Stars and Red Mustaches Forever

Last week was full--Theo Chocolate Factory, playdates, swim team, swim lessons, karate, therapy appointments, and a daytrip to Bainbridge Island.  All this after our trip to Great Wolf.  It was a good week, a fun week to be sure.

While on our trip to Bainbridge, Linus expressed interest in going camping.  I knew this is something Dave wanted to do and that due to things like swim meets, there weren't going to be a lot of opportunities other than our planned trip to Cama Beach.  A quick text to Dave resulted in a spur of the moment camping trip for the two of them to Republic, Washington and Curlew Lake for a little fossil hunting and camping.  I think it went alright.  They were both exhausted and dirty when they came home.  I kept Eileen and Robin busy with the zoo, swimming, grocery shopping, and playgrounds.

Finally, it was Monday of the long weekend.  I had no more to give. I planned a very lackluster 4th of July.  A couple of weeks ago I saw a recipe for a strawberry cheesecake poke cake in my facebook feed from the Tasty (a fun little website).  It seemed like the perfect 4th of July dessert and pretty easy. I made it the day before while waiting for the boys to return from camping.

Dave realized he needed to work on the 4th, but luckily it was Aunt Sally to the rescue!  Together we took the troops to the parade in Edmonds.  It is a pretty fun little parade.  I think the chair reservation system was a little out of hand (when there are no open spots to sit on the day of the parade an hour before, something is amiss).  We found a decent spot, made ourselves comfy, and enjoyed a Starbucks lunch.  Bacon Gouda, mmmm.

While waiting for the parade to begin, Linus completed the 100 burpee challenge.  The kids chased bubbles blown by a neighboring child.  The kids got lots of candy.  Linus' day was made when he got a high five from Darth Vader.

Having done the parade thing, we trekked home for naps.  My parents joined us for hot dogs, chips, watermelon, and sangria.  Due to exhaustion and dreary weather, there was no croquet this year.  Instead the highlight was probably facetiming with my sister, Beth, and her family, and learning that they are coming to visit in about TWO WEEKS!!

Having accepted that I was exhausted, had a head cold coming on, and needed to survive the rest of the week, I chose to be the lame mama who didn't take her kids to fireworks.  The kids surprisingly didn't balk.  I think they were tired too.  I personally was fast asleep by 9:30 and it was glorious.

Besides going to sleep early, the highlight of my day was getting Robin dressed.  He was in the silliest of moods and decided to make his shorts his hat.  Is there anything cuter than baby buns?

It wasn't a 4th of July for the record books, but not every holiday has to be the best one ever.  I gotta say though,  not going to fireworks meant that this has been the easiest July 5th ever since having children.

From the Mouths of Babes in June

Robin:  Up. Down. Touch the ground.  Puts me in the mood. Up. Down. Touch the ground.  In the mood for food--I was being Pooh.

Linus:  What's the point of being funny if everyone will laugh at you?  (trying to be a Debbie Downer)

Robin:  That light is broken.  Have to figure out.
Dave:  No that's just a small light and those are big ones.
Robin: Wow! Nice!

Who are these big kids and where did my babies go?

Linus is practically a man these days. It's weird to see who they are becoming sometimes.  Linus will be starting 2nd grade in the fall.  His outfit choices revolve around athletic wear.  Remember sweet Linus who liked to wear a bow tie and suspenders?

Eileen is a bundle of scruff.  Messy tangly hair in her face (she hates when I comb it and refuses to let me pull it back).  The outfits she puts together are questionable.

Robin more little boy and less baby every day.

After swim team this morning, I was telling Linus how much I love who he is becoming.  I rely on him so much to help wrangle a kid or help the house run smoothly.  But sometimes I take a step back and try to take in how grown up these kids all are and I can't help but miss those sweet little babes.

Linus and the Chocolate Factory

Yesterday was a bad day.  It was baaaaaaaad.  There was so much screaming, fighting, and back talking I thought I was going to lose my mind (I did lose my voice).  I could bore you with the details, but just know that my family is far from idyllic.  All I know is that I ate way too much ice cream to compensate last night.

Luckily, that was yesterday.  Today was a new day.  I was determined for it to be a better one.  There was no fighting on the way to swim team in the morning.  We came home, played in the driveway, finished a puzzle (it only took a week), painted pictures, and ran around the backyard.  We ate an early lunch to enable an early nap for Robin because we had big plans for the afternoon.

