The Past Week

Man it feels good to sit on our own furniture and sleep in our own bed. Isabel seems to be adjusting nicely. She has been playing quite well be herself so that we can get things unpacked, moved, and do projects. Although, today she was kinda shy & wanted to cling to mommy. We went to our first playgroup here and Isabel knew she was going to meet knew friends, but it's hard with so many new people to meet. They were all very nice, but they weren't our Moms & Tots. We miss them. Tomorrow we are going to meet with a mom & her two kids to go for a walk. Her oldest is 3 weeks younger than Isabel.

Isabel has really enjoyed having her dress up clothes out. She plays dress up several times a day. Often she is wearing the hat pictures above and quite often mommy gets a Bob the Builder hardhat to wear.

We ride our bikes to the park most days. Daddy tuned up the bikes and put the bike seat on the back of one of them and we take the long way around town to get in a nice little bike ride and end up at the park. It's such a fun park. Isabel has loved going there and loves going on bike rides. While we were there the other day a church youth group had an outing there and I asked one of the adult organizers if she recommended any of the kids for babysitting. She asked the kids and found one that babysat and lives in our town. I should ask my neighbors if they know her family; my neighbors seem to know everyone. But it will be nice to have babysitter to use occasionally.

We did talk to Isabel's old daycare provider today when we saw her at the library. Isabel & I are going to go over there for a visit in a couple of weeks. Cathy will be my daytime backup if I need someone to watch her if I have a doctor appointment or something. So, I am glad that we will have that. We really like Cathy, so I am glad Isabel can go there occasionally if needed. It won't be often at all, but it's just good to have it set up.

Here is Isabel in a couple other dress items. Check out her first pair of heels. She is learning that heels are not the easiest things to walk in.

On Friday we had a playdate with Carrie & Gavin. Isabel is not very good about sharing her stuff right now. We'll have to work on that. The other thing she has taken to doing is empasizing her "NO" with a high-pitched scream. She did that 3 times today at playgroup. It's embarrassing. She just appears so naughty when she does that and it's the not the first impression I want to make.

I went to book club tonight. A friend of mine has asked me if I was interested in joining several years ago and I had turned her down because I wasn't at the point in my life where I was interested in one, but after doing the Newcomer's book club I wanted to be apart of one, so I emailed her and got myself an invite. I think I will join the book club if they will have me. They are pretty relaxed and refer to their club name as the 4 B's (Bread, booze, books, & bullshit). Funny. BTW - this author is in our book club.

We went to check out a church this weekend but found that it wasn't the place for us. I have a couple more that I want to check out, so we will try a new one this weekend and see what we think. We had never found a church near us and had continued to drive to St. Paul to go to House of Mercy when we lived here before, but we'd really like to find one closer to us.

I have her signed up for a parent/child class through Early Childhood Family Education. That will begin in about 3 weeks. So we'll get to meet some other new people in that class. We also hope to go to storytime on Thursday evenings, which will start in about 3 weeks as well.

Well, I am tired so I am going to bed. I just wanted to get something out on the blog since it has almost been a week. I had been taking pictures, as these pictures are from 3 different days, I just never got around to posting.

First Days Back

Well, we have been here for two full days now. Even though we are unpacking all our stuff it still seems like we are visiting like we did the last year. I am sure after a week it will feel like we live here again. We have been doing a lot of unpacking as not only do we have the stuff we brought back from WI to unpack but all the boxes (there had to be about a hundred, seriously) packed in the basement that were waiting to be moved.

We decided to do a little room rearranging to fit our current lifestyle better. So, now we have a guest room by the other rooms and what was the guest room is being made into the office. And the guestroom in the basement is going to be made into her playroom as soon as I get all the boxes moved and unpacked from there (it's where I was storing them.)

She has so many toys and big Little Tikes things that I didn't want them taking up all of the room between the kitchen & living room, which is what we were using as her playroom. We'll still have toys in there, just not the bulk of them. Plus, it will be good for the playroom to be in basement so then she can play while I am in the workout room. Since I won't have a gym membership (as the gyms around here don't have childcare) I better use the gym equipment that I have.

So, we have been moving furniture & installing new light fixtures and will soon be doing some painting. Today we took a trip to Lowe's to check out roofing & windows. In a day or so they will have someone out here to do a final estimate for the windows and we will get the last 5 replaced (we already replaced 13 in the house over the last few years) by the end of the month or first week in September. And we hope to get the roof replaced this fall. It didn't fair so well through the winter winds and the last big storm.

