A holiday progression

The kids were off school last Wednesday, giving them a very long weekend. We spent Wednesday afternoon baking and cooking for Thursdays Thanksgiving meal of carbohydrates and roast beast. Our early afternoon binge was also graced by some family friends and their children as well, I don't think there was an empty belly in the group. Friday Sophia and I went to get a tree and after the boughs dropped in the warmth of the living room Lisa and the kids decorated it, while I cleaned up the ubiquitous glass shards from colored balls and snow globes. We quickly found that hardwood floors are not nearly as forgiving as wall to wall carpeting of years past. Saturday's weather felt almost more spring like than later November. We found time for a short hike, although Merrick quickly tired, partly due to the time of day and partly because he is fighting some 'kid crud.' Sunday has brought clouds and drizzle, which certainly impedes what can be done outside--we will see what we can find for entertainment.

A Hanuaka of Halloween

The past few years it has occurred to me that there is a lot of money to be made during Halloween. This has occurred to me not because I am making any money on the holiday, but rather those wiser than I are making money because of me. What I recall as a single evening in the fall in which we wandered around our neighborhood, or at least no more than a three block radius has become something all together different. Today there is evil doers behind every tree, shrub, rock, bush, Bush sign and there is no way we can let our children wander the streets. At first the evenings were replaced by day time trick-or-treating but even that was deemed too unsafe. Now we spend most every weekend in October driving the kids to some new locale (parks, zoos, etc.) to trick-or-treat at a premium. The kids are still just as cute, but wandering along with a cluster of other parents in a cattle herd has lost some if its luster for me, although I understand the kids are none the wiser. We took the kids to Merrick's school party early in the week, then we went to Heritage Hill State park for some more treats. Heritage Hill is a state park about a block from the house that is home to early colonial period houses and demonstrations, such as blacksmith shops, livery stations, farmsteads. They also had some period games including apples dangling from the ceiling that the kids took turns trying to chomp on--thinking that it was cold/flu season we passed on this game. Later in the week the kids were then able to trick-or-treat in EC with their grandparents as well. Apparently Merrick was easily appeased with the initial offerings in his bag and was content to forgo all future attempts at getting more candy, unlike Sophia, and just be happy with the bird in hand. Merrick was dressed up as a fireman and convinced that he was going to "freak everyone out." While Sophia was an Alien commander complete with glow in the dark mask that did freak me out, as well as Merrick. Merrick's school party had the usually games including a pinata. Given the large German descent in the area I suspect that the pinata has been a long time tradition of Halloween. Sophia even got to take the first crack at the brightly colored paper mache donkey, the symbol of Halloween, although she no longer attends that school. Her school had no costumes (another change) nothing scary, sharp, pointy, excessively toothy, potentially offensive, political or fun could be worn. We erred on the side of caution and just kept her home that day, least her pink wardrobe offend anyone with a flamingo bias.

Autumanal bliss

After a long summer in which almost every day was a 'bloggable' day by the standards of this author, school has resumed and with it the ebb and flow of daily domestic minutia and the subtle joys of the weekends with the kids. As with most of the rest of the state we woke up to a chill in the air that was beyond just crisp, a definitive preface to the onset of winter. All of this seems too early for a summer that seldom crept into the range of summer. The leaves are about 50% of peak and I suspect will top out in the next week to ten days around here. We tried to make the most of it, and on Saturday went apple picking. It was cold, we were underdressed, not poor planning as much as too stubborn to admit that it was as cold as it was. Temperature was in the mid thirties and there was a pretty stiff breeze. The kids didn't mind too much, as the tractor ride out to the apple trees as well as the fruit picking poles was enough novelty to warm them up. The also were able to pick out their pumpkins on the way home. Both of them felt the full brunt of being in the elements and had Chernobyl style melt-downs on the way home. In the afternoon we taught the kids about Columbus day, and drove down to the spice store and claimed it as our own.
Sunday was equally cold/beautiful. The sun, while no longe warm, still was bright in the sky and we headed out for an early morning hike. Sophia wanted a walking stick to cruise the trails dappled with sun light and a palate of leaf colors and Merrick just wanted a stick so he could pretend to shoot things when he wasn't actually beating trees, brush, rocks or anything else that didn't move. The maples had lost most of their leaves and the forest floor appeared to be pockets of gold where their leaves had dropped. The previous day's gourd score was also appropriately gutted and faced into the jack-o-lanterns that now decorate our front stoop. Merrick was less interested in the pumpkins and was easily side-tracked by the balls in the back yard that surely needed to be kicked, while Sophia dutifully gutted and carved faces on both sides of her pumpkin. She figured that way no matter which direction people in our neighborhood were walking they would get to see her rendition of Comedy and Tragedy. After long naps by all we had a small fire in the back yard and then commitioned the kids to paint for us. Earlier in the week I had built some frames and stretched some canvas and prepped them to be painted. The kids doned their painting gear and were as Merrick imediately gravited to impressionistic art, Sophia started out in realistic and then migrated through Van Gogh impressionism and eventually ended with late Monet inspired impressionism. Through here artistic travel she did stop to dabble in some surrealism when her flower was the same size as her tree, she told me she was just using her imagination. After supper we made the early fall pies, apple and pumpkin, as a test run for the upcoming glutinous holiday and called it a pretty good weekend.

