State Fair!

Yesterday we went to the Wisconsin State Fair.  I have never been there, in all my time living in Milwaukee!  It just never occured to me to go.  I don't care about cows and pigs, I get sick on carnival rides, and I don't really need to eat deep fried butter.  (Although deep fried oreos and smores sounded kind of tempting.)

But...with kids comes a change of heart.  Ingrid just loves carnivals, so we met up with friends and braved the crowds with our double stroller. 

We ate corn.

We posed at silly cutout things.

Ingrid kept talking the whole time about riding the tea cups.  Luckily, there were tea cups!

And rocket ships.

And a kiddie roller coaster, which she bravely went on.  She even raised her hands up a couple times!

And meanwhile, Otis sat in the stroller, took a nap, refused to nurse, and just chewed on his straps.  He's such a sweet kid.

Camping with Kids

We are home.  We survived!  It was fun!  But man, am I tired. 

We had a great time.  The weather was beautiful, the kids both slept pretty well, and we just had a good time being together. 

I was so worried about how Ingrid would do at night, but she was great.  She had a hard time getting to sleep the first night, but once she slept, she slept hard.  Until 5am when the sun came up and she was up chattering away to herself, waking us all up.  Sigh...

She did so well, though.  She loved to putter around the campsite and play with sticks, sing songs, dance, and of course, eat.  Marshmallows are the best camp treat! 

Otis was also great.  He hates the car so he was more than happy to get out of it and enjoy the nature.  We layed him on a blanket amidst all the bugs and he just stared at the trees and babbled.  He recently found his feet so most of the time he was just sitting there eating his toes. 

We played at the park, threw rocks in the lake, Brendan took Ingrid for a nice long bike ride through the park, and he took Otis on a couple hikes.  I just enjoyed being outside in the nice weather.  I had packed for cold weather, since a couple of our camping trips we ended up with frigid weather and not enough warm clothes, but this time we had a sunny 80 degree day.  Ingrid ended up swimming in her shorts! 

It was fun to be in this state park.  Brendan has been going there since he was a little kid, so he had lots of fun memories.  We went there for our honeymoon and first wedding anniversary, so we had lots of fun memories of that.  And now we are making our own family memories with our kids.  Yay!

Since this was such a great trip, we are really excited to go camping a lot more this summer.  And thank god we're in Wisconsin, there are a ton of places we can go to without having to drive a long way.  Another reason we're so thankful to be back home!

One thing I did realize is that it is a LOT less relaxing to camp with kids.  A couple sites away from ours was a young couple.  I walked by one afternoon and they were both sitting around the picnic table eating, talking, looking very relaxed.  I realized if I didn't have my kids with me I would have taken naps, slept in past 5am, gone hiking, gone to the drive in theater, and I definitely would have enjoyed nights around the campfire more.  Instead I was constantly yelling at Ingrid not to fall in the fire (which she totally would do, if you know her you know how clumsy she is...) and getting up at the butt crack of dawn, and wanting so badly to take a nap in the sunshine but was denied by a crying baby.  Oh well, we had an amazing time anyway!

Vibrating Chairs and Football

Yesterday we finally got batteries for Otis' vibrating bouncy seat.   He was so funny when we turned it on!  He was all wide eyed and quiet, totally occupied for a long time! 

 

He is getting to be such a big kid, or so I think.  I am used to the wee five pound peanut, so seeing him two pounds heavier makes me think he's huge.  Then I see a full term baby and I laugh at how small he really is!  We went to Urban Toddler the other day and there was a baby that was a month older and about six pounds heavier.  He's still got a ways to go.  He is just starting to fit into his newborn clothes, but still is swimming in some of them :)

Well, I'm off to go play with felt.  The Packers are playing a big game today so I'm making the kids shirts.  We have to show our Wisconsin pride!  Anyone who has known me for a long time knows how strange this is.  I never was into sports, never watched anything, never knew who the teams were.  Then I met Brendan and now through osmosis I have some knowledge of sports.  If you'd have told me ten years ago that I would be making Packer shirts for my kids, I would've laughed my ass off.  But alas, we grow, we change.  I still couldn't tell you what the hell is going on in a football game, but I know that today at 3pm the Packers are playing the Bears.  That is way more than I would've known before!

Old Timey Playgrounds

The family cottage we go to in Wisconsin is awesome.  Not only is the cottage itself cool, but the park it's in is fun for kids.  There is a beach with a huge old metal slide in the water, and tons of little parks scattered around.  Most of these parks are from the 60s or 70s, filled with painted metal death trap toys.  Awesome!

Modern Kiddo did a post awhile back about how cool old playgrounds were, even if they did cause a bunch of bumps, bruises, and broken bones.  How true!  Here are some pictures from a couple of the playgrounds in the cottage park.  I just love those horse swings!!

As safe as the new plastic playgrounds should be, they just aren't so fun to look at.  Nothing is in the shape of an animal.  I really hope that no one decides the old things should be torn out and replaced with new toys.  That would really make me sad.

Back From Vacation!

We went to see friends and family in Wisconsin last week, and boy did we have fun!  We left on a Friday afternoon, which worked out really well.  Ingrid was mellow in the car, Chicago traffic was light and easy.  Although getting Ingrid to a new place at 10pm and expecting her to go right to bed was a little stupid.  She was up until midnight and then up bright and early at 6am, but luckily Grandma and Grandpa are up then, too.

Fun highlights from the trip--going out to eat with our friends.  The dress Ingrid is wearing is an original from Bron and Pepper!  Right before we left for our trip we got a package from them with this dress, a cute tank top, a skirt and some hair clips.  I was in heaven, thanks so much guys!! 

We also went to dinner with Brendan's parents to this place on the river that has a really good fish fry.  Oh fish fry, I love you!  True Wisconsin!  Ingrid is in love with her grandparents, in case you can't tell...

And at the cottage fun was had while wearing nothing but our bathing suits.  Ingrid had a blast going to the beach and running through sprinklers and playing at the numerous playgrounds.  And she slept like a champ after all that fresh air!

A really fun memorable thing we did was take her to the Kid's Dance.  The cottage Brendan's parents have is in an association that has been there since the turn of the century, when all the people from Chicago would come summer by the lake.  Apparently this dance is something they've been doing since Brendan's dad was about ten years old, and they still do it!  And Ingrid loved it!  She danced her way through two Chicken Dances, YMCA, and the Hokey Pokey before she got wild and started throwing herself all over the concrete floor.  That kid has some moves!!