Pilgrims

Today, Tyler was talking about the pilgrims.  Kindergarten has brought all kinds of interesting pilgrim trivia to our home...the name of the ship, the number of days that they traveled, and apparently, the living conditions aboard   On the way home from school, Ty said "Mom, I really think I would like to be a pilgrim.  Except, I'd like it to not be crowded on the ship.  I'd like good food and lots of it.  I would want a nice comfortable bed to sleep on.  I think I'd like a refrigerator too....AND, I'd only want to go for 2 days, not 2 months and 3 days".

 I think that even a DISNEY Cruise is longer than 2 days.  So much for a spirit of adventure.

July 2011

 Homemade "water park".  A girl has to get creative to keep kids busy while baby is napping.

 One day, I decided to give Ty a project.  I suggested that he pick up pine cones from the yard and promised we'd make bird feeders with peanut butter and bird seed.  Half an hour later, I had two yard size garbage bags full of pine cones and Ty begging for peanut butter.  We filled a bowl with peanut butter and worked until it ran out.  The local bird "Weight Watchers" club had to start a Wauwatosa chapter.  Squirrels later declared war on the birds in a heated contest for peanut covered pine cones. 

 Awesome sunset.  What's with my kids and their faces?  Brooklyn is smiling and looking at the camera.  Sadie?

 Brooklyn skiing at sunset.

 Brooklyn skiing at sunset.

 Just a shot of getting the kids up on skis.  It was fun/stressful to teach the kids to ski.  Here we are preparing Ty, our next victim, to waterski.

 Ty learning to ski.  Doesn't he look excited to have lots of fun skiing?

 Guess it's more fun to learn to ski with a family friend than with Dad.

 Sadie took a turn.

 I LOVE to ski!  Just don't look at my face.  This IS my having fun face.

Cruising Downtown

In June, it wasn't quite warm enough to get into the lakes for watersports; we spent a "chilly" afternoon on Lake Michigan and cruising up the river to visit downtown.

I tried to find a picture where Tyler wasn't blocking someone.  Incidentally, he was being goofy and blocking one of his two sisters in all of the shots.  Chose this picture because I look better in this picture than the other one.  Sorry Brooklyn.

Our little boat ornament

Hey captain!  This is a lighthouse that you pass as you move from "the lake" into "the river"

Getting four kids to look photo worthy requires Photoshop

"Downtown" from "the lake"

 

We were near a big boat as we moved through the river.  They lifted all of the bridges so that the boat could pass through.  The kids really liked it and wished we were big enough to merit moving a city street.  Afterwards, we also passed under a train bridge (while the train was moving overhead).  It was almost too much for my boys (Jake especially).  We rode into downtown, "parked" the boat, and walked up to street level where we went to the mall and had lunch.  It was almost surreal to leave the boat and go out to lunch in the middle of downtown.  Very cool.

2nd of July–Repercussions

Happy 2nd of July

On the 2nd of July, we spent the day boating on the lake.  That night, as we were pulling up into the harbor to pull the boat off of the water, it appeared that the police were there shutting down the harbor.  When we inquired as to what was going on, we learned that the lake was going to have a fireworks display that night.  The lake has a small island in the middle, where they launched the fireworks from.  Boats dotted the lake and took in the display.  It was incredible.  The sight of the fireworks reflecting off of the water.  The sound of the boom, and the echo off of the water and surrounding trees.  All and all, despite a long day in the sun, the kids did great.  Everyone, except Jack, fell asleep on the way home.

The REST of June

Okay, so admittedly, I’d hoped to not have to do a post like this, but it’s life.  Here’s the rest of June….One of our first boating trips.  I think this is before Jake dumped Ty into the freezing water.  Notice, one of the kids that came with us is still wearing a fleece jacket.  Welcome to boating in Wisconsin.
At the beginning of the summer, we had a “goal” to see some new parks in the greater Milwaukee area.  This was one of our favorites (and honestly one of the only “new” parks we tried out).  Hey, I tried.

The kids talked me into making “Piston Cup Pizza”.  This “fabulous” recipe involves frosting brownies with chocolate frosting, then topping with Disney Cars marshmallows.  I’m a chocoholic.  I love sugar.  This though, gag.  Kids loved it.

Throughout the summer, Brooklyn and Tyler played in a city T-ball league.  It was wonderful.  Only one time per week (practice and game); and they played on the same team.  Not sure that either learned any mad T-ball skills, but unfortunately for them, they are my kids, and I don’t know if any amount of training could amount to mad skills.

Given the amount of time our family spent on the water this summer, I really wanted the kids in swim lessons.  Yeah, I’m a bad mom.  Because the kids are so close in age, and up until a certain age you are required to be in the pool with your kids, this was really the first summer that everyone could take lessons.  They did great, despite the days that it was 50 degrees, and the fact that we couldn’t enroll all of them in the same session; so we ended up with everyone spending A LOT of time on the deck of the swimming pool. 

No matter how many times we tried, Sadie’s shoes were often like this.  Shoes on the wrong foot.  Toes in the wrong place.  Ouch!

Bad picture.  Highlight of Ty’s summer.  Me?  I thought the movie was a flop, but it was worth all that I got out of it to have the kids “earn” being able to go.

I was overly ambitious when I scheduled the kid’s summer.  During June, they all had swim lessons.  None of them had swim lessons at the same time; two didn’t even have the same weeks.  Brooklyn and Tyler took a FABULOUS art class, eight weeks worth in fact.  Those, luckily, were at the same time, together.  For two weeks, Sadie (as pictured) had “Jump Start”, a two-week class designed to prep kids for 4-year old kindergarten.  And, we still have the T-ball….then Jake had to go to Singapore for a week.  Yeah, thought I was going to die.  So did poor little Jack as he had to tag along all month.

Sometime, amid all that we had going on, I decided that summer wouldn’t be summer without strawberry picking.  A word to the wise, don’t go berry picking with four kids with no husband.