Yesterday, I toured a gymnastics facility in the area that has a Tiny Tots class for Isabel. I was pleased with what I saw & heard and signed us up (until she is 3 it is a parent/child class) and it starts on September 9th. It's a 40 minute class which is probably perfect timing and we meet once a week. I am still waiting for the ECFE (Early Childhood Family Education) classes to come out, as well as the swim lesson schedules. Once I see those things I will decide what else we might do. I have the fall library storytime schedules for both nearby libraries, although they might interfere with gymnastics or something else. So, we'll see.

We haven't been to our first playgroup here yet. It looks like tomorrow is the first playgroup we could attend, but I am not sure if we'll go yet or not. We might wait until next week.

Daddy did get out the bikes and inflated the tires and tuned them up as best he could. He also attached her bike seat. Isabel & I took a ride around town and went to the park to play. After going to so many parks in WI, I still have to say that this is one of my favorites. My favorite overall is still Sunset Park in Genesee, but this would probably be my 2nd fave. I had not taken her since last fall, so I couldn't remember what there was to climb as that wasn't something she did a year ago. So, I was very pleased to see all the climbing & swinging things.

Well, it's bathtime now. Daddy is gone to Best Buy to pick up something to do networking for the computers. Since we moved the office he has decided to try something different rather than figure out how to move all the cables across the house, plus he promises that I can send my pages to print to the printer wirelessly, which sounds good to me.

Two Minute Mess

Last Playgroup in WI slideshow

So, all I have left is to the the little video uploaded . Enjoy the slideshows.

Slideshow from playing with Rachael

This is a slideshow of pictures from last weekend as well, or I guess now it is 2 weekends ago already.

Stay tuned for more......oooh! the Satellite guy will be here any minute now to get our stuff set up. Yeah! Back in the home of digital HD cable. I was very proud of daddy for the plan he set up for us. He managed to go with a cheaper plan because he realized that we were paying almost double for a bunch of channels that we didn't use, except one he liked and he is willing to give that up. Plus he got us free Cinemax for signing up for a contract and free Showtime for signing up for paperless billing. Heard a van door.....it's either the satellite guy or the DSL guy.

Milwaukee County Zoo

This is a slideshow from the previous weeked that I am just getting uploaded, stay tuned for a slideshow of Isabel with her friend Rachael and our last playgroup to the Children's Play Gallery, as well as a 2 minutes video of the girls making a mess.

Yesterday was exhausting.

We packed our storage unit into the truck in 45 minutes thanks to planning ahead how we would pack it and the strength & stamina I gained from Group Power class. Gramps would have been proud (& jealous, as he would have wanted me on the farm) to see me throwing the boxes up on the truck to daddy. I just kept them coming, no slowing me down.

Then we drove out to MN. It took is 4 hours and 35 minutes with one 20 minute stop. Good timing!

Finally, we got to our house in MN and grandma & grandpa were here to help us unload and feed us. We did get it all unloaded, but MAN! was that tiring. We will spend some time unpacking this week and figure out just where things are going to go.

Children's Play Gallery

This morning we spent about 3 hours at the Children's Play Gallery in Delafield. Isabel just loves that place. We got there earlier than our playgroup & before any other customers really and had the place all to ourselves for the first half hour. We made a lot of art projects (although I forgot them there - oops!) She had so much fun. This was our last playgroup in WI and we move on Sunday. We plan to be back in October, so we hope to attend a playgroup or two then.

It was fun watching her play. She is really starting to get into pretend play. I will have a slideshow to put on here when we have hi-speed once again. It was cute watching her play in the pretend kitchen. She was washing all her fruits & veggies before cooking & serving them. I didn't even know she watched me do that. It's amazing just what things they learn from watching us even if we never have them do it. Then she was using the pretend microwave and pushing all the buttons after she put the food in & closed the door. It was a wooden one, so it's not like the buttons did anything as they were just paint. I have never actually let her use the microwave, she just observes.
Here is another picture of Isabel with her playgroup twin. There was matching princess dresses there, so her mom & I put the girls in them so I could take a picture of our twins.

I think we may check out our first playgroup in WI on Wednesday. If they are half as wonderful as the ladies in Moms & Tots, then I am going to be so pleased.

Her First Movie

Today I took Isabel to see her first movie and she did great. I really wasn't sure if she would be able to sit through the intro stuff & previews and then an hour and half movie. But I think between the popcorn and the big screen in the dark, it was enough to keep her attention.

We saw the movie Space Chimps. It was part of the Marcus Theatres Kids Summer Film Series. Actually, it was the very last day of the summer film series. The theatre was packed and they had 3 screens showing the movie. We met my cousin Heidi there and three of her kids. It was such a good deal; $2.50 a person to see a movie & some popcorn (which was a pretty good sized.)

