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I’ve decided to start a weekly post. It will be called “This Week in Photos” and will appropriately include photos from the past week. I’ll try to do this each Saturday. Since NaBloPoMo ends tomorrow (for me), this is something I can try to keep up with for a while, until I (crazily) decide to try doing another month of NaBloPoMo. Here are the pictures:
Kind of cool shot of the wing of our airplane as we flew home on Sunday from California.
We spent the morning on Thursday out at our friend, Becky’s parents’ house on Oconomowoc Lake. It was chilly, but the kids insisted on getting into the water. At least I didn’t have to get in!
Here are the crazy kids!
I let Caden spend a little time in “big boy undies.” He didn’t say anything to me when he peed in them! I don’t think we’re quite ready, yet!
We went to the park on Friday morning, and Noah was riding this. Since it’s the big 105th anniversary party for Harley-Davidson this weekend, we called this Noah’s Harley!
Again, for the Harley party, there were Hogs everywhere. This one came cruising by as we left the park. I didn’t get my camera out quick enough to get it from the back, but you get the idea! There were 50 flags on this bike-one for each state.
This is the sunflower that Noah started growing in a cup in May on one of our windowsills. It’s ginormous! It just started blooming this week. And there are still some flowers that will bloom.
Caden is getting ready to hit the ball out of the “bunk-aie.” That’s Cadenese for “bunker.” He doesn’t say his “r”‘s very well! I didn’t realize he knew the term “bunker”!
I’m sure as I progress through my crazy photography class, there will be many more pictures to include. We’ll see if I improve as I go!
The boys and I spent the morning at a “new” park today with Amy, Kylie, and Andy. The three “big kids” did great running on their own, while Andy was a little kamikaze and kept us running after him. There was a nice, shady area just beyond the playground equipment, so to get out of the sun, we decided to go on a “nature hike.” The kids found a fire circle-a ring of large rocks around some charred sticks and soot and ashes.
Seemed innocent enough, right? We weren’t paying very close attention, I suppose. This is how Caden and Kylie ended up:
 
