Sunday, June 27, 2010

Hodag Fest (MU swim/dive reunion)

The Rhinelander Hodag made an appearance in Chicago this past week.... just so happened it coincided with a Missouri swim and dive reunion.... Good friends, good times and lots of laughs-- 10 years is too long!


Lindsay (Hodag), Amanda and Erin


Some nasty shots


Who ordered these?


And what reunion is not complete without a push-up contest?


Go Rikki!

Tawney, Molly, Kim and Erin


Goofy, just plain goofy

An attempt to be serious, but really?


Julia and Greg


Captain Morgan and Greg

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Painting.... Smiley Style

Painting is a serious sport here... Twins have not gotten into it until Thursday night... and now they are hooked...... and as you can see, this is not something that is done on a regular basis!


The calm start.... Kylie is showing them the ropes.


SLOW starting.....


Now Shay is realizing that she can do some serious damage here... serious damage


See........ but this is nothing yet people!


Anika--- that is paint--- she was a looney toon and I could not get pics fast enough of her.


Shay--- "Mom, will you hold me?" ahhh... NO!


Look, red arms and legs! Ani, try it!


Ani

Red arms and orange hands is more my style Shay...


Oh yeah, I like green faces!


And Kylie was just in a red mood


Mom, will you hold me now?


I won't even mention the bath nightmares because then I will never do it again, but as you can see, this is a serious sport here. Might even take over the Jackson Pollack work soon...

44 Hours without Power....

What a crazy weekend! Friday afternoon Chris and I headed to a friends wedding and noticed some pretty nasty storm clouds rolling in.... didn't think anything of it.... However, it turned into our camping, but not really camping weekend.

We arrive at the church and in true style, I leave everything in the car, because why in the world would I want to carry a purse-- still have not done so, so why change? Probably should have brought my phone seeing we get into the church and power dies before the bride even makes it down the aisle.... which means power is probably out at home.... So, instead of being totally occupied by the wedding, I am looking out the windows making sure things don't look too awful and Chris gets called by work, they have issues since the transformer across the street got struck by lightening (and burned the WINGS shop to the ground) and he's got to help them manually shut down everything and miss part of the wedding... we should have known, this was only the start! My fabulous sitter kept the kids entertained with two flashlights and two candles--- until we got home hours later....

Chris heads to the basement to check on the sump pump, only to learn our 72 hour battery backup pump has reached the end of its life.. hahahha... nice timing. So, instead of sleeping that night we both were up wondering what was going to happen. Luckily, we managed to stay dry even without power. So, after 12 hours of no power, we both think its probably a good idea if he gets to the rental place to pick up a generator since we've got a boatload of cow left in the freezer (graciously named Bart-- thats another story)...

Saturday rolls around, no power but luckily wasn't killer hot out.We managed to play outside with the slip and slide, sprinklers, pool, water table, etc... kids feel asleep drenched in sweat as did Chris and I.... both dreaming the power would come back on seeing ComEd's message said 6:45 AM Sunday morning... liars.... 6:45 came and went and still no power.... Lunch time came and we walked in the house from playing outside and watching them cut the massive tree in half and we had power!!!! I've never seen the kids so excited- they could turn on and off the light switches again and most importantly, we could make Dad his strawberry shortcake dessert he wanted... :)

I've got to say, and I speak from Chris too--- it was kinda nice to not have TV, Computer or a phone (cells were working, but at our house, its hit or miss with service)....... but I guess we are back to reality and the only reason I am on the blog tonight is because Chris is at work getting their servers back up and running..... its a lovely end to a fathers day, right? :)

The ways Anika stays entertained.....


Slip and Slide Dora- huge hit-- good thing I bought it like 3 years ago and found it!


Anika and Shay

The OMG moment-- when we charged the portable DVD player and the kids could watch 30 minutes of TV Sunday morning--- the battery is shot, but 30 minutes was enough for Chris and I to take a break from the constant arguing!
The expensive causality


We're hoping the storm takes out the other half next time...

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Preschool days

Here are some pictures of the last day of preschool and the graduation ceremony. Just to my luck, the camera died as KMD was getting her "ticket to Kindergarten." Enjoy the ones we did get and maybe someday I'll get copies from a friend!

Kylie receiving her necklace and ticket from Mrs. Vages and Mrs. DeWyze


Kylie's in the back row, behind the girl in pink- you can see her eyes and nose and that is about it... the entire ceremony she was waving to Dad and her sisters.


Kylie and Sydney- a good buddy.


Kylie and Leila


Her favorite teacher, Mrs. DeWyze


Shay just happy to be invited into Kylie's classroom. This girl was sooooooooooo happy to play. Sooooo ready for preschool!


Two cute kids.. Anika was there, but wanted nothing to do with anyone, just wanted to sit at the table and color with crayons and markers.


Kylie and Erika


Kylie and Amelia


Kylie and Mrs. Vages (who happens to be the most fashionable according to Kylie-- she really likes her clothes!)


Kylie with Megan!
Now, onto KINDERGARTEN! Wooohoooo!!!!

Dance Recital

Kylie had her dance recital a few weeks back... opps, sorry. She had a blast, wasn't too fond of the loud music on stage but had a great time and asked to do it again. (insert the laughing-- she is my daughter, but not sure where she gets the dancing gene from?!?)


This is rehearsal- this is the ballet number. She is the fourth from the left.


Fourth from left



Recital night- in ballet costume. Must mention a thanks to Martha for sewing on some snaps on her costume since I am totally clueless. And also, check out that bun, I started it from the LEFT and not right as instructed in the 4 pages of instructions on what to do and how to do it.... rebel!


Wait mom, let me balance for you! (and yes, she was the girl on stage who had hair in her face because I refused to plaster it with hairstray and a million bobby pins.)


The Tap outfit-- they danced to Octopus' Garden (Beatles)


I'm ready mom, now go out there and make sure Daddy gets a good seat........ he did get a good seat but that was after parking 2 miles away. :(
we do have video but Blogger is not my friend today. I'll work on it.