We picked up Grandma and headed down to Fremont to visit the Theo Chocolate Factory.  We got there a little early and so we went to watch boats along the ship canal.  It's a little known fact that Theo Chocolate offers both adult tours and a child chocolate storybook time.  We went with visions of Wonka in our head.

After the storytime/chocolate sampling, Robin refused to wear a hair net so he and I had to stay behind while the big kids and Grandma went on the factory tour.  Robin was not happy.  He eventually calmed down when we went to eat lots of free samples in the retail room while we waited. I let Linus take my phone with him so he could snap some pictures.  He actually got a couple of good shots.

It's hard to see, but the sign says Chocolate Pipeline.  I'm pretty sure Augustus Gloop would not fit through that pipe no matter how strong the suction.  I glad to see that today's candy makers have learned through Augustus' misfortune.

Milk Chocolate toffee.  Linus could not stop raving about it.

It was interesting to see the factory from Linus' perspective.  I thought I would end up with 100 blurry and boring shots, but he surprised me.

From the storytime alone I learned quite a bit about where chocolate comes from and have a new appreciation for sustainable production and the price that goes with it.

Despite having sampled a lot of chocolate, we were all in need of some cool relief.  I decided to use it as an excuse to hit up the Molly Moon's in Wallingford.  With any luck, this summer we will hit all the good ice cream places.  There is a sweet little park-let out front.  It was the perfect way to cap off the afternoon.

I kind of love Eileen's chocolate goatee action.

Sometimes you have to follow a very bad day with a good day.

An Act of Subterfuge

When Dave and I decided to take the kids to Hawaii this past winter, we talked about taking a smaller trip during the summer.  Summers with no trips can feel like a summer wasted.  After discussing a few ideas, we elected to take the kids to Great Wolf Lodge for the first time.  We also made the decision to not tell them.

Linus came close to discovering it twice, once when he saw an email on my phone from Great Wolf (I said it was merely an advertisement asking me to come) and the night before when he found me surreptitiously packing.   I told him to go to bed.  I think he thought I was folding laundry.  While I packed and loaded the car, Dave prepared lunches for the next day.

He's so cute sometimes.

In the morning we told the kids we were going on a family hike to see the Mima Mounds just south of Olympia.  They did not notice as I smuggled their loveys and the cellphone chargers out of the house.  Despite the annoyance of a long car ride, the kids were in a good mood.

Linus was excited when we told him he could wear Robin.

He is currently sporting a summer cut.  He has been begging me to cut his hair "like Ezra's," a boy at school.  I finally caved on the condition that I do it.  I'm not about to fork over money for that kind of cut.

The Mima Mounds are pretty cool.  Scientists are not sure exactly what formed them.  It's a nice flat loop trail of about 2 miles.  My only complaint would be the constant sound of guns firing due to a sportsman club being located adjacent.  I'm pretty sure the guns are why we saw very little in the way of the local fauna.

Eileen was on the trip with us as well.  She just really does not want her picture taken these days.  I'm trying to honor her request.  I remember hating having my photo taken.  I still don't love it.

After our hike we told the kids that Mama needed coffee so we were headed to the closest Starbucks. The kids had no idea that the Great Wolf Lodge was spitting distance from the Starbucks.  After getting some much needed lattes and treats, we announced we were headed back home but just need to find our way to the freeway. 

 As we drove toward the entrance Linus wondered aloud when we would ever get to go there.  Dave said, "How about now? Of course we don't have our swim suits."  The kids actually we so shocked that we were open to the idea of going they didn't question being without swimsuits.  As we pulled into a spot, Linus just sat wide eyed and speechless in the back.  He did not believe us.  I told him we actually had already planned to come and I had packed.  It was all in the back and that yes we were really going.  I've never seen Linus so excited that he's been rendered speechless.

Despite our room not being ready until an hour after it was supposed to be, we had a great time.  I followed all the tips:  show up early and have your swim stuff separate because you can start using the pool as early as 1 pm on the day of check-in, bring your own food, go to the storytime, just get a base room.  Great Wolf Lodge is not cheap.  We did not even go for the extras like the magic wands and I'm still a little shocked my the cost.  I agree with everyone who told us: just go for one night.  Besides swimming before check-in, you can stay after check out and swim and play all that day as well.