A two-year old's strategy

With the girls at swimming lessons, Merrick and I took a run along the river trail. I say Merrick and I took a run but he was really in the rickshaw. This does of course add to cardiovascular work out for me as a two-year old never is quite and must ask questions or risk falling asleep. While on the run I did have to laugh out loud at the following conversation as Merrick recognized we were going to run past the ice cream shop were we often stop.

Merrick: Daddy, we get ice cream?
Me: No, not today.
Merrick: Why, Daddy?
Me: We are just running today.
Merrick: Why, Daddy?
Me: because I need to exercise.
Merrick: Why, Daddy?
Me: exercise makes me feel better.
Merrick: Ice cream makes you feel better daddy.

This was a bout a minute and a half conversation and I thought a pretty well laid out plan on his part--I never saw it coming.

Fortunate enough for self-reflection

Spent some time in the garden this morning, picking a couple pounds of beans to go with about the same amount of peas that we picked last week. I was again reminded of how fortunate I am to have this time with the kids, there is obviously times when I wish they would venture a distance greater than six feet from me but most of the time we are able to have good conversations and I can see both their curiosity and level of questioning grow. Sophia is always trying to please us and Merrick is learning as well as constantly testing his boundaries--both good and important skills. One of the photos shows Merrick in the garden and Sophia's head is poking around the corner of the garage, she is able to eat the raspberries in the back yard as well as run to the front of the house for blueberries.

Good times that I don't wish away are extended from the backyard garden to our most recent trip to Northern Highlands-American Legion State Park (NH-AL). Lisa picked out the park and came along with us on this trip. We again had beautiful weather with daytime highs in the low eighties and nighttime lows in the fifties with no humidity. We stayed dry although last night a large storm moved through the area with winds approaching 60 miles an hour--by that time we were already showered and in our own beds--again fortunate. We spent some time hiking on the numerous trails that meander through the hemlock and maple forest. Merrick and Sophia were happy to hold the dogs' leashes although the dogs neither liked the idea of the leashes or the walking. Sophia is big enough to make the entirety of the hikes although Merrick often catches a ride on the shoulders of the the most sympathetic parent. He will get down and run for a little bit then claim his legs hurt and he needs a ride. The bugs were not bad but even a few bites causes good sized welts on the little boy. One of the bites swelled his shin into a second calf muscle. The dogs are getting old and it seems their blood line is very far removed from the wolves, so the idea of multiple days in the woods is not their idea of a good time and the novelty quickly wore off. In reality Cleo hasn't really moved since we got home and Tony has only ventured outside for a combined total of 1.7 minutes. The dogs were not allowed in the beach area nor could we leave them unattended in the tent. Lisa found a great solution to this as we hiked the shoreline she found an isolated strip of sand beach that we could take the dogs to. The kids played in the sand making sand castles, sand pies and for Merrick getting plenty of silica into his diet. He also like the idea of European swimming as well as "you are peeing" swimming. With his suit removed he found it most enjoyable to build sandcastles that he could sit on. Yes tea-bagging the sandcastles--fortunate. This was only after I convinced him not to pee were he was playing. The kids were also able to carry the largest rocks they could find and after an hour not a single toe had been crushed. Lisa and I read on the beach and the kids played close at hand. The were not too interested in the water as it is the sand not the water that is the novelty for them. The lake had a pretty good drop off which is a remnant of its recent glaciated creation. I swam and it felt good to remove a day and half's worth of wood smoke and grease. No intrepid raccoons on this trip but Lisa and I did find a couple of mice that made an equal amount of noise in the dry leaves around our campsite and the chipmunks and red squirrels added to the agony of the dogs.

A long drive on July Five

With the fourth of July being yesterday we did all of the American things that are supposed to be done; we grilled out with friends and walked down to watch the fireworks over the river. As is often the case with young kids they fall asleep just as the fireworks are starting. With the first flares sent up I felt the Sophia lose her battle to the sandman and the dead weight of her body replacing the conscious heft that was there only moments before. When she awoke this morning she had to ask if I had carried her to bed, as she had no memory of the holiday light show. Merrick was in the same position, although did not seem to be nearly as concerned with how he made it to bed.
The Fifth of July was another day, a beautiful low eighties, low humidity day and on a whim we made a long drive south to the our old stomping grounds of Port Washington. We spent some time fishing on the pier. Between the clarity of the water (thank you zebra mussels) and only a light breeze you could see down to depths of over twenty feet. This allowed us to watch some massive carp cruise by as well as about 15 - 20 nice sized lake trout. Alas, nothing was biting. Merrick is still on bobber restrictions, but Sophia has moved up to an open bail. The closed face reel I bought her was a quality name but now appears to be made in China--in short it is junk which is why she was using my open face--She did well enough with it that I think I will pick her up one of her own. We were able to watch several others clean fish at the public cleaning station although both kids thought that the smell could use some improvements and then grabbed a couple of sandwhiches and headed a couple minutes north to Harrington Beach State park. This is a beautiful State park with great hiking trails of which Lisa and I have traversed all of them several times. Our intentions were to do a little hiking, some possible geocaching and then a little time on the beach. As it turned out we only hit the beach. The kids swim alot, although they have never really swam at a beach and Merrick was beside himself with joy and appearance of so much sand. The water was typical temperatures (low to mid 60s) but we waded around and made several sand castles and in general just enjoyed the beauty that is Lake Michigan. The kids made use of thier reptilian brain to make sand angels in the body warming sand, this of course lead to sand everwhere and as Merrick kept saying "I got sand on my junk"

