Moments of July

Here are photos from July. Enjoy!
Top collage is an afternoon of fun at Bay Beach with my sister and nephew. Beach photos are from a day at Ashwaubomay Beach in Green Bay.


Second collage are funny photos of Katherine, Emma singing at Kamp Kermit, and more Bay Beach.

4th of July weekend photos

Here are some photos from the 4th of July weekend in Sheboygan. The first two are at Nana & Papa's - playing with Papa's feet and Aunt Heidi making Katherine laugh; Then the next photos are from the 4th of July parade. Chad & Ian, Uncle Chad & Katherine, Ian & Emma; Katheirne enjoying the parade; Next are Emma at Nana & Papa's in the afternoon - making the markers as tall as her and then this is what we all did with our afternoon for some amount of time - nap! Finally at the fireworks...Katherine enjoyed although did not sit still during like I had hoped but was good. Katherine wanting to sleep. Emma & Katherine with Papa and then with me. I like the last one she is clapping with Papa at the grand finale.

Updated Summer List

So the following is a list I wrote back in June of events I hope to do this summer. Time to update it. Still many fun things to do with only a month left. We will see how it goes. Ethan has off starting July 28 for just over 2 weeks so hopefully we can accomplish some more in that time.
Summer of 2010

Timber Rattlers game,
Green Bay Bullfrogs game
Milwaukee Brewers game
Milwaukee County Zoo - Done with friends
Madison for a day - Henry Vilas Zoo and see friends from Washington!
Visit The Farm in Door County
Breakfast on the Farm - Done with friends
Travel to Minnesota - Done and greatly enjoyed
Go to the beach - did this in Minnesota and hope to do again
Ice cream in Door County at Lickety Split
Go to PC Junction - fun train restaurant in Door County
Go to Chicago - Shedd Aquarium
Many trips to the park - Done and still doing
Many trips to Summer in the Park to picnic and listen to music - only did this once so far - far behind past summers
Wednesday Evening concerts at St. James Park - only once
See family and friends more often - saw some family in MN who we have not seen in a long time and have been seeing a variety of friends in Green Bay

Absent Blogger

Where have I been since my one post in July compared to my 12 posts in June? Well, since my last post which was from our trip to the Milwaukee County Zoo we have been to Sheboygan and back for the 4th of july weekend. We have been to swmiming lessons everyday for 3 weeks, Emma has been to Kamp Kermit, we have been running 20-25 miles a week, been to storytime with Froggy, we have been to the Twin Cities and back for a long weekend which was full of fun (separate post(s) to come), and Katherine has been to the dentist for the first time.

I have been wanting to post but something else comes up. I am behind on my scrapping goal - 1 page a day, and I have not been working on the decluttering of our house which starts with the basement. I am currently reading a great book called "No more clutter" which hits on many true points, and I think will be very useful as the declutter process continues. Although a chapter I read last night makes me realize that the kitchen needs decluttering again. Did you know that any dish or cup with a crack in it should be thrown away because bacteria can grow where the crack is and become unhygenic? This book even gives definitions of what kind of hoarder you may be and you can be more than one type. I am definitely a "Sentimental hoarder". My significant other is definitely a "procrastination hoarder". It is quite interesting. So I am reading about decluttering but not doing it at the present time because I never feel like I have good enough chunk of time to do it. But according to the author this is a common reason it does not get attempted by many and that the solution is to break it into 10 minute jobs until you are able to take a whole day or half a day. Will someone please take my children so I can do this? :-)

I also had an idea to either add a post or a tool to my blog of great children books that we have or have read. I had this idea the other night when reading to Katherine. I love to buy books for kids because you can never go wrong with a book and they can last forever. I think we have some great books, and decided I should share some of the great titles and authors that we enjoy. I just have to decide how to add it and where.

I definitely have a ton of photos to post.

And as for the girls they are ever-changing. Emma turns 5 in one week! I can hardly believe it. She is definitely a little mother. Her newest hobby is to let me know how I should handle katherine when she has done something or what I should do with katherine if she is not doing something I have asked. And her comments lately are priceless..I have started to write them down when I remember but have missed a lot of good ones. And so many questions she has these days. She was very tired this week from our trip to Minnesota and you could tell by her comments and questions. We always know when Emma is going to fall asleep in the car because she will ask us the weirdest question and the next thing we know she is in la-la land.

Katherine is now 17 months and still a first class clown. Just yesterday she had Emma and I laughing with a goofy walk that she invented all on her own. She is definitely more in a copy cat stage now and will try and wants to do anything she sees big sister doing. She just started to say "baa" yesterday or today, I can't remember because the days and weeks seem to blur together right now. I have also heard her try to say "bye" but the "b" sound does not come out and it sounds like "dye" because she has the "d" sound mastered and definitely the "m" sound for Mama is mastered quite well. Writing about sounds makes me feel like a guilty mother because we have not been working with Emma on her speech sounds that we were supposed to continue through summer.

Milwaukee County Zoo

Sunday, June 27 we met four of our friends (Christy & Paul, Jenalyn & Glenn) and their combined 4 girls at the Milwaukee County Zoo for a day of fun. The morning started rainy and thundering but by 2pm it was sunny and hot. The rain actually felt very refreshing in the morning. Between the 6 of us we have 5 girls 4 and under. Emma is the oldest and Ella is the youngest. Grace, Lydia, Lauren and Katherine fall inbetween in that order. They all have fun together. You will see we attempted to capture a photo of all 5 girls in the monkey house. In the one Katherine decides "I am out of here". Katherine also enjoyed riding on Christy and Paul's sit and stand stroller. Lydia, on the other hand, was not too happy about Katherine taking the standing portion from her. Other photos - Emma & Lauren looking over the fence. Lauren & Grace sharing an umbrella. Lydia riding on her Mommy's shoulders. Ella just enjoying the ride.

Here are some collages of our day. The bears in this collage were playing/fighting. It was a lot of fun to watch. Christy and I were the only adults to experience it. One is male and one is female. I really like the photo where the female gets out and walks away and the male is looking over the edge like "come on, don't stop now".

I posted the blog Christy - now you don't have too. :-) You can just comment or add anything I missed.