A weak review of the week

The first week of summer vacation is already in the books and we tried to keep the kids busy and edutained. Soccer was still in full swing and only last night concluded for the season. Grandma Nancy and Grandpa Bob made it over to see one of the last games and Grandma kept her streak alive and brought the rain. In fairness we took some rain ourselves to the air show when we went to see them (as well as a jet bus and the blue angles). Gymnastics started for Sophia and Merrick started swimming lessons again. Both sessions are at the same time freeing up some of our weeknight time. Merrick is the only boy in his class and given that it is at the downtown Y it is Merrick and the chicas. He has really taken to the class as well as shopping as it he likes to ride in the cart and look for the 'fancy girls." His little boy eyes really light up if we happen upon a pig-tailed girl. We also managed to get down to the WIAA state baseball tournament to watch Joel play. The weather was great, the stands looked like a family reunion and the game we watched, Joel's team was able to beat DePere and the umpire. Sophia just wanted to talk to grandma, and Merrick liked to hollar "it's outta here' for each foul ball. We headed to the game after a family photo shoot at a local park. Sophia eats up the camera and I am excited to get the pictures back. The photographer was doing a single pose of Merrick and asked him to "give me a big smile" so obligingly Merrick reached out his hand with writhing fingers and said "tickle, tickle." We found an excellent little ice cream shop about 3 or 4 miles from the house along the bike trail so we are able to ride the bikes down. Sophia's bike usually gets strapped to the back of the rickshaw for the return trip and her and Merrick have a cage match all the way one--but at least we are staying active and are outside. There have also been a lot of campfires at night, in part because I have wood that is rotting and needs to be burned and in part because so many of the nights have been just gorgeous. Plenty of smores to go around. We also were able to watch a beer bottle melt in the hot coals so the kids are getting some lessons on rheology and phase changes. We spent some time along the river fishing spawn sacks off the bottom, but there were no bites. Still in the early stages of potty training with Merrick so I pretty much let him pee where we are. He peed once on a tree near the river next to the bike trail and then again on the park sign. The park sign was also near a geocache that we found last year so the kids were able to revisit that treasure as well. As for the public peeing I figure he pees less than a German Shepard (the dog not the occupation) so we should be fine. We have already had two trips to the library again it is along the bike trail so that I get to count that as a double activity. The first day down there a kids program about the "Hungry Caterpillar" was taking place and a becostumed caterpillar was walking around. After Merrick punched him the second time I thought we should leave. Sophia has been enjoying reading chapter books and is staying up late to read them as well as hanging around in the hammock in the afternoons. Tried to go to a drive in but it was filled up--over 300 cars were already there more than 2 hours before the movie started. Saturday was also Sophia's party for her school friends. We went to a local version of chucky-cheeses (but edible pizza) great service, great fun -- pizza, games and ice cream. If every week is this busy I am going to need a vacation at the end of this vacation.

A formidable Memorial Day

A four-day weekend that had a whole months worth of fun packed into it. I was able to walk the kids to school on Friday as I was off but their schools were in session. Merrick and I walked Sophia about half way to school and then the three of us thought Sophia was old enough to walk the rest of the way by herself. Merrick and I continued on to his school, where in a short while I would wake him from his nap and head to the doctors office to check on his soon-to-be third ear infection in a little over a month. In the end he got stickers and we headed to the ice cream shop to have a couple of cones in the beautiful weather. We walked back down to pick up Sophia at a school and Lisa met us at the playground. I had actually burned my barefoot pretty good on the walk down so Lisa ran back to get the car and then we all headed to the ice cream shop for supper. This was going well until Merrick started spouting off about it being his second ice cream, ix-nay and loose lips sinking ships was lost on him but not the ladies--we were busted. Busted or not we still got ice cream. We grabbed a movie on the way home and the kids flopped on the futon matteress for a good old fashioned movie night. Saturday Sophia had yet another birthday party to go to, a pool party so we dropped her off and then the rest of us did a little domestic shopping and napping. Saturday night the Cup finals were on so we took the kids to the bar, the sucked down rootbeer and various deep fried things (including deep-fried raviolli) and played shuffle board while Lisa and I watched the first period of the game. Sunday morning we drove up to Pennisula State park to take in some picnicking and beach time. There was hoards of people and lot of 'chalkasians' that were nasty red from the early spring sun. The water temperature was way too cold for even the kids to swim (high fifties maybe) but standing in calf deep water and building sand castles was a pretty good way to spend the afternoon. We also found a pretty sweet dirt track with peddle cars for the kids to tear around on while Lisa was inside getting us some cherry strusel and water. We shopped a little in Fish Creek before heading south again, the kids napped on the way home with their new hats in their laps. We had a quick supper and then ran down to the DePere Days festival not too far from the house. Standard Fair stuff of bouncing palaces, funnel cakes and hillbillies--we found a grassy area to spread out our blanket and watch the sunset and eat a funnel cake that had beer spilled on it while we waited for the fireworks to start. It was Merrick's first fireworks and initially not a fan, but by the second artillary volley he was partaking in all of the ohhs and ahhs. The kids also each got a light saber (neon blue) on the way home, so with Merrick on my shoulders we danced through the drunken crowd while Yoda, aka Merrick, taunted each drunk with a light saber to the face. At any rate I made it out of there without getting punched in the nose and the kids were so tired that they even slept until after 6 on Monday morning. Monday we hit the bike trail and drove down to the parade and taught the kids that it was ok to take candy from strangers and play in the street sometimes. We met some of our friends at the parade and all ended up back at our house for a lunch off the grill and kids in sprinklers--that is about as Norman Rockwell as we can get. The plan for Monday night was to watch the second game of the Cup, but we needed to do some minor surgery on Sophia's ear as her earring back had been pushed into the whole and had the ear growing around it--pulled it out with a hemostat on one side and forceps on the other piled on the bacitracine and called it fixed. Like I said we tried to pack a month into four days.

