Getting Ready for a Party

Birthday Party Preparations

This Sunday, Peter will be taking both kids to his parent’s house so that I can start cleaning for Sawyer’s birthday party.  My house is a mess and the yard is a mess.  I know I won’t be able to get everything done but I am hoping the ’surface’ will look clean

I think this is the first year that Sawyer is old enough to understand what a birthday party is and he is getting excited about it.  Peter and I don’t think it is necessary for our kids to have a birthday party every year but we will probably have a party for them once every few years.  I thought this would be a good year for Sawyer because of the new baby.  It will be a special day just for him.

I wasn’t sure about how to go about inviting kids to Sawyer’s party.  I want a lot of kids to help celebrate and play with Sawyer but I don’t want people to bring gifts.  I just want it to be a fun day for Sawyer and his friends/cousins to play.  I am worried that our invitees will feel obligated to bring a gift because it is a birthday party but I hope that they do not.

Mary Kay

I hosted a Mary Kay party a couple nights ago.  It ended up being myself, Kristy and Angie (a friend).  We all had our kids there and Peter was the babysitter.  He was such a sweetheart for watching all the kids.  I know this was not how he wanted to spend his evening after a long day at work.  We didn’t buy much . . . I bought stuff for gifts but I’m pretty set in my ways as far as my facial care and makeup products go.  I mostly did it as a favor to my neighbor . . . her sister was the Mary Kay consultant.

7 Year Anniversary

Peter and I celebrated our seven year wedding anniversary this past Monday.  On Sunday, we had our anniversary dinner at the Melting Pot.  Peter thought the food was good but I didn’t like it.  I like plain food and this was anything but plain.  I also found it annoying that I had to cook each individual piece of food.  I cook every day of the week so the last thing I wanted to do was cook some more.  It was also very expensive for the amount of food you got.  I think you were mostly paying for the concept of fondue.  At least the Sangria was good

On Monday, Peter surprised me with a chilled bottle of wine.  We drank the wine from our wedding goblets and watched our wedding videos.  It was very romantic and sweet.  Probably my favorite anniversary to date.  It was fun to see how young we were (and everyone else).  People change so much in seven years.  Our wedding was perfect and so much fun . . . ah, memories

Celebrating Seven Years of Marriage

On Monday, July 27th, Peter and I celebrate seven years of marriage.  It has been a wonderful and happy seven years of which we’ve learned to love, comfort and respect each other.  I look forward to many more happy years with Peter.

Wedding Weekends

We went to our good friends’ wedding last Saturday.  We’ve been friends with this couple since high school (a long time ago) and it was great to see them get married.  The wedding was so much fun.  The couple let me take pictures which I really enjoyed.  I posted about a quarter of the pictures on Facebook.

This weekend we have two weddings.  One of my co-workers is getting married as well as one of my former co-workers.  Both weddings are on Saturday so we will have to split our time between the two but both should be a lot of fun.

On Sunday, Peter is going to take Sawyer to a local car show (old fashioned cars).  Cailey and I will have an afternoon to ourselves to ‘clean.’

Potty training is going . . . well, no where really.  I brought Sawyer to the library and we rented some potty training movies and books.  For now, we’ve packed away Sawyer’s underwear.  Everything I’ve read has said that we need to let the child be in control so I gave Sawyer the choice of wearing underwear and poohing in the toilet or wearing a pull-up.  He chose the pull-up.  I had Sawyer help me pack up his underwear and told him that when he wanted to start poohing in the toilet that he could start wearing them again.  All I know is that I’m tired of changing pooh underwear.  The only problem with wearing a pull-up is that Sawyer knows he can pee in them.  I hope we don’t go backwards with the potty training in order to better the pooh training.  Where’s the potty training EASY button?

The summer is going by so quickly.  We’ve been busy almost every day and super busy every weekend.  In just a few short weeks, Sawyer will be turning three years old.  I can’t believe how old my baby is getting.  He’s learning so much and getting so smart.  He surprised me today when we were doing flash cards . . . he knew what an octagon was!  He must have learned this at daycare because I know I didn’t teach it to him.  I had just been sticking with the basic shapes but now I know he can learn the hard ones.  I’ll have to challenge him more

Well, time to go to bed.  I hope everyone has a good night.

Cailey is 4 Months Old

Cailey turned 4 months old today (July 3rd).  She weighs 11.4 pounds and is 24.5 inches long.  To make the day extra special, Cailey rolled over from her back to her tummy for the first time

Cailey - 4 Months

 

Jun-09 pictures are loaded into photobucket.

A Lot of Stuff

We’ve been busy, busy, busy the past two weeks.  We went to Wisconsin Dells over the weekend.  We spent the first day swimming in the hotel pool.  There was a kiddie pool with a frog water slide, some hanging buckets that slowly filled up with water and then dumped out and some other fun water things.  Sawyer and Andi had a good time playing/splashing in the water.

