Day 1392 | Preschool Pic
/
Can you handle how cute this is? I can’t. That little belly poking out, his hands in his pocket, that white hair. I love everything about it.
Day 1391 | The Play-Doh Line Up
/
This was the sight at our local children’s museum for a good 5-10 minutes today: all five of the kids we went with entertained themselves happily with Play-Doh. It was pretty incredible...and surprising.
Day 1390 | Dance Competitions
/
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 1389 | Duluth
/
We took a family road trip to Duluth to support our nieces at a dance competition. The sunshine kept us company while we toured some of the Duluth hot spots and the boys loved watching all the dancers at the competition. I’ve heard it from a lot of people, and I agree: Duluth is a pretty great city.
Day 1388 | Spring is the Best
/
That is all.
Day 1387 | Clean Up Duty
/
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
/
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
/
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
/
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.
Day 1383 | Party Prep
/
This is what party prep looked like at our house today. That’s right. There’s a bouncy house for the party tomorrow. We told the boys that if they did a combined party this year, we’d do something extra special. The boys played in it all day. All day long. Best investment ever.
Day 1382 | Flower Arranging
/
A friend invited me to a flower arranging class tonight and it was just the excuse I needed to take a break from birthday party prep (have I mentioned it’s this weekend?!?). The class was informative, and fun, and productive. Plus I got to hang out with some great folks. That’s a good night.
Day 1381 | Playground Time
/
It’s been a beautiful week here in Wisconsin. We’ve managed two playground jaunts already and the boys are begging to go back tomorrow. Part of it might be that they are borderline obsessed with playing on the playground with this classmate of Chase’s. They think he’s just so fun. It’s pretty adorable.
Day 1380 | Uh Oh
/
I’m really going to have to up my stain-removing skills this spring.
Day 1379 | Dining Al Fresco
/
Man, the last few days have been a total dream. The sun has been shining, the animals are reemerging (as well as the people in our neighborhood), and we’ve been outside enjoying every second of it.
Today my parents were sweet enough to come over and help with some yard work (and we’re beyond grateful!) and we ate outside for the first time this year. This. This is what makes the winter [somewhat] bearable—these first spring days that bring a sense of total appreciation and happiness for surviving the winter.
Day 1378 | Playmobil
/
I’ve been talking to a lot of friends about Playmobil toys lately. I feel like it’s a great quality toy line with a wide variety of interests covered but totally flies under the radar.
It has not flown under the radar for us. We are single handedly keeping Playmobil afloat. Ok, not really, but it feels like that.
And one of the boys’ favorite parts of Playmobil is the mini catalogues that come with each set and the full-size catalogue (pictured above) which they browse for hours. No joke. Hours. We have the 2016, 2017, and 2018 catalogues in rotation these days and we discovered a 2007 mini catalogue at Goodwill earlier this week (with a whole new assortment of toys to peruse). I know it’s consumerism at its finest but it makes them so so happy, which brings me more than a little bit of joy, too. Win-win!
Day 1377 | Spring At Last?
/
It was finally [FINALLY!] 50+ degrees for the first time this year. The sun was shining, the snow was melting (but don’t worry, there’s still plenty around), and we were soaking it in. A scoot to our favorite bridge and a post-bedtime walk with a friend made me believe that we really might have made it to spring. Maybe. I’m trying to keep my expectations in line.
Day 1376 | Cushions
/
We’ve done some reorganizing with the toys at our house and now the boys are spending more time playing downstairs. Aside from their toys, guess their favorite activity of choice. That’s right, playing with the cushions from our patio furniture. It’s amazing how they can find so many uses and storylines for these cushions. It’s going to be a sad day if winter ever leaves and we’re able to reclaim our porch again.
Day 1375 | Snow Day: April Edition
/
That’s right. A snow day on April 16th. On the bright side, it was the perfect snow for block building. I've been waiting all season for this. Unfortunately, this is as big as our wall got because somebody (or more accurately: some bodies) decided knocking down the wall was actually more fun that building it. I definitely agree...except it stinks to be the one constantly building but never the one knocking down. I'm sure you feel my pain.
Day 1374 | Serious Spring Snow
/
I know I teased you earlier this week with a photo of snow coming down in April. If I could, I’d take it back. That wasn’t snow. This is snow. We’re up to 12 inches and I don’t think it’s quite done. Robbe and Chase were happy. They might be the only ones in the city (state?) to feel that way.
Day 1373 | Housebound
/
You know me. I love the opportunity to stay home with the family on a weekend day and just hang out. This is a little crazy, though. A huge snowstorm in the middle of April? Not funny.
