Family Picnic

Andy's father's side of the family has an annual picnic in Sun Prairie. This past Saturday, it was at this picnic that our two oldest children were returned to us.
They had been with Andy's parents in Green Bay for the week prior and seemed very happy to see their Mom and Dad again. We had lots of nice big hugs from them and they played very nicely with their sister.

Each family brings their version of chicken and side dishes. This year, we brought our cheesy broccoli casserole.

Dennis and Don Nichols (his brother-in-law)

Darlene and Andy

Okay, I'm ready to eat. Where's my food?

HUGS!

And maybe a smooch.

Playing together.

See that teeny tiny speck? Rowan wants you to know that it's a bug and it has to be removed.

It's sweet to see them playing so nicely together.
This doesn't happen often at home.

It was a good time.
The kids had been away in Green Bay for a week. They spent a few days at the cabin - went swimming, 4-wheeling, etc....and they also got to experience Bay Beach again.
They were with Grandma and Grandpa for about 7 days. Since Rowan has been back home, she has told me that 7 days is too many days. And she really missed us.

It was nice for us to have the kids with the Weisensels. We were able to catch up on some cleaning and other projects, one of which was pulling up the carpet and padding in the living room and dining room.
The floors aren't pretty, but they will be just fine for us until Andy refinishes them (late September). The kids love that their cars and zhu zhu pets actually roll places now.

Maybe we can get a in a blog post on the floors soon.

Happy Birthday Harvey

Happy Birthday
to our little man!(1 Day Old)

You've grown so much in these short 3 years.
I can't believe how fast the time has gone.

(First Birthday)

From crawling, to walking, to running and hopping all around...

(Second Birthday)

You have impressed all of us with how quickly you pick up new skills and
how easily you learn from your older sister.

You have your own style, your likes (cars, robots and Team Umizoomi).
Even though you still have your moments that show your age,
you still know how to turn Mom's frown upside down with
your sweet little smile.

Now you're the big 3!
And we are so proud of you!

Here are some photos from his birthday celebration....

(Opening presents....this is a little Kitty named Scamps)

(and a Zhou Zhou Pets ball....Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Weisensel!)

(2 Look and Find books from Mom
- notice how thrilled he looks.)

(And the super cool car race track he got from Dad!)

(This "little bear" has claimed Harvey's balloon.)

(And she also feels that Scamps belongs to her. Lucky for her, Harvey allows her to play with Scamps liberally!)

(Harvey's choice for dinner
- Culvers grilled cheese Scoopie Meal.)

(Miss Rowan was wanting Dad to take some silly pictures of her.)

(After 3 attempts, he blew out his candle all by himself!)

(All of his absolute favorite characters from TV.)
(Love the Popeye smile!)

Our little swimmer

We have been very remiss in posting updates to our blog. Our apologies. Sometimes it seems like a month will fly by and I haven't gotten anything done. The sewing project hasn't moved off the shelf, the knob is still missing from the kitchen cabinet, and on and on.....

I'll try to get back "on the wagon" and post more often.
Here's the latest info on the kids swimming.

Harvey:
Was generally good in the water. He really seemed to enjoy blowing bubbles, kicking, and jumping in from the side of the pool. Harvey's last swim class of the session could have gone better though. He didn't want to participate in anything. He only wanted to play with the swim toys in the basket. Harvey had half of his abilities checked on his "report card". Since he has to continue to work on his skills (and he's not yet 4 years old) Harvey will have to stay in the parent/tot swim class.

Rowan:
Rowan did fine in all of her swim classes. She has some issues with trust yet. She thinks I might let go of her or I might dunk her under the water. By the second to last class, she trusted the swim teacher, Betsy, enough to swim in Betsy's arms.Rowan didn't like blowing bubbles at first, but the skill grew on her. She loved swimming with the noodle, barbell, backpack and life jacket. She LOVED the life jacket because she felt like an independent swimmer with it on. Too bad the life jacket was only shared with the students on one day. Rowan also really enjoyed jumping in from the side of the pool. There were several times I tried to bribe (read: encourage) her to jump and put her whole head under water. I offered her a dollar for each time she put her head under. She was brave enough to do that twice one night and twice another night. I guess 2 dollars was enough for her as she refused to do any more bobs under the water.
Even with her reservations, Rowan was still given the clearance to move onto the next swim group. Children in Aqua Kids need to be at least 4 years old. It will be nice to have Rowan swim with her peers now....and not in the baby swim class.
Here's her report card:

A nice day in May

One very nice day in May, we decided to walk down to Tivoli Island with the kids. This was our first trek using only baby carriers and no strollers.
It was a great experience. The kids got to see a few ducks, walk the trails on the island and see a nearby dam.
We bought a loaf of cheap white bread to feed the ducks. It turned out that these ducks must have been fed by many other people prior to our visit. Only 2 or 3 ducks nibbled at our bread.

Ursula loved crossing the bridge. She did it several times.