On the second day, we went to the International Crane Foundation.  This was my idea and it turned out to be not a very good one.  It was kind of boring.  They only had cranes to look at and all they do is stand around.  There were some pretty flowers, though. 

After the crane foundation, we went on an upper Dells boat tour.  We did this tour a few years ago and nothing has really changed.  It is still nice to see the scenery and enjoy the boat ride.  The Wisconsin River and its surrounding landscape is very pretty.

On Sunday (our last day in the Dells), we went to Noah’s Ark.  It was my first time there.  It was a nice day but not hot so the water felt pretty cold.  Sawyer was shivering while playing in the kiddie areas.  Even Peter commented about how cold the water was in the kiddie areas. 

The guys convinced me to go on a water slide.  I went on a water slide years ago when I was 17 or 18 and got whip lash really bad.  I’ve never gone on on a water slide since for fear that I would get hurt again.  The water slide that the guys talked me into going on was the Black Anaconda.  It was fun-ish. . . it would have been better if so much water didn’t splash/spray you in the face.  I did go on a few baby water slides with Sawyer and I thought they were quite pleasant.

On Monday, we celebrated Peter’s 30thbirthday.  We went out to dinner (with Peter’s parents) to Fudrucker’s in Appleton.  It is a ‘make-your-own’ burger place.  It was good and we had a nice time.

Cailey is doing very well.  She is almost four months old (on July 3rd).  She has perfected rolling over from her tummy to her back.  She is now starting to scootch.  She sort of reaches out with her arms and then pushes herself forward with her knees and tip toes.  Most of the time she sleeps through the night.  Occasionally, she will wake up hungry but only once or twice per week.  Cailey loves to talk (typical girl) and coos all the time.  She has such a sweet smile and her face lights up whenever she sees someone.  I love walking into the room, catching her eye and seeing her big grin.

Sawyer is also doing well.  He seems more like a little boy and less like a baby.  He now recognizes over half of the alphabet.  This fall, I think we will start trying to write the characters.  We also have to start working on numbers.  I’ve kind of been working so much with the alphabet that numbers have been put on hold.  I think he will be smart like his father.

A cute story . . . when we were at the hotel this past weekend, Sawyer kept asking to go by the alligator.  Sometimes he would ask to go by the crocodile.  I wasn’t sure what he was talking about so I kept asking him if he meant the frog slide in the pool or the big fish hanging on the wall of the lobby.  I asked Sawyer to show me and he brought me down by the elevators and I told him that there weren’t any alligators down there.  I finally figured out that when we said, ‘elevator’ he heard, ‘alligator.’  Being two, he sometimes replaced alligator with crocodile.  For fun, we rode the ‘alligator’ a few extra times and very rarely took the stairs.

My mom, Sawyer and I went strawberry picking on Monday morning.  I picked way too many strawberries.  I froze some whole, made strawberry topping for freezing and about three years worth of strawberry jam.  If anyone wants some jam, let me know

Well, enough rambling . . . I have to get a good night’s sleep because we are going to Bay Beach tomorrow.  It should be a fun day.

Happy Father’s Day and Happy Birthday

Today we celebrated Father’s Day and Peter’s 30th birthday with the Janssen family.  Officially, Peter doesn’t turn 30 until the 29th of June but this was the best weekend for getting the family together to celebrate. 

We had a picnic lunch of brats, potato salad, chips and lemonade.  I made strawberry shortcake for Peter’s birthday and both boys helped blow out the candles.  I don’t even think they spit on the cake   All of the guys had a squirt gun fight.  Peter pulled out two super soaker guns that we had gotten for our wedding.  We’ve used the guns before and they work great.  They hold a lot of water and shoot out a lot of water.  Everyone (except for myself, Cailey and my mom-in-law) were soaked.  Everyone knew they couldn’t shoot the baby with water so Connie and I stayed really close to her   Today was a very fun day.

On Saturday, I bought a new car (new to me, the vehicle is pre-owned).  I wanted a vehicle that had the seating of a mini-van but the gas mileage of a car . . . that ends up being a station wagon so that is what I bought.  We purchased a 2007 Ford Freestyle.  The Freestyle seats six passengers.  It was important for me to be able to fit three car seats in the vehicle so that when we watch our nieces and nephew, we can go places.  Also, my sis and I can take our kids somewhere without having to drive separate vehicles. 

I also wanted a vehicle that got better than 18 mpg which is what my Explorer (SUV) was getting.  The Freestlye should get about 24-25 mpg.  The Freestyle is also very safe with additional side curtain air bags for the 2nd and 3rd row seats.

One thing I will miss is the 4 wheel drive.  I hope that I will be comfortable driving in the snow without 4 wheel drive.  Overall, I think I will be very satisfied with this vehicle. 

