Summer recap

So my hope to go back and document each month we've missed in the blog is dwindling away.  If I don't start updating current events, I'll never catch up.  So here is a brief summary of our summer.

I (Adrienne) left my job this summer.  The field I'd been working in for over 13 years, since an internship in college.  It was the right move for our family and it allowed me to have a ton of free time with the kids this summer.  If things work out with my new job, I'll have most of my summers off and I think I'm going to love it.  Here is what we were up to while mommy was off!

June

We did a lot of eating outside - it's easier to not worry about what Alice throws on the ground, right?

Alice was walking with us but would freak out when we tried to let go.

We took a nice weekend trip to Grandpa and Grandma T's camper in northern Wisconsin.  Evan loved the beach.

Alice and Evan playing outside Paul Bunyan's in Minoqua

We started to both of them in the wagon - Evan watching out for Alice.  Happy to say that neither of them have fallen out of the wagon this summer.

In June we started taking both kids for bike rides with us.  Evan with his trail-behind and Alice in the seat with mommy.  They both love it!

Not sure about this helmet....

But loving the seat!

We all went to a St. Paul Saints game to celebrate father's day - our seats were nicely positioned with a concrete wall behind us that was covered in shrapnel from other people's sunflower seeds.  When we stood up, we each had sunflower seed parts on our shirts.  It was awesome.

It was tricky to keep Alice and Evan busy during the game.  Alice went back and forth between mommy and daddy and Evan watched the trains as they went past the stadium.  We made it through 6 innings.  The people around us were impressed.

Evan started watching "This Old House" on pbs and now requests it.  Score.

Alice started riding in the cozy coupe.

This was Alice's 1st birthday - she got a water table, that entertained for exactly 15 minutes but it entertained Evan for hours. 

She smeared frosting onto her tray for a few minutes before it made it into her mouth - then it was all over. 

I'm not sure if this picture is clear enough, but Alice got into the breast pump and figured she'd give it a go.  One of my friends said it looks like she's doing a keg stand.  Sort of....

And Alice got into everything.  Here she is trying to strangle herself with the cord to the vacuum.  I guess we can't vacuum anymore:)

Happy 4th Birthday Evan!

April brought Evan's 4th birthday!  It's been so fun to experience birthdays and holidays with him as he understands them more.  He was so excited for his birthday this year.  I mean, he had 3 different birthday cakes and parties so who wouldn't be excited, right?  Mommy and Daddy took the day off for his actual birthday, though mommy had a job interview that day so Evan and Alice got to spend part of the day with Daddy alone.  Evan loved it.  Riding the light rail, visiting the downtown library, then cupcakes?  His favorite day.

 

 

This was at the doctor's office, a week or so before his birthday - no shots, but I think he had a blood draw.  It was pretty traumatic for him but I got this smile from him shortly after.  Nothing a spider man sticker couldn't fix.

Birthday morning kisses from daddy - all with his birthday crown from daycare.

Best. Birthday. Present. Ever.  Mighty Machines, from Alice.  The girl knows what her brother loves. 

Birthday pancakes - may be a new tradition.  Alice doesn't look that excited about it, but she has since learned to love chocolate chip pancakes. 

March

March 2014 - A month before Evan turned 4, Alice was 9 months old and they were beginning to actually play together more.  Alice began to crawl in her 9th month and so began our battle to keep her out of Evan's toys.  Let's just say we have some creative furniture positioning around thee house.  We couldn't wait for the snow to melt to get outside!  Here are a few shots from the month.

Alice bundled up for outside time - based on those red cheeks I would guess this was after playing outside.

Evan did not make this giant snow ball - we found several pre-formed balls at our local park.  Only one actual snowman.

Clearing the snow off the slides - apparently not a lot of kids like to play on the park equipment when it's covered in snow. 
 

Evan created quite a hat for St. Patrick's Day

Our crawler - see the mess she leaves behind.  6-months later and place still looks like that.

I originally had the bowls, cups and spoons out for Alice to play with, but inevitably, Evan found something more productive to do with them

And we're outside FINALLY!!  It took forever for all of the snow to melt but Evan didn't waste any time getting his spring construction projects going. 

Alice trying out the Cozy Coupe for the first time - she loved it of course.

