Fri-Yay

Happy Friday!  We had a really good day today.  I took the kids to the bakery for breakfast and planned to go to a park in town that recently got new equipment We enjoyed our donuts and headed for the park but there was a bus full of kids from the daycare there.  We decided to hold off until it wasn't quite so crazy and drove around checking out rummage sales instead.  We ended up scoring Grace the most adorable Halloween costume ever, Madi some brand new looking shoes, and Wyatt a few little toys he had to have:)  Everyone was happy with our finds!

 

We dropped Madi off at a friend's house this morning for a sleepover tonight and a trip to the Brown County Fair and rodeo.  We headed to Green Bay afterwards because Dave & I planned to meet  for lunch, to see what "Food Truck Friday" was all about.  I got downtown before him and didn't see anything going on where I thought it was supposed to be.  I checked online and it's next Friday!  Oh well, we had a lunch date anyway.  Wyatt, Grace, and I ran to a few stores, picked up some prescriptions for Grandma, then headed back home to visit with Grandma for a while.  So, Madi's gone at a sleepover and Dave has the littles in the camper for a sleepover!  I decided it would be prime time to clean the bedroom carpets since nobody was sleeping in their rooms tonight.  Now it's time for some reading:)

 

 

Back to School

I can't believe the kids go back to school in less than 2 weeks.  It makes me sad; I like having them around and we've had a lot of fun this summer.  Don't get me wrong, we definitely have days when I am ready for school to start;)  I can barely stand to think about Gracie being in school all day, every day.  The littles won't let me dwell on it too long I'm sure!  Next week we will have Hannah, Hattie, and Luke here for 3 days while their moms are at teacher work days, meetings, open houses, etc.  We are as ready as we're going to be for the new school year.  We've had haircuts, dr. appointments, dentist appointments, have all our school supplies ready for open house next week, and bought a few clothing items they needed.  We will give the house a good cleaning and clean the carpets.  I plan to put the girls to work on some projects; disinfecting toys, vacuuming couches, disinfecting door knobs and light switches, and any other jobs I can con them into.  We're going to start giving allowances so they're going to have to earn it:)  I'm working on some food/snack prep to get us through the first couple weeks at least-here's what we have so far!

 I made smoothie packets to keep in the freezer so they can be thrown in the blender with a little milk.  These are all strawberry banana with frozen chunks of banana, frozen strawberries, and frozen cubes of vanilla yogurt. 

 Our snack basket is all stocked up and the girls will pick one each day to take to school for snack time.  This was Dave's Grandma Reed's basket.  The handles are falling off but I love seeing it in the pantry. 

 50 mini, pumpkin, muffins that will go in the freezer.  We can take out how ever many the kids want, microwave them a few seconds and they're good to go.  This is the best, easiest, recipe ever.  It's a box of yellow cake mix (I use just shy of the whole mix), one can of pumpkin, and we like to add mini chocolate chips. 

I also made some "uncrustables."  I'm not sure how they'll go over so I didn't go crazy making a ton.  Madi eats school lunch most days but I have a feeling I'll be packing lots of lunches for Grace.  These will also go in the freezer and will be thrown in her lunch box to be thawed by lunch time!

Heritage Hill State Park

After living in the Green Bay area for almost 11 years now, I finally made it to one of the places I've always wanted to visit.  I've loved history for as long as I can remember but, like so many other things, I've just never got around to visiting Heritage Hill.  The girls had appointments for back-to-school haircuts in Green Bay anyway, so when I saw that Tuesdays were free, we had to check it out.  The girls were very intrigued but I made the mistake of not bringing the stroller for Wyatt.  Usually he prefers to walk and won't sit in it but there was LOTS of walking and LOTS of hills and his little legs tired quickly.  Then he wanted me to carry him the whole time and was upset when I needed to put him down because the humidity was insane and I was HOT.  He isn't quite old enough to appreciate all the history just yet, but we'll teach him. There were also some large summer camp groups there today which made some parts tricky for us to see.  I would love to go back again, with a stroller and with my hubby, but I'm happy we finally made it there. 

 Excited to check everything out!

 Cheese factory from the 1800's

 Looks like it's time to put these kiddos to work; my days of laundry are over!

 I just love windmills!

 Schoolhouse

 Firehouse

 Beautiful church

 Inside of the church

 The kids in front of Cotton House

 Up close and personal with some of the farm animals

 This cow kept an eye on Grace, with good reason I'm sure

 This was Wyatt's, "I'm not so sure about those cows" look.  He kept his distance to being with then got curious. 