 
To top it all off, the boys were wearing their new tennis shoes that are supposed to be for school but Noah convinced me to let them wear today. They cleaned up okay with some baby wipes!
I just got back from my first Intro to Photography class. I enrolled for this class through WCTC (Waukesha County Technical College), and then realized it’s a 3 credit class! Yep, I have tests. FOUR of them! And I have a portfolio that will be due at the end of the semester.
There were a few times during the class that I wondered, “What the hell am I doing here?!” It’s almost 4 hours long, and by the end of the class today, I was starting to drift a bit. The instructor was showing us the “studio” (a grey room with lights and computers and some other stuff, I think), and a lot of it was going over my head. But I’m trying to remind myself that it’s early, and we’re not expected to know this stuff yet.
It should be interesting. I’ll probably post some of my works in progress. Critiques are welcome!
That’s what I would call today-“better.” The boys were infinitely better today! We had playgroup here this morning, and they were very excited about that, so I think that helped keep them on their best behavior. All of the kids had a great time. They played on our neighbors’ swingset, in our sandbox, and on our slide. There was a calm for about one minute while they ate some cookies, then back to craziness.
After the boys’ buddies left, Noah and Caden started cleaning up the yard-without being asked! It was fantastic! When we came inside, I told them how proud I was of them for being so good and helpful. Their faces lit up with the praise. I guess it’s true what they say about positive parenting! I told them that since they were so good, we could have a “picnic” in the living room for lunch and watch some shows. Before lunch we did a puzzle together, then played a game of “Candy Land.” It was great! After lunch, we headed down to the basement to play with trains and play some baseball and hockey. As we were making our way back upstairs for naps, the boys had a little break in the “goodness,” but they pulled it together.
Naptime was a little bit of a different story. I was trying to get them to bed a little early so we could run out to buy shoes after naps before dinner, but apparently they weren’t that tired. I heard them talking for a while, then found Noah in bed with Caden. It was frustrating, but eventually they went to sleep.
Our trip to the mall was quite successful, too! It was time for new tennis shoes, so we went to Stride Rite with Nana in tow to help corral the boys as needed. As much as the boys wanted light-up shoes, they were satisfied with the cheaper, non-light-up shoes, and my bank account was happy, too!
Dinner was the best we’ve had for a long time. No need to force anyone (read: Caden) to the table to eat, no time-outs, everyone ate the food in front of them, and everyone stayed mostly clean! Yipee!!! So we treated the boys to a trip to the driving range.
I wish I had taken our video camera to the driving range. The boys are very fun to watch. Caden places his hands on the club like he’s a leftie, but swings rightie. Then he sort of steps up to the ball, aka “Happy Gilmore.” Noah has a very out of control back swing because of the length of his club and the weight of the head of the club, but he makes pretty good contact. The driving range is right next to a little airstrip,and they were enthralled by the helicopters and planes flying overhead. It was a lot of fun.
When we got back, Caden and I worked on an alphabet puzzle. I would tell him the sound the letter makes, then say the letter, then tell him the picture to look for on the puzzle so he would know where to put it. When he got to the letter “C,” I asked him what letter it was.
“C!” he said.
“And what is ‘C’ for?”
“CADEN!!!!!!”
“You’re right!”
“YEAH!!!!!!!!!!” (screaming and jumping up and down)
It was hilarious. He’s learning. Granted, he thought almost every other letter was “P” (except for “W” which we teach our kids right away-“W for Wisconsin!”), but he’s doing just fine for a 2 1/2 year old!
So today was better. Much better. I picked up “Scream-free Parenting” at Barnes & Noble today. We’ll see if we can make some great changes. Here’s hoping!
For a mere $6, I had a very nice therapy session tonight. All it takes is a house margarita, a “Triple Chocolate Meltdown” (to share), and a couple of hours with three of my best friends to help take some of my worries and frustrations and put them on the back burner.
This was a frustrating afternoon and evening with my dear, sweet Caden. He has officially hit his “terrible twos,” though I don’t remember Noah acting like this. He is suddenly acting very defiantly. You ask him to do something, like getting ready for dinner or washing his hands or heading over to change his diaper, and he blatantly ignores you, choosing to start playing with cars or some other toy. He has a look on his face that shows he hears you, but is choosing not to listen.  It is pretty infuriating. And recently, he ends up with at least one time-out during every dinner, often because of throwing food on the floor. Seriously!
I really wish I could switch from punishment to positive parenting, but I haven’t had much luck with that. I’m going to look into a book called “Scream-Free Parenting.” Maybe that will help. I’m open to any other suggestions out there!
Anyway, my dear friend, Becky, is in town from Denver for the week, and we got together with Amy and Sandy at Applebee’s for some drinks (N/A for Sandy-she’s preggers) and catching up. It is always an enjoyable time with these girls. We have many, many evenings like this one in our memories, as well as weekends in Chicago or Madison, and days spent out at Becky’s parents’ lake house. Our visits are often few and far between, but they always make me feel better, and help me forget some stressors for a while. Thanks ladies!
Today is my sister-in-law, Catheroo‘s 40th birthday! She doesn’t look a day over 39, though! Here are some pictures from her party this past Saturday while we were in California.
 
Birthday banner.                                            Cathy’s parents
 
The cake-YUM!!!                                             Susie and Cathy (sisters)
 
Make a wish!                           Cathy’s piece of cake!
 Romper Stompers!
 
Cathy’s reaction to Matte’s gift, and the necklace-a journey diamond!
And here are a few more random pictures from the weekend. Watch for a post about Desmond, their cat.
 
Desmond-he poses.                                          Desmond’s tie-poor thing!
 Daphne-she doesn’t pose!
 
