Day 1400 | 1400!

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It's been a challenging couple of months around here. I'll go into more details soon (I promise), but for now I'm going to do what I always do...a one hundred day team recap. Never has this little family of mine been more important to me.  

Sara

FAVORITES: Watching the transformation of my garden (thanks to some helping hands for making this happen this year), listening to Hamilton (still going strong), white wine season, enjoying meals outside
BIGGEST HURDLE TO OVERCOME: Launching the website I've been working on for the Chippewa Valley Book Festival for the last few months. It's a big guy.
DREAMS FOR THE FUTURE: Completing some house projects. At some point I'll actually have time to focus on the house, right?

Chris

FAVORITES: Quality time with the boys, the return of grilling season, rewatching Parks & Recreation, not paying for cable services anymore, rye whiskey
BIGGEST HURDLE TO OVERCOME: Fixing the bare spots in our yard with absolutely no idea about how to do that successfully.
DREAMS FOR THE FUTURE: Finally building the boys their backyard clubhouse. It's going to happen this year. 

Chase

AGE: 6
FAVORITES: Legos, Playmobil (knights and pirates in particular), getting his haircut, reading or listening to The Boxcar Children books, scooting, his Perplexus puzzle, eating ice cream, playing spies
BIGGEST HURDLE TO OVERCOME: Riding a two wheel bike. I know he can do it...it's just "slightly difficult" and that's enough to deter him. Ugh.
DREAMS FOR THE FUTURE: Reading. I mean really reading. He's got the foundation, he just needs to put it all together.


Robbe

AGE: 4
FAVORITES: Legos, Playmobil (knights and pirates in particular), getting his haircut, reading or listening to The Boxcar Children books, scooting, sleeping friends, going to the library, eating ice cream, going for walks -- Notice any similarities between the two boys?
BIGGEST HURDLE TO OVERCOME: Waiting for Chase to get done with school (June 7) so summer can officially begin. 
DREAMS FOR THE FUTURE: Graduating! It's actually happening on Wednesday. His teachers decided to keep him in the speech therapy program for longer because they could challenge him on the additional sounds he needs (the ones that aren't even "supposed" to have developed yet). But he's officially ready for the certificate now!

 

Looking back on 1400 posts:

Day 1399 | Dressing Room Photo

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Full disclosure: this photo is from last week, but I just love it so much I need to share it.

I was trying on a few dresses with Robbe (it went better than I would have expected, actually) and I decided that I needed a second opinion on a dress. I attempted to take the photo of myself and that wasn't really working so I enlisted Robbe for his photography services. 

He took approximately 300 photos...at least a quarter of those were of his head or my feet. He did snap this gem, though. Look at that cute little nugget in the background. I can't handle it.

Day 1395 | Motherhood

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These little nuggets made me a mom just over six years ago. I'm not going into all the gifts these boys have given me or all the sacrifices I (and all moms!) have made. Let me just say that hearing them call me Momma is all I need. 

A friend posted this earlier today and I think it's really beautiful. Here's to all of us, "holding the universe together."

She wasn't doing a thing that I could see, 
except standing there, leaning on the balcony railing, 
holding the universe together. 
                                                            -J.D. Salinger

Day 1390 | Dance Competitions

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My nieces have been participating in dance competitions forever. It’s been a huge part of their life forever. I’ll be honest that I haven’t always seen the appeal. The make up is a little intense. The costumes sometimes reveal a little too much. The moves are sometimes a little too sultry. Turns out I’m kind of protective when it comes to these young ladies.  

Year later and many competitions under my belt, I get it. It’s not about the costumes or the make up (although they can actually be pretty sweet). It’s about working your tail off and dedicating yourself to something for so long that it becomes instinct. It’s about the friends you meet and the closeness you feel to each other from all the practices and late nights at competition together. It’s about a whole family affair (my brother and sister in law each have their roles at the competition, too), which doesn’t really exist these days. It’s about dealing with the successes and the failures on a constant basis and learning how to keep going when things don’t go your way. 

I’m glad my girls found dance. I still think they are the most beautiful versions of themselves without the makeup and hair and fancy costumes, but I’ve come to appreciate  the dance competition version of them more than I ever thought I would. 

Congratulations on another great competition, ladies. I’m proud of you. 

Day 1387 | Clean Up Duty

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I’d like to say I was just motivated by the nice weather to remove car seats and vacuum the van. Nope, as you can probably guess, car seat out + cover off = someone got sick. The little one to be specific. I’m lucky the mess was contained to clothing and car seat (and not the rest of the car’s upholstery), but what a mess. Bleh. 

And it turns out it wasn’t a one-time incident. So far it’s been a four-time incident but the rest have been much less of a production. Poor little guy. He was so agitated last night and so uncomfortable that I offered to sleep in one of the guest beds with him. When he said he only wanted me to sleep in his bed (a twin), of course that’s what I did. I mean, I knew I was going to be on high alert listening for any squeak while sleeping away from him, anyway.

As little sleep as I got (but I did get punched in the face once!) and as exhausted as I was today, it was totally the right decision. It speaks to the power of a mother’s presence that just having me “sleep” next to him last night made him feel calm and comforted enough to get the little sleep he could get. My job is really hard. And pretty gross sometimes. But it’s also the best. 

p.s. Don’t judge me for how crazy dirty the van is. Just a constant reminder that winter is still holding on.  

Day 1386 | A Police Birthday Party

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The Basic Stats of Our Perfect Police Party

  • 2 of the happiest birthday boys ever
  • 18 little officers in training
  • 42 total attendees
  • 1 mystery involving 4 villains
  • 35 donuts eaten (some off of a string)
  • 1 bouncy house

There were a lot of photos. A lot. It took everything I had to narrow them down, but here you go...

Day 1385 | Quilting

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Today was day four of me going into Chase’s class to help with their quilting unit. I help two kids at a time pick out, cut, pin, and iron fabric of their choosing until they end up with a quilt square like the one Chase is holding up. It’s been fun to be in the classroom—really fun. But man, teaching kids is exhausting. I have more appreciation than ever for those that chose teaching as a profession.  

Day 1384 | Goodbye Birthday Season

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We hosted one heck of a police birthday party today. I need to weed through 200+ photos and then I'll be happy to share some of the highlights. For now, I think this one photo sums up the emotion of the party pretty well.

As we cleaned up today's party we said farewell to the 2018 birthday season. It started in the beginning of February so we're all a bit birthday'ed out. It was a fun ride, though.

Thank you to all the friends + family that joined us today. We had a blast planning it and hope you had as much fun attending.