Pumpkin time

We did put some effort into decorating for Halloween this year. The kids know just about every cool thing that Mallots sells for the big day so they picked out some of the stringy stuff to make cobwebs all around our house. Then we made some big multicolored leg spiders to stick on the webs and Bryn told me it was the best day of her life! Honestly, she did.

Henry didn't mind digging up to his armpits in his pumpkin and actually did a pretty decent job of getting all the cold slimy innards out. Bryn wasn't as fond as Henry was and only used a spoon and then requested help from Jay to clean it out.

One day Henry grabbed a pile of his dress -up hats and adorned most of the pumpkins on our porch with his hats. So, Jay's job was to make a cowboy and smiley witch on our biggest two pumpkins.




Their trick or treating neighborhood gang of Simon the bat, Bryn as poodle skirt girl, Oliver as Tigger, Evie the witch and Henry the tornado. It was hilarious watching the kids race from house to house as their bags filled up quickly thanks to all the neighbors who kept telling them "Just take a couple handfulls." They weren't shy either and at one point we looked to find that they had opened someones door and let themselves inside hoping to find someone willing to give them a treat! Henry's costume did make running a tad difficult but he sounded like a tornado as he shuffled by.


Several neighbors definitely got in the spirit and our favorite was Miss Elspeth! She hobbled out and offered the kids a pan full of brussel sprouts. No takers until she showed them some candy.

Two tired trick or treaters taking a break back at home.

This morning I heard them sorting through their candy, which is one of my favorite memories as a kid as we needlessly compared our piles to each other. I had to take a video.

Good Bye Great Grandma Grace

We said good bye to my last grandparent, Grandma Matthews, who has otherwise been known as great grandma Grace by Henry and Bryn. We are all so lucky that we got to celebrate her 95th birthday with her this year at my parents house.

I will never forget her beautiful knit sweaters she made for us when we were little, waiting for her and Grandpa to finish golfing so we could show off how we could bike down Whippoorwill Drive, or the look of fright on my Grandma's face when I showed off my basement living quarters of a lovely student house I lived in with friends when I was an undergrad at UW.

Grandma, we all miss you but we are so happy that you and Grandpa are playing a round of golf, a game of bowling or some cribbage together, wherever you may be.....

Below is a pic of the great grand kids minus 6!

The kids had so much fun playing with all the relatives we don't see enough of.

Grandma's 4 kids!

Henry and the boys playing some football at Uncle Greg and Aunt Shiela's house.

Some, but not all of the cousins..

The last picture with Great Grandma Grace.

Day at the Farm

Due to my relative lack of free time lately as I am trying to cram for my upcoming boards, I have been avoiding the blog. I figure I can take an hour away from re-learning endocrinology and post some pics from the last month or so.

Their first kindergarten field trip took them to a working dairy farm. They learned all sorts of farm life tidbits from Farmer Dale who was our guide for the whole day. He even took all of us (half as many parents as kids!) on a tractor ride to the corn and pumpkin patch to start things off. They each got to pick an ear of dried corn that they were able to feed to the goats and geese later on.
The milking barn was full of action. As the kids were lined up I heard some squeals of laughter as they had a clear view of a cow's backside as she emptied herself and thought it was hilarious.

They each got to try milking one of the cows and below Bryn was trying it out as her friends waited patiently.

As the long day at farm was wrapping up and we were hanging out in another cow barn I looked over to see Henry and his friend Ellen holding hands as they checked out the cows. It was precious and as they walked back to Farmer Dale they were still holding each others hand. A couple weeks later Henry was talking about how hard it was to let go and said "It was like we had glue on our hands."

Go Hornets!

Fall means soccer Sundays and we have been having fun watching team Hornets run around the soccer field and show off their skills.

Henry does sports Michael Jordan style and has his tongue hanging out as he tries to get the ball going in the right direction!


Bryn on the other hand does her "hair tuck" when she gets nervous trying to take the ball away from the boys. she was tucking it as she lined up for some corner kicks and throw in too. So cute!

Hanging out with Simon as the rest of the team played on.

Oh, she does a shirt tuck too. Gotta look good in the goal.

Weekend warriors

My boys getting ready for the Badger football!

While Jay and I were busy meeting Jason Mraz at Farm Aid, my mom was hanging out with the kids at home and touring Monroe Street Festival. They put in a couple miles of walking Monroe Street, jumping fun in the bouncy castle across the street, and watching some Belly dancers perform (apparently Bryn was in awe of their "beautiful tummies").



We headed downtown for the Literacy run since the kids have been begging to enter a run again. On the way there Henry kept asking me to not run with them on the street since he wanted to run by himself. He even said that I didn't need to run alongside on the sidewalk either, but rather meet them at the end. He changed his mind once people started gathering on State St. and held my hand for the majority of the run.. We even got cheered on my Badger cheerleaders and the band! And they stayed to cheer on me and Team Tortuga in the 5K, followed with ice cream, brats and pictures with Bucky.





