Snot.

It has started.  The months and months of someone, possibly everyone, being snotty nosed.  My poor kids are raw from nose blows and drool.  And cranky.  I'm cranky, too.  And it's only September.

 So we have been wearing our pj pants a lot during the afternoons, playing guys and cars with Brendan's old Fisher Price set, finding colorful leaves, and today we did an easy peasy Halloween craft I found on pinterest.  Simple paper ghosts and pumpkins taped to a circle to make a little wreath!  It took us a good long time to do but was super easy and not messy at all.  The perfect craft in my book.

Obama!

President Obama was in Milwaukee today.  We got tickets to go see him, but it was rainy today and kind of cold.  The gates opened at 2:30, but he wasn't even supposed to be there until 5:30ish.  So at 4, we got there, figuring we'd just hang out for awhile, eat some snacks, let the kids run around.  Uh, no.  We saw a line, went to get to the end of it, and kept walking.  And walking.  And walking.  It was insane!  The line curved around one museum, around another museum, and then along the lake.  It was never ending, we just kept seeing all these people, where was the end of the line??  By the time we got to the end, Ingrid was already complaining she wanted to go home.  *sigh*

But we made it happen.  We walked along the lake, around the art museum, watched people getting their wedding pictures taken, made it to Discovery World, saw another wedding party getting off their trolley, made it around Discovery World, thought we were getting closer to the gate, only to find out the line went around Summerfest grounds (where Obama was going to be) all the way to the back entrance.  It took forever.  By the time we got close to the gates we could hear people cheering and music playing.  As we were getting to the metal detectors they were saying "the President is on stage now!"  Well Jesus, we didn't stand in line for over an hour to miss it!! 

Of course it had started to rain.  We had to leave our stroller and hoist the sleepy, crabby, hungry children on our shoulders.  Otis wouldn't keep a hat on, Ingrid was whining about wanting to go home to her cozy house.  Brendan and I are like "This is exciting!  The President is HERE!  He's right there!"  I guess to a little kid, what the hell does that mean?  We couldn't actually see him, we could barely hear him, but it was exciting anyway.  To me and Brendan. 

I think it actually worked to our advantage that we got there just as he was going on stage.  If we'd had to wait I think the kids would've lost it for real.  Brendan got kind of mad that they were being wimps and said we need to toughen them up.  For real!  I never thought I'd have kids that whined that much about being cold or being tired.  What a bunch of babies.

Bay View Bash

This weekend was Bay View Bash, yet another street fair with tons of beer, music, and assorted junk to look at.  We went with our neighbors and immediately found the bounce house, the only reason Ingrid wanted to go!  Along with the bounce houses, they had bean bag toss games, mini golf, a place to make your own buttons.

 And they had a place where you could get a tattoo!  Otis got an anchor with a mermaid.  He is tough.  Rogan, our neighbor and Ingrid's best bud, is obsessed with Spiderman, and of course chose a spider.  Ingrid got a puppy.  She didn't like it, she made me take it off as soon as we got home.

It was kinda trashy, lots of junky things for sale and a LOT of drunk old people cramming the street.  At four in the afternoon.  It is Milwaukee, after all.  But nonetheless, it's a fun way to spend a couple hours on an otherwise boring Saturday. 

Crisp

Yesterday was so crisp and fallish!  After picking up Ingrid from school, we made lunch and had a picnic in the front yard.  Which, of course, turned into the kids picking leaves from the tree and running along the sidewalk to play restaurant.  Because, naturally, playing restaurant involves leaves and sitting in front of the neighbor's house on the sidewalk, right?

 Oh my god, Otis needed a hair cut so bad.  He hated it, but after taking these pictures I sat him down on the sidewalk and butchered his sides.  I couldn't take it anymore!

 So the cutest thing happening around here right now is picking up Ingrid from school.  The teacher brings the class down to the playground and they have to wait in line until she shakes their hand and dismisses them.  One by one.  It takes awhile, and Otis is sooooo excited to pick up sister ("di-dur, peek up!" he says!) Eventually he can't take it anymore and he runs pell mell across the playground and gives her a huge hug.  She loves it, but yesterday the teacher actually put him aside and gave me a dirty look as if I should be corralling my children better.  Look, lady, I enjoy seeing my kids get along, so no, I probably won't be trying to stop him from hugging his sister...They love each other, that's for sure!

 

And one last picture of Ingrid being silly.  She is so damn expressive!  Always entertaining.