Matte, me, Cathy-family!                                  Me and the ‘rents in front of their cute house.
Love you, SIL!!!
I’m just back from California, and even though my internal clock is still on California time and it’s 8:30 pm there, I’m exhausted!
I couldn’t get off the plane fast enough tonight. First, I had to go to the bathroom! But really, I just wanted to see my boys-all three of them! There is nothing better than seeing their faces, and having Noah and Caden come running to me, screaming, “Mommy!!!” I really missed them! I was only gone for 5 days. I can only imagine what it’s like for people who have to be away from their families for weeks, months, even a year a time.
The boys look like they’ve grown in the past few days. Is that possible? According to Noah, now he’s “four and three quarters! And in a few weeks, Caden will be two and three quarters!” On the way home, Caden kept saying we were in “Cuckoo-town,” then laughing a loud belly laugh. It was great. Normally that gets a little old, but tonight it was a wonderful sound. I missed my boys!
It’s about 9:30 here in San Jose, and I’m pooped! The day started out pretty quietly, but quickly became busy as we prepared for Cathy’s 40th birthday party. There were decorations to put up, veggies to chop, sodas to chill, and balloons to fill.
The party was a definite success. Matte and Cathy’s backyard is great for entertaining. They have a nice big grill for making burgers and hot dogs. They insisted on having as “green” of a party as possible, so Cathy’s wonderful mom found a bunch of Melamine plates, wrapped silverware in cloth napkins, and brought plastic cups. Cathy’s mom had also gone to the dollar store to find goodies for the kids to play with. The bubbles were a huge hit.
There was a ton of food, including some delicious guacamole, chips and dip, cheese and crackers, hamburgers, hot dogs, beans, fruit, and an awesome burnt almond cake. I’m fuller than full right now, but I still want another piece of cake!
Cathy got some wonderful presents, including a Tiffany bracelet that all of her friends get for each other for their 40th birthdays, a jewelry box from my parents and me, several bottles of wine, and a beautiful diamond necklace from Matte.
It was a great day, and now we’re ready for a break. I’ll post pictures from the party in a couple of days. We head home tomorrow, and hopefully I won’t have anything exciting to report from our flight. A nice, quiet, boring plane ride is my favorite kind!
So after dinner last night (which we ate at 9:30 pm Pacific time = 11:30 pm Central time), I was too tired to blog any more. At least I got a little in so I could keep up with NaBloPoMo! Thank goodness for my brother’s iPhone (which is really too much fun!).
Yesterday after lunch, Matte, Cathy, and I headed up to San Francisco to take some pictures. Since we didn’t have all day to wander around the city, we all agreed heading up north of the Golden Gate Bridge into Marin County would make for some great views and photo opportunities. The weather did not disappoint. As we were driving there, we expected a fair amount of fog to be around the bridge, which we thought would be kind of cool. We instead found bright, warm sunshine and beautiful blue sky.
 
After we spent some time up there, we started back toward San Jose. But we took a little detour to find the “Painted Ladies.” They are the Victorian houses that you see at the start of “Full House.” Thanks to Matte’s iPhone with GPS, we made our way there, taking the scenic route down Haight Street, which was very reminiscent of State Street in Madison, but not quite as commercial. I didn’t see a Gap anywhere!
 
 These are part of a playground in the park across from the “Painted Ladies.” I thought they were so cute!
We made it back to San Jose after 7:00, which was part of our dinner dilemma. But dinner was delicious, and I got to sleep last night, even with the cats visiting.
Today, we went to the Pancake House for breakfast, then spent much of the day shopping for the party tomorrow. I had my first Trader Joe’s experience-I could definitely get to loving that place! We’ve had a lazy afternoon. We won’t make it to a winery during this trip, but we’ll have some yummy wine with dinner tonight, along with some chicken, fresh sweet corn, and veggies on the grill.
Tomorrow will be full preparation mode around here. There are about 50 people expected throughout the afternoon/evening tomorrow. It should be a great celebration for Cathy!
Just got my spinach salad at Gordon Biersch, and my fingers are shaky as I type on my brother’s iPhone. I’ve gotta eat. More later!
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