Group shot of all the kids with Bucky! I do remember the days when both of them were scared to come within a 10 foot distance him so it's fun to see them cuddle up to him finally.

Kindergarten update.

I feel like we need to post a kindergarten update now that we are a month in already. We love Mrs. Nesbit (think calm, loving and very organized), they have a very sweet group of 12 other kids in their class and we are meeting some great new friends (me included).

Henry thinks his teacher is the bomb "because she can draw really good milkweed plants." Bryn adores computer class and updates us weekly on all the fun things they work on in the computer lab. I am convince she will take over this blog by the time kindergarten is done. They both seem to talk more about what and who they played with at recess than what they do in class.

A couple weeks ago we had an open house at school complete with a book fair. Even though our bookshelves are exploding, I can never pass up good deals on books. They each picked a handful and I was laughing seeing how different each of their piles looked!

Bryn quickly grabbed the Cherokee book since she is mesmerized about life on the prairie and was so excited to find an ice skating book as well.


Henry's top pick was the Wizard of Oz and he was super excited to find the Obama book and hoping to see pictures of the Obama's on vacation!


It is so fun to see them run up the sidewalk to meet up with their friends and then watch them all race UP the hill to school as the parents trail behind. We are enjoying a pretty great start to this new chapter of public education! Bryn said to me the other night. "Mommy I was kinda scared the first day of kindergarten but now I wish I could go every day."

Rhythm is a dancer

Jay decided the kids needed to burn off some energy so he DJ'd a 90s dance party before they headed to bed.

I thought for sure Henry rigged his top hat to stay on his head but no glue or string was involved. Maybe he will be a magician someday. And the back bend moves are not from watching me....

We've got TWO kindergarteners!!

We did it. We survived the first day of kindergarten and there were no tears from anyone but me. The anticipation of sending our two kids off to school and saying goodbye to my Monday and Wednesday buddies made me a tearful mess in the days leading up to Sept. 1st. I held it together in front of the kids until I saw Henry walk down the stairs wearing his new backpack. My little guy all ready for school and looking so grown up!

Bryn was anxious (when all along we thought Henry would be) and didn't eat more than two bites for breakfast. They were both lucky to have Grandpa Affeldt and Grandma Hinsa at our house to take part in the big day. Grandpa has perfect handwriting so the kids had him write their names on their backpacks and new lunch boxes.

Henry needed an expert to tie his shoes for the first day.

I still can't look at this picture without choking up either. Off they go into the world!!



The closer we got to school the slower Bryn walked. Usually she is the one in front but not Wednesday.

Checking out their lockers to find that their teacher had placed their mat and art smock in each one!

Bryn at her desk.

Henry all smiles with his new table buddy.

This was my last pic that I managed to take through the tears. It took the parents a bit to catch on that we needed to leave so the lights were dimmed a couple times to give us the hint. Henry blew me kisses and Bryn turned around with a huge grin and Jay, mom and I slowly walked out counting down the minutes until we could pick them up.


The end of the day pic. Henry is behind Bryn, and they are trying out their line order for pick up. They each give their teacher either a high 5 or a hug. Of course they both gave her a huge hug and then chatted about their day the whole way home. Bryn loved the computer class and Henry thought rest time was fun especially when he got to tap every child on the head to wake them up!

"Mommy, I stared so hard at Mrs. Nesbit all day so she knew I was listening."

At 5:45am yesterday (the second day of school) they came into our bedroom to tell us that they needed to get dressed now so they wouldn't be late for school and then asked every 10 minutes or so for the next two hours when we could leave. Then last night Bryn confided in Jay..."Daddy, I just love it".

Switchin' it up.

Seeing that the boys' and girls' days were such a success we wanted to switch it up with each kiddo. After I got back from D. C. and the kids returned from their summer vacation with my parents, we took an afternoon to treat them to some one on one fun.

Henry spied a fresh-squeezed lemonade stand in our neighborhood so we walked Finn over and bought ourselves some to cool us down. Henry chose to eat at a mini golf park (not kidding), then a round of golf which goes quite quickly when you just pick the ball up and place it where you want.
We then headed over to the Badger Band practice field to watch the students breaking a sweat as they tried to memorize their steps. We ended the day with some ice cream on the Terrace, listening to a rock band on Library mall, having a slice of pizza on State Street and catching up with B Bop and Jay to watch some ultimate frisbee.


Bryn opted for a big bowl of chicken noodle at Copper Top. She and Jay surprised us while we were golfing and played their own round of mini golf. The cutest part was seeing how thrilled they were to see each other and yelling back and forth to catch the other one up on their day.


They headed to Vilas Beach to rent a swan boat and paddled around Lake Wingra together.



After that, they swung by to say hey to Mr. Richgels and shared a cream soda, and made it over to the Orton Park festival to hang out on the playground for little bit. Bryn's choice for dinner was Pasqual's for her favorite quesadillas. Super glad we took the time to do this before summer was over...which it now is and hope to make this a tradition in the coming years. First day of kindergarten post coming soon.