Gypsy Village at Hartman

After more than a year of tentative planning Brad and I finally got the kids out on a camping trip and it was really enjoyable for everyone. We had a mid week Tuesday to Thursday excursion at Hartman Creek State park. The weather was cool and dry which meant no swimming but also no bugs. Given the midweek nature of the adventure we even had the place pretty much to our selves, with the exception of the ghost sites that were just empty tents holding sites for the holiday weekend. All of the kids were very well behaved to the point were we are already planning to do it again. We even got the whole troupe down for a nap, and to bed relatively early. The park had a nice set of asphalt loops for the older kids to ride their bikes on and our site was large enough for everyone to play soccer on. The kids spent much of their time hunting/trapping chipmunks. The older ones initially tried throwing logs at the furry-tailed rats and then eventually decided building traps was the way to go. This was actually less successful than assumed as the two youngest kept eating the peanuts that were left for bait. We did a couple of long hikes each day and the collective herd was way too noisy to see even song birds but Ole did manage to foul up the woods just the same. Hiking and fishing during the day, and smores and campfires at night. Wednesday night we let the oldest ones stay up to see the fearless coons that came within feet of us to eat the ground waste that accumulates with five little ones snack/grazing all day. We tried to incorporate some of the local history and botany on the hikes between the current plants in bloom and the informational sign posts along the hiking trails, even managed to visit a restored Norwegian home that was on site. The next trip is coming shortly and we are thinking Buckhorn or roche-A-Cri, no sense doing the same park twice the state is too pretty to do that.

Like watching Fish in the Grass

Was able to sneak out for an early morning run by myself this morning and was fortunate to see large numbers of carp rolling in the grass where the river was running high. Fortunate because it meant that I could stop running and watch them for a while and also because it meant I could drag the kids down to the river and see if they could hook on to a river pig. The kids were just rolling out of bed when I return but were quickly eager to grab their poles and some slices of bread for dough balls and head out on a carping adventure. The both jumped in the rickshaw and I tossed on my roller blades and we hit the bike trail to make the best time possible. The sun was still low in the sky but hot as would later be evident by the degree of sunburn on my back. Merrick had his small Lightning McQueen fishing pole and Sophia's weapon of choice was a new 4 foot Ugly Stik. Sophia was given a treble hook given her age and experience casting while Merrick, given his age was given just a bobber. It was a bright bobber and he really just wants to cast and reel so there is no reason to increase the risk of hooking somebody. Even with just a bobber he managed to tangle Sophia's line on the first cast. Sophia has the patiences of a nun and sat for about an hour and half waiting for a fish to bit. The fish were surfacing, rolling and roiling the water all around but alas they did not bite for her. Merrick was less interested in the fish and thought it would be way cooler to feed out bait to the nearby Herring gulls. He doesn't have the patiences of Sophia and the distractions of the nearby bike trail were too much for his candidate personality. If he wasn't making promises to the gulls then he was waving and smiling to the passerbys on the trail.

Wishing I was outside

There are no pictures of today's episode, and I will claim that any and all security videos must be doctored fakes. The whole family was able to attend the banker's 3rd floor office today, as Lisa and I wanted to discuss our options. The kids and I meet Lisa there, in hind sight I realize this was her plan so she would have a get-a-way car and could deny knowing us or "them." In preparation for the meeting I made sure that Merrick was changed and had clean cloths on. Both kids grabbed a quite toy on the way out of the house, Merrick grabbed board book about trucks and Sophia grabbed a dry-erase board and marker. I thought this was a good sign as the toys were both educational and quite. Given last night's rain and my children's attitude towards picking up their toys outside, the sidewalk chalk was still all over the patio. Merrick thought it was great fun to stomp, squish, smear the sidewalk chalk all over the patio on the way to the truck. I didn't know he was doing this as I was helping Sophia (a.k.a Imelda) try on her third pair of shoes. Due to the construction season in GB it was almost impossible to get to the meeting but alas we arrived right behind Lisa. Everything started off fine, although my fate had been dealt and determined 20 minutes earlier. The kids were on the floor at my feet in the lush carpeted and posh little office. Sophia was practicing her words on the white board and Merrick was flipping pages in his board book. Sophia is a very thoughtful child so not only did she bring a marker for herself, but also had provided her brother with one as well. Of course I did not notice this until Merrick had traced figure eights around his body with his marker. I retained my horror and carefully slid my foot out of my shoe and tried the ol' sock mop--it didn't work. It actually got worse after that. Merrick was squirrelly as only a two-year old Y chromosome can be. Lisa put him on her lap to help keep him in check. By this time however the sidewalk chalk (yup, remember the sidewalk chalk) had dried enough in the treads of his shoes to start falling out, so all around lisa chair starts to look like a rainbow of dandruff. This sleet of chalk is not limited to her chair area as it is impossible to keep merrick still and trails start to form in the deep blue carpet of the office. Meanwhile Sophia has switched to working on her numbers and the Banker has even been so kind (and short-sighted) as to get Sophia a chair so she can sit at the ladies desk to write. Sophia is getting sleepy and continues to rest her head on her outstretched arms. I prevented it for the first three times, but eventually I started to pay attention to fixed loans vs. arms and 15 years compared to 30 years and should I consider buying some points--thats is when it happened I lost my focus and Sophia's outstretched arms clean all of the stacks of files off the ladies desk. It was a 17 inch high stack of manilla folders, paper clips, post it notes etc. It would of course by hyperbole to suggest that is was a file cleansing larger than Enron, but it was close. At this point the lady gave the kids some pens and tablets to write on, because her computer had crashed, twice, continuing the agony and embarrasment. Merrick had his pen for about 2 minutes before he tore it in half and sent the spring mechanism fling a twitter around the office. I think it got better after that, it may not have I know I eventually found myself in the elevator heading out of door only to load up my kids in the truck just in time for them to hang out the window and holler obnoxiously at a different banker returning from lunch.
As it turns out (to nobody's surprise) we did not sign all of the papers that we were supposed to and the banker called later in the day and as expected offered to come to our house and Lisa's work to get the final signatures.

