Memorial Day Weekend

We spent our weekend at the cottage.  It was super hot.  We didn't do much, went to the park, the beach, got hot dogs in Lake Geneva.  It would have been really relaxing had the kids cooperated.  Which they did not.  Otis was a complete nut job, grunting at everything and pointing like he just needed something so bad.  When you would grab something and ask him "is this it?" he'd hit it out of your hands and cry.  It was exhausting. 

Who, me?

Ingrid played and played and played and then crashed. 

She wanted to take a bath one night so she hopped up in the sink.  I can't believe she still fits in there!

We came home this morning and did laundry, weeded the garden, which has lots of sprouts from our green bean and carrot seeds!  Then we went to our friend's house for some backyard grill action.  I can't believe we've had so much summer already and it's just Memorial Day!

Gardening

While my mom was here last weekend we did a bunch of gardening!!  I finished up digging up the grass and weeds from around my peonies.  They look so much better now, if I do say so myself. 

See where all that lovely mulch is?  Used to be this grass:

I worked hard on that!  It took forever.  Very pleased with the outcome.  Also planted our veg garden with my mom.  Ingrid helped.  She is going to be so pleased when we can start picking things out of the garden to eat!  We've already had a few very tasty strawberries.  Yum!

And randomly, here is a picture of Otis and me.  My little Irish child, I never knew how much I could not look like my own kid...

Ingrid is Four!

Ingrid turned four on Saturday.  We had a crazy hot day for the middle of May, but we had fun.  One grandma got a kiddie pool, the other got a sandbox, we had an EZ-up for the oldies to sit in the shade, and used a sheet on the clothesline to make a tent for more shade.  It was crazy hot, we even ended up having to come inside to get away from the sun, something that doesn't happen that often in Wisconsin!

Last year we went all themey, with rainbows and gnomes and toadstools, but this year I'm going easy.  I told Ingrid to pick a couple colors and I figured we'd make a bunting for the table and get matching balloons, maybe some matching candles.  I have decided that it was fun to do once, but I am just not a good themed party thrower.  I don't think anyone actually took home my goodie bags and I ended up with a million rainbow crayons and mushroom spinning tops in my house...So, this year was a simple neopolitan theme.  I made a simple brown and pink felt bunting, got some pink and white balloons, and asked our friend Carole to make another amazing cake.  She did not disappoint!!

 We also had neopolitan ice cream.  The kids ran around in the sprinkler, splashed in the pool, and played in the sandbox.  It was super fun, totally summery, and Ingrid had a great time!  So did Otis.  He absolutely loves the sandbox!  He sat in there for an hour, just digging and pouring sand from bucket to bucket.  I see a very laid back summer spent in our backyard!

In non-birthday news, my mom and I planted a garden this weekend, too.  We have raspberries, blueberries, zuchinni, lettuce, carrots, green beans, and strawberries.  So excited to see how things turn out!  It's my first time planting food plants, so we'll see.  And in completely other news, I am still in shock after finding out one of my close friends is having TWINS!!  She never had a dating ultrasound, just heard a heartbeat, went about her first few months preparing for a new baby.  Then today at her ultrasound the tech said "Here's baby number one, and here's baby number two."  Wait, what huh?  If I'm in this much shock, I can't even imagine what she's going through!!!  I am super happy and excited for them, though.  I know it's going to be crazy and hectic and I hope that I can help her out when she needs it.  Jeez louise, twins.  With a two year old ready to help out :)  Crazy.

Mother's Day Weekend

I totally forgot to post about our amazing weekend!  It was seriously the best.  Saturday was the neighborhood rummage, so we went out to look for some bargains.  It was kinda drizzly so it wasn't that great, but I did score some vintage kid's stuff for Toadstool Vintage.  Then it cleared up and we spent loads of time in the yard.  Ingrid is perfecting her baseball swing, that kid can really hit the ball!  No tee for her, she is hitting pitched balls and will not stop begging someone, anyone, to pitch the ball for her! 

