Haircut

Grandma took Alex for a haircut this afternoon. For those who don't know, haircuts are a bit of an issue for us. Like screaming, choking hysterics type of an issue. The best he's ever done is at the "Magic Mirror" right here by my parent's house so we try and make an appt every time we are here. This time went MUCH better than usual. Above Alex is showing off is new "do" and his cars that Grandma got him when they were done.

1st day in Green Bay!

We went to Bay Beach Amusement Park this morning. It's a small park on the bay with mosly kiddy rides, a carousel, train, ferris wheel and bumper cars. The rides are only $0.25 or $0.50 each so it's great to take someone Alex's age...it only costs about $5 before they are totally worn out!

We didn't realize though that today was "Green Bay Kids Day" where all residents of the city of Green Bay got free unlimited rides. When the rides only cost a quarter to begin with you can imagine the sort of population that a free day attracts.

There aren't that many people in the world that really look nice in short shorts and a bikini top.

Very few of those people live in northeastern Wisconsin.

Even fewer have 4-5 children.

But overall it was fun, Alex had a blast. It was HOT today though and we were all beat by the time we left.

Alex takes his "driving" very seriously on the rides. It's so funny because he hardly cracks a smile the whole time the ride is moving because he is concentrating so hard. Then when he gets off the ride he has a big smile and says how much fun it was.

More pictures........

Grandma, Grandpa, fishing, fun.....

Grandma Nancy and Grandpa Ben came to visit this weekend! We played outside a lot on friday, and then saturday morning went to the farm market and to the Kid's Free Fishing day. Alex went fishing for the first time. Despite how it looks in the second picture, he loved it. He just wasn't too sure about getting too close to the fish flopping around on that line! He caught 2 rainbow trout and declared that it was "really fun".

Now he has been outfitted with his very own "Cars" fishing pole and a Scooby Doo tackle box and is ready to fish again soon. He practiced casting in the backyard all afternoon on saturday.

Sunday morning Alex and I hopped in the car with Ben and Nancy and rode back to Wisconsin with them. It was a fun trip, we really appreciated being able to hitch a ride!

Alex's wonderful discovery

Hill in the backyard + little scooter = hours of fun!

Perfect timing...........

Last year Ben bought me a rose bush as a gift. I planted it a little late last fall and was worried about if it would come back ok this spring. Then it experienced a little trauma early this spring when it got stepped on and kind of split in two.

However, it's tough and came back pretty well!

We had our first rose open up last week on the exact day of our 10 year wedding anniversary!

Spaghetti and sprinklers!

Perfect summer combination for the preschool set! We had a spaghetti lunch with the MOMs club today. Let the kids go to town with some spaghetti outside for lunch and then play in the little pool and sprinkler to clean themselves up!

Bounce, bounce...

We went for a little hike on wednesday with some of the families from the Waldorf playgroup. The kids found this really cool fallen log that was laying just right that if you sat on it you could bounce your friends up and down!

When we got in the car to leave Alex declared "That was an excellent hike!"

Projects...

For Christmas Ben gave me some knitting needles and a gift certificate to a local yarn shop. I went in january and they taught me a few simple stitches and got me started on a scarf. I ended up getting busy and set it aside for a few months, then picked it up again and worked on it and had to start if over from the beginning 3 times before I figured some things out :). BUT, I did finish it, then got a book and some more yarn and between the book and looking up videos online I taught myself how to do a few more stitches and read patterns and I made a hat for the baby!

The very top of the hat isn't quite finished yet, I reached a point where I need a little help and the ladies at "Yarn Quest" said they could show me a better way to finish it off than what the pattern says. It's not perfect but I am pretty proud of it considering it is my first project off a pattern.

Yes, I know they all look the same

Alex's new binoculars:
"funny face":

No, really Alex, just smile normal: THIS is what the end of a really fun day looks like:

All these beach pictures are starting to look the same, right? Well that's because the days have all looked the same! Mid to upper 80's, sunny or hazy....the wind might vary a bit from day to day but that's about it.

Really nice new development....Alex likes to take showers now! It is so much easier after the beach (or an evening in the backyard that ends looking like the picture above...) to just throw him in the downstairs tub and hose him off. We have on of those shower heads down there that has the hose and you can grab it and spray wherever. He thinks it's great fun but for us it's quick and easy.

Some of our recent MOMs club activities....

Last week we went downtown to ride the little train at Clinch Park. The zoo closed after last summer but they have the train running still this year! After the train ride the kids noticed there were some big machines working on tearing down some of the zoo exhibits...boy, what more could little boys ask for? A train ride and then watching big machines dig and haul dirt.

One evening last week one of the preschools in town had a fundraiser kids carnival. Alex got his hand painted w/ a butterfly and got a balloon and played a little fishing game. Great fun...until we got home and he let his balloon get too close to the ceiling fan. And then asked to have his butterfly washed off only to change his mind after the fact. It was a rough bedtime that night.

Today we had a play day at a friends house and Alex found a new swing buddy. Alex could swing and swing and swing forever...and so can Lily! So they made a good pair!

Where do they learn this stuff?

Seriously, I don't know...Alex learned to make "funny faces" from somewhere and it totally caught me off guard the other day. Man, he was just cracking himself up.

Beach days.....

We're having *perfect* weather. Mid-80's during the day, mid-50's during the night. So we've been outside a lot and at the beach alot. Nothing else to notable going on.

We are having a family TV-free week this week. The TV hasn't been on since sunday. We don't watch a ton anyway but it is usually on between 8pm-10:30pm most nights and Alex usually watched a show or 2 either in the mornings while I was getting ready or after lunch when he got tired. We said we'd go a week but who knows....maybe we'll just keep it up for a while. Ben has read a whole book in the past 4 days, I'm almost done with a little knitting project and we've played cards and games.