H and B's first preschool field trip...........

...........................on a school bus no doubt (another first).

The above pic was taken a soon as the school bus started moving. They were SO excited. I took the morning off from work and played chaperone with the Over in the Meadow preschool class.
We ended up at the Eplegaarden Orchard for some apple picking.

Leading up the the trip they spent the week doing all sorts of apple projects, reading books about apples and doing some taste tests. On a board near their reading circle was a graph with each child's name and then across the top were 4 types of apples. Each apple had a different color apple sticker and the heading was "What type of apples we like". While some kids didn't have a single sticker next to their name(meaning they didn't like any of them), B and H had theirs full. Shocker,huh?

Getting instructions from the owner such as; no climbing the trees, no eating apples that had fallen on the ground and directions how to snap the apple from the branch. I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised to see the majority of the 3 year olds listening quietly and paying attention.

Once she let us go, Henry grabbed one hand and Bryn had the other as we hiked up to find our allotment of two apples per kid.




Miss Sally, Miss Rachel and Miss April keep busy with this bunch.

We had some fun last weekend when we finally got together with our friends Amanda and Billy and their kids Cooper and Liam. Cooper quickly got to work scaling the granite structure that wraps around the capitol so Bryn and Henry had to follow in pursuit. Don't leave little Liam out, he was in constant motion as we grownups tried keeping an eye on them all.

The two pics above were taken on Amanda and Billy's new camera that I am coveting at the moment.

Now that Amanda no longer graces us with her presence at the UW ID clinic, we rarely get to catch up. So, it was a treat to see the whole fam and our long lost sleepover guest.


It was flower picking for the kids on Sunday before they took of for home.


Henry was intent on delivering Liam a black eyed Susan but he was a just a little too busy to stop and smell this flower.


Thanks for driving over guys!!

Sorry Henry......

This was just before he asked for some privacy and the door was shut.

Pic from earlier this summer but I had to post it now since it fits with the story below.

This week while we were munching away on lunch at the kitchen table and listening to some oldies on the ipod stereo, Bryn announced this; "Mommy, when I get bigger I will marry Henry and we can dance to polka dot music together." She then went on to list all the people she knew that are married like her grandmas and grandpas, aunts and uncles and so on. Henry just looked at her and smiled. Me too.

Both kids enjoy perusing the dress up basket every now and again to find some clothes that they can play in. Henry gets into it as much as his sister and it's hilarious to see him as he does his own sort of rough karate like dance in his frilly outfit.

We have tried to avoid the whole "princess" concept in our house just as we tend to shy away from the dark and seemingly evil toys that are pushed on little boys. When asked what they pretending to be in their fancy dresses, Bryn said she was a ballerina and Henry said he was a fireman in a fireman's dress. Wonder if he's on to something folks........

OK, looking at Bryn adjusting and re-adjusting Henry's dress reminds me of a bridesmaid futzing with the bride's wedding gown. And of course, she is SO serious, making sure he looks just so. Didn't matter that he kept busting through the velcro back on his green satin fireman's top.

Getting some air on.

As a side note..... Henry and Bryn had their first official school pics taken this week at preschool. When I told them that we needed to find them each an outfit to wear Henry said "Mommy we need to find me a handsome dress to wear for my picture." I asked if a handsome shirt would do and he said it would as long as it was yellow!

It's harvest time.

OK, so I am just a tad jealous. This spring I planted tomato plants from seed and nursed them along in our mini green house. For a couple reasons (soil and sun) my tomatoes (other than the super producing sun golds) are a little disappointing. At least everyone else who transplanted my seedlings is having a much more abundant load... especially my mom. When we got to their house the counter was full of all 4 varieties of tomatoes.

Of course, Henry and Bryn took advantage of all the red ones and slurped away, covering the recently washed floor in tomato juice and seeds.

Here they are in search of apples with Grandma. Although the grass is littered with delicious Seckel pears, the apples are sparse this year. Didn't bother H and B... they are happy tromping around in the long grass and chatting non stop about what we are doing.

We went hiking in the woods in search of deer. Not easy when you have two kids that honestly don't stop talking about the where the deer are, what they are doing and why we can't see them....... They were whispering for a little bit... something I thought they would never learn to do.

Bay Beach again before it closes for the year.

The before pic of my dad and I before the "swing ride" launched us off the ground and before I remembered how scary this ride is.

Yep, that's us up there in the air being whipped around. Bryn, Henry and my mom were on the ground getting a laugh and snapping photos while I was screaming bloody murder and white knuckling the chains.

Last weekend

I love capturing a picture like this. Just kind of sums up our Henry. Peeking over the sunglasses with his hat turned to the side and don't miss the bright green goggles on top. He is ready for a boatride with grandpa and prepared for anything.......


Here's Bryn... playing with, snuggling, and kissing her cousins. Here she is testing Mia to see what tricks she can do with her bottle.