The kids had an amazing time.  They loved getting wolf ears, playing in the arcade, and free balloon animals.  Linus liked the slides best, Eileen the wave pool, and Robin the floating lily pads.  The water was maybe a touch cold for me, but not so bad that I struggled to get into the water.  I loved that they provided the towels in the swim area and the water park enclosure itself was warm.  

The kids played hard this weekend.  Between the hiking and Great Wolf they are all pretty thoroughly exhausted.  Linus is still a little blissed out by the whole ordeal.  We had not even left and he was talking about our next time.  

Our family hike to the Mima Mounds would have been fun by itself, but I'm pretty sure the added excursion to Great Wolf Lodge made it slightly more memorable.

Daveo Papa

Daveo Papa, also known as Dave, is a pretty good guy.  I like him.  Only very few people (until now) have known him as Daveo Papa.  Dave has a wonderful, punny sense of humor.  He created names for all of our Netflix queues.  The kids like mine best, Char Char Binks.

To know Dave, is to know an easy going guy who is really just a big kid who happens to also be a talented engineer.  If I have to play the straight man in this pairing, I'm glad the kids get someone as fun and creative as Dave.

To celebrate Father's Day today, we began with the obligatory sleeping late in while the other parent wrangles.  To ensure maximum aloneness, I dragged the kids to church.  After mass we took Dave out to brunch.  Dave got his Father's Day present early when we bought the LEGO Mindstorms at the school auction.  This morning he was gifted with a present saying "Thank you for being a good dad" and it was the new Elephant and Piggie book, The Thank You Book.  We love Mo Willem around here.

How cute is this guy?  It's a good thing he is because all through mass he roared, yelled, and screamed "I don't like that."

I admit I deferred child wrangling responsibilities to the ipads.  It was very quiet.

Dave spent most of his day hanging in his mancave, our backyard shed.  He's really done a lot since we moved in--hanging drywall, building benches, a separate worktable for Linus...  Dave works long days and doesn't get a lot of time to tinker.  I was happy to give him the time today.

I checked on him from time to time.  He built an enclosure for the 3-D printer.  I'm hoping he finally gets a chance to do more with the 3-D printer.  I hear some guy made his own orthodontia with one.  We've got three kids.  It's worth investigating.

Dave was a good daddy and took a break to play with the kids in the backyard.  They created a game called, "Blonk."  It basically involves throwing every ball you can find into a large waste bin and saying, "Blonk" as you release the ball.  Robin loved it.  Linus enjoyed doing all sorts of tricks to slam dunk the balls.

Dave closed out his day eating bad Chinese takeout and playing WiiU Lego Jurassic World with Linus.  We love you Daveo Papa!

Somebody in Wisconsin Loves Me

My sister, Beth, moved to Milwaukee in October.  We were all sad to see her family go.  Due to pesky things like single digit temperatures and blizzards, I opted to not visit during winter.  I learned that Wisconsin doesn't have spring.  It's winter and snowing, and then suddenly it's 80 degrees and sunny.  The lack of spring meant I needed to wait until school was out for the summer.  Linus, Eileen, and I flew to Wisconsin the day after break began.

On a four day trip with only two full days,  we weren't able to see all that Wisconsin had to offer.  I expected Wisconsin to be like Nebraska--farms and fields for miles along two lane highways.  I did not even see one cow!  I thought Wisconsin was supposed to be "America's Dairyland."  I feel sorely mislead.

It was at least 90 degrees with insane humidity when we arrived.  Despite this, Beth and I dragged the kids to the downtown Riverwalk in search of the "Bronze Fonz."   Mission accomplished.

The kids were grateful for the breeze along the water.  The beauty of the river was offset by the numerous booze cruises and party boats.

I love Eileen in this picture.

Gwen was too cool for me.

We wandered around and visited the Public Market in hopes of finding a kid-friendly dinner.  We struck out in the dinner department, but did find kid friendly frozen custard.  Eileen's favorite part of downtown was a building that had giant ladybugs crawling down the side.

We originally planned to visit the Jelly Belly factory on this trip, but further research revealed that the factory was in the process of moving production to the Bay Area.  We decided to forgo the Jelly Belly Factory and spend the morning at the Milwaukee County Zoo instead.

I'm a harsh critic of zoos.  I don't like going to zoos and feeling forced to question the ethics of their captivity.  The big cat exhibit made Ivan the Gorilla's enclosure at the B & I look good.  I get that it is cold during the winter, but seriously I felt bad for the animals.

