Almost here....!!

The school year is creeping to a close and we will soon have weekends that last all week.  Spent some time at beach and the water was warm enough for some in the family....clearly not the best.  Ella and I spent 50 cents on a good laugh.  A guy was using his metal detector so I game Ella two quarters and had her run about 30 feet in front of the guy and drop them in the sand.  Then we just hung out and watched him shift through the ancient silica to retrieve his treasure.  Plenty of Softball games, Ella took a nasty pitch to the arm but we hadn't had the "charge the mound' talk yet so she just politely trotted to first base...next time though.  Merrick and Grace had their opening nights of Soccer and that season is underway now.   Grace had some great passes and Merrick played in a hayfield and scored twice in his opener.  Sophia officially starts this week but did win her scrimmage last week against members of her old team, so she felt some pride in that.  The garden is mostly planted although there is still some seeds to go in the soil.  Each kid has a 2'x2' plot and was able to pick out some seeds and seedlings.  We should have plenty to eat...Grace planted 3 tomato plants, 3 kahlarabi and some peppers along with corn, a watermelon, carrots and peas.  She might have found room for a couple rows of beans too!!  We did drive through a massive storm cell that forced us to pull off the highway on our way back to Eau Claire.  Saw Grandprize and Nancy for an night.  Sophia and Grandma baked and frosted the whole time except when we had a great tour of the ever improving downtown area.  Sunday was almost normal with a little more moving and rearranging of bedrooms.  The older two got their lofted beds and Merrick now has bunk beds.  The baking continued last night two. Merrick and Amy cranked out the family favorite chocolate eclaire torte to take to school for an end of the year celebration and Grace and I whipped up a batch of chocolate chip cookies for the same purpose.  The older girls were still gawking and rearranging their room.  

Birthdays, Burgers and Buddies

It was time for Ella's Birthday week, we headed out to the "big field" for a dinner out.  There were plenty of burgers but we could have used a few more cheese curds.  She had a softball game scheduled but it was rained out, but there was still other games to be played and laughs to have.  She spent a lot of fielding time on third base.  The weather is still unseasonably cool and while it sprinkled early in the week, there were flurries in the air on the weekend.  We spent some time on a JDRF walk and raised a good amount of money for our team "sweet soles."  Next year we are going to have more people, more funding and better t-shirts....there are some very creative people in the area.  Didn't see the total raised for T1D but saw one guy alone had raised over $12K...so we are setting new goals!  Ella was able to walk it with some of her friends which was a great show of support. It also made an enjoyable weekend for her as she spent the night at a sleep over and then rounded it off with some family birthday celebrating.

A Mother of a Week (or two)!!

Temperatures have hit the low 80s and summer is here, although we are no less busy. We try to get outside and sweaty as often as possible but we are not so uncouth as to not enjoy the fine arts too.  Ella had her art work selected for a district wide art show and we were able to sneak into the overflowing crowd for the showing.  It was a very cool piece made with plenty and great to hear the pride in her voice when she talked about make it.  Add to that her Jazz concert.  She is in the 'regular' band too, but it is easy to see that she really enjoys the jazz band and sees it as a step (or half step) up!  It was great to watch her play a solo that she wrote for the jazz piece.  Grace had a friend stay overnight too for that girl's first sleep over.  It was fun in that she lives a few blocks away and we had lost her number so Amy and Grace just walked down to the house and introduced themselves and then brought the girl back to our place...it was a little like the Pyed Piper and a great image of the three of them strolling down the sun-filled street with sleep over gear in hand.  Soccer has started for Grace, Merrick and Sophia, but no games yet only practices for a couple more weeks.  Ella's softball team has taken a different approach and after only two practices was ready for opening weekend.  Friday night we packed in hot dogs to celebrate the great sounds of summer and the opening pitch was hurled.  Ella took a ball to the leg but shook it off enough to take her base.  She also had a couple of balls hit to her, so she was getting plenty of action.  Not only did she start Saturday's game, but played the whole game.  She is a fielding animal and nothing gets by her.  While she was hitting the batting cages on Friday we did head over to the river to watch the spawning Sturgeon.  Always impressive to watch fish both ancient and old.  There were several sturgeon and most greater than 4-5 feet long.  For every sturgeon we saw there was likely 45 carp right behind them sucking up the eggs in the strong current.  Soon it will be time for bowfishing so we will get out an give the sturgeon a little help.  Sunday of course was Mother's day and Amy was awoke to breakfast in bed from all the kids.  It was great to watch them surround her with food and gifts.  The had made her cards with letters inside that were really touching.  We then hit the bakery for some additional doughnuts before a little backyard Kubb.  Fittingly the series ended in a tie.  We hit the green house later in the day to fill in some of the flower beds and Ella decided she should walk to a neighboring store to get supplies for a koolaid stand and raise money for juvenile diabetes.  After three pitchers of cool aid I think she netted a real nice contribution.....of course it is a good sign when the ice-cream truck stops at your kool-aid stands.  It had all the the makings of a Norman Rockwell painting.