And the wagon's no different - just trickier to keep her in it.

Sort of sharing

Where to start

So much has been going on in the last 5 months.  Yes, it's been 5 months (more actually) since our last post.  I'm going to try my best to summarize things with iPhone photos so we can look back and remember what our kids were up to.  But I think I have to make a new plan for updating this thing.  More on that later.  So back to February 2014.....

It remained brutally cold and I believe we had at least one cancelled work day for cold, again.  I won't complain.  We celebrated Valentine's day by taking the kids bowling and making a heart-shaped cake.  Alice seems to enjoy being at the bowling alley despite being confined to a high chair most of the time (maybe next year she can bowl).  And Evan loves it, although he has to bring a fleet of trucks to occupy himself when it's not his turn to bowl. 


Alice playing with Snuffles.

Smiling girl, even though her brother was trying to unload every possible toy from her toy bins into her lap that morning.

Pretty sure she's poking his eye out here.  Neither of them have boundaries with rough housing.

Mixing up some banana bread with mommy.  Check out his apron full of tools.

How Evan occupies himself when mommy or daddy is bowling. 

Evan going up for his shot. 

Alice being a champ and taking a bottle at the bowling alley.

Our now traditional heart-shaped cake.  Evan just couldn't wait another minute to get a piece.

Surviving Winter

Not much we can do when it's so cold. Lots of indoor time and pushing Evan outside when it gets over 0 to play as long as he can take it.  Easy to feel cooped up but I think we're doing ok.  These two kids are really growing on each other.  Evan is hands down Alice's favorite, except maybe at 7:00 pm when mommy is the only one she wants.  He can get her to laugh and laugh.  And he's trying to play with her more appropriately now.  Alice is growing like crazy!  She's eating a variety of fruits and vegetables and loves anything she can feed to herself.  She's still waking up at 4:45 am nearly every morning, to get up for the day, which I could live without, but am just trying to deal with it.  Daddy on the other hand may have some trouble....

Here are some pics of our little ones lately.

I'm not sure about those socks, but she's pretty happy here.

Alice trying to help Evan with a puzzle book - not sure this turned out good, but he's pretty patient so I could see him just laughing off the fact that she likely wanted to eat the puzzle pieces.

This is Alice's new thing.  She will tip the box of toys (or any box for that matter) to look inside. 

Evan sporting some 3D glasses to read a 3D dinosaur book.  

Evan in the maze of snow paths that is our back yard.  There are at least 3 snow forts and a sledding hill back there too.

Little Red Riding Hood - she was getting ready to head to a neighbor's house for the Super Bowl.  

This time she was getting a little carried away getting into her bin of toys.  She ended up pulling nearly everything out on her own and then fell back on her back and just smiled.  Task complete.

Cold weather means time at home!

Yes, I have this luxury that when the local schools close, my company also closes.  It doesn't happen often, but this year we've already had 3 days off for the cold.  It's only 17 below right now, I mean that's not that bad.  And Jake went to work.  I'm not going to complain because I've enjoyed these days home with the kiddos.   I could very well take them to daycare, but I know I will regret it later when we don't get these days off together.  Here's a bit of what we've been up to in the last month.

One of our days home - We built some serious block castles and then of course enjoyed destroying them

We road tripped to Wisconsin for a January Christmas with daddy's family.  Evan tried out a new car seat and some sweet new headphones so mommy and daddy didn't have to listen to the "mighty machines" song 50 times:)

We visited the Sheboygan Children's Museum again.  This time they had a sweet fire truck.  Evan LOVED it.  He even let us get him in some serous fireman gear.

Alice took a snooze on the floor at Grandpa and Grandma's house.

This is how we roll on the weekends - snowpants over our pjs.  I have to take a picture of our backyard. Evan and daddy have created a maze of snow tunnels, a fort, and a sledding hill.  Evan's paradise. 

Another favorite cold weather activity - inside fort.  He played his new video game in there, read books, played cars....

Evan helped me bake some raisin bread on one of our cold days.  Check out his new "manly" apron with tools on it.

I realized sissy was not evenly represented in this post.  She's been eating new foods and loves bananas!  Here she thinks she's drinking but yet she's not.