So, I am glad that taking Isabel to her first movie was a pleasant experience. I wonder if the theatres nearest us in MN do that during the summer. Guess I will have to wait until next summer to find out.

Yesterday we spent quite a bit of the day with our cousin Jeff and that was nice.

Tomorrow we will go to our last playgroup here in WI. We are going to the Children's Play Gallery. We move on Sunday, so we might try to go check out the Milwaukee Public Museum on Saturday since we have nto seen that yet.

Sunday

I seem to be playing catch-up with this blog lately. I suppose it's because dial-up in a PITA. Well, we are all set for DSL to be installed (as well as Dish Network) on Monday between 8-12am. Daddy got both of them set up for the same time & same day, which is great.

Anyways, on Sunday morning the three of us went to the Mke Cty Zoo one last time while we were here. We saw many animals and also checked out the stingray & shark exhibit (it's an additional cost to see that.) Daddy & I were both able to touch one and Isabel was more interested in just sticking her hands in the water. We also rode on the carousel. Isabel likes to do one of the rides while we are there and this had the shortest line, so we did that. Plus she was asking for it anyways. I am glad she didn't ask for the train instead, because that had a much longer line and we would have been waiting for a while and waiting with a toddler is not fun.

In the evening we went to the house of our friends, John, Lori & Rachael. Rachael is Isabel's best friend and she is going to really miss her. Hopefully they will come out to visit with us, but otherwise we will be back this fall for a visit. We will miss all our other friends, but we spent quite a bit of time with them and babysitting Rachael and it just helped them foster such a cute little friendship. Anyways, they made a scrumotious dinner for us and the girls played a lot and then the girl rode bikes (well, Rachael rode, Isabel just sat with her feet on the pedals while we pushed) and we went to the park to meet some of our other friends for a community ice cream social.

When I am back in the land of high speed I will have a couple of other slideshows to upload and a little video of the girls making a mess.

Yesterday we went to the Y and then went to Pizza Hut for their lunch buffet with a bunch of our friends. In the afternoon (after a short nap in the car) we did some shopping. Today we decided to take a very relaxed morning (we weren't out of jammies until almost 11am) and skipped our last Nature class and then went & did shopping at one other place to get some things to work on a gift for Isabel's soon-to-be baby cousin, and then we went for lunch together. She actually has been good to go out to lunch with, as long as there isn't a long wait for food.

Yesterday I was also busy on the phone cancelling dental appointments here and scheduling new dental, eye dr., and regular doctor appointments back in MN. We got the garbage, cable & internet set up, house taken off the market, and I talked to the director of a gymnastics program about a class for Isabel. Since we won't have the Y anymore we'll have to seek out classes somewhere else & mom will have to start using her gym equipment.

Tomorrow we both have our last classes at the Y and then are having lunch with our dear friends Luanne, Lucie, & Henry. We will miss them too. Isabel plays so well with Lucie and I think it is so cute how she says her name because it's almost sing-songy.

We have already paid the dues for a moms group in the MN area and are on their yahoo groups page and are starting to get to know everyone. They seem to have a big, active group as well.

Art Museum Slideshow

As promised....here it is....

Slideshow from Stonefire Pizza

Here is an Avocado Dip recipe that my friend Lori made that is very yummy!

Avacado Dip
1 - 15 oz can white corn

1 - 15 oz can black-eyed peas

2/3 C cilantro, chopped

2/3 C scallions, diced

1/2 Lg. tomato, diced

4 avocados, chopped

Combine above ingredients in a bowl and toss with the dressing mixture below:

1/4 C olive oil

1/4 C balsamic vinegar

2 cloves minced garlic

3/4 tsp. salt

3/4 tsp. pepper

2 tsp. cumin

Serve with tortilla chips. Can be served immediately.

Milwaukee Art Museum

We took Isabel to the Milwaukee Art Museum. We had checked out the book A is for Art (I blogged about it this winter) and had been reading it and brought it along with us to do a scavenger hunt of sorts. I have a slideshow of the pictures we took. We ended up buying the new edition of the book which had a few changes. There were a couple of things that weren't on display and something that we missed in the new book that was not in the old book. I am glad we had the book with us because Isabel found it much more interesting to look for the things in it's pages. There were a few things that she recognized on her own (like the porcupine pictured below) and she was very excited to see them. We took pictures of everything so that she can look at her book and also see the pictures we took from seeing them in person.

