A Beautiful Day to be Outside!

(I just realized that I have to start this post with two of the cutest pictures I have in recent history, and they're from yesterday...Eli suddenly walked up to Hannah and gave her a hug! And he did this several times, so I was able to capture a picture. It was SO sweet!) Yesterday was probably one of the most beautiful days of the year! And we just HAD to spend it outside! In the morning, I took the kids over to the Middleton Good Neighbor Festival. It was a little cool when we arrived--jacket weather--probably in the 50s, but sunny. There were lots of craft stands that we walked through first. I got Hannah an adorable hand-made jumper--green with little watermelons all over it...and it has a matching one for her doll. It is VERY cute. We also went to a stand where someone had done a beautiful job of carving things out of wood--LOTS of games! So, I got Hannah a little tic-tac-toe board since she really loves that game. I also got Eli a little hand-carved wooden car, which he loves to drive around the room and say "vroom!" (Hannah taught him that!) Then, the kids played on the play structure for a while--Hannah even made a friend there! Eli enjoyed the swings, and Hannah and her friend played on the slides and the swings. Last, we went over to the carnival. We didn't do any rides because Eli was too little, but we did play (way too many!) carnival games. The kids won some great junk, and had lots of fun! After we were done there (at about 11:45), I dropped Hannah off at her best friend, Tayla's, house where she stayed until after 6:00! During the afternoon, Brent and I took Eli to the Vilas Zoo in downtown Madison! We saw some great animals, and I think Eli's favorite was the tiger. The tiger came right up to the glass, so we were less than a foot away from him! Eli was pointing and saying "ga! ga! ga!" Very exciting! Of course my favorite were the poison dart frogs, which were very elusive, but I got to see a few. And Brent's favorites were, of course, his favorite animals, the buffalo! Very big and very impressive! I think when we were at the zoo, it was about 68 degrees with not a cloud in the sky. The perfect day! Tomorrow is orientation day at Kindergarten!

Road Trip

It's been a while since I posted! Well, we were away for 2 weeks on our road trip to Yellowstone! We had so much fun! We saw many, many places on the way and on the way back, and, of course, we saw Yellowstone! Complete with animals and geysers and hot springs and mud pots! We took tons of pictures, most of which are on Facebook! I will put links on here, although many of you have probably already seen them! The pictures pretty much tell the story of the trip, so I'll let you enjoy from there!

Of interest coming up soon...Hannah starts Kindergarten next week! Complete with bus rides, school lunches, and all that fun stuff! We started the fun by buying new school clothes and shoes at the outlet mall yesterday!

The Little Mermaid...Ballet-Style

Yesterday afternoon was Hannah's final Storybook Ballet performance of the summer. As you can probably tell by the title, they did "The Little Mermaid." Obviously, they couldn't do ballet with a fin, but they did have beautiful costumes that made it look like they were in the water. Hannah has improved SO much in her ballet--I am just so proud of her! In mid-August, she will be taking their Princess Drama Camp (this is RIGHT up her alley!), which is for three half-days. Then, in the fall, she will be doing the Storybook Ballet again. For those who don't know how Storybook Ballet works, it's a WONDERFUL program taught by an amazing teacher. It's a 45-minute-long class where the first 30 minutes is used to teach the girls ballet. Then, the teacher reads them a story (and, amazingly, in the over-a-year she's been in this program there has never been a repeat!), and then they dress up as the main character in the story in beautiful costumes and, using the ballet moves they have learned, they act out the story. And at the end of each semester, they prepare a longer, more elaborate story for the parents. After the fall semester, she will be old enough/advanced enough that she will no longer be in the Storybook part, and will advance to the regular ballet class. While she'll likely be very sad about not doing the stories, it's great that she'll be doing so well and becoming a graceful ballerina! Here are two links to her performances...their short Clown Dance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nNdhWfFfO0 and their Little Mermaid performance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=repyjeECvpI

Green Beans at Cracker Barrel

On our last night in Missouri, we went to one of our favorite restaurants, Cracker Barrel, for dinner. While we all have our "usuals" we order, Eli has still been trying to find his. Last time, he had a grilled cheese sandwich, and was up in the night screaming--my guess is that it was so greasy that it gave him a tummyache. Anyway, this time, he got mac and cheese and green beans. To my surprise, his favorite part was the green beans! In fact, when I wasn't looking, he had grabbed his plate (which I thought was out of reach) and started shoveling the green beans into his mouth! By the end of dinner, he had green beans all over the table and his shirt, and there was green bean-grease in his hair, causing it to stick straight up. But it was SO cute! And good that he enjoyed the vegetable...although I'm guessing that they cook it in a greasy enough way to make it taste amazing! :)

A Fun Picnic

We are currently in Missouri visiting my grandparents, Nannie and Paw Paw. On our way here, we stopped in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa for a picnic. We did a big search for the perfect spot--one with a great playground. So, we found a huge playground...unfortunately, it turned out to be in a pretty bad neighborhood (where the neighbors were outside yelling and cursing at their kids...) but still Hannah and Eli enjoyed the playground and were pretty oblivious to the neighborhood goings-on. The playground was HUGE, and dinner was great!

First Words

For whoever doesn't know yet...Eli has said his first words! He loves playing the game where he brings objects over to us and we say "thank you!" Then, he started to bring them over and say "thank you" himself! I finally was able to catch this on video, and here's the link to it on YouTube! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEeE4Czag3k

Future Soccer Player?

Eli loves to play with balls--any kind! Soccer balls, basketballs, footballs... And he will kick them on command! "Kick the ball, Eli!" And there he goes--running up and kicking the ball! Here's a link to a video of him doing it! http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=117669550368&h=HfI70&u=AwT8S&ref=nf