T-ball

Noah was on a t-ball team throughout July and August.  He had practices and games every Tuesday and Thursday nights from 5:30-6:30.  It was kind of an awkward time since we couldn't figure out if we ate dinner before or after the game especially since Noah got a snack (and generally not fruit) at the end of the game.  But Noah had a good time (for the most part) and improved some of his baseball skills. We really lucked out on the weather because it was very rarely hot.  Most of the games were quite pleasant.  One of the games was kind of cool and Natalie wore a sweater and pants.

The coach was good about moving the kids around to all the positions.  Noah only got to play pitcher once and that was the position that go to field the most balls.  The coach also rotated the batter order because the last player always got to get a home run.  The players would get one base with each hit normally and then at the end of the "inning" (when all the kids had batted once) all the kids on base would run home.  Noah got to be the last batter the very first game.  He wasn't happy about going last but we tried to convince him that it was fun to hit a home run.

Here are some pictures from various games.  Natalie and I didn't attend every once since she would get bored.  Noah was on the White Sox team.

 I also got some pictures of Noah not quite paying attention.  He didn't do this often.

We didn't order t-ball pictures (my goodness there are so many opportunities to get professional pictures taken!) so I took some myself.

Teacher Gift-Tote Bag

I decided to be ambitious and make a tote bag for N2's kindergarten teacher and put some school supplies and items for the teacher in it.  I followed the directions on Skip to My Lou to make a reversible bag.  I found the fabric at Joanns.  I ended up buying home decor fabric and it worked out really well.  It was a good weight.  Here is how it turned out.

Here is what I filled it with.

-pencils (presharpened)
-felt tipped pens
-Clorox wipes
-wet wipes
-Dove chocolate
-post it note tabs
-mints
-hand sanitizer
-fun colored sharpies

I also included a note to the teacher telling her that I am willing to help however I can.

Mrs. Donohue seemed to really like the bag and was impressed by my craftiness!

Kindergarten

N2 started kindergarten today.  Yesterday we attended an Open House where N2 could meet their teacher, Mrs. Donohue, and see their classroom.  They spent some time being very shy and clingy but after a while they were willing to explore and played in the kitchen/house area.  Today when we dropped them off, they were quiet but willing to sit in line with the other kids by themselves.  As Mrs. Donohue called them to go into the classroom, Natalie needed a reassurance hug from us so of course Noah had one too.  But there were no tears from any of them.  Here they are with their teacher.

 I can't wait to hear about their first day of school!

Random July

N2 and I went to a birthday party that was a super hero and princess party.  Elsa was there as was Spiderman.  They got super hero masks so decided that they would make up their own superhero names.  Noah is Green Lightning and Natalie is Red Sparkle (such an intimidating name, huh?)

My kids got out their handbells the other day and wanted to play music.  They can read the letters on the page that came with the handbells that have a few songs so they would call out letters for us to play.  Unfortunately they can't read rhythm so the songs didn't sound like what they were supposed to sound like.  We played music for quite a while that day!

 Noah has taken interest in the piano.  He picked up some of Brian's sheet music that is their scratch paper and put it on the piano as if he was playing those songs.  He would also write on the music as if changing the piece or composing a piece.  It was really cute.  However he stopped looking like a little composer one I pulled out my camera.  This is as good as I got.

Milwaukee Zoo

We met up with Marcie and her kids at the Milwaukee Zoo one day in July.  We really enjoyed seeing all the animals and hanging out with her family.  Our kids get along so well!

We went to a bird show and the kids really enjoyed it because the birds would fly right overhead.  Nathaniel really liked the birds too!  Here are the kids waiting for the show to begin.

Afterwards the zoo was very smart and trained a raven to take a bill and put it in a donation box.  The kids each got to give the raven a dollar.  I didn't get a picture of Megan. :(

In the primate house, there is a canoe that people can sit in (it's just a display).  Megan and Noah decided to work together to row the boat.

Natalie and Amelia were just goofy!  They got pretty goofy by this time of the zoo visit.

They decided that they are NOT the size of a baby gorilla.

Nathaniel really was there!

Random August

Here is N2's lemonade stand that they held during our garage sale.  Not too much traffic but we did have Grandma Weidner, and 2 of their preschool teachers stop by!  I think they made about $4 each but some people gave them more quarters than they drank lemonade!  Our neighbors stopped by twice so that was nice.

I took N2 out separately to buy backpacks for kindergarten.  Natalie and I stopped at Target first and they really had nothing that wasn't holograph character backpacks which I did not want to buy and Natalie did not want.  She did want a dinosaur backpack but it was too small to fit a folder in it.  So then I took her to TJ Maxx on a whim and they had backpacks.  At first she wanted a light up owl backpack but I did not want to buy that.  We found a girly John Deere backpack!  Brian was not overly thrilled because it seems too country.  I think it's better than a fru fru backpack!  Noah ended up getting a dinosaur backpack at Target (one that I had seen earlier and thought it was perfect but didn't want to buy it without him).

 Natalie was quite helpful the other day and wanted to do jobs for me.  I asked her to fold the laundry which she was excited about but first she had to get ready!  She dress up as an astronaut in order to fold laundry. But hey, if that's all it takes for her to fold all their laundry, I'll gladly wait while she gets dressed up.

Wisconsin State Fair

We met up with Marcie's family at the Wisconsin State Fair last week and had a great time!  We started by attending a duck race which was quite amusing.  The kids got into it and were cheering for their favorite color.  We were sitting in the green section but they cheered for other sections.  Oh well!

We visited the Family Activity Barn and the kids got to play around with various crops-corn, wheat, oats.  They also got to see baby animals-some of the piglets were only 4 days old!  I think the WI State Fair did a great job with making things accessible to kids.  I didn't get great photos but I did get some of the kids having fun.

We attended a birds of prey show which was not great for kids.  There was too much talking and not enough birds.  We have been to bird shows before where the birds fly around but these birds just sat on someone's arm.  Natalie really liked the birds and her favorite was the Peregrine Falcon.

We went to the Kohls Care Center and they had fun activities for kids.  They had a balance beam and coloring with their feet.  They also had art projects based on famous artists.  We only had the chance to do one of the projects.

 After Marcie's family left, we stayed a little longer and visited some of the barns again.  We found the horse barn and looked at all of them since Natalie loves horses.  We also waited so they could ride on the small tractors.  As we left, we let them ride on a couple rides.

Brian had a twister dog for lunch-a hot dog that had a spiral potato wrapped around it, deep fried and then served with bacon, chipotle mayo, and sirracha.  He said it was really good.