I do highly recommend getting the book when you bring a child to the musuem.

I think she had a fun time.

Lisbon Community Park

We met some from moms & tots from our playgroup at Lisbon Community Park today. We had not been here before. Afterwards, Isabel & I went to Noodles & Co. for lunch using a certificate she got from her reading program. We shared a bowl of beef stroganoff. And because they were super busy and didn't think to bring us an extra fork with our extra plate, I just used chopsticks. Then she, in turn, only wanted to use chopsticks and was trying her best to use them correctly but found it was best to just stab the noodles instead. Neither one of us ended up using the only fork.
We have been keeping busy, but I just haven't been taking pictures that much lately. On Monday, we found out we are moving back to MN, after we did our Y classes. We will move our stuff from the storage unit back to our house next Sunday. On Tuesday we went to hangout with our friends Aaron, Sam & Sydney and did some canning with them. We made basil jelly & dill pickles. On Wednesday we did our classes at Y and then we went to our friends Elizabeth, Sofia, & Thomas's house for lunch & play. Yesterday we had a playdate with our friends Carrie, Leah, & Ryan and then went to the library. And well, today, you read about the park. We wanted to go swimming at a beach at a county park today, but I don't think it is going to happen as Isabel is taking a long nap.

Tomorrow we plan to go to the Milwaukee Art Museum and then to the company picnic of the cousin we are staying with. On Sunday we were thinking we might head to the zoo one last time and then in the afternoon we have plans for dinner with some friends and then heading to a park in Oconomowoc for an ice cream social.

Next week is filling up quite a bit as it is our last week here and we are trying to hang out with friends as much as possible before we leave.

This past week I have been looking up stuff for Isabel & I to do. I found that MOMS club that just started when we moved away and sent in my check and got on their Yahoo Groups page so I can see what is going on & planned. I contacted the libraries in the area and found out what day/time their storytimes start. I emailed the person in charge of ECFE (Early Childhood Family Education) in our town and told her we were back and to let us know when the schedule is out for classes (this woman will also be Isabel's preschool teacher next year as long as we send her to that preschool.) I updated the sidebar on the blog with links in the area in MN.

We do plan to be back in Oconomowoc the last week in October as we have a week booked at Olympia. It will just be Isabel & mommy making that trip, as daddy will need to be working. Auntie Phanie is due to have her baby that week, so if all works out nicely she will and we can go see her & the baby.

So, that's the down-low.

Friday at the Park

Yesterday evening we brought dinner to the park and played. Isabel didn't eat much as she was mostly interested in playing. But we all had fun. We spent a lot of time climbing and having races down the 3-person slide with all 3 of us. She got a kick out of the fact that all 3 of us could go down at the same time. And I am sure I have nice bruises on my hip from wiggling them in the slide; I bruise so easily that doing stuff like this makes me look like I am a battered wife.

There was so much stuff to climb here that it was great. She loved it. We will definitly be back.

In the morning we went with some friends to the Mke Cty Zoo. That was nice, but it was very hot and humid. Isabel was kinda interested in the animals but was more interested in jumping off the curbs and hanging from railings.

Not sure what our plans are for this weekend. They might involve going to church and going to a birthday party.

We are still kinda in limbo as far as our housing/job decisions. We hope that on Monday it will all be settled, or it might not be and we'll be stuck with all the same questions.

Thursday

These are a couple of pictures from Thursday. We stayed 'home' pretty much most of the day. We did a little yard work, did some exploring, and some driveway chalk art. And in the afternoon we got out & did a little shopping.

Stonefire Pizza

Tuesday night, we went to Stonefire Pizza for dinner. Daddy had never been there with us and Isabel didn't get a whole lot of running around in that day. So, this worked out well. We had fun, ate lots of food. We spent a little over 2 hours there.
Isabel's favorite thing was walking on the blocks. She also was able to follow my instructions and climbed top the top of the tall slide by herself, which meant I did not have to follow behind boosting her up to level.

Yesterday we went to the Y for our classes, then had snacks in the cafe with our friends and then went to the library to pick up some new books & videos. That evening we had dinner with Jeff, Lynn & Luz that I made.

Today we mostly stayed here except for a shopping trip to Target & Michaels to get some things for Jeff's house that he asked us to pick out. We did go outside during the morning to have some adventures in the woods & on the rocks. We also made some drawings on the driveway, including a hopscotch and four-square.

Not sure what is really on the docket for tomorrow.

