Bending the Rules

So, on Tuesday nights, Avery has gymnastics from 6-8PM and since we live in the middle of nowhere, there isn't enough time for Josh to bring the two kids home (he gets them at school) and then head back out again.  So...he picks them up, goes to the local pizza joint and gets Avery either pasta or a sandwich for dinner.  Then, he takes them both to the office and I meet them there to get Alex and take him home and he and I have a dinner date at home by ourselves.  Josh takes Avery to gymnastics and goes to the gym while she is there then picks her up and takes her home.  Inevitably, Avery gets home and wants to eat something.  Mind you - it is 8:20 at that point, so A) It is way too late to be eating anything big and B) It is already past her bedtime, so she needs to be getting ready for bed - not eating.

Well, last night, Josh surprised us both. I was in bed watching TV when they got home, so as she always does, Avery came up to our room and was sitting on the bed talking to me when all of a sudden, Josh came in with dessert for both of us, so there we were breaking the two rules noted above AND breaking the "no eating in bed" rule (not to mention Mama's diet rule). 

But, you know what?  It was fun.  And, every now and then it's ok to break the rules.  Especially when during the breaking of said rules, your 8-year-old daughter looks at you and says, "Mom, I like this!  Just talking and eating in bed with you."  I figure, it probably won't be that way forever, so I need to take advantage when I can!

Wisconsin 2015 - The Second Trip

Opa turned 65 this year!  And, as you may already know, a party isn't a party unless the Epting girls are there, so we went back to Wisconsin to celebrate!

The kids and I got in on Wednesday night at around dinner time, so we went to pick up pizza and to meet Lexi and the girls and Mom back at this very cool hotel that they booked for us.  We kept it a surprise from the kids until we got there.  Needless to say, they were thrilled to find out that not only did the hotel have a pool, but it had an entire indoor waterpark!



The next day was the State Fair!  Dad goes to the WI State Fair for his birthday every year with Tom and Nancy and we used to go as a family every year when we lived there, so it was really nice to be able to take the kids and to show them what it's all about....which, is basically eating and drinking.

We did start off by going to a few of the animal barns to see the animals.

 

 

And, we did do fun things like put our heads through those silly picture boards,

go to see a performance by the Kids from Wisconsin, which I very vividly remember watching when I was a kid (Avery and Alex were really excited at first...that lasted for about one song), go down the big slide on potato sacks, and other varous things...

and then?  We ate and ate and ate.  I'm not kidding when I tell you I've never eaten that much in one day.  These pictures only show half of it.  Seriously.

Needless to say, it was a great day.

The rest of the trip was basically spent at the beach.  It was great.  The weather was perfect.  The water was warm.  And, the kids are now old enough and strong enough swimmers that we could just leave them there and go to the local bar.  HAHA!  Kidding.  But, we were able to relax as bit and have a few beers while watching them play. 

And, of course, we celebrated Opa's big 6-5. 

It was so great being able to go back twice in one summer. Hopefully we can make it a bit more of a tradition in the future.  Happy Birthday, Opa! 

Wisconsin 2015 - The Rest of the Trip

Luckily for us this year, the weather was perfect for the 4th of July, which is good because most of the day is spent outside.  The kids were thrilled that they once again had baby chicks and bunnies for them to hold.  I still can't believe that they trust little kids with these things.  I have to think that most of them were staring strangulation in the eye at any given point, but whatever.  I think that they all lived...

And, of course, there were the adult animals who needed to be fed...

 

Yet again, Alex took a shot at trying to sink the Bismark!  I actually got him a big bucket of balls this year and he did pretty well!  Didn't sink it, but did hit it pretty far quite a few times!

After those festivities, it was time for the Green Lake Fourth of July Parade!!!

Unfortunately, I think that they save the big "Foreign Exchange Student" reveal for the Green Lake Harvest Fest parade, so he/she wasn't there this year.  I personally think that he/she is important enough to be in both, but who am I?

After the parade, we headed to the park and set up camp so that we could eat dinner, watch the band and see the fireworks!  Alex and one of his many encased meats consumed during the trip...

It was yet again, another great 4th of July celebration in WI!

Another thing that has become somewhat of a tradition  when we are in WI is that the Wilkes come to visit us!  It is always so nice to catch up with them and to see all of the kids together. 

 

And, then of course, we had Uncle Will's bday and Annabel's bday!  For Uncle Will's bday, he decided that he wanted to go out to lunch at the local bar/restaurant.  As you can imagine, I was perfectly fine with this decision.

 

 

 

For Annabel's birthday, we decided that we would try something that we have never done before - canoeing!  What a great day!!!  We got three canoes and all headed down the Fox (??) River.  It was so peaceful...we saw turtles, deer, fish and even saw a bald eagle. The first one that I've ever seen in person not in the zoo.  Halfway through the trip, we were told that there was a local bar that we could stop at if we were "tired."  As you can imagine, we were exhausted (aka, in need of a beer, or several, and cheese curds).  :) So, we parked the canoes and visited the local bar.  It was a gorgeous day, so we sat outside, had some beers, ate some cheese curds and...learned how to make a potato shooter!  As we were sitting there, we all of a sudden hear a loud bang, only to then see a potato flying into the air into the river.  Apparently, some guy who is a local at the bar decided that building a potato shooter would be a fun past time, so he did and now just shoots potatoes into the river.  It was pretty comical.  Needless to say, the ride home was a bit more entertaining than the ride there after 3 beers each. I'm pretty certain Lexi and I spent half the time spinning in a circle.  

 

 

 

 We did eventually make it home and continued to celebrate with Annabel's Sleeping Beauty cake.    

 

The next day, it was time to head home.  Back to the real world, unfortunately.  :(  Until next year!!!