#3 In the Books

Last weekend was so incredibly awesome. Early Saturday morning my friend Lori J came over to help paint Reid's room (it's almost ready!). About mid morning we headed over to the Zoo.  Mara was too adorable, but she also was refusing to be in any pictures. 

This shot I snatched of Ben and Reid is perfect Xs 2. I love the crop of just the two of them, but I also love the crop of Mara with her nose through the alpaca fence, ha!

It was a good day for the zoo. The otters were more playful than I have ever seen, and the sad looking bamboos were replaced with happy(ish) lemurs. The kids all got to feed a couple of goats. We spotted a whole bunch of gars in the pond, and there was shade most of the way around the zoo. We ended at the picnic table and enjoyed some PB&Js and grapes. After that we headed over to the famous Little Oshkosh playground and met both Lori and her husband, Scott. The kids played there for a little over an hour while Ben and Scott were able to chat a bit. The kids did spot the beach and were begging for a swim, so I had to promise them we'd come back soon with our suits.

On Sunday the kids performed in the Methodist Church where they'd attended VBS all week. It was an outdoor Jazz service, which was really quite perfect. We had to race back to Oshkosh so Reid could give a talk in our ward primary.

Sunday afternoon was windy, windy, windy. So that meant it was perfect for kite flying. 

Seriously, can you even find how far that kite let out?

Coraline and Reid were the two that really fell in love with it. Mara and Nell were more interested in the playground.

They topped our fun night off a sibling sleepover. Man these kids have my heart. 

Monday was nice and slow and we stayed home all day. Nell gussied up my hair, which led to her sisters wanting special styles as well. It sprinkled off and on in the afternoon, so we played lots of board games and watched lots of screens.

Tuesday we woke up and headed out for strawberry picking. This is the fourth year and fourth place we have gone. I have to say this crop was our favorite!

Reid and Nell were awesome workers and I was really proud of them. It's so nice to replenish our jam supply. And of course we had to run to the store for some angel food cake and heavy cream. I think the only thing we had for lunch was strawberry shortcake and it was delicious!

We also managed to squeeze in a quick run to South Park between the strawberry picking and grocery store run. After all that, Nell was still eager to head over to Playground group for the afternoon. Reid was definitely in the mood to just stay home and chill.

Wednesday was an other low key day. I did make Reid go to playground group, but I think that's the only time and kids left the house. I had a school board meeting that evening. I feel so accomplished when I manage to get dinner on the table, eat for a bit with my family, and be out of the house by 5:40 for a 6:00pm meeting, ha! There are many nights I don't throw together much of a meal, but something about abandoning ship for the night makes me feel like I really owe them all a good dinner.

I haven't said much (if anything?) about being on the school board, so I will simply say: I love it. I looooooove it. I love it. 

Thursday was another go-go-go day. We were out of the house by 7:45. We had an 8am oil change. My kids actually really love our local auto shop. I took this picture of them there so I could write up a google review for them. I think they deserve all the stars for being the most kid friendly business in town. Like, they are legit more kid friendly than kid geared businesses.

While we were there we got a text from some Church friends inviting us to the library for little kid story time. We certainly weren't going to pass that up!

As we were leaving the kids asked about going to see Dad at his office, but he didn't respond to my text before we were already on our way to Aldi. Which, reminds me, Coraline was yelled at by strangers (both older women) at both the library and Aldi. I felt like she deserved the library one, even if it was a bit harsh. The Aldi one had me rolling my eyes (she still deserved it, but it's all about the approach -- it was so ineffective Coraline didn't even notice it). But either way, I feel like that demonstrates what it is like to try and take Coraline to more than one place on any given day.  

Anyway ... the kids were still in the mood to head back downtown and see Daddy after our grocery run, so here's a photo to document that. 

Ironically, one of his coworkers said "Now this isn't the Coraline we hear about," because she was being so sweet and well behaved. I assured Angela that Lou had been yelled at by two strangers before 11am, so she is in fact "the Coraline" they hear about at the office. And this picture below is "the Mara" that I picture when she's loving on/teasing her dad. It's amazing how such an eye roll can be so affectionate, but it really is. She loves him so much. (this is skipping ahead a week, but when I took Coraline to the doctor a couple days ago, Mara told everyone she saw "My daddy's at work. He's working" -- that's some deep love right there). 

Back at home (finally), we ate lunch and then I made Coraline and Mara take a nap, so we could go swim in the lake around 2 o'clock. I made Reid and Nell go to playground group so I could prep our dinner and house for (what was suppose to be a BBQ) dinner with some new church members. That was a peaceful hour and a half. Sigh.

As I had promised on Saturday, I did end up taking them back to Menominee park so we could swim in the lake. It was actually a really nice beach to spend an afternoon at. The sand is nice for playing and building, and there's grass right next to it, so I didn't even have to get sandy! The water is not deep even 50 feet out.

I tried to document their first steps into Lake Winnebago, but they weren't having it.

They just wanted to swim already!

I kind of love this one of all three girls though. 

I couldn't believe Reid found this live clam. He was so proud. I wondered if those were zebra muscles on it, but didn't want to "disturb" nature, so I told him he needed to put it back. "But wait, I gotta get a picture first! Put him in the water while I run for my camera" SNAP "Now put him back." In hindsight, we should have tried to save him and pried those little devil monsters off. Reid was kind enough to dig him into the sand, and as I read up about them online I did learn they can suffocate the zebra muscles in shallow mud, so hopefully he is living free and in the wild as I type this up. 

As we drove home a huge thunderstorm started rolling in. I love how dark it can get at 4pm when those clouds mask the sky. The kids were kind of scared, as it was super windy, but the whole thing was over in 20 minutes. It did manage to push our BBQ inside though -- it brought us a lot of water! We really enjoyed our evening with new friends. Nell might have loved it the most, as she spent most the night trying to inject herself into mine and Tara's conversation. 

Friday morning was pretty slow, as we were waiting to get a text from Dougie. I never mentioned he moved (all the tears), heck there probably isn't even much about him at all on this blog, which is a real shame. Dougie and Violet were the absolute best neighbors for our kids to have next door. There were Saturdays (and Monday holidays) where Reid and Dougie would spend 8 hours straight playing outside together. I think one Memorial day it may have even been 10 solid hours. Nell likely spent 8 of it with them as well. Coraline, Mara, and Violet were just getting to be really good buddies too. Mara was convinced Violet was her best friend and loved to go out and look for her as the weather warmed up this Spring. They just moved at the end of May, so it hadn't been too long since we played with them.

They showed up around 1 and stayed till about 4. They fit right back into their old play routines. Outside for a bit -- pretending to be dinosaurs for the boys and pushes on the tree swing for the girls. Then the boys went downstairs to play legos. The girls fiddled around with toys upstairs. And finally we made perler beads (this was something they did together quite a bit on cold days this past winter (and fall and spring -- whom I'm kidding)). Nell wasn't actually around for any of this. Her friend Ellary invited her over for an afternoon playdate, so she was at the park, getting ice cream, and running through sprinklers with her best buddy instead. I was actually really happy for her to have such a special day with Ellary, her mom, and big sister. At first, Nell and Dougie were the two that were BFFs, but as Dougie aged and took to the same interests as Reid, it started to become a threes-a-crowd situation more often than not. If I were really motivated, I'd dig up some of my favorite pictures of the kids with Dougie (cause I didn't take any this particular day), but I'm not, so here's pictures of Mara and Coraline passed out after our fun afternoon of playing with dear friends.
 

Week #3, you were good to us!