A Pretty good Weekend

The weekend was busy but good. We started off right away on Friday night, by heading down to Astor Park so Sophia could run in the Bellin Kid's Run. Her race was a quarter mile jaunt and she was just getting warmed up when the finish line showed up. It is a wonderful family event and we were back at it early the next morning. I tossed both of the kids into the rickshaw and was able to weave an 8 mile run on a 6 mile course. The walkers preceded the stroller division so with my cheering kids in tow we 'zigged and zagged all over the roads. It was their job to watch for water, as residents along the course attach thier hoses to ladders to shower the runners. With almost 17,000 runners that is a lot of water. At one of the shower stations both kids erupted into infectious giggles in voice pitches that only excited childern can reach, this sent a ripple of laughter through out those around us and I would like to think a little energy as well. Not only do the kids want to talk to me during the entire race but also control my speed and continually tell me to go faster, speed up and ask me why so many people are passing us--it is imperative to check the ego when pushing kids in the race. After a brief nap at home we headed over to a birthday party for some friends and had a delightful evening chatting with adults while the kids splashed in the pool and played soccer. Sunday morning was another beautiful day and Merrick helped me transplant some flowers for our butterfly garden and all three of us tried to catch a baby bunny that had busted back into the garden. Sophia spent some time cutting up carrots in hopes of luring the rascal back into the yard after we finally chased it out. Meanwhile Lisa laid down some lawn-toupees and planted a new tree. After a brief lunch a surprise hail storm hit and Sophia and I were able to collect some of the marble sized hail. The evening ended as all evenings should brats on the grill, and a walk to the ice cream shop.

More Janus than June

Janus was the two-faced Roman God that saw into the future as well as the past, today had the same type of day. It started out as a cool (albeit early) sunny day and progressed into a drizzle that was just heavy enough to ruin outdoor plans and not hard enough to deposit any significant moisture for the garden. With the gutters cleaned I turned my attention to the developing rabbits in the garden saga. I was outside by a little after 5 am and the mother rabbit that normally tends to developing clutch of 6 bunnies in my garden was unable to get through the fence this time. She just sat in the drive way and waited for me to open the gate for her. That is correct the same rabbit that found a way into my 'rabbit-proofed' yard and then continued to navigate the concertina wire around my garden birthed a whole warren fill of plant eaters in my garden, and yes now she waits for me to open the gate. This mornings task was to create another (this is the third) layer of chicken-wire around the warren and segregate the bunnies from my garden plants. As my recent history has shown I am very successful with creating chicken wire barriers. I know it is more politically correct to call it poultry-netting so as not to offend the foul, which makes me wonder how they feel about being called foul.
With a load of lumber I was already home from a Home Depot run before eight oclock and updated a junction box in the attic and then Merrick and I headed to the garage for some remodeling. He and I tore out the old door frame and replaced it with all new lumber and gave it a quick coat of primer before the forecasted rains arrived. While wearing his safety glasses he only stopped pounding on the nails long enough to put a solid coat of side-walk chalk on my grill--he was very proud of his art work. I also suspect that the neighbors were ok with the hammering hiatus given the hour of the day, but as Lisa plans on moving us out of here anyways Merrick and I figured we didn't need to concern our selves with the beauty sleep of the other Coolidge denziens. We cleaned up the old lumber with the aid of a back yard fire and then it was time to treasure hunt. Not geochacing this time but thrift saling. Sophia grabbed her purse, coin jar and shopping shoes and we loaded up the truck anticipating the junk of others. It was mostly junk but Sophia did score a sweet deal on two new matching berrets for her and her mother. Sophia was very excited to to pay for them with her own money and she looks cute (biased fater statement) in the new lid. Merrick didn't buy anything as he was generally too busy stealing the hearts of every female we encountered, the boys charm and flirting was a sight to behold. At one point he even gave two older women a head tilt, mischevious eyes and a slight tounge in his smile--he was pulling out all the stops. If only there was something at that sale that I wanted to get a deal on. We were home in time for lunch and a nap and awoke to the rain--the day has been less enjoyable since then, but there is the hope for tomorrow--was that Pandora?