The zoo did have one good thing, a giant ropes course and zipline.  I opted to spend the money and go for it.  It's the type of activity I would have longed to do as a child, but never bothered to even ask due to being cost prohibitive.  Beth stayed on the younger kids course, while I climbed up with Linus and Dylan.  I also did the zipline with Linus.  It seemed irresponsible to send him across the park without an adult.  The boys did great.  Dylan made it up to the second level and Linus went all the way to the top and even attempted the most difficult features.  Gwen, nervous at first, enjoyed herself.

The rest of our trip included swimming, mamas' night out, multiple trips to Target, trying fried cheese curds (meh), and cleaning/organizing the house.  It was a whirlwind of fun. I even had time to read two books thanks to the airplane ride.  It was hard to say goodbye.

While we were away, Robin got in some quality time with Dave.  They hiked, went to Home Depot, did other guy stuff, and went to the zoo and rode the carousel.  Robin chose his own outfit: decked head to toe in blue, eating from a blue plate, and drinking from a blue cup.

I also got a text message from Dave telling me that Robin had stuck a macaroni noodle up his nose and he couldn't get it out. Beth and I had a good chuckle and advised using the nose frida.  In Dave's words, "Swedish hygiene for the win!"

My mom watched Robin while Dave worked.  I came home to fresh baked cookies so I know they had a good time.

I did not expect to miss Robin and Dave so much.  Linus cried uncontrollably several times because he missed them.  Robin was so excited to see me and practically attached himself to me until bed.

I'm so glad my sister and her family are doing well in Wisconsin.  After not seeing each other for 6 months, we easily fell into the co-parenting rhythm we've established during our many weekends together.  These cousins love each other. I can't wait to see them again later this summer.  In the meantime, somebody in Wisconsin loves me.

The 2 year sleep regression

Life was going great.  I generally got enough sleep.  Bedtime was rarely a stressful occasion.  A quick, easy bedtime is something all parents can cherish.   We've been pretty lucky in that our oldest two were afraid to get out of their beds.  Yes it was annoying when they would call from their beds at 5 am that they were ready to get up, but we were able to fix that.  Fear kept them nestled safely in bed.  Not fear of punishment, but some sort of boogie man conjured up in their imaginations that only grabbed children if they left their beds.  This boogie man was pretty rad in my book.

Robin, sometimes known as Brave Brave Sir Robin, does not fear the bed boogie man.  Rather he delights in setting forth from his bed.  Robin will come downstairs, even an hour past bedtime, and then ask just one "little hug" or a "little kiss".  Sometimes from there he will try to weedle out some snuggling as well.  It's gotten to the point where we are returning him to bed 3,4, 5 times a night.

A new twist is that he sometimes tells us he needs to sleep in the pack n' play (which resides in our closet).  The pack n play is a little small for him at this point.  Letting him sleep in the pack n play was fine until he decided to add climbing out of the pack n play, feeling his way through the pitch black closet, to again visit us.

As many parents know, sleep begets sleep.  Instead of falling asleep at 7 pm, he's been falling asleep closer to 9 pm.  This means he is up at 5 am.  The lack of sleep means he is ready for a nap at 9:30 am and in the meantime, has taken to attacking his poor siblings.  I hear their shrieks and cries for help as Robin unleashes his reign of terror upon them--biting, slapping, pulling hair.

The lack of sleep is allowing Robin to fully engage his terrible twos.  It's turning me into super grumpy mommy.  The other morning Robin came into my room before 5 am.  I'm not sure why, but he was willing to go back to sleep.  I can't sleep if anyone is touching me.  Robin is a very active sleeper and practically did somersaults only to be blocked by my body.  Robin couldn't be bothered to care and alternated between holding me like a teddy bear with his arms around my neck and sleeping with his legs thrown over me.  He might have gotten a little more sleep.  Mama did not.

I don't know if you have ever slept with a wet diaper up against your face, but it is not fun.  The good news is Robin went to bed for the babysitter last night and chose to wake up daddy this morning to change his diaper.

I don't mind a nice morning snuggle around 6:30 am.  It's the predawn that I take issue with.  I had it so easy.  I would lay Robin in bed, sing 3 songs, say good night and leave.  He'd wake around the same time as his siblings.  It was too good to last.  Rallying the energy to re-sleep train is more difficult than I remembered.