My best helpers!

Over the past couple days, I've had some really good helpers!

I was making dinner yesterday and it wasn't quite finished when Clayton got up from his nap, so I asked Brooke to take him a few toys to play with in his crib. Here's what I found...


The picture's not great but we have a huge playground ball, the Weeble treehouse, Weeble mobile, and a full bin of Weebles and Little People that she dumped in - there was barely room left for Clayton!

I'm not sure what the excitement with the vacuum is, but both kids were thrilled to push it around. We'll need to work on technique a bit yet! Hopefully they stay excited as it will eventually make it to the chore list for them.






And a few stories that made me laugh...

• We were running errands and Brooke said she wanted to sit in Clayton's seat and pretend to be him. I agreed (heck, their basically the same size anyhow!) So we buckled up and right after I started the car Brooke says, "Pretzel please!" and started to laugh. She then says, "mom, I'm silly!" Very funny...that's exactly what Clayton does and she knows it!


• Brooke brought me a pretend vacuum cleaner that she and Clayton both enjoy playing with and says, "MOM, you have to put this away we just cannot control ourselves and keep fighting over it!" Hmmm...where did she pick up on a phrase like that?!

Clayton (at 21 months) has also started some two-word phrases this past week. "bye-bye mama" "nigh nigh Buh" (Brooke) "da da car" It's interesting to look at where his speech is in comparison to Brooke's - she was over 2 before she even referred to me as "ma ma."

Wisconsin State Fair

Yesterday Mike took off of work to escort us all to the Wisconsin State Fair. We have our traditions of foods to eat and rides to go on and fulfilled them all. The kids were much more into the animals this year than any other...including watching the cows be milked and the pigs race.

We started off in the barns and Clayton was crying within a few minutes when a goat "maa"ed at him a little to close to his face. The petting zoo was open and both kids enjoyed that.

After the barns we walked past some sort of bungee jumping apparatus. We asked Brooke if she wanted to go on that ride and she said no, but that Clayton did. Somehow through the day she changed her mind and on the way out announced she was ready to try that ride. (I think it had to do with the fact that every other ride she wanted to go on through the day she was too short for and she didn't want to leave without doing something!)

The BIG slide is a must and I think all of our favorite. Everyone got two rides this year.

We enjoyed our cheese curds, cream puffs, and flavored milk - a well rounded meal if you ask us!

Clayton was asleep before we even hit the highway and napped for 3.5 hrs in the afternoon...apparently too much excitement for one day.

Also, thanks to all of you who have been praying for Grandpa Mark following his heart attack on Saturday. Praise and glory to God that he is home and on the road to recovery. We continue to covet your prayers to the God of the universe who is also the God of healing.

Evangelism from a Three Year Old's Perspective

I loved this conversation that Brooke and I had yesterday, but there are a few points to know leading up to that story.

1) Our church is currently undergoing construction as we are expanding. On Monday, we drove past it on our way home from dance and Brooke asked again why we were doing that. I told her that we needed to make more room so that more people could know Jesus.

2) With the garage construction, the various workers have affectionately become the "garage men."

Yesterday, Brooke is standing in the kitchen, gets this huge smile on her face and says, "MOM! More people are going to know Jesus!" I told her that we hoped so and that would be great. "Mom? Is everyone going to know Jesus?!" I responded that it would be a wonderful thing if everyone did know Jesus (I wasn't sure how to respond at a 3 year old level.) She paused and you could see her wheels turning...."Mom? Do the garage men know Jesus?" I told her I didn't know. Her response..."You forgot to ask?" Yes, Brooke, I forgot to ask.

She left the room and perhaps didn't think anything of the conversation for the remainder of the day, but it stuck with me. In reality, it might just be as simple as asking those around us if they know Jesus. I love the lessons she teaches me each day.

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.