Irish I could do it again

The first day of the weekend found us in Oshkosh at the first annual Irish fest. The weather was windy but beautiful temperatures clear skies and just enough crowd to make it feel festive without being 'crowded." The auditorium was a really nice venue and the bands played enough jigs and reels to keep everyone entertained. The kids were able to roam a little in the sparse crowd and even try their own 'riverdance." I pretty much laid on grassy slope and drank tappers of dark beer keeping my eyes on the stage so I didn't catch any number of traditional kilt wearers on the windy day. The kids slept on the way home and were ready for a grandparent visit on Sunday. The backyard became the standard hide/seek, basketball court, hockey rink, baseball field but this time the grandparents were their to do all of the hard work and even topped of the day with a little "car ice cream" from the musical truck that wanders the neighborhood on most sunny afternoons. All in all in really good weekend.

Little kids on the Prairie

We loaded up the family buggy and headed to Holmen for a visit with Lisa's inlaws. The are really some of the nicest people that I am related to and we always have a good time. Showed up to the new place late on Friday night and then proceeded to stay up even later, but finally Molly agreed that I could sleep next to her for a couple of hours before the kids woke up and we headed off. Brad had heard about a sand prairie not to far from the house and all of the kids had some extra energy to burn off--carbon credits be damned. It was really a nice hike with the summer prairie flowers starting to come into bloom including some blue lupin. We were able to spy a couple of Karner blues and a viceroy (or maybe a swallowtail) and a familiar black butterfly that I can never recall the name of. The ticks were pretty thick and initially the kids were turned off by them but as the hike grew longer and the ticks more common all of them down to the youngest become nonplussed by the little blood suckers. The ticks were prevalent enough that the kids just took turns picking them off each other. Merrick and I brought up the rear for most of the hike as Merrick had a lot of sticks to carry through the woods--they apparently don't grow on trees. Tick checks went on through out the remainder of the weekend with most of the them standing out like a turd in a punch bowl when those little blond heads got wet in the shower/bath. The kids got a long quite well and Sophia and Jacob now fight about 'fair turns' that their little brothers are getting--so I guess that is a change. We were able to get some 'definite maybe tentative plans' penciled for a midweek camping trip in the next few weeks so I am looking forward to seeing the gang again real soon. Maybe then the horseflies will be out that will be so much more exciting than just ticks and mosquitos.

Science FUNdaMENTALS

Sunday morning was a frosty memory that required the mind to wonder over past camping trips with warm coffee and early morning fires that mingle with the relaxing atmosphere that is the outdoors. Once the morning chill was removed by the late spring sun we were packed and head north for a hike. Lisa had a race, but the kids and I spent the early morning working on comparative anatomy in the forearms of animals as seemingly diverse as porpoises, bats, horses and humans. Sophia has a great deal of fun reading through my various biology books and both kids got into the ideas of feeling their bones and tendons in their arms. Merrick petered out after starting his day cheerfully but at the ridiculously early hour of 5 am, and missed out on our early morning science experiment on the kitchen floor. Sophia was wondering about the sun spot on the kitchen floor, so with a piece of tape stuck to the kitchen floor we tracked the sun/shadow movement as a function of time--she was really impressed at how fast the sun spot was moving and we had some time to pose some initial hypothesis.
With the kids dressed in their woodland gear and the peanut butter sandwiches in the backpack we headed to the Oconto forest for a hike. We hiked a new trail and found a series of small ponds, none of which held any tadpoles, and multiple areas of blossoming strawberries. The wintergreen was still conspicuous enough for Sophia to find and chew, although when offered to Merrick he just replied "No, I have gum." I was unsure if this was irony or the situation or a juxtaposition of antiquity vs. modernity at any rate, it was cute. We had a nice lunch break in a sunny area with a breeze that was enough to keep the early mosquito hatch away from our granola bars. Merrick ate his granola bars while walking often wandering off the trail to fall, each time hollering to me, "I fall down, I know stay on trail" only to be followed by him running past me on the narrow blackberry lined trails say "Here I am , I am coming, being polite." Sophia, to her credit, continued to talk about the quiteness of the woods. It was a really good trip in the woods with the kids, they had fun and we even found a new plant (the kids are knealing next to the new plant). We even found some mushrooms that I was 98% sure were morels--the 2% was enough reason to leave them in the woods rather than saute them for supper. A little botany, a little mycology.

