Falling Behind on Updates

Clayton had his first haircut on July 8th. He did great sitting in the truck at Kid-do's.

Brooke has a had a few cute stories recently...

• Grandma Denyse gave Brooke a ballerina dressed in purple a couple weeks ago. I asked Brooke what she had named her ballerina. She responded, "The" (We've been working on "th" sounds for speech.) So it stands and she is consistently referred to as "The."
  
• Our pine tree in the backyard was taken down. We filled the hole with dirt and subsequently sprinkled grass seed to fill the space. Last week, we were coming home from preschool and construction workers were finishing up with a hole in the middle of our street. Brooke asked when they were going to put the "road seed" down.

And the big news for the past couple weeks has been all the excitement of building a new garage. Lots of big machinery, new faces, and questions. It's provided for some good entertainment as the kids (and oftentimes friends) will sit at the kitchen window to watch. Progress has been fast...we're waiting for the overhead door and electrical and we can call it done (hopefully by the end of the week.) I don't want to even guess how long it would have taken Mike to tackle this project with his schedule and 2 kids!

Before

Down she comes (My thoughts for grabbing the video camera came a few seconds too late.)

Day 1 of Construction (There was nothing but a slab when I dropped Brooke off at Preschool and this was the result at 4 p.m.)

Day 2 of Construction

And Day 3...Roof and siding finished...WOW!

Oh, NO the BIG 3-0!

Today Mike turned 30! We started the morning with the traditional sweets for breakfast - chocolate was enjoyed by all. Brooke greeted daddy in the morning with, "You're old today?!" He and I had a nice dinner out at a new place in Brookfield - Agave.

Happy Birthday America!

This has definitely been one of the most packed, but most fun weekends we've had as a family in a while. On Wednesday evening, we headed down the street at 5:10 p.m. to stake our spot for the parade. Items aren't allowed to be placed into the curb to "reserve" your spot until 7 p.m., and at nearly 2 hours before that time we were not the first to arrive to claim our ground. Mike arrived from work around 5:45 to relieve us. At around 6 p.m. the rain started...and a daddy that loves his little girl very much stood in a bright red poncho to cover his full suit for the next hour so that he wouldn't lose the 6 sidewalk squares we had claimed. As Mike started to pound the stakes into the ground and wrap caution tape to mark our spot, a photojournalist from the local paper arrived and started interviewing Mike and taking pictures. http://www.menomoneefallsnow.com/photographerphotos/gallery.aspx?catid=1344

Then, Mike had off on Thursday so that we could prepare for the 80 people that would arrive later that afternoon for dinner, the Menomonee Falls parade and fireworks. Brooke's preschool had a "parade" at that morning around the parking lot.

Everyone started arriving for the party around 4:30 and it seemed that all had a good time. I did get some good footage of Brooke singing her rendition of Happy Birthday America (she didn't know I was taping - sorry about the wind and background noise.)

Friday morning we had signed up to do a 5K walk as part of a fundraiser for the Menomonee Falls Booster club. As Mike parked the car at the finish line and rode his bike back, he learned the importance of a bike helmet when he hit a patch of gravel. Luckily he walked away with only some bruising and a few scrapes. We successfully completed the walk and then headed out to enjoy some time on Okauchee lake. Brooke loved fishing and feeding the ducks.

Saturday the POD was delivered and Mike spent his day loading it with all of the items from our garage - which is being taken down on Tuesday. It all fit - thank goodness!

Sunday was Grandpa Kippert's Birthday and Mike was able to spend some time with him this afternoon. Our friends the Seiler's came over this evening for some leftovers from our party - I just love friends that accept an invitation for leftovers! The kids had a ball in the pools and it was interesting to watch all four of them in the tub at the end of the night.

We've officially started dance classes

Brooke had her first ballet/creative movement class on Monday morning. Her stuffed animals have been going to their imaginary dance classes (completely unprompted by us) for a few months now, so I thought we'd give it a try. She did well other than being in her own little world and not following directions a few times. We found out that 45 minutes is a pretty long time for a 3 year old to consistently follow directions and pay attention. We also found out that it's a pretty long time for mom to entertain Clayton in a small area with a water fountain, stairs and uncovered electrical outlets (I too got a workout during the class!) The class is set up so that Clayton and I are in a waiting room area and Brooke goes into the studio with the teacher. I was able to get a picture through the window although it's not the greatest. She seemed to have fun and wants to go back to see Miss Megan next week.