We were hoping to know what our plans for the future were by tomorrow, but the other place is not deciding who they are offering a job to until Monday. There is a possibility that we are going to move back. Daddy had interviewed at a couple of places and has one offer and possibly another. This has been a stressful year and extremely stressful summer and as much as we like living here and like our friends and daddy enjoys his job, well, we can't go broke or crazy from stress. So, we'll see.

And I guess a strom ripped through out town. One of our neighbors called to say that our house was unharmed but that there are some big branches of ours down and they have trees of theirs that are down, one of which is through their garage roof. And there may be some down lines. Daddy called the utility companies and they basically said, Get In Line. And if anyone saw it or read it on CNN, there was a plane crash at the small airport (only 2 miles from our house) that went down and killed seven people. I don't know anymore details than what I read from the CNN article, but they were flying in for a meeting with a local company.

Reading to her Babies

Visiting the Great Grandparents

This morning we went to visit great grandma Mary & great grandpa Clarence. It was nice to see them again. Soon we are off & heading back to Wisconsin.

Last Evening

For grandma's bierthday we ate at Tejas in Edina. It was pretty good food and even though they were "kid-friendly", it was not the most toddler friendly place. We had to keep asking them to bring parts of her meal (since it included drink, & dessert as well) to keep her occupied since getting our food & check took a while. We eventually had to take her outside to see a nearby water fountain. So, of course, mommy & daddy didn't really get to taste too much of their food since we have to take turns keeping the child out of mischief. Oh - the life of living with a toddler. Afterwards we all came back to eat the cake Isabel & I made. I must say it was very good. The picture above is of Isabell walking with daddy and her cousin Travis as we left the restaurant.

Some More Pictures From Today

Gotta upload them while I have accesss to the wifi....man, have I mentioned I love wifi and miss it terribly!

We walked to the park nearby and as soon as we got there it started to pour. Isabel loved it. She loves playing in the rain & in puddles. Needless to say she will need a clothing change before we go out to eat for grandma's birthday tonight.

Family Weekend #2

Isabel woke up and when she saw it was raining she got so excited and wanted to get outside RIGHT AWAY. So, off come the jammies & out she goes in her diaper and bed head to splash in the water. There is also a little video of her splashing with grandma.

She also found the sombreros that Uncle Tony left at grandma's and she enjoys putting them on and mom has to wear the other one. The one picture she is also wearing daddy's shoes.

We made a German Chocolate Cake for grandma's birthday celebration this evening. Isabel helped sprinkle the pecans and pour everything into the bowl and mix it. She is so much better now and getting thing IN to the bowl when she pours them.
Rarely are there pictures of Isabel & I since I am the one taking the pictures. This is a picture that our friend Luanne took when we made jam recently.

Man, I Love Wifi!

I can't wait to have wifi back again. It rocks!

Anyways, these are some pictures from Wednesday. We went to Lyons Park in Muskego and it was quite hot there in the full sun, so we only stayed for a little while. Then we wentt o this country store place (I forget the name) that is basically like a FT farmer's market. We bought some fresh eggs there (from their chickens that Isabel got to see) and some cookies from their bakery and some yummy WI cherries. That country store had lots of picnic tables outside and a playset, so she was able to play there for a while. That evening we joined cousin Jeff & his daughter and her boyfriend out for dinner. It was very yummy.

Yesterday morning we met our friends Luanne & Lucie at Wirth Park. I don't have any pictures from there, but we had a lot of fun. It was a great day to be at an aquatic play center. After naptime we packed up and headed to MN (after some errand running.)

Slideshow from Last Weekend

Well, I have a couple of days with wifi now. So, here is the slideshow from the weekend with mommy's family.

Right now we are with daddy's family for a weekend visit. I will have some more pictures to post from this momentarily.

B&W Pictures from Today

Pictures from Today

Well, today we stayed home all morning waiting for the mail lady to bring our laptop Express Mail from grandma and grandpa's house. We forgot it there. Bah!

So, we got some good puzzle playing, painting, book reading, block building, coloring, & video watching in during that time.

This afternoon we went to Muskego County park to swim & play in the sand. I will have pictures from that later. We built rivers & lakes in the sand and floated our boats out to the pond/river.She did some swimming and we also watched the fish on the other side that were very friendly and seemed to want to be fed.

So, the pictures you see here are from painting this morning and a picture I tool from my camera phone that I sent to daddy. I took other pictures, but haven't gotten around to uploading them.

Later on we met up with our cousin Jeff and went our for dessert at the Gingerbread House. We had some very yummy desserts.