Spring is Rushing Head-Long towards Summer

We have been busy with general spring things although much of which has been around the house. The kids and I got the garden planted a few weeks ago. With the recent rains the potatoes (blue, Russian fingerlings and white) peas, and beans are starting to come up. The kids also have their own garden plots planted. We spent an afternoon making four cedar boxes and preping the boxes with compost and soil and then went to the local Fleet-Farm and they picked out their seeds to plant. I lost track of what all the bought but I believe it was corn, watermelons, and some peas. That was the second rainy garage weekend, although each of the kids did get new rain boots and jackets so that we could still hang out, outside. They now have matching lady-bug rain coats. Merrick spent the day at day care telling his teachers that I also had lady-bug rain coat, so when I picked him up his teachers really wanted to see me in my lady-bug rain coat, complete with PVC antennae on the hood. The First rainy weekend was spent building several trellis for the new hops plants and then staining them with oil based stain. This was a mess but they had their rain coats on so that is about as good of a smock as you can get. Sophia seems to have a birthday party to attend every weekend and is playing soccer two nights a week so that is keeping us hopping. She is at the bottom of the age range in soccer this year and not as dominant as she was last year. She is enjoying it a great deal however and gets excited about playing each week--although the half-hour of playground time after the game combined with Soccer Mom's required treats might play a role as well.
On the third rainy weekend in a row we drove down to Appleton to go to the children's museum and that was enjoyable as touching is encouraged and the kids were able to play inside of a massive heart and the local herpetology club was there so all of the kids were touching and wearing variety of snakes. Merrick has also nearly mastered the game of Fungo, and has a remarkable ability to toss a ball to himself and then hit it with the bat. He even has a respectable percentage of hitting the ball when it is pitched to him. Most of the weekday evenings have been pleasant and we are spending as much time outside as possible given the time constraints of supper and bedtime. The birds are coming to the feeders regularly and the kids know most of them as individual species, and Merrick does a pretty good Mourning Dove. Some of the warmer evenings have allowed us to play the acoustics outside and added a video of Merrick's version of Knockin' on Heaven's Door. The yard has also seen the addition of a wood framed fence, another garage kid project, to keep Merrick from wandering over to the neighbors house. This is not a good look, but it is functional until a more permenant cedar one is built.

I told you, I told you, I told you, A parent's mantra

Both kids are back at school tomorrow and after a cool, cloudy weekend school is a good place for them. We spent the morning cleaning up the yard of winter's grip and getting the last of the raking done (not all of it, but the last that I plan on doing). Lisa was getting a much needed breather after my long weekend away and the kids and I headed up to the Oconto forest to do some hiking and potentially some geocaching. Heading into the woods with one child dressed in a blaze orange hat and the other one wearing what appears to be a fur-bearing animal hat --looks poor in hindsight but it was completely unintentional no matter what Freud says about my ID. I had a couple of geocache sites programed into the GPS although we did not get close enough to them on our abbreviated hike to let the kids in on this plan. Sophia slept on the way up and Merrick, fresh from his own nap, was very excited about going into the woods and continued to holler that he was going deer hunting. Every group of three or more trees was followed by his shouting "woods" and "go in there." This did seem to add some time to the half-hour trip. We eventually made it to the trail I intended on hiking this afternoon and the kids quickly found a turkey feather followed by deer tracks and large turkey tracks. We even found some horse tracks followed by the inevitable "parade tracks" that had Merrick shaking his head with a wrinkled nose and saying "gross, gross indeed." Merrick was on my shoulders for a very short time, actually only until I heard a very wet sneeze followed by his high voice saying "on your hat." We found a melt water pond for the kids to toss rocks into and then a large mud puddle in the trail. Sophia and I walked around the puddle--that is right there were three of us on this trip. I told Merrick twice to get a way from the puddle and Sophia grabbed his arm to pull him away. It was as if the Sirens of Greek mythology had a grip on the boy and he broke loose and ran into the puddle, stumbled fell and was drenched. The picture of them holding hands is on the return trip, Merrick is soaked and cold. I had been carrying him but that didn't stop his crying. When I put him down to walk thinking it would warm him up he and Sophia grabbed hands and he quit crying. Back at the truck I stripped him down and we all had a "truck picnic" of peanut butter sandwiches and Easter candy.

I am Baaack

Well this weekend was the culmination of Merrick's birthday week. At age two birthdays drag on like Hanukkah or the TV show, ER. At any rate we took the family out to eat on Friday night with a couple of other friends and their children. Not an outside activity obviously but the kids were very impressed by wonderful combination of all you can eat desserts and parental apathy. The Bryan boys (and Becky) were at our house when we returned. Friday evening was short for the kids, and Saturday's weather was nice enough to get some backyard soccer and wagon pulling out of the way before Merrick's party started. His party was well attended although it proceeded out of order (presents then food) he was highly impressed by his balloon bouquet and made sure that everyone that arrived was dragged into the living room to see the balloons. The required happy birthday song was sung by all, albeit so out of tune as to not need to pay royalties and was finished off with Sophia's solo of "ChaChaCha."
Merrick is starting to come out of his bashful stage and after a short respite in another room came running into the kitchen and announced in a clear young voice over the din of adult banter "I am baaaack." This generated enough laughter that he continued doing it for the next 8-10 minutes. As his party ended and he in some cases actually pushed people out of the door, it was naps for everyone. As the house woke up in various stages there was little more outside time in the backyard as the adults turned their conversations towards the pending snow storm and the holiday break to come.

blackmail springs eternal

With the weather oscillating between nearly warm and nasty cold, some days I have rolled Merrick's window down on the way home from school. He waves at his friends, holds his hand out the window and generally enjoys himself. Yesterday the weather was too cold and I told Merrick I wouldn't roll his window down when the following conversation took place:

Merrick: Daddy Window
Merrick: Daddy Window
Merrick: Daaaaddddyyy Windoooow
dad: no Merrick its too cold out to have the window down.
Merrick: Daddy Window
dad: no, its too cold
Merrick: daddy Window
Dad: no
Merrick: Daddy Kiss
dad: Merrick you want to give me a kiss?
Merrick: Window daddy

His voice tone changed and it was very clear he was willing to trade his affection for rolling down the window. From mere button pushing to blackmail, alas they grow up so fast.

