Bringing back memories...

An October trip to Wisconsin meant that we could actually visit the pumpkin farm that we went to as kids. I was so excited to share this with Madi and Drew!!! We went on a weekday to avoid some of the crowds so not too much was open but we did get our own personal hay ride! We fed the animals and fed them and fed them oh... and fed them some more... The kids had a blast running, climbing and jumping around the hay bale maze. Probably my biggest excitement from the whole experience was that it was cool enough to wear our jeans and sweatshirts!!! Finally a trip to the pumpkin farm where we weren't in shorts and t-shirts and still hot!!! Side note to this all... Madi found a pair of Grandma's pretend glasses while in Wisconsin... she was attached to them and wore them constantly... I was able to wiggle them off for a few pictures but not many!!!

Drew's First Day...

Again my post is slightly delayed... in my defense, I have not had a lot of spare time lately! So here goes... Drew is officially a Busy Bug! The preschool year has started... for the last time! :( Oh My! Drew is in Miss Sharon's class and he is an old pro now being that it is his 3rd year and his last! He is so excited to have the same teacher that Madi had when she was 4! He is having a great time and doing well! He loves reading the instructions on the worksheets and is so excited to get homework on occasion. Let's hope the excitement for homework still exists in a few years!

Backtracking a bit... Again!!!

So I just managed to get the last few pictures from our summer trip off of our camera. I always seem to get ahead of myself in the blog with pictures that get sent to me. Oh well. Back to the last couple of notable times from our trip. My two talented and creative nieces, Michaela and Hollie, always keep the little girls entertained. Of course the little ones love that they are playing with the older girls. They choreographed dance routines with the little ones while we were home. Can I just say... ADORABLE! They were so cute and so made me miss living closer to "home" even more. I am so sad that Madi and Drew miss out on these times with their cousins more often! Anyhow... back to the story -- they even choreographed a routine to Super Mario Brothers Music for the little boys. Too funny! It was awesome. The night before we had to leave, they gave the little girls "bunny makeovers." They were so cute... see for yourself below!

Love the bunny paws by Kaitlyn & Madi

Later that evening my really good friend, Rochelle, came with her son Riley to visit! Rochelle and I have been friends since... well how old am I again?!? We lived next door to each other from babies until we were 5(I was seriously traumatized when her family moved but we have never lost touch and it has been 30 years now!) We had a great time visiting... I am sad our visits are so far in between!


The 2 mamas and all their kiddos...

This pretty much was the end of our trip in Wisconsin and our trip altogether. As my brother put it the next night was big time blubber fest. I think being there longer made it even harder to leave. Though I am so proud of my Mickety Mack... She held strong WAY longer than she usually does! There were not too many dry eyes that Wednesday night and those tears washed me completely through Wisconsin and a good portion of Illinois.

Since we got back it has been nothing but craziness... but such is life. If I survive through another school year's worth of Thursdays between school, preschool, school, dance, tball and meetings, I should be able to survive anything!

Madi is a first grader!!!

Madi was able to meet her teacher last Friday night! Here is a picture of her and Mrs. Maggart... her first grade teacher. Mrs. Maggart is so incredibly sweet! She is going to be awesome for Madi! Madi was so excited after Friday and could not wait for the first day to arrive! Now a couple of days in; all is going great(except for getting up so early) and Madi loves first grade! P.S. Madi proudly wearing her Teravista shirt that many of this mama's hours went into!

All the cousins...

We managed to get the cousins all together for some pictures... Hopefully we can make this an annual event.

Lots of Excitement...

Our visit with the VanStippen's was full of fun and excitement as well... We were able to visit and catch up, spend a day with Marty's Grandma while the kiddos swam, slid down the slide and jumped off the diving board and then had a pizza party at his Grandma's place. The kids enjoyed playing hide and seek in the community room with Bryan and Alex...

Here is Marty with his sister and Grandma Bryan joined in the hiding party under the table! :)

That night we drive to Marty's Aunt Tammy & Uncle Marty's cottage. The neighbor girls were there too and all the kids hit it off really well. Here they all are on the trampoline. It took Drew a little bit to warm up to all those girls but he joined in on the fun after not too long.

There was plenty to do with riding tubes behind the boats and going on the jet skis with Daddy and Bryan and Alex...

Here Madi is with all the girls on their tube.

Here Drew is all smiles with Daddy and Bryan. He wasn't going to go at first but ended up with a permanent grin telling Uncle Marty faster, faster...

Madi even tried to water ski... The neighbors have a skiing boat and were so incredibly sweet to hook up their "boom" to let Madi try and water ski. It totally made her day! She did awesome for the 20 minutes she was out there. She got up several times and stayed up for very short spurts...

We finished the night off with a boat ride through the sprinkling weather and a campfire after dinner.

The next morning Madi kayaked with Bryan and Drew with Marty... Drew didn't make it long as Daddy tipped him and he was done.

We all enjoyed just sitting on the dock visiting before it was time to go...

Last but not least a picture of Madi and Drew and the girls so we can see how much they change by next year! :)

Visiting Family

Madi and Drew love going to visit Aunt Sue and Uncle Jack. They are always so sweet to let us stay with them and they always have farm animals to feed. Madi and Drew enjoyed yet again this year feeding the cows corn...

Our time always goes way too fast visiting with the family! Here is a quick picture of Madi and Drew with their Great Grandma Licht...