The Beach and the Lake

We felt so fortunate to be able to take two mini-vacations with our dear friends, the Browns and the Hisers, last month:

The Beach with the Browns
In early August, we had so much fun spending a day at the beach with the fabulous Brown family during their family vacation with Erik's family in Oostburg, WI, just about 30 minutes north of us.

The kids floated on rafts in chilly Lake Michigan, built sand castles, played football and pretended to be superheros all day long. And since both Charlie and John took afternoon naps after all that play, the grown ups got some quiet time to catch up and relax too! Erin and Erik are expecting Baby Number Three in three weeks, and we can hardly wait to meet their little one!

Superheros fighting bad guys!

The Lake with the Hisers

A month later, our dear friends Buffy and Dan invited us to spend the weekend with them at their family's lake house in Green Lake, WI, only 90 minutes from our front door. We had a blast tubing with the kids, watching the girls pretend to build bird nests out of mud and experimenting with letting the kids sleep in a bunk room together (lots of giggling and mysterious late night thumps).

Buffy and I have been friends since 7th grade! In fact, she was our grade school valedictorian and I was salutatorian. Though we went to different high schools and colleges, we stayed in touch through all these years and even attended each others weddings. Fast forward a couple of years, and now we're raising our kids together -- in fact, Ellie and Sophie helped Madeline and Charlie with their lemonade stand this summer!

Sophie, Will, Ellie, Charlie, Madeline and John. That's a lot of kids.

Dan and Rob are both fly fisherman

Madeline and Ellie gave us thumbs up (faster!) the whole ride

 

Madeline's a Kindergartener!

This morning at 8:05, Madeline walked into Richards Elementary School with hundreds of other kids as a kindergartener. She was proud and prepared -- giddy with excitement as the day approached. She picked out her own outfit, styled her own hair with a new sparkly headband, gobbled her eggs, put on her Keens and strapped on her backpack.

We had a parade all the way to school! Papa and Ning came over at 7:30am, coincidentally on the same morning that they each begin new jobs at Caterpillar! I told Madeline at breakfast that her substitute teacher, Mrs. Demmet, loves giving hugs (Mrs. Opelt is on maternity leave for six more weeks). When my dad made a joke that no one would be giving him hugs on his first day, Charlie burst out of his seat and gave him as big a hug as a three-year-old possibly can.

Now that Madeline's start time is the same as all the other 800 kids at the school (an hour earlier than junior kindergarten), the entire town poured out of their doors and walked the same walk as us -- it was a cheerful, polite mob of double strollers, back packs and younger siblings in tow. It took awhile to find Madeline's class line in the excited crowd, but we did and she slipped in right in front of her little friend, Julia. There was anxiety in her eyes, but she never expressed fear; she boldly marched in, her little curls bobbing until she disappeared up the stairs and around the corner.

That's when I felt a tidal wave of emotion. I let a tear slip and felt my chin trembling, but waited until I got home to cry. Really cry. I cried what some people call the Ugly Cry. Snot, swollen eyes, no more make up, gross noises kind-of-crying. I'm not ready to share my tiny girl with the wider world yet. But she's ready for it. She's filled with wonder, creativity, confidence. She's smart and ready to learn and grow even beyond our safe little home.

She says her first day was great! On our walk home from school this afternoon, we stopped off at the toy store to pick out a charm for her bracelet -- a reminder of her big day. When we got home, the flood gates opened and she told me excitedly about the games they played, listening to the Nutcracker during quiet time and that she got her very own milk in the crowded cafeteria and she wasn't even scared!

We're so proud of you, Madeline. You just won't understand it until you have a kindergartener yourself. Love you, sweet girl. You're a little shining star!

We had an ice cream party the night before to celebrate her first day!

A Pro Bono Lemonade Stand

On one of the record-breakingly hot days this summer, Madeline asked me if we could have a lemonade stand. So we all walked over to our grocery store, and had fun mixing up a batch of good ol' Country Time. I realized back home that we didn't have any ice and charging for hot lemonade on a 102 degree day just didn't seem quite right. Plus, I didn't have any quarters or small bills to make change; who knew so much thought went into a kiddie lemonade stand? So we gave it away, calling it our Pro Bono stand. I sort of tried to explain the concept to the kids, but they were as interested in my "teachable moment" as Maple is in learning algebra. Cars stopped, walkers crossed the street, and even teenagers asked for a cup. I've since realized there's a Whitefish Bay Lemonade Stand Code of Ethics, which is that you go out of your way to buy lemonade from kids. This place is Pleasantville.

We were lucky enough to have our dear friends Ellie and Sophie (and their baby brother) visiting that day from Rockford. Between Buffy's kids and mine, they made about six dollars, despite yelling, "Free lemonade" as loud as their little voices would carry through the muggy heat. That's a fortune when a couple of pennies in a piggy bank is still a big deal.

 

 

July Birthdays Galore

Making 34 wishes!!

Rob, Sandie, Ning and my dad all have July birthdays, so we partied the month away!

Ning's dear friends, Pat and Patrice, came up to Milwaukee for her birthday and we had a super fun dinner party on our new patio, singing along with Darius Rucker and enjoying Patrice's imported birthday meal, made from scratch.