Ruthless and Toothless

The weekend was one that was high on desire and low on accomplishment. We had some walks around the neighborhood, but did not make it to any of the hiking trails in the area. The ground is mostly exposed and the snow is only still in the deep shadow areas. Sophia played with the neighbor girl for most of Saturday afternoon. We spent the day putzing in the yard, although it was too wet for any real spring cleaning. Lisa did manage to loose her wedding ring while picking up sticks and then miracalously find it on Sunday morning. Saturday evening we had dinner with friends and Merrick showed his developing monsterness. His attitude is playful, but he is really pushing buttons, as evidenced by the picture (he was told to eat in the kitchen). A small fire to burn some brush, combined with a soccer game that turned into a baseball game. Sophia was board with baseball and Merrick quickly turned it into hockey, either out of boardom or necessity--the ball is much easier to hit when it is on the ground rather than in the air.
Sophia had a birthday party on Sunday for one of her school friends, but she did manage to pull out her first tooth just before we headed over to the party. We were a little late but well worth the new milestone. The tooth fairy is prepared and will give her a gold presidential coin tonight. Then I suspect we will spend most of tomorrow trying to tear her bed apart to find it.

Springing into Saturday

With the first beautiful weekend of the spring season, we still found ourselves indoors much to often. The snow is on its way out, but the revealing yard is one step above a 'sippi hole' and much of Saturday was filled with domestic chores such as hair cuts and oil changes. The girls did sneak out for a while and did their part to stimulate the economy with the purchase of some new summer dresses. Merrick chose to nap instead and I burned the large amounts of branches that fell during the high winds of last week. We did get a brief walk in and the kids took turns pulling each other in the wagon. Sophia tried to get out of the wagon after Merrick had pulled her only a few feet, he quickly hollered at her "no fair" so she politely sat back down so that he could get his fair share of pulling her. I was ok with not being given my fair share of pulling either one of them.
Merrick did spend some time exercising his Y-chromosome and turn a benign object into a gun. He was able to turn Sophia's scrunchies into projectiles and 'shoot rubber bands at the stars"
Merrick also spent about fifteen minutes emptying a bottle of antibiotic hand soap into the toilet, mixing it up into the expected lather and then washing the bathroom floor and walls with toilet paper. Obviously there was a mess to clean up. This situation left us as parents, (albeit initially inattentive) with the question of how do you clean a kid that has just been playing in the toilet with antibacterial soap--he should by the nature of his actions be cleaned, right? Being unsure of proper parental protocol, we figured our bases would be covered if we just gave him a bath. Between his morning bath, and now his mid day bath and figuring in his four changes of wet cloths from being outside for any duration longer than 30 seconds--he was pretty much wet all day long.

Hockey no More (or Ending with a Bang)

This was Sophia's last week of Hockey and possibly last time playing as she doesn't think she will do it again next year. Her apathy towards the sport could be an issue of timing (Sunday nights) program design or maybe (aghast) she really doesn't enjoy it. She does have fun when she out there playing and has enjoyed getting all the snow on her skates, to throw at me later, and asking me to feel how sweaty her head gets. At any rate she ended with a bang. She was making great passes and even knocked over a couple of kids--it was just drills and there wasn't supposed to be any contact but I was impressed with her balance. She also so made a nice goal, when the keeper came out and gave a standard crappie flop in front of the net, Sophia just lifted the puck over him and scored--I thought it was a good show of patience. She was also asked by the coach to demonstrate here skating to the rest of the kids and had every other kid watching her. Merrick on the other hand will miss hockey and the zamboni. He only sat still on my lap when he was attentively watching the zamboni doors for the ice beast to come out. The was alternated by him hollaring for the zamboni or foraging. He did score a couple of 'bleacher fritos' A bleacher frito covers a wide range of objects, but all definitions include "previously dropped, potentially edible object that is found." This time I think he even found an actual frito, I would be remis to not mention that he apparently filled up on bleacher fritos as he ate nothing for supper when we got home.

From FEMA to Family

The family had a much anticipated albeit indoor movie night on Friday. Complete with a futon nest, popcorn and rootbeer that settled mightily in bellies already filled from a junk-food supper. Saturday the snow pounded down adding and an additional five inches over the day and some pretty good drifts. The kids pretty much laid around the house, our FEMA project and watched a cartoon marathon complete with sponge-bob (I refuse to treat this as a proper noun) and Arthur et. al. We did rouse everyone in time to make a 7pm Gamblers game which came down to the final shot in a shoot-out. The game set two records one for the number of teddy bears tossed onto the ice (6,021) and another for attendance about 6700 people. The teddy bears are donated to the pediatrics ward of a local hospitable. The people attending, I presume returned to their respective houses. Sunday necessitated a massive clean up effort after two days of ignoring said task. Lisa's inlaws came over in the afternoon and we headed out to the Sophia's Sunday night hockey practice. She skated well and tallied up 24 goals, apparently a three generation audience suited her. Merrick did his part to hollar everytime a puck smacked the glass. This post is again sans photos after pushing the USB port all the way into our camera body.

