Memorial Day

On Memorial Day we ventured out about 45 minutes away to go watch a parade with some friends. Yes, thats what we do for our children. To be fair, I was told it was a chocolate parade, so who can blame me? Naturally we had to get there a little early to get good curb seating, so while we waited for the parade to start we explored the river and park nearby. 

 Had to get a picture of this drinking fountain, because it brought back childhood memories of being eaten by a lion at the zoo. Love it!

 Killing time at the park.

 Finally time for the parade to start. The kids were a little nervous about sitting so close to the street, until the candy came out, then it was all good! 

 Zack loved seeing the firemen and their truck!

A little disappointing for a "chocolate parade". All we got was 100 Grand Candy Bars. Guess they had to cut costs this year. Such is my life. After the parade, we decided to go to 6 flags for the rest of the day. Shocking right? Ive already posted pictures from that, so I wont do it again. It was a pretty good paid day off work. We love those! 

Track

Busy excuse #...I lost count.

Madi decided to join the school Track team. It only lasted a month or two but she had practices every night after school and track meets 1 or 2 times a week. She got assigned to run the JV 800M and ended up taking first place 3 times, second twice and 3rd in the city meet ( but she got an arm to the chest at the end so it should have been 2nd). We are so proud of how well she did! We only took one video, and it ended up being the first meet she took second in. Think we jinxed it! But it was so close! Oh, and she also had violin lessons, Young Women Activities, and an occasional book club meeting during the week on top of it. Enough excuses yet? Anyway, heres the video.

On a side note...can I just breathe a sigh of relief that Blogger finally made it easier to upload pictures and videos!? Maybe now, I will actually blog more! Not making any promises though. Sure I can come up with more excuses. For now, we are off to spend a summer at 6 Flags! 

Soccer!

Katelin and Alissa were signed up for Fall and Spring soccer. Ryan helped coach some of Alissa's team, the Cheetahs. Its been a great confidence booster for this one...

She got pretty good by the end of Spring.

Katelins team was the Tigers. 

 She was lucky enough to have one of her school friends on her team.

Having these two in soccer took up Tuesday-Thursday evenings, and Saturdays. It got kinda crazy sometimes, but nothing compared to what we are going to experience next season when we have 3 of them signed up! Oy. 

The last few months

I know, I know...its been a while. I would just like to add my excuses to these next few posts. I have photographic evidence that we have been busy, not just being lazy. Now that school is finally out, and I am done playing chauffeur, I can sit down and update the blog. Never mind what time it is! My first excuse from my absence in blog world is this...

 No, I wasnt sitting on the toilet. I was painting around it! I got sick of the bright orange Nemo paint and peeling border, so I decided to have another go at some froggy stripes! I think it turned out pretty well, and if you noticed the first picture, I found a way to finally organize all the kids toothbrushes, floss and paste! Yay me! The other painting project that I am still cursing was this one...

 Madi and Katelin have to live with each other in these close quarters. Sometimes it results in a few disagreements, one of which is color choices. They are kinda opposites. So after much disputing and reflection we came to a compromise using both their color choices...blue with purple and green polka dots. I kinda felt like I was surrounded by a smurf with measles, but I think it turned out okay. Never, ever will I do this again though-it took forever!

Excuse #2: In April, we had a couple of our favorite people come to visit us. Ryans brother had to come to Chicago for work, so he decided to bring his wife along for a kids free getaway. While he was at work, us girls decided to check out the Milwaukee Art museum.

 Gotta say, I appreciate art as much as the next guy, but seriously....?

 We like to call that one, crack. Honestly experienced a "I wish I had painted that and made money for it" moment. There were several pieces like that, but the girls did find their favorites...

 Of course, Katelin likes the painting of assorted slices of pie.

One of the highlights of the museum was getting to create your own art work. Think we all could have competed with some of the pieces we saw.

 At least the outside of the building looks cool. Its patterned after a sailboat and the top opens and closes like sails. If you watch American Idol, the Milwaukee auditions were done here. That was the most exciting part for me! Yeah, think that was just a one time visit. At least I had good company! Thanks for enduring it with us Aunt Tina! (:

 During some down time, we discovered a little game you might have heard of- Angry Birds. Zack quickly became addicted, so when we saw Angry Bird Fruit Snacks, we had to get them. Of course this is one time I allowed him to play with his food.

 Excuse #3: If you remember, our friendly Easter Bunny left us all 6 Flags season passes, so we have been taking full advantage. Brylee is getting big enough to start enjoying some rides, but the carousel is still one of her favorites.

 Zack wasnt sure he wanted to go on Raging Rapids when he saw how wet people were getting, but he ended up loving it!

 This particular trip, we ran into some friends, so we hung out with them until the "damaging wind storm" started to blow in. They really were having fun despite what this picture shows. Looks like they are all ticked at someone...JUST GET THE RIDE GOING ALREADY!  

And this is what constant running around does to a boy. At least he is surrounded by all his bedtime friends...oh and cant forget the hat. Love that kid! 

More excuses to come. They took up so much time, they deserve their own post. Of course, you probably already saw them since blogger puts newest posts on top.