A tantrum throwing, cake decorating, toy sharing, shower throwing, food eating, wine drinking, fun having kind of week

This last week marks the second annual birthday get together at Opa and Grandma's house with both the Davies and the Hollands.  This year, we flew out on Alex's 2nd birthday.  I figured we could get away with this for one more year both on the "not having to pay for a ticket" front as well as the "he has no idea it is his birthday" front. And, yes - i do realize that we really should have paid for a ticket, as he did turn 2 on the day we were flying.  But, as far as the airline is concerned, he was born on 7/12/09 - "just in the nick of time" as one airline representative put it.  Little does she know. 

As always, we had a great time.  I will say that every year includes unique and age-appropriate challenges when it comes to the kids. This year, Alex decided to enter the world of "terrible 2's" in full force.  I am going to blame a lot of it on the fact that he wasn't feeling well at the beginning of the trip.  Not to mention he was out of sorts with being away from home, etc., but damn!  That "temper throwing, toy sharing" part of the title?  That would be fully dedicated to the Big Al man.  If we had to play referee between him and Annabel one more time, I swear, I was going to lose it (some may argue I did lose it on more than one occasion).  But, alas, this is all part of being a two year old  - not to mention being the parent of the two year old and other than the sharing (or lack thereof) and the few tantrums, we had a great time...

Grandma outdid herself with the cakes this year.  She made 4 different varieties of cakes/cupcakes for everyone's bday and for Hilary's wedding shower...

Duckies for Alex...

Monkeys (Mo-Mo's) for Annabel...

Fish for William...

And, butterflies for Hilary...

It was pretty impressive (not to mention delicious).

As always, the kids loved the kiddie pool (as well as the newly added slip and slide!).  Although, this time around, now that they actually know what it is, they seemed to love the idea of peeing outdoors upon getting undressed for the pool more than anything else.  This was evidenced by Annabel and Alex running to the grass approximately once every 2 minutes yelling, "pee in grass!  pee in grass!"  Ah - the joys of living on 150 acres where no one in the world can see you, so you let your children run around with no clothes on.  And, no, I don't have pictures of the pool.  Because, well - they didn't have clothes on and that would be a bit awkward. 

We also hit a few playgrounds around town...

And, then there was the petting zoo,

pony rides

and the 4th of July parade in Green Lake, WI. 

I'd love to say that the highlight of the parade was my children catching candy or getting excited about  the fire trucks, but it wasn't.  It was actually the convertible that rode through with a girl (who was rather tall, I might add) sitting on it and a sign on the side of the car that said, "Foreign Exchange Student."  I can't help but laugh again as I'm writing that.  Only in Green Lake Wisconsin would you have, well, just one foreign exchange student and then put her on display in the 4th of July parade.  I mean, can you imagine if you were her?  Does she think that all of the U.S. is like Green Lake, WI? 

After the parade, we were smart enough to pack a picnic dinner for the kids, which bought us all plenty of time afterwards to sit on the lawn next to the lake drinking beer, eating fried cheese curds and corn on the cob and listening to a band - can you get any more WI than that?  It was great. 

Oh, and I nearly forgot!  Josh hit the bismark!  They had a boat in the middle of a pond at the park and they had an area set up for everyone to try to hit the golf ball and get it into the boat.  And, Josh did it! 

And, his prize?  A t-shirt AND he got to shoot the rifle! 

For any of you who know my husband, you know he isn't really the "hunter-type," so, watching him shoot this thing was comical.

We did manage to get out on the boat once.  And, much to my surprise, it broke down right as we were headed back (and, as I was cursing nap schedules) for a nap.  So, as an added bonus, we got to stay out on the lake for an extra, unexpected 2 hours.  I was in heaven.  Surprisingly enough, all 4 kids (yes, we had ALL four stranded on a boat) were great.  Everyone was happy and content, so it was actually an enjoyable time. 

I also managed to get some time in Milwaukee sans kids (thank you, Davies and Opa and Grandma for watching them!) to see the girls from HS. Sadly, we don't have a a single picture from the night, which is disappointing as this was our first sans kid night in probably 5 years.  I do, however, have pictures of Sara's kids, Chad and Lila, who were a ton of fun and are adorable...

 

Sara came up to my parents on Friday to hang out and helped us with the preparations for Hilary's wedding shower on Saturday.  It was great being able to spend more time with her. 

My mother went all out and threw a very nice, fancy shmancy party - china and crystal and all.  It was great seeing my extended family and I think that everyone had a great time.

Other than that, the week was spent just hanging out, catching up, holding and playing with baby Charlotte, drinking wine, eating more food than a person should possibly eat in one day, watching the guinea hens chase each other around the yard and soaking in every bit of the country life.