Sweat and Smarts

As a long awaited break in the frigid temperatures broke this weekend we were pleased to welcome in warm breezes and high suns on Saturday Morning. We were the first ones on the sledding hill on Saturday morning. Apparently the rest of the world felt that the best sledding wasn't during the eight o'clock hour. The hill was really fast after a relatively dry month that saw little snow making for an ice slicked slope. Sophia was happy to race Merrick and I, and really enjoyed steering her sled at us so that I would have to jump over her. Merrick loves hitting the jumps and has no patience for waiting until the sled has slowed down before demanding that we go again. Of course in his world it is still possible to sled down and up the hill. After a quick lunch and a brief nap we headed out for a short hike. The hike included a climb up a pretty significant hill which afford a nice view of a wildlife sanctuary and some windy perches upon Aldo Leopold benches. We called it a hike although to everyone else we were likely just the strange family walking around the municipal compost dump. Sunday Morning we opted to augment our athletic outings with something a little more refined and headed downtown to check out all of the ice and snow sculptures from the previous evening Winterfest activities. The kids thought these were really cool, literally. I did not feel bad about them touching the works of art either. These snow and ice sculptures did make my backyard snow tunnels seem a little...well lacking. From the Sculptures we headed straight to the outdoor rink. The ice was really in great condition--as expected given the cold temperatures and lack of snow of the previous weeks. Merrick opted for boots rather than his skates and Sophia was mostly content to just skate sans stick. It really felt good for me to knock a puck around on the ice and shoot at an actual net. Merrick and I passed the puck for quite a while and he was ready to stay on the ice all day. And Sophia got plenty of puck time at her practice on Sunday evening, managing to find time between scoring goals to come over to the glass to double check that I was keeping a proper tally.

Either Fabric or Fins

Well the planets, moons, sunspots finally aligned and Sophia and I were able to get out to make use of her new christmas present, a blaze orange tip-up. Last year when we went out ice fishing people were catching fish on tip ups and ever since then she has been asking to "Fish with flags." Her grandparents came through on the big holiday and Saturday was the first outing. We emptied some cookie dough out of a bucket in the fridge to use as a minnow bucket, picked up some minnows on the way out of town and made the big drive 15 minutes from the house to find a frozen slab of ice. Sophia was very excited once I drilled through the roughly 14 inches of ice with the hand auger and she able to get her tip up set. We had practice setting the tip up in the kitchen and even more enjoyable for her was to practice running from the living room to the kitchen when I made her flag pop. This by the way was easily 45 minutes of entertainment the previous weekend. With her tip up set she figured I should get another hole drilled for her so she could jig too. She had picked out a rabbit hair zonker from my fly box and wanted to give that a try. By the time I had three holes drilled and plunked a line in myself it was hot chocolate time. The sun was bright and there was no wind so the 8-10 degree temperatures were quite comfortable. As the day wore on Sophia made a couple of trips to the 'neighbors' to see the fish (bass) that they were catching and took some breaks to go wander the ice. At one point she came back to me and said "Dad, I am brave and true, but is this mostly ice?" My thought was "brave and true" are you writing a literary epic? Unfortunately she didn't hook anything on the tip up but got very proficient at clearing the holes of ice and easily talked more than every other person on the ice combined. Merrick was too young for this trip and he was home napping and then off to hunt textiles with mom, I think fabrics tend to herd up this time of year. As is usually the case she is ready to go home long after I am, and I think she was willing to wait until she caught a fish on her tip up. Once the sun went down (quickly followed by the temperature) I was able to convince her that it was time to take her chocolate laden mitten and the rest of her home. Where after filling her belly with a ham dinner that Lisa had been cooking in our absence her eyes got pretty heavy.

Long days and longer days

With the end of 08 finding us outside so often, 09 is beginning to look a lot like my living room. There was holiday travel and even a couple of short hikes and some driveway hockey, but as the days have gotten longer they have really gotten longer. We are looking forward to a return to routine. We did get the Christmas tree moved outside and Sophia strung popcorn, in a race against Merrick's hand to mouth helpfulness, to place on the tree. The tree hangs out in the backyard with it popcorn garland to serve both as food and shelter for the birds until spring. With the nesting birds the tree will slowly be turned into smore's fuel during the summer nights. The weather has been less than cooperative with high winds bringing low wind chills or as is the case today-rain. Partially weather and partially other inconveniences have required our initial ice fishing outing, but we are hoping to rectify that situation next week. Sophia and I did get all the gear in order and ready to go. The rain does mean that the "zamboni" has come to the back yard rink. I suspect the fresh ice will find us in the mood for an afternoon game today. Merrick finally got his shovel. The single kid shovel has been a source of quarreling for a number of weeks. With his new implement he is a shoveling fiend and borderline obsessive about it. He can easily spend an hour just pushing snow around and throughing it into the air, which generally lands on his own head. Sophia and I hit the indoor ice on Friday for some open skating and our races quickly devolved from just a mere head start to her requiring me to go to the blue line, then back to the goal line then race to the other end for the finish line--she independently discovered the lightening drill at age 5. We have also spent some time on the water slides at the YMCA and indoor activity but it was as close as I was allowed to having the kids join the Polar Bear club.