him that if he finds any cookies under rocks, it is best not to pick them up and eat them.

The big 5

While the official big day for Emma is still 2 days away, we had a big celebration for her today. She was so excited and the party was basically all she could talk about. We had a countdown during the week for her party and every day she kept asking, "can we fill up the pinata today?" or "can I get out the favor stuff today and look at them" or something along those lines. She had a Tangled theme party and just couldn't wait for the day to arrive.

Finally, the day did arrive and she was up at 4:30 with a bloody nose, 5:45 because she was just awake, and then at 6:30 for the day. Ugh!! She seems to go through streaks where she sleeps in really well and doesn't come into our room during the night or streaks like now where she comes to our room once or twice a night. So frustrating! So, while she was having a great day, I could tell during the morning she was tired and overly anxious for her party. Thankfully, she took a good nap.

Then, when she woke up the kitchen was all decorated for her birthday! There was a Rapunzel happy birthday banner, Rapunzel cake, flowers, party favors, balloons, and for her the most important thing... presents! She then got on her party dress, I put some braids in her hair and right when we were about to call the neighbors to come over, she looked out the window and started jumping up and down! They were already on their way over!

We played some fun games such as a three-legged race (which Kyra and I were awesome at!), gunny sack (or pillow case race that Emma did very well in), had a pinata (all kids loved this!) and then pin the tail on the donkey! The kids had a great time playing games, playing on the swing set and celebrating the day. We feasted on assorted chips and dip, pizza, and then CAKE!

Some pics of the big day:

Here is Emma ALL SMILES while we were singing happy birthday to her. She literally had a huge smile pasted on the whole time.

Another with the cake and balloons.
Opening presents. She received Rapunzel toys from Tim, Evan, and I. A Rapunzel tower to play with, a birthday lantern, fake hair, and Rapunzel doll and Flynn Ryder from Evan. She loved all of it and played with it the rest of the night. From the Kellogg's, she received a bathing suit, cover up, and other beach/sun paraphernalia.


I tried to get a good one of the cousins (minus the babies) but Evan didn't really want to have any of it.

The siblings....

Kyra being resourceful getting candy from the pinata. All Tim had to do was mention that the object of the pinata, after it was mauled open of course, was to get the most candy. Kyra decided to be resourceful and use her skirt for a sack.




Emma hitting at the pinata.





Just Emma.

Evan decided he would rather drive around in the gator instead of playing the kids games. Except the pinata. He LOVED the pinata. And pin-the-tail on the donkey.

Another shot of Em and the cake.

And Evan wearing a garden hat that Emma was given for her birthday. See the candy clutched in his little hand? He found 4 Kit-Kat bars in the pinata and he refused to let them out of his sight all night. Why? "Cause Emma take dem!" was his reasoning. So, he went potty and he brought them along (which - side note - Evan is potty trained! He is wearing big-boy undies for naps AND for night time now with success! My big boy!!) or he went to go play cars and he brought the candy. Seriously, he would not let go of them or out of his sight. By the end of the night, we had 3 soft/melty kit-kat bars. For bedtime, he put them in his undie drawer "So Emma don't take dem!"

All-in-all, it was a really great day! Emma, despite her tiredness, had a great day and all the kids played really well. We were lucky to finally have some sun so the kids could play outside and enjoy the games, and now everyone is relaxing and lounging. I took off on Tuesday, for her actual birthday, so we can have a Mama, Emma day.

And.. I leave with you one of my favorite Emma quotes. She was listening to the Tangled soundtrack on my iPod and was singing along to "Mother Knows Best." She looks at me with a serious look and says,

"Mama, All Mama's know best. Except the Mama's that steal other people's kids."

Well said kiddo... well said. :-)

Back to Reality

It is always hard to come back from vacation, but sadly it is so. The Heuer House is now back to reality...

Tim and I got back from Europe last Friday after a wonderful, wonderful vacation. We had about 24 hours sight-seeing in Paris, 72 hours drinking wine through the Burgundy countryside, and then approximately 48 hours shopping and touring in London. Our trip can be summed up by EXCELLENT food, even better wine, and good times and many laughs with good friends.


Here are a few pics of our trip:


The view from our hotel room in Paris (with the help of zoom) but really, we had an excellent view. This is the only hotel room we had booked for the trip. Every place else was up to our map and intuition.



Our traveling group during the day:

I think this was Beaune, France. (we really toured from one little town to the next. They all started to run together after awhile.) A view from one of the vineyards.

Ladoix winery. We had an ABSOLUTE blast here. Jean Luc (pictured below with us in the black vest) was the owner of the winery, which we discovered about 30 minutes into the wine tasting as he didn't speak a lick of English. Thank goodness for my (gulp) 3 years of French class in high school and my iPod. Yup, there's an App for that! I had a English/French translation app to help out. It really worked well for the little stops that we made. As did much gesturing and failed attempts at charades.

The last day in France we were in Chablis. Instead of doing another wine tasting plate, we decided to buy a bunch of random yummy French food and do a picnic. It was a great idea as many of us agree it was our favorite meal of the trip!

Before - all the food for our picnic! One bottle of wine, two baguettes, two different cheeses, quiche, three kinds of meat, three kinds of mustard, pears, strawberries, and three different desserts.

AFTER: Not much left!! Plus, I think we could have eaten more. This was such a great, great meal!

The happy group.


And.. on to London.

Can you see the building to the far left? Buckingham Palace. We stumbled onto this one actually as last Thursday was a day of wandering and shopping our way through London. I was kind of happy to see Buckingham Palace after the big Royal Wedding! It was neat to see all the media tents and everything still up to capture the big kiss.





Another view of Buckinham Palace

Tim and I posing in front of London Bridge.

That was it! Our fabulous Europe vacation :-) Everyone had a great time and I owe everyone a big thanks to help make it happen... aka... kid duty! Emma and Evan were happy at their aunt & uncle's cabin, the farm, and then back home. More on that later! I am not sure if I am still a bit jet-lagged, but I am exhausted!