Tomorrow is the first day of school and just like that, our summer comes to a close. I don't really like heat, more specifically humidity, so summer hasn't ever been my favorite season. This year was different. We got out. We explored. We relaxed. We enjoyed summer. I enjoyed summer. Maybe it's the ages the kids are at or maybe it's the fact that we now have our own backyard? Whatever it was, I'm happy to have finally enjoyed summer, despite the heat ;)
I didn't get on the actual computer much this summer so here is a glimpse of our adventures the past few months!
Enjoying having our very own backyard!
Our private island in the Apple River! Our elderly neighbor has been gracious enough to allow us to use his yard (which is riverfront property) to access this little island and explore whenever we want!
We went to three library programs this summer! Touch-a-Truck, the MN ZOOmobile and "The Frog Guy!"
We enjoyed our summer but we are ready for fall! We are ready to fall back into the routines that come with having a child in school. We thrive on routine but it is just so darn hard for us to adhere to even a loose schedule during the summer! Tomorrow the schedule returns and we will spend a few weeks figuring out our new routines for the academic year. And I suppose it won't be long before we are all longing for summer 2016 to arrive :)
After months of searching, denied offers and lots of discussion - we bought our first home!
We purchased a 3 bedroom, single bathroom home with a detached one car garage on a half an acre in the town of Amery, WI.
This home wasn't exactly what we "saw" ourselves in but after a few months we realized that our dream (a cabin-like home with some acreage in the woods) was just beyond our reach. We weighed our options and knew that apartment living just was not working for us any longer. We wanted our own space!
We were getting antsy because nothing new (that was livable) was popping up in our price range. Then this little house did. We looked at it two days after it went on the market, gave an offer that night and after a few days they accepted! It all happened so fast!
My parents took our kids for three nights, starting the day we closed, and we were able to get some things done with the help of friends. We painted the concrete walls in the basement with white DRYLOK paint, epoxied the basement floor in a grey color, shellacked the interior of the kitchen cabinets/drawers, moved all of our belongings and painted the three bedrooms! Whew! It was exhausting.
We decided right away that the main-level carpet had to go. I'm weird about other people's carpet. They had a dog, they weren't awesome housekeepers...enough said. We just accepted an estimate to get the entire main-level flooring re-done (except the bathroom) and are hoping to be able to finally unpack very soon! For now clothes are in wire cubes, kids' mattresses are on the floor and most everything else is in boxes in the basement!
I hope to be able to share more of our home as we unpack and make it our own - so stay tuned!
Amelia was off of school yesterday and I was off work so we had dad take the day off too so we could have some fun!
For Christmas we received passes to Sea Life aquarium and unlimited ride wristbands for Nickelodeon Universe. So, a day at Mall of America was in order!
We only went into a three stores - The Disney Store, The Lego Store (3 times...) and Creative Kidstuff. The kids all got something from Disney and Lego by trading us some of their "Target gift card money" for "mall money."
By packing a lunch, bringing snacks/water bottles and having the gift of pre-purchased tickets/ride wristbands this was a fairly low cost day for us!
The kids were just mystified that they could ride as many rides as they pleased. Usually we let them each pick a ride to go on together and that is it as ride points are not cheap! Being able to go on whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted blew their minds!
The little roller coaster was definitely their favorite - they rode it over and over and over again!
Yesterday is a perfect example of why gifts of experience are awesome! The wonderful day that we had would have cost our family of five a fortune, however, through a Christmas gift we were able to have a ton of fun that I know Amelia and Joe will be talking about for awhile!
Wow, 2014 is nearly over! Here is a look at our holiday season!
I "did" Thanksgiving on two hours of sleep due to a Wednesday overnight shift that ran two hours longer than scheduled to prepare for Black Friday.
I still don't, and probably never will, understand why consumers "demand" retailers open earlier and earlier each year for Black Friday. It's a vicious cycle of competition between retailers and it continues because people continue to show up regardless of if it cuts into their family time. I could go on all day about this but I'll spare anyone who happens to be reading this...you're welcome ;)
The first weekend in December Nana and Papa took everyone on the Polar Express North Pole Express in St. Paul!
We rode to the "North Pole" where Santa climbed on board to meet with all the kids and collect their letters! It was a mostly fun night with stress levels rising as bedtime came and we still hadn't left Union Depot! Everything gets harder when you have tired and crabby kids along...
The next morning we went to the tree farm with Jason's family to get his sister's tree! *no pictures
Santa visited our library and brought along two of his reindeer!
Our friend, D, joined us!
Disney on Ice: Worlds of Fantasy
Amelia was sick for her kindergarten Christmas concert this year. She was very upset so we had our own concert at home! She got all dressed up:
She sang us her favorite song from the concert:
After she performed we had "pizza that comes hot to your door" (aka delivery) because that is what they were having at the concert as a fundraiser for the music department. All in all, not the night we had planned but still a success!