Next came Sandie's big day. The Vlachs drove up and the kids treated her to a very special birthday cake that they decorated themselves with anything they spied in the overstuffed pantry.

For my dad's 60th, we went to a fabulous beer garden a mile from our house where you could blink and believe you're in Munich -- live accordion, blue umbrellas with gravel underfoot and a giant beer stein in your hand. Then we had a seafood extravaganza and almond birthday cake back at our house. We took turns reading "60 Reasons Dad's/Papa's Great," a gift from Mollie, Kenny, Andi, Kyle, and our little family of five. One of Charlie's reasons was "Because you have a fish on your shirt and Caterpillar on your belt and that's pretty cool." One of Madeline's was "Because you're a mighty man and everyone loves you."

And finally, Rob took the 31st off work so we could celebrate all day long! Madeline and I made him a chocolate cake with chocolate ganache that called for a pound of dark chocolate. Now that's love. He got the special treatment at our favorite breakfast spot -- all the staff sang him happy birthday over a birthday muffin while he wildly tried to make them believe it was actually my birthday to deflect the attention. Nice try, bud. Then he went fly fishing, had a fun family lunch at a milkshake shack on the beach and took a birthday nap in the afternoon. He said it was his favorite birthday ever!

John's totally in the mix these days.

Happy birthday, Sandie!

The Glamour Girls.

The Johns.

Our Wednesday Adventures

Swimming at Klode Beach

Every Wednesday morning all summer long, Madeline, Charlie and I have gone on a big kid adventure while John naps at home with our darling babysitter. We pack a lunch and set out to the Milwaukee Public Museum to see the dinosaurs and visit the butterfly garden, to the Schlitz Audubon Nature Center to hike and catch penny toads, swim at the beach, or go to Preschool Time at the Betty Brinn Children's Museum. Some Wednesdays, we just go for a relaxed Starbuck's date.

These mornings have truly been a a highlight of our summer!

Superman reporting live. Big sister waiting for microphone.

Preschool Time at the Children's Museum

Hiking!

Catching Penny Toads at the Audobon Nature Center

The butterfly room at the Milwaukee Public Museum

Maple's 15-Minutes of Fame

During Milwaukee's Bastille Days Festival, Ning asked if we'd like to sign Maple up for the Pooch Parade. Fun...of course! But we soon learned (only after we were selected as one of the 15 participants) that it was actually a doggie talent show....on stage, before an audience, with a potential radio interview afterwards. And Maple's idea of performing a trick is licking her paws clean after she finishes rifling through the recycling bags in the garage (her guilty pleasure). Uh-oh.

It not only all worked out, but we had a blast! We dressed her up as a Fairy Dog-Mother -- with loads of kids in the audience, she was definitely a crowd favorite. The morning of her debut, Madeline, Charlie and I smeared peanut butter all over one of Madeline's magic wands, trying to teach her to her spin for her performance, but instead she just pinned the wand to the ground and licked it clean. I wish I could have heard her inner monologue that morning.... "This costume is humiliating, but I like peanut butter, so it's all good."

At the festival, Madeline and Charlie paraded around Cathedral Square with me and Maple, and then they actually joined me on stage -- we were first up! I introduced them to the crowd as Maple's "fairies-in-training." When I touched the (peanut butter-free) wand to her nose, she sat and shook for us. The crowd cheered like she'd just danced on her hind legs. And then what do you know....I looked over and Madeline had unexpectedly grabbed her paws and made her dance like she's watched Rob do since they were brand new puppies. 

Ning's mom was adamant that we were robbed for not winning. Family's great.

The parade before the talent show portion

Cowboy John's First Birthday Party

We had a big 'ol party at our dude ranch (um, front yard) to celebrate our little guy's first birthday! It was a blast. We had a great turnout and a fabulous mix of family, old friends that make life good and brand new friends that we've met here in Whitefish Bay. The day was perfect -- hot, but nice in the shade with a breeze.

John was irresistible wearing his smocked jon jon and cowboy hat; he smashed his cupcake with gusto and gave everyone a show. He was most happy sitting on Grandpa Tom's lap eating slice after slice of watermelon. We served Rob's pulled pork sandwiches, which he smoked through the night for 12 hours, with barbecue sauce he made from scratch and homemade sweet tea. I iced my almond cupcakes until 11pm the night before the party. Every child got a hat or bandana when they arrived, and they could decorate a cowboy vest that Aunt Nicki cut out of brown grocery sacks. The country music played and the stick-on mustaches eventually made their way out of their wrappers and onto everyone's faces. Ning even brought a real cowgirl who taught the kids how to rope steer (namely Maple and various guests); she grew up on a ranch out West and had rhinestones in her belt buckle. I put on my cowgirl boots for the party. All the kids were happy as clams splashing in the water, swinging and playing in the sandbox.

We were so touched that several of our dear friends made the trip north with their young children, and thrilled that the Martens could stay the night with us before Craig's sales meeting in Milwaukee the next morning. Rob's family arrived wearing head-to-toe western gear and got right to work. My dad and Ning brought the balloons and ice (what's a first birthday party without a giant cowboy boot mylar?).

It was a party -- one of my favorite ever! Happy birthday, John John!!!