Girls' Day and Boys' Day

As kindergarten is approaching at an alarming rate we have been itching to devote a day where we each focused on ONE kid for the entire day as something special to do before school starts for the year. It never happens with twins that they have the sole attention of one parent so both of them were pumped to plan out their day. I took B Bop out for a girls adventure, and Jay and Henry did the guy thing all day and in the next week or so we are switching it up with each kiddo. When I asked Bryn what she wanted to do her answer was simple and didn't take much thought.... "I want to bike around Lake Mendota and take a ride in Rhino" That was it, nothing more. Rhino is our VW golf that is usually J's car and it rarely holds their monstrous car seats, although we can squeeze them in. For whatever reason, Bryn adores rides in the silver Rhino and just wanted me to drive her around to no specific destination. Our day started out by jumping on my bike with her tag a long attached and we biked to the the Aveda beauty salon/school, so she could get a little pre-KG trim. And how could I pass up the $6 haircut? She couldn't keep her eyes off her mirror or the girl next to her that was "getting her hair painted".

Next we rolled to the Union Terrace for a little chocolate peanut butter ice cream for a mid morning snack and telling each other stories on the pier. I do have to say that I did see an even more hyped up version of herself when it was just the two of us. She was beyond giddy and almost a little obnoxious at first and kept running ahead of me through the Rathskeller just grinning, jumping and full of energy. Luckily that didn't last all day!

She had her sights set to bike around the entire lake but I talked her into a shorter route that took us to the end of Picnic Point and then back down to State St. for lunch. I was so wishing for a "cart lunch" from all the ethnic food carts but Bryn wanted to "sit down at a restaurant where you wait for your food."


We didn't make it back home until early afternoon after stopping by Sam and Abbey's for a little fun on the driveway. The whole way home she warned me that I shouldn't dally around because we needed to get in Rhino for our ride as soon as our bikes were stowed back in the garage. We headed to Vilas Beach and spent the rest of the afternoon swimming, burying each other in sand and relaxing.



Every so often Bryn would tell me that we had to remember to tell Henry or Daddy about the two helicopters that were on the roof of UW Hospital or other random things that she thought they would appreciate.

Jay and Henry of course took the guy approach, and headed for the woods. They visited Pickhardt's cabin, and Henry got to do all sorts of boy stuff. Here he is sitting on the tractor. When I asked him what his favorite parts of the day were he said "Walking in the woods and seeing deer with daddy and watching people play baseball during lunch."

They didn't take many pictures because they were working on various projects out there (and because Jay took the camera with the huge lens that doesn't lend itself to self portraits well), but they did come across some turkeys and got this action shot.

Here's Henry on a STATIONARY four-wheeler. He did get to ride on it, but only with dad at the controls. Every time I see this pic, I see the teenager version of him. Yikes!



As most of you know, Henry is an extremely thoughtful kid and has been that way since he was a baby. It was no surprise but still got me choked up to see that he picked things,not for himself, but for Bryn and me on their special day. He came back with an acorn for each of us, a turkey feather for Bryn and when he got his haircut and picked out a prize he picked out a bracelet to give his sister. Nothing for himself but he was happy that he made the two of us smile. God, I love that kid!

The lack of photos from their day prompted this shot, to capture my two guys when they got home, taken by B-bop.