Summer Arrives

We had the first really nice weekend of the summer. Lisa was out of town for a wedding so the kids and I had a long weekend that started on Thursday. Sophia played soccer on Thursday night and had a great move using a back spin that we had been working on in practice to evade a defender. While she had 3 goals I was even more impressed with her looking for and making some really nice passes to her teammates. She plays on a team with some long-legged girls that move like gazelles. Merrick acts as team mascot during these games and I have to keep the subs from playing with Merrick so they come in and get some game time. Friday was general domestic stuff such as watering the garden and cleaning of bedrooms, but we found time to get Merrick his new summer hair cut. I cut off about 4 inches of white hair--the kid is clearly chalkasian. Friday night was also when I put Merrick in undies and told him to use the toilet. He pretty much like going pee, even though sometimes he just runs outside to use a tree rather than use the toilet. He did spend a lot of time peeing in the back yard and then telling me about it. He stayed dry all weekend for me however, so we are off to a good start. We headed out early on Saturday morning for some treasure hunting at thrift sales and made some great finds including some Boxcar children books and a malt maker. We spent the late morning with me mowing the lawn and Merrick waiting very patiently for me to finish up the front yard so he could swim in the pool. I wasn't in the backyard too long before he was naked and splashing in the water. We made use of the malt maker every night that weekend. Saturday Sophia spent some time playing with the neighbor girl and then in the early evening we called up her friend and drove over the the soccer fields that have the full size nets, the kids played for a while, but the game quickly turned into various versions of tag. We did stay at the field long enough that even Merrick asked to go home. When we got home it was bubble baths for the both of them, unfortunately we were out of bubble bath--but in dad's world that just means you use dish soap. The kids came out with a nice lemony smell and no streaking. Actually Sophia figured if I was using dish soap that she should do some dishes--I had no counter argument so I tossed in the spaghetti pans from supper. She got them very clean but when Merrick took his bath he was upset that there were no dishes left for him to do. I let him wash my feet instead, this seemed to please him. Sunday Merrick and I bottled beer and changed oil in the truck while Sophia went with a friend to the Y to swim for a couple of hours. With Merrick napping and Sophia still swimming I was able to watch most of a playoff hockey game--great weather and good times--summer is hear.

A Mother of a Weekend

The weather was a little hit and miss this weekend, we awoke on Saturday morning to find patches of snow. Although the snow quickly melted it did force us indoors more than the kids and I prefer. Saturday morning was mostly filled with the general trappings of domestication and we cleaned and primped the ol' homestead. We did find some time to put a dollar in each of the kids pockets and try to find a garage sale that might harbor a treasure. With the cold and rain there was little competition but also few sales, so no treasures were found. With Merrick asleep, I did teach Sophia how to make some hemp/beaded jewelery. A putzy little project but one that kept us busy while Merrick drooled into his pillow. We also burned up a large portion of the day turning a 15 minute car trip into an hour and half jaunt around the greater GB area. The idea was to hit the neighborhood Target to get the finishing touches for Lisa's Mother's Day gift and then head across the river to the cooking store, in order to buy a malt maker. The amount of construction in the area has now made that nearly impossible. In the end we didn't make it to the cooking store and didn't get malts. Merrick also used this time to ramble on in the back seat. When I asked him what he was saying he just shouted out, "I am talking about the money, Baby!" later in the day in the store parking lot, he also thought this was an appropriate way to talk to the women parked next to us--"Hey baby." With Nostradamus like skills I figure nothing good could come from such language. We had a nice talk about using Sir and Mama, so that is how he addressed everyone from his shopping cart political stump as we walked through the store aisles. The good news is that I was so tired of driving that the planned trip to do some grocery shopping turned into videos and a take out pizza complete with a big bottle of root beer. I think the kids were ok with the decision. We flopped the futon mattress on the living room floor and dragged out the sleeping bags. The kids decided to just sleep on the floor and that was fine with me, until they also decided that 5:30 am was late enough to sleep on Sunday morning. Fortunately the coffee pot was set to go and the day was full of sun. We did get the grocery shopping out of the way early in the morning and also picked up the seeds for the garden this year. We headed out for a short hike through the wildlife sanctuary and were able to find two of the wolves sunning themselves. The kids also were able to play on the inside toys and thought the idea of two-headed turtle was to much of photo op to pass up. Sophia actually asked if I had my camera and when I told her no she asked about my phone--in her world not only has every phone always had a camera but everyone always has phone. Merrick and I planted the seeds in the garden and Sophia played with the neighbor girl. As the day starts to slow down, I am thinking we all need a nice NHL playoff game and some cheesy popcorn to coast us out of the weekend and into the next week.

