Almanzo and Laura

This past weekend we drove up to Green Bay to take part in the Laura Ingalls Wilder Days at Heritage Hill. They love her Little House books and are totally interested in the pioneer days of Laura, Mary, Carrie and Almanzo. I was a total fan of the Little House television series back in the day and her books so it's been fun seeing their wheels turn as they realize how hard life was back then and do I dare say maybe they can appreciate what we are so lucky to have? It has also sparked some serious conversations about our government and what was done to the native Americans and such so it's been interesting. We did try renting a couple Little House shows but Bryn is not a fan of anything "scary" and I am pretty sure every episode had some life threatening event take place so they were quickly returned to the library.

When Karyl heard that we were going and learned that kids dress up for the event, she hand made Bryn a perfect pioneer dress, complete with petticoat and bonnet in Bryn's favorite two colors. She even brought over Henry suspenders, a straw hat and a plaid shirt. They couldn't wait to don their new duds for the noon promenade at Heritage Hill.

We got their early enough to be able to listen to the actors who played Almanzo and Mary talk about their days on the show and meet an author who has researched and written several books about Laura.

Manly, 20 years later!!

Mary, who hasn't changed a bit.....

As is the case their is TONS to do at Heritage Hill to acquaint it's guest's with life on the prairie. Above Bryn was grinding coffee.

Henry was able to help make a "calling card" of Laura's.

They kept asking when the parade (promenade) was going to start since they were so proud of their outfits. They waited patiently with a large group of Lauras and a smattering of Almanzos and then lined up to march behind a fiddle player, waved to the crowd and then headed to the gazebo for the picking of the Almanzo and Laura look alike winners.

Bryn has her little bonnet up and is the third from the right.

Henry ready to head up to the gazebo.

Miss Green Bay, who was master of ceremonies for the contest, looked at each little girl and boy and then made her announcements for the first and second place Laura and Almanzo look alike winners.

We couldn't believe it when she pointed to Henry as the first place winner and then he was given a tin cup full of goodies and got to announce on the loudspeaker his name and that he was from Madison Wisconsin.

Of course we quickly realized that although we were thrilled for Henry and his good luck, Bryn was heartbroken. She held it together and watched her brother get his picture taken with Miss Green Bay and the other winners but as soon as she got to us she cried in our arms. My mom and I watched as my dad rubbed Bryn's back and said to her "You're a winner, you're a winner sweetie".

Luckily daddy figured out what would make our little Laura happy...... the world biggest pickle. All was good in the world again and leave it to Henry to quickly offer to give his first place prizes to Bryn.

Below is my favorite picture with the littlest Laura we saw at the event..... A true half pint for sure!

Birthday Extravaganza

The big 5 started out with a birthday lunch with their great buds, Abbey and Sam at Ella's Deli with a ride on the carousel afterward. Miss Kristi figured out how to get around the "no presents" rule and the kids love the idea of spending a meal with their friends over gifts any day. Can you believe they all agreed on Superman ice cream for dessert?


As the days counted down it was so fun to see how psyched they were, announcing every morning how many more days until they turned 5. They were so excited when cousin Liam arrived the day before their birthday and it was nonstop action! Henry loves having a cousin who loves to dress up as much as he does! Bryn is not as tall as she looks. She got a pair (2 pairs actually) of high heel shoes from Liam and wore them all day until she climbed into bed. It should be told that even after she changed into her pajamas she quickly got the heels back on to say goodnight to all. Then it was sleepover time in their playroom downstairs.

A birthday just isn't a birthday, according to B and H, if their isn't a pinata. And this year, they had TWO of them. Theresa, a buddy of mine at work, heard that I had bought them a burro pinata and it was obvious she wasn't impressed with one pinata for two kids, so at work on Friday she arrived with a huge star pinata already filled with lollipops and other goodies. The kids hit away at the star(which seemed indestructible for some time) and once the grass was clean of treats the adults took some swings at the little burro while the kids cheered us on hollering for us to hit it harder!

Love this pic of Maxine chillin on the pinata before we smashed it to bits!

Sophia playing stick guard and making sure that no one in line gets passed her!

Go mom go! Yes, I was monkeying around with the rope.....

I was rather lame with the camera and didn't even take a pic with the kids and their cupcake cakes, although I did get some video footage of them singing! We had a backyard full of friends, family and food, what else could they ask for?

Our two new 5 year olds!!!

Seriously?

You've all seen this picture. This is the little one that's over there on the edge of the page, taken the day they were born. Today is one of those reality check days. I absolutely cannot believe H and B are turning 5. Happy 5th kiddos. Love you.