A Batch of Bouncing Birthdays

   Another year has come and the April birthdays have started.  Merrick headed off to Sir Bounce-a-Lot and Grace followed up the next day with Air Extreme.  Two days straight of bouncing and boinging all over.  It is little wonder that Monday has arrived with sore knees for this aging and proud dad.  There were cakes and pizzas and a moon like gravity all weekend long.  Merrick hit a hundred ticket game and scored another thousand on the birthday wheel....for this great fortune he cashed out with an inflatable microphone.  The birthdays came at the end of the kids' spring break so it was a nice chance to see their school friends again too.  Grace's party came complete with wall to wall trampolines for flips and some crazy dodgeball battles as well as a 20 foot jumping platform and rock wall.  We survived without any sprains but I don't think the weekend missed any planning for next year's parties.

March Madness

March has about passed and left it madness in the rearview mirror.  It came in like a lamb and with temperatures pushing the high fifties the last of the winter snow disappeared.  Merrick and Grace would get off the bus after school and walk home in the only remaining threads of snow left, with their winter jackets slung over their shoulders.  We headed to the far corner of the state for the final gymnastics meet and Sophia was able to take fifth place on the beam at the State meet. The "hoops and Ladders" was in response to the kids seeing the neighbor boys shooting buckets from their roof.  I convinced them that starting from the ladder might be a better way to work up the the roof.  Merrick got a bird house made but the weather cooled before we could get it painted.  We also got some raised gardens built and a little yardwork done before the last big snow storm of the year came.  It was enough snow to close schools the day before spring break giving everyone an extra day off.  Blizzard one day and 40s the next required a swimsuit snowball fight and the kids ran around outside for about twenty minutes in the six inches of wet snow.  The swimsuits were pulled out again to head to the water park after an Easter weekend complete with egg hunts and ham.  With three snows on the robins tail we can finally start turning our attention to the coming of spring and tulip bulbs we planted last fall.

Packing a lot of hours into a Week

The camera on my phone is a nice way to catalog a week that moves by so fast that is blurs together.  A quick review of those images reminds me of how much we pack into a week and likely how much more is being forgotten and gobbled up in what is becomes the everyday life.  The kids didnt have school on Monday, honestly Amy and I don't know why..but they were home all day and in charge of dinner.  I stepped into the house to the wonderful smells of an italian meal, started at about 2pm, formally dressed wait staff, a bottle of wine and a collection of new magazines on the table.  It was a relaxingly nice way to start the week and the kids were uber excited about the meal they had made.  Amongst all the homework projects and school research that has to be done we sneaked in plenty of laughs and smiles.  Grace also had time to remind us that busy or not there is always time for Jello!  Ella finished up her basketball season on her home court and even had a buzzer shot from way out.  Although it fell short any buzzer shot is exciting.  Sophia had a her last gymnastics meet before state and placed 2nd on bars.  We made a trip back up to the Door for some over night fun.  We searched for the cairns that we had stumbled on last summer and hoped to see some lake ice formations, but sadly found neither.  The weather had melted all the lake ice and seemingly destructive persons had ruined the awe inspiring beauty of the cairn field.  Showing yet again that the work of many can be easily destroyed by so few.  We hiked a bit and then hit some local pubs for lunch and found a couple of new hats along the way as well before heading back to the hotel for a few hours in the pool.

Crivitz Cold and Cheers

We headed north on Friday night for what has become an annual invite to the Cabin in Crivitz.  The weather was as cold as the quality of laughter, friendship and conversation was good.  We filled up our bellies with pizza on Friday night and didn't really get close to hungry the rest of the weekend.  The fire was stoked and the warmth inside was mad better knowing it was blustery outside.  We headed into the woods on Saturday to mark out a trail for deer stands that will be cut later this spring and kept a keen eye open for recently shed antlers.  Along the way we found a cool hollow space from an uprooted tree, it made is perfect earth dome and while it is swampy in the summer it was froze up perfectly solid this time of year. There was enough room in it for three kids at a time.  The rest of the hike was spent beating the forest with sticks, collecting sticks to use as magic wands and climbing on snow covered trees. We were only out for  an hour or so and then the kids returned to the cabin to read and continue playing the variety of games they brought.  Plenty of laughs over Apples to Apples an the perpetual 'hide the picture' game. We were home early enough for Ella and Sophia to make a nice dessert and Merrick and Grace to play outside.  I still haven't heard exactly how the swing broke, but maybe when they hit their thirties.