Family Weekend #1

There will be a slideshow coming sometime of other pictures from Sunday. This past weekend we visited Auntie Phanie & Uncle J on Saturday. We hung out with them and had lunch and then after naptime (Isabel), movie time (mommy & Auntie Phanie) and Wii time (daddy & Uncle J) we went to a park to play and after that we went to Nonna Maria to eat. After our day with them we drove to grandma and grandpa's house and spent the night there and all day Sunday with them. That evening mommy & daddy went to Auntie Razz's & Uncle Shane's house for drinks & conversation in their gazebo.

We had a picnic with lots of yummy food at George's Pond and went swimming. It was the three of us, grandma & grandpa, Uncle Al, Auntie Razz, Uncle Shane, & cousin Blake. We had a lot of fun. Isabel also got to enjoy lots of popsicles with grandpa and she enjoyed this.

This coming weekend we are headed to MN to see the other side of the family. And while we are there we will celebrate grandma's birthday. Isabel & I plan on baking her a cake (probably in the most simplest forms) on Friday.

Morning Explorations Slideshow

As promised.....

This Only Took FOREVER!

Well, enjoy these because you won't get anymore until tomorrow when I can upload the slideshow at Auntie Phanie's house and then not again until Monday & Wednesday next week when I have access to wifi.

Yesterday we explored the driveway of our cousin's house that we are staying at now. We picked blackberries (Isabel didn't care for them, but mommy thought they were yummy!), picked wildflowers (& arranged them in a vase in the house), found other treasures (nuts, rocks, sticks), found an ant colony, went for a little hike, crawled over rocks, learned about different leaves (I made chalk rubbings of them), checked out the neighbors corn, tried not to get bit by mosquitos, and pushed all our findings in the stroller. It was fun.

Later we went to the Gingerbread house and bought a minitaure rhubarb bundt cake. It was just too crowded & hot in there & not an environment conducive to a toddler that wants to touch everything.

After naptime we met up with cousin Jeff & Uncle Henry at Fountainhead Pool and we went swimming for a while. We enjoyed an ice pop & slushee while we there as well. Isabel loved swimming, so she had a blast.

This morning we are going to go check out an upper furnished duplex in Mke that we can rent M2M. It sucks for Isabel & I that is it away from our friends, but we gotta do what we gotta do. We can move in there on August 1st and have the cats with us. The lower is someone daddy works with & her parents live in the upper but are leaving to travel the US in their RV for 9 months. Daddy already saw it, but we need to go check it out to see if we are ok with it (& the nieghborhood).

Pictures to Come

Well, I have some pictures from this morning but I am just not getting them uploaded with this dial-up today. So, I will have to try later. I have a slideshow as well, but that will have to wait until Saturday when we go to Auntie Phanie's house and can use her high-speed.

Slideshow & Video from Last Night

As promised....here is the slideshow and video.

Kids' Night at the Zoo

We met our friends Lynn & luz tonight at the Mke Cty Zoo for one of their July Kids's Nights. It was a lot of fun. Crowded, but fun. Isabel needed it to get out and run around & dance and get some energy out as our day was pretty relaxed. All we pretty much did was go to storytime at the New Berlin library. Other than that we just hung out at my cousin's house until we went to the zoo. I will have a short video of her chasing the cheetah to post tomorrow, as well as a slide show. This was all I could manage to post with dial-up.

Tomorrow we are going to the Y for our classes and then we are going to a playgroup in the afternoon. Hopefully we will make it back to the zoo in the evening for their Zoofari concert (series.)

Well, better get this posted before the dial-up boots me off. It does that often.

Friday Pictures

These are some pictures from yesterday. This is her new backpack. She likes that it has buckles on the front. She is really into buckling things lately. We bought this at a rummage sale and it is in excellent condition. It has pockets on both sides for water bottles, which is why I like it because when the two of us go places we can have both of our drinks easily available. Daddy suggested we get a backpack to use with the umbrella stroller a friend gave us (as ours had the seat rip) and it doesn't have the basket in the bottom like ours did (which was awesome), so now we have to backpack it. Doesn't she look so little with that backpack on?
I had read in numerous places about letting kids paint with water. Honestly, I thought it was a bunch of hooey. Why would a kid be entertained by using water to paint? Seems pointless when a kid has perfectly good paints to use. But on a whim yesterday afternoon I thought I would grab a paint brush and gift it to her. It kept her busy for a good 15 minutes, which is great for a toddler. She didn't seem to bore of it. I guess I was wrong. She had fun and so I guess we will paint with water more often.
Isabel just loves popcorn. I know kids are supposed to wait until 4 years old to have it (choking hazard with the hulls, I guess.) Anyways, a friend was babysitting her and didn't know about the 4-year recommendation and gave Isabel popcorn. She loved it. So, now we have popcorn as a snack often. Isabel will say, "I love corn!" She's so passive-aggressive, she never says " Can I have corn? or I want corn!" It's always "I love corn (or fill-in with whatever it is that she wants.)"
After dinner last night I gave her some chocolate pudding. Yes, I know the last 3 series of pictures all have in her suit. She was outside going in & out of the pool for 2 hours Anyways, she does a good job getting herself messy when she eats. We have not taught her to eat like a little lady yet. Daddy bathed her in the kiddie pool afterward to clean off the pudding. After that we went to Books & Co. for their pajama party storytime. That was a nice time. Then we came home and she played her new computer game with daddy and mommy read her more stories. She was a very silly girl last night.