Sweet Dreams

This morning we ran into a little impromptu kitchen karaoke action...

MC Henry

This past Saturday my friend Kristi and I organized the annual neighborhood July 4th kid's parade and picnic. Last year Jay stepped up and put his "teacher skills" to good use and got everyone ready to start the parade. Well, I almost died this year when I saw Henry standing on a bench reminding people to sign the Thank you cards and then giving parade instructions to the roughly 100 kids and parents with the use of his Bucky megaphone (probably didn't even need it with his lungs). I was wondering to myself how Jay talked him into this gig. Turns out he didn't need any convincing and came up with the idea himself before they left our house to scooter over for the festivities! Yep, our soon to be 5 year old was the event MC and blew our socks off as he took charge of the parade. What will this kid do next?

Of course, not to be outdone, Bryn announced that she will be "the speaker" next year.

Michaels Frozen custard supplied us with a cooler full of the frozen stuff. Mr. John was one of the volunteer scoopers and look at his technique!

This cute little guy was playing his drum the entire parade route, how cute is that?

B-Bop and her red, white and blue scooter all ready for the ride.



It was a blast. Thanks Kristi for your friendship, laughter and never ending lists! Let's do it again next year!


Lastly, in preparation for the day Grandma Affeldt swung by to accompany H and B with their slightly modified rendition of the Star Spangled Banner...

Classic summer vacay.

Well, after months of pondering a super long roadtrip or super expensive flights to Maine or somewhere fun for a June getaway, at the last minute we decided to trade those ideas in for something a little more old school...a week in northern Wisco. We somehow rented a cabin on 80 acres and on more than one occasion realized how thankful we were for NOT opting for the continental roadtrip. We "roughed it" a bit by choice, and had no TV, no internet and all the privacy in the world and as it turns out it was exactly what we needed.

We smored every night except the rainy one.

We had two little lakes at our disposal, with canoes on both, a rowboat on the smaller one and a paddle boat on the bigger one.

Waiting for the sun to set.

A mother-daughter float session on our new $2.99 floaties.

A little drama followed us from home, and Henry somehow had a "shaving" accident in the shower with mommy's razor and shaved a little portion of his lip, which finally stopped bleeding after an hour or so and he was then quite proud to sport his new Bandaid mustache (but it did impede on mealtimes....)


We spent some time trying to catch a few fish, and Bryn was all in. She kept suggesting we all go out fishing, and at one point observed "Hey look! My worm's doing the splits!" Henry had fun fishing until he would get a bite, then a look of pure panic covered his face as he worried that the fish would tug too hard and pull him in.

One morning we decided to keep a few and had a fabulous mid-morning bluegill fry.

H and B loved hanging out at this little table on the porch each morning, cranking out art projects and eating their breakfasts.

We jumped in the car on a rainy day and headed up to the Lake Superior shore and spent a little time way up in Bayfield. What a cool little town. Here's Bryn pointing toward Canada.

Here you can see the aftermath of Henner's lip fiasco while out for a little spin in the paddle boat. One of the coolest surprises was a family of 4 river otter that also called the lake home and were popping up at random times checking in on us!

We each got through two books somehow, and were sneaking in moments like this here and there.

Here's the sunset from the smaller lake. Now that we're home and back into the routine, our minds keep wandering back to those lazy days when the kiddos got all of our attention. It felt great to call a timeout on life and just spend some serious family time together away from it all...

This one's for daddy!

Believe me I tried. Seeing that we were leaving on vacation before Father's Day, the kids and I made him an iMovie and they told him all the many reasons he is one perfect dad. Well, after at least a dozen failed attempts to load it onto the blog since our return home, I have given up. Since Jay deserves some face time here, I took some of the pics that were part of the movie and decided to post them to the blog.
Henry declared in one of his videos that he loves daddy because he does projects with him like building a rat trap (???) and likes to snuggle. Bryn said that she loves daddy's cooking and helping him with laundry and his cuddles and hugs.

Posing in Chicago under the "bean".

How many daddys decide to make the world largest paper mache centipede on our kitchen table?

Biking around and around and around the parking lot with their "big" bikes.

Taking cab rides with daddy down Michigan Ave......


Henry and Bryn would not be the thoughtful, inquisitive, and happy kids they are without you. And who would answer all those tricky science ?'s that they seem to throw at us on a daily basis. In the words of Bryn when I can't answer a question to her liking..."We will just ask daddy, he knows everything!"

You are the best Jay and we all love ya!