Merrick's Birthday

Easter weekend coincided with Merrick's birthday this year so after a one day layover at home we repacked up our traveling clothes and headed back to EC. We did find time before our departure for Merrick to open and ride his new bike and to eat some ice cream cake. The holiday weekend made is nice for a large turn out albeit one more thing for everyone to do on an already busy weekend. The party was at the YMCA which was set up really nice for parties. The kids had fully use of 'ruckus room' with a zipline, climbing wall and jungle gym. There was also more swimming. Merrick was waterlogged and he asked to get out. There were pinatas to break and cupcakes to eat, and he was done with the pool idea. The next morning was Easter and the kids had several outdoor Easter egg hunts. I think the total candy count exceeded the normal Halloween haul. The weekend concluded a busy but enjoyable week of traveling and family; a lot of miles and a lot of smiles.

Bearly tolerable adoration

Took a walk through the Ohio St. Beach area on our way to the Children's museum. On our way in we first hit a gift shop and found a shirt for Sophia that says "Friends don't let Friends be Packers fans." She is having great fun promoting the Bears and poking fun at me in the process. The Children's museum is a really nice place. The kids played on all of the exhibits including the firetruck and a massive building area that allows you to construct small houses out of 1 x 1 and wing nuts. Sophia also was able to make a clay bust. They also had a chess board laid out on the floor with 2ft tall pieces that you could walk around with like Harry Potter's Wizard Chess. Really a cool place. Our walk back include a slow stroll along Navy Pier complete with ice cream and a decision to return to Ohio beach and hang out for the rest of the late afternoon. We hit a local department store for some short, having not planned on such warm weather and then wandered back to the beach. The water was too cold to swim, but the kids played in the sand. Merrick, for the most part, looked like a golden lab. When we got there he just spun in circles and even dropped on to his back to roll in the sand. He could not imagine his good fortune in finding a sandbox so large. He would run down the beach 75-100 yards then head the other way 75-100 yards. He was even tossing old cups into the water and then wading out to get them, just like a lab. The beach looked like the middle of August, complete with kites flying and footballs being tossed. The kids bounced around from one small play group of kids to the other until it was time to head back to the hotel for a desanding shower and head out of supper. The Italian restaurant we stumbled into was excellent food and the waitress even complement the kids behavior. I think Merrick was just spent, and as we were eating outside, he spent a good amount of time just watching the traffic and horse carriages. A little more swimming and again lights out for the kids.

Hiking them in the Concrete Jungle

Lisa and I took the kids to Chicago for a few days. Drove down during my spring break and visited the Shedd Museum. Not wanting to follow the directions we printed off, we took an alternate route that got us there, but a little more stressed for the wear. We drove straight to the Aquarium, and after parking in the campus area had a great stroll across the lawn in near 80 degree weather. The kids had a blast in the aquarium. We saw at least three different exhibits with clown fish and at each one Merrick asked where's Nemo's dad was. Sophia had gotten really interested in sea turtles over the past few weeks, an occurrence that I attribute to her duplication of X chromosomes. Coincidentally her Subway lunch came in a reusable bag with a sea turtle on it and she was not disappointed to watch the sea turtles at the aquarium. After getting back to the hotel we headed out for a walk and to find some Chicago pizza. Gino's east was on the travel network recently and it was only a few blocks from the hotel. With a VIP pass from the concierge we by passed a lengthy line, instilling in our childern that some people are more equal than others, and were quickly seated. Merrick was spent by this time and spent most of the meal with his head on my lap. Sophia thought the the place was great and was able to add her name to the rest of the graffiti on the walls of patrons past. The night was topped off with a later than normal swim back at the hotel, and a couple of tuckered kids quickly drifting off to sleep.