We decided to sell our 1996 Ford Explorer (185,000 miles) by ourselves so if you know anyone that is interested, have them give me a call

Happy Father's Day

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Birthday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grandma Connie and Cailey

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Super Soaker!!!!

What’s Up?

We’ve been having and will continue to have a very busy summer.  We have a lot of weekend events planned.  Last weekend, we went out to The Bar on Friday night to celebrate Katie’s 29th birthday.  On Saturday, we had a birthday picnic at my parent’s house.  On Sunday, we spent the day at the National Railroad Museum in Green Bay for their ‘Day with Thomas’ event.  It was a very busy but fun weekend. 

Peter and I are looking forward to a night without the children.  Peter’s work is having an employee party on Friday.  A bus is going to drive us to Green Bay where we will have some drinks/snacks at a bar and then go to the Resch Center to watch the Green Bay Blizzards (indoor football).  This will be our first time at an indoor football game.  It should be a fun night meeting/visiting with Peter’s co-workers.  We do not yet have Father’s Day plans but the plan is to do something . . . maybe we will go to the Brush Runs in Crandon.

We’ve been enjoying the warm weather that has finally decided to show up.  For the most part, we just take stroller rides or play at a park or on the swing set in our yard.  I’ve noticed that there seems to be a lot of mosquitoes this year.  Hopefully they will go away soon.

For your enjoyment, I have loaded some pictures into the Jun-09 Photobucket 2009 folder. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rummage Sales

I never go to rummage sales but this morning Kristy and I went to Sherwood where they were having a community rummage sale.  There were probably 45 or so sales and Kristy and I went to about 20.  I got Sawyer some Packer pants and a Lightning McQueen shirt.  I bought a couple Disney movies and an engine stand for Peter.  I found a sweater for Cailey and I also bought two Hot Wheels play sets for Sawyer. 

The lady I bought the Hot Wheels playsets from promised that all the pieces were there.  She had about six play sets which were all in separate garbage bags.  One of the garbage bags had a large dinosaur laying on top of it because it was too big to fit into the bag.  I bought the dinosaur play set and a robot play set.  When we got home and assembled the play sets, we realized that the dinosaur did not go with either of the play sets.  So, we have a robot play set, a volcano play set and a giant dinosaur that doesn’t go with either one.  Oh well.

We are babysitting my nephew today and overnight so the boys played the Hot Wheels play sets for a couple hours today.  The sets don’t stay together very well and if you move them they fall apart.  I think they are meant to be used  by older children.  Peter and I had to keep putting the toys back together again and retrieving stuck cars.  Letting them play with the toys ended up being a lot of work for Peter and I.  We finally told the boys they had to play with something else

Cailey is Three Months Old

Today, Cailey turned three months old.  She weighs eleven pounds and is 23 1/2 inches long.  At Cailey’s two month doctor appointment, the nurse measured her at 24 inches but I think she measured wrong.  I re-measured Cailey a few times today and never reached 24 inches.  I guess there is the possibility that she shrunk over the last month

Cailey giggled for the first time yesterday.  She giggled at daycare when Melody (her child care provider) was tickling her.  Once home, I tried to get her to giggle but I could not.  I feel sad that I was not the person to hear her first giggle. 

Cailey has certainly discovered her hands.  She is always holding her hands together, looking at them, putting them in her mouth and holding onto things (blankets, clothes, etc.).  Cailey is also keeping up with her wiggling.  When she lies on her back, she will bend her knees, plant her feet flat onto the ground and then push her legs straight.  This moves her up a couple inches.  She will do this over and over again.  She roams off of her blankets, play mats and all around her crib.  She’s even pushed herself into the rails of the crib or the head board of the changing table and given herself a little bump.

Cailey has continued to roll over from her tummy to her back.  She does not enjoy tummy time and often times will cry.  I’ve started laying some toys in front of her but she does not yet seem to be very interested.  She is mostly interested in lights, sound, people and her hands.

Cailey - 3 Months

I Figured It Out :)

I figured out how to get the links back on my sidebar.  I’m not sure why they disappeared in the first place.  Yay to me

I survived my first week back to work.  It was a productive and busy week which helped to keep my mind off the babies.  I did miss them, though.  Cailey is the youngest baby at daycare by over one year so she is the center of attention.  All of the parents that drop off their kids take a few minutes to play with her and all of the kids want to spend time talking to and entertaining her.  I’m sure she is having a good time. 

We had a few different plans for the weekend but they all fell through.  Our new plan is to finish staining the deck and then to visit Peter’s parents in Wausau.  Actually, I’m trying to talk Peter into taking Sawyer to Wausau and leaving Cailey and I home to have some girl time.  I could also use a little bit of extra rest.

It was a big day for Sawyer today.  He learned to correctly pedal his bike.  He needs practice . . . a little work with the steering and he still has a little trouble starting up but I’m certain he will be an expert very soon.