 Wy thought a stick might help

 Sorry, windmill picture overload; I just can't get enough

 Wyatt checking out the man things

 Madi's bangs were FINALLY long enough that Debbie thought we could layer her hair a bit to help them blend in better and did this awesome braid after she cut it.  Debbie is seriously the best; she so kindly made a house call last weekend to cut my mom's hair for her and did a beautiful job, as usual.  You know you have the best hairdresser ever when your kids give her hugs and kisses before leaving:)

 

Cousin Fun Day

We had SUCH a fun day with cousins Hannah and Hattie today (and their mommy too of course!).  We were going to go to the zoo but met at Kidz Town since there was a chance of rain all day.  The kids had a ball!  We went to McDonalds for lunch (and ice cream!) afterwards and they all played in the play land.  We all met for dinner at my mom and dad's house tonight to welcome my aunt who is here to stay for 2 weeks with my mom while my dad is at work (I can't even begin to explain how very thankful I am to her for making the trip, but more on that later).  The guys grilled some delicious steaks (thanks to the Lewis family for the very thoughtful gift card!) and we made some corn, potatoes, cucumber salad, and Sarah made a yummy cake for dessert.  It was such a good day and boy did we have some tired kiddos tonight.  It makes my heart so happy that even though we had spent the day together, the kids couldn't have been happier to play again at Grandpa & Grandma's house; they really love each other so much. 

 Hattie was NOT impressed when a little boy gave her a little push down the slide

 Pure joy!

 Giddy up!

 Tiny Hannah loved the slide and would've spent the day laying at the bottom of it if her mom would've let her:)

 Gracie has a soft spot for Cardinals because she knows how much Grandma Hoverson loves them.  Whenever we see one, real or fake, she gravitates towards it. 

 Like father, like son.  Grill master in the making. 

 All the kids got awesome balloon animals.  Grace chose the giraffe which was absolutely adorable.  Unfortunately, by the time we got to the car, only it's head remained.  Lucky for her, Wyatt said he wanted to trade her half popped giraffe for his puppy...or so she said.

 Hattie was SO excited for a "balloon."  She sat and clapped as the lady was making them.  So cute!

 Hannah and Wyatt happy with their balloon animals, but even happier that mommy/Auntie Sarah had fruit snacks along:)

 Madi in a bubble at McDonalds play land. 

 Here comes Hannie!

Hattie snuck a drink (or 10) of mommy's soda.  Shhh, don't tell daddy!

Twin Bridges Camping Weekend

We decided with summer dwindling away faster than we care to talk about, we'd like to try and fit in a camping trip this month.  Dave took Friday off so Thursday afternoon we headed north to Twin Bridges Campground.  We've stayed there once before, on our very first camping trip almost two years ago.  It has remained at the top of my list as my favorite campground we've visited so far .  It is a beautiful campground with nice bathrooms and showers and easy access to the beach and a very nice park for the kids.  The only downfall is that only half of their sites can be reserved, the other half are first-come-first-serve.  All the sites that could be reserved already were which didn't sit well with my type-A, plan loving, personality.  Dave assured me since we were leaving Thursday we would have no problem getting a spot.  There were only 3 open spots when we got there; too close for comfort in my book. 

 Sand monster

 Madi's friend, Izzy, throwing her into the water

 Daddy and Grace water fight

 Our little fish girl

 BFFs

 Wyatt ended up with a fever on Saturday and was very sleepy and not at all himself.  This was Saturday evening and we were so happy to have him back to his normal, mischievous, self. 

 We had already changed out of swimming suits before heading to watch a waterski show but everyone had to wade in the water anyway. 

 Some got more wet than others...

 Waiting for the waterski show to start; I love Wyatt's sandy butt and Grace's dirty little toes!

 Twin Bridges waterski team

 The sunset was probably the most beautiful I've ever seen.  Pictures just don't do it justice. 

 Madi & Izzy watching the show

 Wyatt and Grace testing out the floaties in the camper

 Lunch time on the beach

 My handsome little stud muffin

 The kids spent countless hours in the water this weekend; I would say close to 9 hours between the two days and they would've stayed longer if we'd let them. 

 Playing at the park while Daddy packed up the camper.  No fear. 

 Grace found a friend at the beach and they had SO much fun.  Her name was Addie Grace so they were two peas in a pod:)

Happy Camping to all, and to all a good night!

(Wyatt slept in his camper bed both nights like a champ.  Maybe the transition from the crib won't be too hard???)

 

As much as I love camping, my heart really was not into this trip to begin with.  Dave decided we should go, then thought it might be too hot so decided we shouldn't go (but I said we were already too committed to back out and had already invited Madi's friend).  Wyatt got a fever, we lost electricity to the camper for Saturday afternoon/evening, and there was a fair amount of bickering going on because little sister was jealous that big sister got to bring a friend along.  Friday night I told Dave I would happily go home, but we stuck it out and ended up having a fun weekend.  It was Madi's friend's first time camping so we hope she enjoyed it as much as we (normally) do.  Looking forward to some fall camping!