Girl's Weekend

 Last weekend Ingrid and I had girl's weekend.  Brendan left on Friday morning to take Otis camping up north, so it was just us gals until Sunday afternoon!  I picked her up from school and we went to McDonalds and got a happy meal.  We did puzzles and played games without a little brother stealing pieces and putting them in his mouth.  We went to dinner Saturday night and got frozen yogurt.  Just the two of us, out on the town.

 

In all reality is was not as fun as I thought it would be.  I never realized how much Ingrid and Otis play together.  I focus so much on the bickering and hair pulling (Otis has a death grip!) that I don't realize how much they actually keep each other entertained.  Ingrid would get bored really easily, she wanted me to play non-stop, where usually she can find something to do no problem.  We had a good time, but we definitely missed the dudes.

 

The reason we didn't go with them was because Ingrid's school picnic was that Saturday.  She really wanted to go, and since she just started there, I thought it would be fun to meet other kids and let her run around.  It was pretty fun, they had a few bounce houses, a little station to make bracelets, a hair spray station where they sprayed you with colored hair spray, which made me sick just being a little down wind from it.  There was food and popcorn and sno-cones. 

 

She loved the race bounce house!  It was a little obstacle course, going through a tunnel, over a little wall, up a ladder thing, and down the big slide.  She would've stayed on that thing all afternoon but it was so fun there was a huge line all day.

Can you tell she liked it??

 

We had fun, but we sure did jump on the guys when they came home and gave them both big hugs and smooches.  I kinda like my family!

It's Still Summer!

I always hated the first part of September, where you had school and you wanted to wear your back to school clothes but it was still in the 80s and you had to make do with your old summer shorts.  It's still like that here, it was super hot and humid yesterday.  So after school we got out the pool and the kids had fun jumping and splashing.  It's still kind of summer, and that's okay.  We'll have plenty of extremely cold, wintery days ahead of us, I will enjoy this while it's here.

First Day of School K4

Today was Ingrid's first day of K4.  She bounded out of bed at 6am asking if it was time to go yet!  I know it will get old, and she won't be so helpful, but I have never ever had her so willing to get dressed and eat breakfast in the morning!  Usually she wants to do things her way, she balks whenever I ask her to do anything, but this morning it was "Okay, mommy!"  Let's see how long this lasts, right?

I cannot even tell you how much better I like this school she is now at.  Last year I walked into a cafeteria of crying and screaming kids, this year it's a playground full of parents I know, happy kids running around.  I did see a few criers, but not as many as last year.  Plus the drive to school is about ten seconds on streets where people actually follow the rules of the road, unlike last year where I was in the hood and I'd be surprised if half the drivers actually had their licenses.  No kidding.

So this year starts off well.  I am so happy to see Ingrid so happy!  She's a little nerd, just like I was!

doesn't she look so tiny by her huge school??

My Weekend Alone. And then Labor Day Crazies.

Saturday morning Brendan took both kids with him to the cottage.  I stayed home.  I seriously felt like this:

I had SO MUCH FUN being by myself.  I went to the bathroom alone, I finished my own food without anyone coming up asking for a bite.  I cleaned my house and it stayed clean.  It was amazing.  I rearranged furniture in the living room and Ingrid's room.  I made the kids new buntings for their rooms.  I came to the realization that I will never paint Ingrid's room, so I may as well just deal with the green since her stuff goes.

 My days were so relaxing.  I could read, watch whatever TV I wanted.  I went to the antique shop, I had dinner and drinks with a friend, I took naps whenever I wanted.  It was so nice to catch up on me.  I hate when people talk "me time" but for real, after dealing with kids nonstop for days on end, it was really quite nice to remember I used to love reading on the couch in a cleaned living room, and that a bowl of Ben and Jerry's is a nice way to end the day.  (Okay, I admit, there was no bowl, it was right out of the carton...)

And then they came home.  I was immediately put back into my place as mom, doer/cleaner/helper/fixer.  No more relaxer.  They are so lucky they are cute, they don't even know!  We had friends over for Labor Day and cooked out and ran around in a sprinkler and tried to stay cool on the hot humid day.  It was super fun.  Otis did not want me taking pictures, but I thought this was a good representation of how crabby he can be.  He was yelling at me not to take his picture.  HA!

And now we have one more day until Ingrid starts school and we have no more slow paced mornings, where we have to be out the door by 7:30 instead of getting to lay around in our pjs.  Bummer.