Happy 6th Birthday Princess!

6 years ago today I was staring at my daughter...yep, I finally had a little girl to shop for. Visions of cute pink dresses and hairbows danced in my head. Her labor and delivery was so much easier and faster than her BIG brother and I actually felt great. She weighed in at 8 lbs 13 oz and was born at 12:30 am. I was in love....I still am. She has become such a wonderful, caring (and a bit sassy) young lady :). In 4 days she starts 1st grade, she has lost 5 teeth and rides a 2 wheeler like Evil Kinevil. She LOVES her brother and baby sister so much! She loves to give hugs and is the best snuggler in the family. She is a daddy's girl through and through. She is our Goose and she loves the color green :).

We always start birthdays with a birthday breakfast served on the birthday plate. Grace wanted french toast (good choice).

Then she got to open her presents (outfit & lunch box).

Then it was time for the girls only party! I took Grace, KeOra (her cousin) and a friend (Sarah) to lunch (The Nitty Gritty)

and then off to a local beauty school to get their nails & hair done. They had a blast! We just stood back and listened to them giggle and share secrets and giggle some more. At one point I heard Sarah tell Grace "this is a great birthday" and Grace replied "YES, isn't it fun?". On the drive home KeOra said "I feel like a princess today".

Then we had our friends Jeremy and Jenn, Jordan & Sarah over for a cookout and cake & ice cream (thanks for bringing the ice cream and everything else you brought!) . Grace had a TERRIFIC birthday and went to bed with a huge smile on her face....
OOOOHHHHH...and at lunch she finally lost her front tooth. It has been hanging on by a thread (seriously). It was stuck sideways for a while today...it was gross and she wouldn't pull it out! Thankfully she bit into a carrot at lunch and out it came!!! Yippeeeee for carrots!

The Art of Franking....

My Aunt Deb came to visit for a night and Jack asked if she would rather sleep in his room with the air conditioner or Grace's room with the big fan or the basement where it is dark and has a TV. She chose Jack's room. I then teased Jack about Aunt Deb sleeping in his bed and she doesn't wear jammies. He asked if she would rather sleep in Grace's room since it is made for a girl (hehehe). She promised to wear jammies to bed. I told Jack to go get his stuff (blankets/pillows) off his bed so he could sleep in the basement.
A couple hours later we went into change the sheets in Jacks room and there was NOTHING on his bed...no sheets, no mattress pad...nothing. Except for fishing line wound back and forth the length of the bed :). Then we tried to turn on the air conditioner so it would be nice and cold in there...it wouldn't work. I noticed it was unplugged. So we got everything put back together and I found Jack laughing. Here is our conversation:

Me: Why are you laughing?

Jack: I FRANKED Aunt Deb! I unplugged the air and took everything off my bed and put fishing line on it AND set the alarm clock for 3:00 a.m. (good thing he mentioned this because we didn't know that!).

Me: You "franked" her?

Jack: Don't you sometimes call a hotdog a Frank? I franked her.

Me:Oh.

Jack: Do you think she will want to sleep in Grace's bed now?

Me: No...I promise she will wear jammies in your bed.

Jack: ok...I guess.

The next day Deb got up and put fishing line on Jack's bed, moved his stuffed animals so they were in his clothes closet and moved all his hats. Jack came into his room and yelled "I've been FRANKED!".

So all these years we thought we were Pranking someone...we were really FRanking them!

The 2 Franksters:

A hiking we will go....

Today we had the day off and since the weather was going to be ok we decided to head to Devils Lake for some hiking. After borrowing our neighbors backpack for Kate and loading the car with everything but the kitchen sink we were off.

When we got there and told the kids we were hiking to the top of this bluff they were a bit worried...and so was I!

We started with some lunch and fishing.

Then it was time to strap on the tennis shoes and the baby and we were off.

We decided (thankfully) to take the shorter of the routes. Balancing Rock to Devils Doorway to Potholes. It was still all the way to the top. I made it about 3/4 the way up the bluff with Kate on my back before Jared took her and he had the rest of the way. The kids used every photo opportunity they could find so they could sit and rest.

I was wondering if we would make it back down before the rain hit. Along the trail we saw some rock climbers and this guy...

Grace looked at him and said "He looks like Aunt Deb!" We of course wanted to know how she figured that and she said "He has the same hair style in the front". Sorry Aunt Deb...you either get 'franked' or compared to a dog with my kids..

The view from the top is fantastic!

Well worth the hike...and not as bad I thought it would be. Then you get a nice break as you walk across the top for a little bit and then you start climbing down. For the kids they were worried they were going to fall or Daddy was going to fall with Kate. Luckily no one fell and we made it back to the car in about an hour and a half.