They loved the fact that we got to celebrate Mr. Phil's birthday at the lake. They made homemade "nilla" icecream with grandma, sang Happy Birthday, got to eat cake and helped him open up presents.

Big hugs to grandma and grandpa for taking B and H to the cabin on Friday so Jay and I could have TWO date nights in a row, which even included tickets to the Badger game. THANKS!

Last week of summer...........

Luckily this summer Finn has decided to only excavate our yard under low branches of the Magnolia tree out back. Yes, our yard has been hole free!! He pretty much spends his days laying in the dirt that he digs and re-digs to keep him cool and dirty. Henry and Bryn haven't seemed too interested in joining him under there since it's been so buggy. That is until this past week. I was trying to overcome my hacking cough by planting some grasses and doing some yardwork which meant that they had to find their own shovels. I was kinda in a zone planting and pulling until I saw a cloud of dirt hanging in the air.

They were a mess and loved trying to better each other by smearing the dirt all over their faces.

Cuddling with daddy and the paper.

Hanging with Grandma at the Union with some chocolate peanut butter ice cream. mmmmmm

When I asked them what their favorite part of the day was, Bryn said it was picking up Grandma and taking her to the terrace.

Music mania

Sometimes I don't think people believe us when we tell them how wild and crazy it is in our house. I have heard rumors that some kids wake up and need snuggle time in the morning and some coaxing to get things rolling and are just plain quiet. Not here. This is an example of what we walked into one morning after they were up around 6am. Jay plugged in the keyboard and it was full out dance/jump mania as Jay and I were trying to keep our eyes open long enough to take a shower. The clock in the background is actually one hour ahead ..........

Above is a pic with the very talented Kristen Graves. Would you believe I was her babysitter way back when? She was on a tour promoting her new CD and she had a stop in Madison. We threw caution to the wind and kept out kids out WAY past bedtime so they could listen to her play the guitar and piano and sing her heart out. Henry was even doing some breakdance moves on the carpet (probably had no correlation with the kiddie cocktail Jay bought them to drink). They thought it was pretty cool to get hugs from such a star!! I can't keep this secret to myself so go check out her journal and listen to her music at http://www.kristengraves.com/ You can see for yourself why we own every CD she has made. You can read about her night at The Brink too. Bryn's most requested song is her "Back to Piano" on her latest CD.




Jumping with Sam to the music at Juniorpalooza at the Children's Museum shindig last weekend.

Africafest again this year! Even better than last. The kids made African masks and after some hula hooping and endulging in African eats we hung out in the tent and watched some unbelievable dancers. Below is Henry doing his version. Bryn was shaking it too but the video couldn't load.

Party time

Last weekend we headed north to my parents for the Hinsa family reunion. The weather could not have been more perfect and what topped it off was there were NO mosquitos like we have here at home. How nice to be hanging out outside and not be swatting at ourselves and kids. We ate TONS of great food, the kids got to play with their cousins and second cousins and we even did some birthday singing for Grampa Hinsa and Aunt Anita!

Henry playing aerobie with my cousin Lacey.For those of you that were at our wedding 11 long years ago, you probably would never guess that the two young ladies standing above the kiddos are my cousin Alicia's twins Brittany and Bethany who handed out programs. Yep, they are off to college at the end of the month. Gosh do I feel old.Eating some birthday cake with Aunt's Alice, Anita, second cousins Jenna and Matthew, and of course Grandma and Grandpa Hinsa.

Jenna LOVES dogs and they loved her. Finn followed her around all day to soak up all the attention.

A summer trip to the Green Bay area would not be complete without a trip to Bay Beach! The kids (Bryn, Henry and Liam) ran from one ride to another and had a blast. Bryn's favorite was the race cars and Henry's was the "baby boats".

Riding the train along the bay with Grandma. Uncle Bruce and Liam were front and center.
Henry and Bryn watching Uncle Bruce with his driveway art! He even let them shade in his masterpiece of a moon. The kids loved having their shadows traced and also enjoyed laying on the pavement and getting tickle-traced themselves. Henry could never hold still once the chalk approached his neck and armpits. Then they tried adding some extras to their outlines. Below is "Henry scissorhands" Kinda scary.

Then Bryn wanted to trace mom and me. Below is the blob that is my outline. What a beauty, huh? The chubby appendage coming of the top is my head so she added the eyes and my mouth. YIKESLiam and Henry...... playing around in the front yard rough and tumble style.


and a much gentler version with Bryn.....

Um...where did summer go?

Wasn't it just a few days ago we posted pictures of 'em with backpacks on for their first day of summer "pre-school"? The first few days, the drop-off was a little bumpy and we had to wipe tears... especially from little H. After that, the days just started flying by and then all of a sudden, today was their last day and we had to pry them out of their classroom. Wow...time is flyin' by. Thank you Miss Melissa and Miss Sally...we love you, and thank you for helping our little bugs through their first few days of "school".