Making Strawberry Jam

Today Isabel and her friend Lucie made strawberry jam with their moms. The girls put the jars in the kettle (to boil), picked leaves of the strawberries, and helped a bit with the food processor (not too much as it was loud & it kinda scared them.) We left them out of the cooking & filling stage of jam making. All our lids sealed and hopefully our jam will set nicely. Tomorrow the girls will clean up the jam (from where I spilled filling them) and put labels on and have some to eat. I sampled a little bit as I was filling and I think we did a great job! We hope to get some good pictures tomorrow of the girls together with their jars of jam.

Zoofari Concert #3

We went to our third Zoofari concert. This time some friends joined us. I was able to get pictures of Isabel with her friend Drew. Although, her friend Taryn was there as well and you can see her in the little video I took of them dancing around a tree. Playing with the trees at the zoo was apparently the fun thing to do. In the picture above, Isabel & Drew were trying to remove the pole. Silly two-year olds.

It was a good concert, although much MUCH busier than the last 2 weeks. I am not sure if it was because they are a popular band or maybe it was just such a great night to be out. Next week we will get there earlier (if traffic will let us) and we'll bring in our own food. I waited in line a long time to get our food & then again to pay for our food. It was crazy.


This is a project we did the other. I had a picture of Isabel & Rachael enlarged and then she decorated the frame with jewels and she will give it to Rachael when she gets back from vacation.

Wee Wonders Class #2 at Retzer Nature Center

We had her second Wee Wonders Class at the Retzer Nature Center. It is a once a month class. It is pretty fun class and we both learn a lot from it. Today's class theme was "Under a Log" and we did just that....look under logs & rocks for living creatures. We found lots of roly-poly bugs, slugs, worms, ants, a spider, and some bug the teacher didn't know what it was. By the end Isabel was brave enough to hold a worm and throw it in the compost bin. She actually threw about 3 worms in the compost bin, but before that she would only quickly touch it and say "sorry". She had fun with the magnifying class; each kid got one to use. The mosquitos were plentiful, but we had on bug spray. Although I have to say that the bug spray has been bothering me since being back. It's amazing how much more sensitive (or at least notice it) to chemicals you become when you don't regularly use them.

This is just a fun collage of a bunch of pictures of her learning today. I highly recommend taking your 2-4 year old to this class if you can. Our next class will be in August. I can't remember what the theme title is, but I know we are getting wet.

Isabel has been getting a little addicted to a Dora video here and will frequently request "watch Dora again." She never really watched Dora before, although we are always checking out Dora books from the library. So, we decided to fill up Rachael's kiddie pool so that I could convince her to go outside & play. Pretty soon we are going to go meet some friends to go for a walk.

We have been talking to Isabel about her favorites lately. If you ask her, these are a few things she usually responds with:

• Favorite Number: 2
• Favorite Color: Green
• Favorite Animal: Cow
• Favorite Shape: Circle

She pretty consistently picks green as her favorite color and usually if given a choice of items to pick out, she will pick the one that is green.

Science Experiment

Learning is fun!

Happy 4th of July (& Birthday to Uncle Al!)

We did a little science experiment we saw on Peep where they froze toys in ice and then watched to see which melted fastest & learn that the ice melts when it gets warm. She had fun pushing the ice across the table, although the ice never got to fully melt as she started to eat the ice (which you will see pictures in the slideshow.) She did have fun. These were toys she got from the library for the reading program. After we were finished we put them back in 2 different size containers and will try the experiment that way (this way was ice in the same size containers.)

Happy Birthday to Uncle Al!

Today we hung out most of the day until about 4pm and then stayed for about 4 hours with our friends and grilled out and ate lots of nice food and the kids played. The guys played cornhole.

Reading a Dinosaur Book

This may be took dark to see much, but most of the point of this video is to listen to her read to her dolly.