After nap time we headed to the zoo.  As a family!  Usually I bow out of outings like this and let Brendan have kid time by himself so I can have mom time for myself, but I went and it was amazing.  The perfect weather, the kids were in good moods. We saw the goats, our favorite.  Ingrid couldn't stop hugging them.  My girl!

 Ingrid was super excited to go on the carousel, so of course we had to do it.  She was giddy waiting in line and she kept trying to decide which animal she'd ride.  She chose the ostrich.

 And to end the trip we took a relaxing ride on the train.  It was a perfect trip to the zoo!

Sunday was great, too.  I got to do a boat load of gardening in the new yard.  The people before us did not care about gardening.  They planted a few things but not with much planning.  For example, there are about five peony bushes by the garage, just sprouting up amidst the grass.  No flower bed, just tall grass and weeds all over the place.  So my goal is to get the grass pulled up and make a flower bed, add a couple more plants there, and attach it to the little garden on the other side of the garage, which so far has strawberries and asparagus and tons of weeds.  So  many ideas!!  But the grass is not coming up easily and it's been about three days of trying to chop away at it.  I am going to be so proud of the end product, I should go take before pictures so I remember how terrible it looked before!

Something that will help me in this endeavor is the fact I hired a babysitter!  Alex comes two mornings a week for a few hours, it's awesome.  She is a local college kid and she just jumped right in and took over as soon as she came.  I quietly went downstairs and did some work and she just played with the kids, took them to the park, changed poopy diapers.  Heaven!!  At first I felt a little decadent for hiring a babysitter being a stay at home mom, but screw it.  I am running two etsy shops, and I have two more craft shows lined up for this summer.  Instead of fighting every weekend with Brendan to watch the kids so I can get shit done, I'm gonna have someone play with the kids while I do it and thus have my weekend free for family.  It is amazing.

Also, gramma is coming today for Ingrid's birthday!  She'll be here a few days, allowing Brendan and I to go out for our six year anniversary.  God bless grammas.  It's gonna be a great weekend!

Settling In

We are slowly settling into our new house.  I got some things hung up in the kids' rooms.  I have tried finding places for the random things still in boxes.  It's a work in progress.  Otis' room was super easy, we just took what we had from his old room and hung it up here at the new house.  Viola!  A finished room.

Ingrid's room is almost done, I just need to hang a shelf for her Brewers bobblehead collection.  I hated the green when we looked at the house but man, her stuff just fit in with it so well, we're leaving it!  I just need a curtain rod for her other window so I can hang up her other curtain.  Last weekend I had a craft show and across the way from me was an awesome booth from Man Vs. George.  I had to get a couple prints for the kids' rooms, a whale one for Otis and this Eiffel Tower one for Ingrid.

 And here, just for good measure, are some pictures of Otis playing on the stairs.  Making a cute face.  Because he's adorable.



Back in Action!

Well, we did it!  We moved into our new house!  What a week it's been...First of all, we've been without internet for a week, which has not been fun.  I felt very out of touch, and not a bit relieved to be away from things.  I do like a weekend here or there without the computer, but a whole week was not fun.  I had put my Etsy shops on hold but of course got about ten orders, which I found out when I lurked in the Starbucks parking lot and used their wifi with the iPad.  Cable I can do without, internet not so much...

But we're here!  Every day I find something else about the house I love.  We were able to move right in and unpack and are now trying to get settled.  Things are not the exact way I want them but it's nice to know we can do things here little by little because we're here for the long haul, not just a year!  And we don't have to ask a landlord if we can do anything, it's our house!  So happy about that.

The other night I was doing dishes and looked out the window to see this:

What a cheerful little family picture this is!  Notice the new grill?  We have been to the store a million times picking up things we need.  Grill, dehumidifier, lawnmower, shelves, broom, new mailbox.  The list never seems to end.  But it's great!  Otis agrees.