Kate didn't fall asleep in the pack until we got to the bottom and then she crashed. She slept on a blanket for another couple hours after that! When she woke up she wanted some chips..it was hard work for her to ride up and down the bluffs and take a 2 hour nap!

Then Jack and Grace got their suits on and swam in the lake for a while until I noticed Grace sitting there shivering uncontrollably...goofy kid just sat there freezing until I asked if she wanted to get out.

I got Grace out and dryed off/changed and she played frisbee with Jared while Jack fished.

We headed out shortly after a guy (that had many open sores and blood on his legs) asked to use my cell phone. I told him it didn't work up there and he smiled and said "really?"...I packed up the girls and got them to the car. Jared was fishing down along the shore so he wasn't even around when it happened. It was creepy!

It all worked out fine because as we pulled out of the parking lot it started raining..good time to go. All in all it was a great day and the kids are all sleeping before 11pm! Maybe we will have to go back again tomorrow!

A dream come true!

Jack may look tough...but inside he is a softy...especially for Kate :)

Jack's dream has come true...he can now play football. Real, hit 'em hard, full pad football. All the mom's cringe with me at the thought of your baby...ok, he's 9 1/2 but still...getting hit hard by another kid.

I asked him if he would rather play tennis (NO), golf (NO), swim club (NOPE), math team (YEAH RIGHT)...football it is. In Verona, kids start full tackle football going into 4th grade. They even have to weigh in. So if they are over 95 pounds they are blue-starred. That means that they play the line. They do it to protect the 55 pounders from the 120 pounders. Jack will be a lineman...yep, he is 106 pounds of energy...ready to tackle anything that moves. The smallest kid on Jacks team is 58 pounds (same size as Grace) and the biggest kid is 121 pounds! That is quite a difference in size!

We picked up his equipment 2 weeks ago and I find him wearing it every morning as soon as he wakes up. I make him take it off for breakfast, lunch and dinner. He even watches tv with his helmet on. He heard the coaches say they should wear their helmet as much as possible so they get used to it...he is taking them very seriously!

He started practice last week (helmets only) so the coaches could evaluate the boys before the draft that picks the teams. This is some serious business! Practice is 3 days a week for 2 hours a day and then games on Saturdays all over Dane County. No more playing Verona vs Verona for the Rec Department.

Jack has been hoping and praying that he would be placed on Verona's White team (vs Orange or Black) so he could play against his cousin's team in the 3rd week. We got THE email Friday afternoon...he made the ORANGE team. He was bummed. I was bummed...the Orange team is the team that travels the most and the furthest! Lucky us. We get to drive to Poynette, Monroe and Wisconsin Heights for 3 of the 5 games. One of the home games is against Waunakee...my hometown.

Real practice starts this week and already we have conflicts with 3 of the practices...what do I do? Do I make Jack miss a Brewers game (probably not), miss going early to Nana's for a family reunion (probably), miss Grace's birthday dinner (?)....I love sports...

If anyone would like the schedule of Jack's games so you can see him play let me know. It should be fun!

Go Pack Go...almost!

In June we bought tickets (again) for Packer Family Night at Lambeau Field. It's offense vs defense so at least we knew the Packers would win! Jeremy and Jenn and the kids also had tickets with us so all the kids were SUPER excited. This year we decided to tailgate in the parking lot...a whole new concept for me...having a picnic in a concrete park :).

The day of the game we woke up to HORRIBLE thunderstorms and even more HORRIBLE rain. It was as dark as night at 8 am...very weird. We got on the road, after dropping the dog off at the pet resort, around 10 am and got to Lambeau Field around 1:30pm (5 kids + potty stops, "we're hungry", baby crying to get OUT of her carseat = and extra hour in the car). We were so happy the skies in Green Bay were clear and sunny with a light wind. It was wonderful! We unpacked the 2 vehicles and started our tailgating.

The kids were happy to run around and see this guy walking toward us:

Around 5 we started up the grill and ate some brats and hotdogs. Jenn brought face paint and green hairspray (Grace was in Green Heaven).

Then it was time to go into the stadium (still nice and sunny...anyone see where this is going yet?). We got in and found our seats (50 yard line, 50 rows up).

We did the wave a couple hundred times, we sang along with the SpongeBob Square Pants song that they were piping into the speakers and held up our signs we made to try to get on the big screen (ours said "Mr. Rodgers, Won't You Be Our Neighbor?" )...we didn't get on the big screen.

