Timberrattler's Game

Happy Hans at the Timberrattler's game.

Thee amigos up close and the T-Rats behind.

Playing in the huge sandbox behind right field.

Posing in the mini-cars that raced around between innings. Notice that it was also Fang, the T-Rats mascots, birthday as well.

Running the bases at the end. Hans is in light blue with Lydia in green behind him.

Hans is 6

Hans was very specific about his cake this year. He wanted "all kinds of sports made out of fondant."  He was pretty happy with the final result.

Ready to eat his "H", baseball and glove, and ice cream.

"Can I please open my presents now?"

On July 16 our Hans turned six. We had started to celebrated his birthday with the surprise party in June and again with my family over the 4th of July.  Friday the 16th was his day. We started the day with birthday muffins, headed out for a morning at the beach, a picnic lunch, an afternoon movie at the library, white chicken chili (Hans' favorite food) for supper, and ended the evening by attending a Timberrattler's game (the Brewer's minor league team) complete with hot dogs, fireworks, and running the bases at the end.  Six is pretty sweet.  Just like our little boy. Happy Birthday to our silly little sweetheart, Hans Jeffrey. We love you.

toothless

Evan has been wishing and hoping to lose a tooth since kindergarten a full two years ago.  He finally had one that was wiggly a few weeks ago and, after hours of playing with it and a swift tug by Mom, it came out. The new tooth is coming right in and the one beside it is wiggling more and more. 

When Evan lost it he told me very seriously, "I know the Tooth Fairy isn't real but I want to know for sure. If I put this under my pillow will you please NOT put money under there." Just in case he was wrong he did decide to wait until the next night so he could show Dad the tooth. Despite the Tooth Fairy leaving a note and $1 he was still skeptical. We'll see what happens when tooth #2 falls out.

fancy toes

Lydia: "Mom, Mom! Take a picture of my fancy toes. I painted them myself!"

Lydia: "Now take one of our fancy toes together."

 

at the beach

Considering that we live in a city that is on the shores of the largest lake in Wisconsin I find it funny that there only one small, unimpressive beach in town.  The kids and I found another small beach in a neighboring town and have spent a few sunny days playing there. Sunshine. Sand. Warm waves. Content kids. A good book. Ah, summer days.

Spidermaning

There's a fun new game being played in the Smith house-Spidermaning! What is Spidermaning? It's climbing the doorways just using hands and feet. The boys have both mastered climbing to the top of the doorways and Lyd isn't too far behind them.


(side note: Doesn't the vibrant green kitchen make the cream dining room look dull? I might have to fix that.)

A Week at Grandma & Grandpa's

The Osceola Fire Dept. came out to my parent's house to fill their new pool.

Dad in the pool helping the volunteer firemen as the kids look on eagerly.

Seven GrandKids! From upper left: Lydia (4 1/2), Evan (7), Joey (8), Hannah (10months), Ethan (2 1/2), Jesse (5), Hans(6).

The kids caught snakes, skinks, frogs, toads, & endless bugs. Here Evan has a frog.

Mom took five of the kids to a local state park for story/craft time and a hike.

Friends have a house on the lake so the kids got to hit the beach.

My parents church has a parade float with which we were all recruited to help.

A shot of my cutie niece, Hannah, with her glasses. So sweet.

The last week of June the kids were lucky enough to spend a week with my parents. Last summer it had happened that the kids stayed for three days while Nathan and I headed home alone. Since then the kids have been asking and asking if they can stay a whole week without Mom and Dad.  It worked out that my parents could take a week off of work, come pick up the kids, keep them for a week, and them Nathan & I'd join them for the 4th of July holiday and bring the kids home again.  I don't know who was more excited as the week drew closer, the kids or my parents.  A whole week together! 

The pictures above show some of the highlights of the week. What they also capture is the love that is shared.  My kids have been blessed with four amazing grandparents. They're the kind of grandparents who take the time to be part of their lives. They held them as babies, read to them as toddler, play silly games to make them laugh, listen to them read, make them feel special, and spoil them not with things but with the gifts of time and themselves. As a result Grandma and Grandpa are loved and adored. It's a win-win proposition all the way around. Our kid, who we love the most, love our parents, who loved us the most and around and around.  Family is a pretty amazing blessing.

Asparagus

While the kids have been gone I've been having fun in the kitchen. I have baked muffins and a few treats for the weekend but I mean something else. I painted the kitchen! Our kitchen had been wallpapered in lovely 1980s cream floral wallpaper. I pealed it off in the matter of a few minutes, scraped the paste that remained for many hours, filled nail holes, and painted the kitchen asparagus green. The walls were nearly this color under the wallpaper and while I had been planning on going with a pale blue I fell in love with the green. I love how it looks so bright and sharp with the tan and brown tile. I'm going to need to make new curtains for the window (not pictured) but so far I'm thrilled with the new look.

Looking from the dining room into the kitchen.

From the center of the kitchen looking towards the dining room.

*note*Please ignore the clutter. I didn't pick up before the pictures like a real blogger would. This is really what our house looks like since we really live here.