Christmas Eve I worked 9.5 hours, headed home, got ready and we left to start our Christmas celebrations. We spend Christmas Eve with my family, sleep there and then spend Christmas Day with Jason's family. Jason and I went extra casual this year at my parent's house:
Family "selfie"
*Christmas Day lacks pictures...but Santa came, kids woke up at 5 a.m., we played games, we went to Christmas with Jason's family and headed home in the evening - exhausted!
We're looking forward to spending New Year's Eve at home tomorrow - with the exception of a chiropractor appointment late in the afternoon for Amelia! We have frozen pizzas waiting, movies will be watched and I'm sure a game or two will be played!
We had so much fun this Halloween! This was the first year that we did a family costume theme and we made the costumes as well!
The Incredibles!!!
We got the idea to be The Incredibles earlier this year. I mean, c'mon, we have our very own "Baby Jack Jack!" I am so glad we decided to do this. It made Halloween just that much more fun...for all of us!
I wasn't sure how to go about making the costumes and Jason said, "red sweatsuits!" I figured I'd find sweats for the kids with no problem and struggle finding ours. Wrong! I found adult ones right away and the kids ended up with red, cotton shirts and fleece pants, ha! The logos are made of fleece and I stitched them on, piece by piece, by hand. Jason made the masks out of black duct tape. It was a joint effort!
The Saturday before Halloween the Lion's Club in a neighboring town had a family night. There were crafts and hayrides. We met a couple of friends there and had a great time!
D, Joe and L
On Halloween day, Amelia's school had a Halloween parade and then the kindergartners had a short program for the parents. We asked Amelia if she wanted a separate costume for school since being an Incredible alone isn't very much fun and she jumped at the chance to be, what else, a cat.
It was the cutest little parade and the songs they sang for us afterwards...priceless.
Amelia and her best friend, J. These two go all the way back to 4K!
We found out this year that our kids just aren't big into trick-or-treating. They were excited at the first few houses but then wanted to be done. We narrowed it down to it being dark so next year we are going to make sure they each have their own flashlights. For now, I don't mind the lack of candy in the house ;)
We're already brainstorming what we can be next year! I forgot how much fun it was to dress up!
Well, we're attempting to sleep train Jackson...again. He did ok in his crib for about 2 months and then towards the end of the summer he was back in bed with us. He is a snuggler and a cuddler and does not like to be alone...ever! He is definitely the most difficult of our three kids in more ways than just sleeping habits!
So, here I am. Sleep training. Again. I have to be up for work at 2:50 a.m. but here I sit. Ready to go in there, rub his back, tell him I love him and it's time for sleep and walk out without caving and picking him up to comfort him every twenty minutes. What better way to pass the time than dinking around on the computer?!
Last Saturday we went North to Jason's grandpa's cabin (about an hour from us) and spent the day! When we first got up there Jason helped Grandpa pull the raft and paddle boat out of the water for the winter. Joe had a blast watching them with "bun-ock-wers."
After the work was done we all went on a pontoon ride around the lake before that was readied to be removed from the water for winter!
Helping Great-Grandpa drive
Beautiful fall colors starting to appear :)
This young loon let us get so close!
When we got back we fixed lunch and then Jason, myself and the kids headed into the woods to put up a ladder stand for deer hunting. We must have been a sight carrying that thing into the woods with three young kids in tow (especially when Joe thought maybe the ladder, horizontal at the time, was a set of monkey bars...) but we made it and they did awesome! Amelia even helped out by carrying ratchet straps the entire way!
While we were working at setting the stand up Amelia set off catching frogs/toads and examining them. They were everywhere!
Joe kept obsessing over when the "treehouse" was going to be done so once it was all ready to go he went up with his daddy.
Jackson was happy as can be on mama's back!
After finishing up in the woods, Jason and I got a little target practice in.
In the clearing where our target was there was a little visitor:
NO zoom used. He let us that close! Well, the adults at least since we kept the kids at a distance! Amelia named him Chuck!
It was a long, full and fun day! Jackson fell asleep before we even got out of the driveway (literally) and Joe didn't make it off their street - tired boys!
This past Saturday morning Jason, Amelia and I volunteered through an organization called Feed My Starving Children. Every month Target is involved in different volunteering events and this is the first one that we have participated in!
Our task was packing and boxing up MannaPack Rice bags. I rotated through several stations, with Amelia, trying to get her into the "right" job. Turns out the noise level was bothering her but she stuck it out! She took a break in the lobby briefly but she came back in and helped finish up the job!
Counting rice bags to be boxed up!
Another box ready to go :)
In a little over an hour we packaged up enough food to feed 94 children for an entire year! This is definately something we would do again and we will remember Amelia's "ear covers" so she can be more comfortable!
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