Then......they brought out the Oneida Indian Tribe (Grace again was thrilled with the guy wearing the total green Indian outfit...wish I had a picture). They didn't even all make it to the field before the first bolt of lightening was seen over the stadium.

Lightening + Metal Bleacher Seats = EVACUATION of the stadium. YEPPERS...we all had to go to the inner hallways of Lambeau Field.

This happened last year before the game started and we sat for 2 hours before they let us back out onto our seats. This year we sat for 2 1/2 hours before they informed everyone that the scrimmage was canceled but if you wanted to stick around they were going to shoot off some fireworks. Here is Jack when he heard the news that we were leaving and the game was canceled (he was so sad).

We still had a 2 hour drive home and we had to be up early to get the house cleaned before a realtor was bringing some buyers in. Even though we sat in a hallway for 2 1/2 hours we had a great day. Tailgating was fun and we got to see the field for a little while as they warmed up, but lesson learned (I am learning a lot of lessons lately...hmmm). We will not be going next year. By the time we got everyone home, semi cleaned up and to bed it was 2 am and we needed more of this.... and less of this..... (seriously, can't you feel a major breeze?). This was some lady in front of us...not with us or an ice cube would have found its way in there :)!

A lesson learned...again...

One year ago, we were making sure everything was ready for the baby. Kate was due in about a month and we had the diapers, wipes, clothes washed and bags almost packed. I spent extra time making sure our accounting software was all up to date so I wouldn't have to sit at my computer after she was born typing in everything for our office. I usually am a HUGE procrastinator, but this time I was all caught up. All bank statements were entered, all credit card transactions entered and all payroll up to date before Kate arrived. Life was grand. I even made a back up disk of Quickbooks. Then the month after Kate was born I had to do payroll....imagine that, employees like to be paid :)! My computer crashed. It crashed and burned. I couldn't do anything but restore it back to its original settings. Before I could do that I had to figure out what to do with my files....mainly my pictures. Since going to a digital picture I have taken thousands of pictures over the years (ok, maybe months). I started putting them on CD's but that was taking FOREVER. We bought an external hard drive. Just copy and paste them...took no time at all! Then we got the computer restored. I got Quickbooks re-installed and put in my backup CD....it wouldn't download. I called Quickbooks and tried to stay calm as I held our newborn in my lap and explained that my backup disk was not working and I didn't have any other backup disks and the ENTIRE year was on that disc. They had me send the disc to a specialist and about a week later I got a call....THE call....the disc had the same virus and was wiped out. All the work I had done was gone! I ended up going to our CPA's office every morning for about 4 hours (after dropping the kids off at school), WITH the baby, and re-entering in all our data for the year. I was so glad to have that external hard drive so if my computer ever crashed again, my pictures and files would be safe.....
Fast forward one year (almost).....
My computer took a dive, again. I knew I would have to restore it, again. So, I tried getting my pictures to transfer off my computer and onto the external hard drive so they would be safe. Tried is the key word here....my external hard drive won't work. You can hear it trying to work...but then it clicks. They say that a machine that clicks is bad...GREAT! I took it to the Geek Squad at Best Buy and some 10 year old (looking) geek basically told me it was broken and would cost me between $800 and $1600 for them to send it to the highest computer geeks so they could try to extract any pictures off it. I took my broken hard drive and drove it home and sat and looked at the little black box that is holding pictures from July 2006 to Oct 2008 hostage. I was sure that when we bought this I was doing everything to keep my pictures safe...guess not. Here is what I have learned...maybe someone will see this and keep their pictures safer than mine where!
1. If you get an external hard drive: only plug it into the wall & computer when transfering files. Otherwise, unplug it and keep it on a shelf.
2. Maybe get 2 external hard drives so you can back up the back up....hmmmm...maybe a 3rd to make sure they are all safe!
3. Computers are great...when they work.

Ok, so I probably didn't tell you anything new, but I am hoping and praying that a friend of a patient will be able to get my pictures out of the prison they are in.

1st Picnic!

We took Kate to the park to have her 1st picnic. She was not sure what to think of it. We made peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, sour cream & onion chips & cheese sticks. I had brought Cherrios for Kate and she wanted nothing to do with those :). So, I broke off some sandwich and she LOVED it. She loved the chips & cheese sticks more!

She would take a bite and share with Jack...and laugh. She is so sweet.

Grace couldn't wait to play at the park so she ate quickly and was off running. Jack couldn't wait to take Kate down the slide for the first time.

Kate was not sure about that either. She just sat on his lap and didn't even crack a smile. We put her in a swing (her favorite)....no smile. She just looked confused by the whole ordeal....poor baby. So, I just took her and sat down to watch the other kids. That made her happy.