First Birthday Party

What a perfect day for a beach birthday party! What a fun theme, too! I used buckets and shovels for much of the food, beach towels for table cloths, pictures of island fun for the walls of the garage with Max's picture on some of them, and little umbrellas to "accent." My friend Tara made the beach cake for Max that turned out great! I made the beach ball cake for Max and the flip flop cookies. The big yellow box in the background is our "sand castle" that didn't really turn out as much, but maybe we can work on that for Macy's Jasmine party in a month! The kids enjoyed some outdoor pool/sprinkler/water balloon fun, while the adults enjoyed some talk time. Max seemed to enjoy his cake, until he had more of it on himself and started to rub his tired eyes. Poor thing had frosting coming out of everywhere! After his quick bath by Daddy he opened up presents. Max got a guitar, lots of building blocks, a fire engine, a mickey mouse rescue truck, some more cars, "car" plate, cup, bowl, and utensils so he doesn't have to use princess ones, cute outfits, and $ for his savings account, yeah! Thanks so much for celebrating with us, everyone! My friend Tara took many pictures of the day which I will try to post more when I see those.

Sleep over

Last night, Bumpa and Nana brought Katelyn and Lauren to the house and Julie, John, and the kids also joined us a little later. The kids enjoyed a Learning Path video and then I captured one pic of three of them asleep...believe me, it took them awhile to get to that point :) What a fun evening visiting with family!

Birthday Boy!!!!!!

Max turned 1 on Thursday!!! I cannot believe it! He had a wake-up call from his sisters and played for awhile before swimming lessons. Then we hung out around the house to get some things done, mowing the lawn was one of them. He loves watching Daddy working outside! Often times he's watching right next to Ginger! After we got our naps and some work done around the house, it was off to Chula Vista to see Auntie Julie and her family. Max LOVED playing in the kid area, and enjoyed Daddy taking him down the slide. Keep watch for the big party pictures!

Emma's Party/Butterflies

We had a very fun time at our friend Emma's Princess and the frog birthday party. Afterwards, the girls were testing out their new butterfly nets when Daddy started yelling for me to come quick, that he got one. I run over to the camera, and find Daddy with the most beautiful butterfly I had ever seen!!!!!

Bike ride

After the fair, we packed up a dinner and took a bike ride to a park. We are trying to get to every park this summer, and I think we're just about done! After playing and eating our picnic dinner, Macy and Max fell asleep on the way home...how precious. Luckily Madison stayed awake as she pedals behind me now in a tag-along, what a big girl!

Portage Fair

Our friends in Portage invited us to the dollar ride day at the fair. Their daughter Madison enjoyed going on all the rides with our Madison and Macy. The three play so nice together (I think it is because how sweet Madison Maass is). They loved all the rides, but I think the big slide was the favorite of the day. Thanks for the invite, Kristin!

Bowling

After Max's haircut, we went to Brewster's to bowl a game. The girls actually made it a full game, although, there were a lot of please sit down, be careful, come back over here, etc. Max wasn't too content just sitting in his stroller, but made it. We all enjoyed ourselves, and hope to make it out again sometime...2 games will be in the distant future, though!

First haircut

After lunch today, we took Max to get his first haircut. He sat still for some of the time on my lap, but I did have to restrain him a little for some of it, and he did cry. I will be sure to post a better after shot soon! He looks so much older with the cut...it is kind of sad! Very handsome, though!

8 Years!

Jesse and I celebrated our 8 year anniversary Tues., July 20. Robin came over for us and we had a drink, went to see the "Grown-Ups" movie, and had a very nice dinner at Field's in the Wilderness. It was a great time. We are so fortunate to have each other, and such wonderful children!

Emma's Baptism

Sabrina and Chad's baby, Emma, was baptized yesterday. They asked Jesse to be her Godfather, and of course he was thrilled. We had a nice time visiting and playing at the house before and after the service. Emma was a picture perfect baby the entire time. We got all the kids ready for bed before we left, and as you can see, Max fell into a deep sleep after he had his evening milk. He looked hilarious and was a complete dead weight! Thanks for letting us share this special day with you!

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Girl Day!

On Friday, we decided to have a girls day out! Madison, Macy, and I went to Pirates' Cove mini-golf and golfed 18 holes. With my help, Macy even got 2 hole-in-ones! Too bad Mommy didn't! After that we played at the park and had lunch at Applebee's. We finished our time with some shopping before going home to take naps. Friday night Madison and I went swimming while Daddy took Macy and Max on a bike ride and to the park. We love summer!!!!!

Braden

We enjoyed a play date with Joy and Braden yesterday in Sauk. The picture is hard to see with the sun shining in the background. They even made us yummy lunch! Thanks for such a fun time, and we hope to do it again soon!

Oshner Park

Last week we met some friends at Oshner Park in Baraboo. We took pictures by the black bears (one happened to go in the swing while we were there), and then enjoyed some park time. We ended our visit to the local Pizza Ranch for lunch...WOW MY KIDS ARE LOUD!!!!!!!

Strawberries

Max still loves peek-a-boo but has started a new favorite pasttime...blowing raspberries/strawberries/bubbles or whatever else people usually call them, on my legs! He usually laughs hysterically between each one, but of course wouldn't do it for the video!

July 4th

Saturday, after returning from Milwaukee, we were all pretty exhausted. Here was Max asleep (once again) in his highchair, and I actually discovered a cheerio still in his mouth!!! Poor guy!

Our friends always have a themed July 4th party, and this year it was redneck. The decorations were great, including the bar set-up...the shopping cart. I had to put Max in there for fun and he enjoyed bartending! He also enjoyed "picking up" some cute twin girls that are a few weeks older than him. The girls enjoyed popsicles and all the kids enjoyed some down time while waiting for the fireworks to begin. Although it started to rain, they still got them in. We were a little wet, and I think it was the fastest firework displayever seen, but it happened!

Milwaukee

We took a trip to Milwaukee late last week. Jesse and I got to enjoy some kid-free hours at Summerfest (thanks so much Bumpa and Nana)! Within the first 5 minutes, Nana let Madison use some of her lip gloss...doesn't she look beautiful! Friday was filled with visiting fun. Megan was still home from CA, and we met at Sadie's house with Christina and Sara, in town from CO. Otto just turned 2, Maxwell was 1 the end of Feb., Michael was 1 the beginning of April, and Maximus will be 1 the end of July. We all had a great time catching up, and letting the boys play. I think it is so neat that we had our little "men" so close together. I just wish we saw them all more often! After that, we went to Bayshore for lunch with Nana and Uncle Kirk, and even got to visit Aunt Carol in town from FL!