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.

My Loves

This week my kids are off on an adventure. A grand adventure.  My parents took the week off of work, came over with my Grandma to pick the kids up, and left with them this morning. One whole week at Grandma and Grandpa's house withOUT Mom and Dad. I'm not sure who is happier and more excited my kids or my parents. I hope they all have a super week.

Summer Activities: Vacation Bible School

Last week our kids had the opportunity to attend Vacation Bible School (VBS). The WELS churches in Oshkosh combine and have a big VBS each summer. This summer Grace Lutheran hosted with staff from Camp Philip organizing the whole event. The program is run much like a day camp from 9am-3pm for school age kids and 9-12 for pre-schoolers. The kids learned Bible stories, played games, sang songs, did crafts, and had a fabulous time. Lydia was a bit apprehensive the first day at a new place with new people but she warmed right up to her teacher, Miss Jessica (#1). The boys went in full steam ahead and loved every minute. The theme this year was Knights of the Day and each day the kids made a piece of armor. The last day we put the belt, breastplate, helmet, shield, and sword together (#2). I've got some pretty great knights.

Cousin Christi

Last week the kids and I headed up to Fox Valley Lutheran HS for a Lutheran Vanguard's first ever field show and a little of their parade show as well.  Nathan's cousin Christi is a trumpeter in Vanguard and it was awesome to see her perform with the band.  Here is a a taste of what we saw. Christi is the fourth from the left in the picture and somewhere in the midst of the videos.

Summer Activities: Swimming Lessons

For the past two weeks our kids have hit the pool for half an hour each day. Evan and Hans had lessons in the morning and Lydia in the evening. Each of the three has learned new skills and continues to improve as a swimmer. We could take a second summer session but decided to wait again until fall for more official lessons. In the mean time they'll just enjoy practicing at the beach, lake, or pool.

1. Buddies

2. Lydia can now confidently jump in and under! Splash!

Surprise Party

Today we surprised the boys with a joint birthday party. We've never had the invite-your-class-of-friends kind of party before today. Neither of the boys were suspecting anything since Evan's birthday was two weeks ago and Hans' is in three weeks. Nathan took the kids with him for a few hours as I prepped the party. The guests arrived and stayed out of sight as we brought the boys back and all shouted "SURPRISE!"  The guests were pretty excited as many mentioned they'd never been to a surprise party before.  (Pic. #1: The boys reaction. Pic. #2 The guests before the boys arrived.)

It's hard to see, but the banner above the guests' heads reads, "Happy Birthday Evan & Hans." 

Once the party was going, we started with a long obstacle course. There were some typical parts of the course but there was also a t-shirt spraying part (# 3) and a cone dipping part (#4). 

We had several relay races, one was water from bucket to bucket (#5) and one involved taking shoes off and on (#7).  We started with a water balloon toss but the kids all preferred a water balloon throw so after each of the kids was armed with a balloon I gave them instructions to "get Mr. Smith" and everyone including Nathan took off running (#6). 

There was some free time for playing with friends and exploring the partially built fort (#8). 

We added ice cream to those cones we made, lit two candles, and sang Happy Birthday (#9).  The boys each received plenty of presents from generous friends (#10). The party wound down and parents came to collect their happy kids. We thanked the guests and said good bye to each of them.  Evan and Hans still seemed a little awestruck at the whole event.

Then we gave the boys one final surprise, new bikes! (#11)  Happy Birthday Boys!  Hopefully this will be remembered at one of the childhood "greatest days ever" in years to come.

Wonderful

Last weekend we had a wonderful weekend at my in-laws. I know for many people "wonderful" and "in-laws" wouldn't appear in the same sentence but in our family it's true. My in-laws are wonderful. My mother-in-law and father-in-law are hardworking, loving, generous Christians. They raised six strong, individual, hardworking, loving, generous, Christian children. Being home altogether is wonderful.
For the weekend there were 14 of us together (Jordan had to work so he wasn't able to make it this time.). With that many people around it was always busy. Saturday the ladies of the group had a mini baby shower for Tammy. Trees were trimmed and brush cleared. The woods were explored. Kites were flown. Bugs were caught. Three June birthdays (Matthew,  Evan,  Joanna), three June anniversaries (Michael&Tammy,  Matthew&Kristi,  Nathan&I), and four Father's Days (Kevin, Nathan, Matthew, Michael) were celebrated. Meal after meal of delicious food was consumed. Friends visited. Grandma (also known at Great Grandma) came for lunch. Lightning bugs were caught and kept in a jar for a nightlight. The front porch was well used by all to relax. read, and rest. We all attended church together on Sunday. It was wonderful. Family.
1. The dinner table as the noon meal was being finished and dessert was on the way.
2. Lydia reading to Naomi with Aunt Andrea.
3. Hans and Michael checking out the fire pit. The coals were still hot the next day.
4. Evan and Grandpa with Evan's birthday gift. Grandpa, Dad, and Evan built a sparrow trap so that Evan can catch a sparrow.