When Dad's Away . . .

* Grandma and Grandpa come to visit. Grandpa Greg and Grandma Bev came to help out with the kiddos for a few days while Randy was gone on is hunting trip in Montana. The kids enjoyed spending the extra time with them. Marlee enjoyed even more extra time with them while the boys were at school. She read books with Grandpa and played playdoh with Grandma. Thanks for the extra help! * The car breaks down! Yes, good thing Grandma and Grandpa were here, and also good thing that Grandma Claudia and Papa Ron had an extra car we could use! The transmission fluid starting leaking out of the car on Tuesday night and it is currently still in the shop. We should have it back tomorrow! * Dad surprised us by arriving home a night early! All of a sudden at 8:00pm the garage door started opening! Blake, Bennett and I looked at each other wondering who was here and what was going on. We were pleasantly surprised to see that daddy surprised us with his early arrival and that it wasn't an intruder!

1st Day of School 2014

The boys woke up bright and early this morning, as they were both excited to get their first day of school started. Blake will be a first grader this year. Blake started the day with our traditional "1st Day French Toast" breakfast. Blake is fortunate to have two teachers this year, as Mrs. Garlick and Mrs. Jehn will be team teaching. He was excited to see his friends and already had an appointment lined up at recess to play football with one of his classmates! Bennett was excited, but also a little anxious about his first day of school. He said he was most nervous about the bus, but when it came time to jump on, there was no hesitation. Bennett has Ms. Falkner as his teacher. Ms. Falkner also taught Blake in 4k, so it is nice that Bennett will have a familiar face to see when he gets to school that first day! Bennett also enjoyed some French toast, but didn't have as much of an appetite due to those 1st day butterflies :)! I am sure both boys will come home with plenty of stories about their first day, and a little bit exhausted too!

One More Week!

We have one more full week of summer break before school begins! Where did the summer go? We had the chance to sneak in some more summer activities this past week. We went to our favorite summer restaurant, The Stone Barn, with some of our favorite families the Auths and the Daniels. The kids had a blast playing football, hide and seek, and kick the can while we waited for our pizza. We went to the Big Rig Truck and Tractor Show in Eau Claire. Bennett and Blake loved looking inside the cabs of the trucks. Their favorite truck was the Green Bay Packers truck. They said they could live in there "forever!" We set up our own homemade slip 'n slide on one of the hot days this past week. The boys had fun zooming down the slide and running back up again. We are going to savor every moment of this last week of summer!

Date at the Drive-In

Last summer one of our must-do list items was to go to a drive-in movie theater. Sadly, that was one item we never got to on our list. The boys and I made it a priority this summer to go to the drive-in. About a week ago we saw that the local drive-in was playing the new "Planes" movie. Just another reason why we needed to go to the drive-in. The highlights, besides the movie, for the boys were- eating popcorn and snacks, playing catch with the football before the movie started, and snuggling under the stars while they watched the movie!

Green Bay/ Door County Trip

We spent part of last week on our mini-vacation in Green Bay and Door County. The weather couldn't have been better for our time away. To start the trip we spent one night in Green Bay. We took the kids to Bay Beach Amusement Park that night. The small carnival atmosphere was awesome! Blake and Bennett enjoyed the rides, and Marlee enjoyed watching them go around and around. Marlee did take one ride on the small train. The rest of our vacation was spent in Door County (Fish Creek, WI). Our resort was located right outside of Peninsula State Park, so we did some bike riding, running, and hiking in the park while we were there. We spent some time at the local beaches, ate delicious food, and visited some of the quaint shops that Door County has to offer. We were hoping to do some cherry-picking while we were there, but with the long winter the cherry crops were behind schedule by 2 weeks. We were able to snap a picture in one of the orchards while we were there. Other highlights were the amazing sunsets and the ice cream treats! To break up our drive on the way home we decided to stop at Lambeau field to show the boys where the Packers play. I am not sure who was more excited, Blake and Bennett or Randy! The boys LOVED the Packers Pro Shop and the huge statues of Curly Lambeau and Vince Lombardi. On our way out of Green Bay we spotted a sign close to Lambeau Field called Marlee Lane! Just had to take a picture of that! It was great to get away as a family before the hustle and bustle of the school year starts.

Summer Must-Do List- Part 1

I have not been very good about keeping up with the blog since summer started. I guess that tells you how busy we've been. Once again the boys wanted to put together a Summer Must-Do List. Here is what we have completed so far: We made ice cream in a bag by putting the ingredients for the ice cream in the smaller bag and then that smaller bag was put into a larger bag with ice and salt. Blake and Bennett shook their bags for 11 minutes. They both tried the ice cream with chocolate syrup when they were done. Both boys agreed that the ice cream wasn't their favorite, especially compared to Culver's or Dairy Queen! We spent a long weekend in Alexandria, MN with Grandpa and Grandma Gronos. The weather was beautiful and Jessi, Sophie, and Adam also joined us for a few days. We spent 2 of the days we were there at a few of the local beaches. We painted with rocks and other items from nature.

Blake's Last Day of Kindergarten

Blake completed his first year of all-day, 5 days/week school on Thursday, June 5, 2014. What a great year he had! Blake was excited to go to school each day, and missed the days he had off. He enjoyed his first year meeting new friends and learning with his teacher, Mrs. Gruber.