First Brewer's Game

Mike had some tickets available to him for our family to go to the Brewer game. We knew Clayton was too little but thought we'd give it a shot. SO...while Mike enjoyed walking around with Clayton the majority of the time, Brooke and I enjoyed the game.

Brooke definitely has her mom's aptitude in sports. We were trying to teach her about the game - pitcher, batter, bases, home run, foul ball, etc. Anyhow, at about the 3rd inning a foul ball was hit and Brooke yells, "fumble." - that sounds about like her mom. ("Go-Al" for those that still appreciate hearing that story.)

We stayed until about the 5th inning and headed home for bed. It was a good game and Brewer's ended up winning.

What a difference time makes...

As Brooke ended the official school year of preschool at the CCC and began her summer session I've had the opportunity to look back at how much she's grown. I took the first picture on her first day of school in September and the 2nd one this past week. Even her poses say so much about how she's changed....from someone who couldn't stand still to save her life to a specific pose with ta-da.

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On her first day of school I was told by Brooke's teachers "WOW! She really is into everything. We're working with her on how to play in the different areas." (i.e. she made the room look like a tornado had gone through) She took her clothes off on the playground because they had sand on them and the teachers could really only understand Brooke's speech when they knew the specific content that she was referring to. By the end of the year she was interested in mastering each of the different activities on the table, her speech was understood most all of the time, she loved sitting still for "group time" and learning about different things. (So much so, that she'd come home and announce to Mike and I that we needed to sit down for group time because today we're going to learn about "_______".....and who knew what would come out of her mouth!) And, her imagination has grown exponentially - I think I'm thankful for that! I just am continually in awe of how little minds work and how much difference even a few months makes. Preschool was such a good decision for us and she loves it so much.

So back to the imagination thing...Brooke got the snake on Monday from zoo day with daddy. Well she was playing too rough with him and ripped the felt tongue off. (By the way Grandma Nancy, Brooke thinks you'll be able to fix that.) Daddy came home and noticed at bedtime that the tongue was gone. So he asked Brooke and I what happened. I made Brooke tell him that she ripped it off on accident. To which Mike says, "Brooke, why would you do that to your snake?" Her reply...."OH...no, no...I mean it um...a TRAIN. I think maybe a train came by and ripped it right off (she then opens her mouth in shock that something so terrible would happen.)" "Brooke," daddy says, "are you being a truth teller?" Brooke then said no, it wasn't a train she did it on accident. But it was too funny to watch her little brain go as soon as she thought she might be in trouble.

Zoo day with Daddy

Mike finished his exam on Saturday - yeah!! We don't find out the results until the end of August, so that gives us the summer to play and catch up. (For those wondering, Mike feels like he gave the test a good shot, but it's not a test designed to give you warm fuzzies as you turn in your exam.)

To celebrate having daddy's time back, Mike took off the day yesterday and we decided to go play at the zoo (actually Brooke decided and had quite the list of things we needed to do there.) Daddy did his best to meet her list and the weather cooperated. The kids and I go to the zoo almost once a week, but we definitely have more fun at the zoo when daddy's there. Brooke got to feed the giraffes. She wasn't scared at all - I was kind of surprised. We also rode the train and the merry-go-round. At the end of our visit both kids got a stuffed snake (Brooke's bright pink and Clayton's blue striped) Brooke couldn't wait to get home to take a nap with her new friend.

The rest of the weekend wasn't as exciting...digging dirt so our back tree can come down, cleaning the garage, etc.

So today - back to routine. Brooke is continuing with preschool through the summer on Tuesday's and Thursday's (it's good 1-1 time for Clayton and I & she loves it and comes back with the best stories). Her new teacher is Ms. Stephanie - Brooke is thrilled because that's the same name as one of my cousin's in Florida that Brooke has a ball with! (I was also recently informed that Little Pooh's teacher for the summer is Ms. Amanda...one of my other cousin's in Florida.)