After the Silliness....

She finally calmed down after a lot of silliness that including jumping, flips, tickling bellies, and getting sacked with a pillow (she thinks having a pillow fight is her curling up in a ball, laughing her little butt off, having me toss pillows on top of her) and watched an episode of Peep. she is becoming such an active little toddler.

Tag!

I have been tagged by Skye......and instead of re-typing everything I will just copy & paste from her blog.

Here are the rules:
1. Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
2. Share 5 songs you are embarrassed to admit to others you like and tell why.
3. Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
4. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

My Five Most Embarassing Songs I Enjoy:
* Baby Got Back - fond memories of it from high school & I know all the words
* Come On Eileen - fond memories from the sorority days; we have a dance to this
* Chubbawamba - it just makes me smile
* Mambo #5 - I think of Kendra singing this to me when we went out dancing because my name is in it.
* What a Girl Wants - I just love to sing this out loud
(I notice a lot of people list as these are the songs on their ipod, which I don't have, but they are songs I enjoy nonetheless.)

Tagged People:
* Drea - a wonderful mommy who's blog I read (both sons' blogs)
* Jamie - a very organized and loving mom in my playgroup who has incredible patience
* Audra - another mom in our playgroup who has these beautiful girls that are so sweet
* Kristal - another mom in playgroup with beautiful girls. It's hard to tell if they look more like mommy or daddy.
* Jeanette - a friend in Newcomer's who works hard at raising awareness for food allergies
* Lori - a close mom friend in playgroup who is just so sweet and thoughful
* Kendra - my dear friend who has the biggest heart that I know and is so beautiful
* Alison - I have never actually met her, but I have been reading her the blog the longest of all.

Sunset Park Slide Show

Now, doesn't that look like a fun park to visit. This afternoon we plan to meet our playgroup at Fowler Park, although that might change if we can go see a couple of rentals I emailed about.

We did make it to the concert at the zoo last night, but only stayed 40 minutes due the rain. We wimped out in favor of dryer fun inside.

Sunset Park

Isabel & I went to Sunset Park in Genesee. It was one of the first parks we visited when we moved to WI. We love it. It is such a good park for climbers & sliders. There are swings there and a nice sandbox with diggers as well. There is a 2-sided covered pavilion and soccer courts and basketball courts and sand volleyball courts. It is really a nice park. Of course, Miss Daredevil likes to spend most of her time on the bigger stuff.
So, this is the play equiptment. You can see a picture of the swings & sandbox in the slide show that will be posted. Remember to click on the picture to make it bigger. There is another park in this community as well. We haven't been to it yet. Both are near our church, so maybe we'll go after/before church this weekend. Stay tuned for the slide show.

Oh - Isabel is on to 5 word sentences now. It was just a week and a half ago that I first noted her first 4-word sentence, and now it's onto to 5. This morning she said, "I want bread too please."

And if someone is looking for a very fun book to buy someone or check out from the library, you should check out: How Many Bugs in a Box?
We have it checked out from the library right now and it is her new favorite book. She often reads it out loud to herself (well, she can't read yet, although she is practicing sounding out things, but she recites from memory and says what the pictures look like.)

The Bug Ball (Dance)

This afternoon we went to the Bug Ball. It was a kids' dance sponsored by a local library. Isabel had fun there. Here is a short video of her dancing there. Soon we are off to the zoo to go hear a band there and for Isabel to do more dancing. Some of her friends are supposed to meet us there, hopefully they do so that she has someone besides mom & dad to dance with.
The kids did the limbo, hokey pokey, chicken dance, twist, and danced to lots of other fun songs.

We've been busy....As always...

Monday was a little relaxing and we hung out most of the day, but yesterday we went to the library for storytime and met a lot of our friends there. Then later in the day we had a playdate with some friends and after than we went for a walk with our friend Mary & Ben down the Glacial It was a nice walk but would have been longer if the skeeters weren't trying to eat us alive.

This morning we had Isabel's 2-year doctor appt. The doc was double-booked so she was way behind and we were late for Isabel's class at the Y.....mommy missed her class altogether and just had to go to the fitness center to run/walk. Afterwards we sat in the cafe with our friends and had a snack. Then we went to buy some food and when we left the store it was pouring and we got quite wet. It is raining again now.

After Isabel's nap today we hope to go to the Bug Ball (dance) that the library is sponsoring and later on tonight we hope to meet daddy at the concert at the zoo, but we'll see how the weather is later one. I hope to have some pictures & video of her dancing events. So, stay tuned.