Texas meets Wisconsin

Last week my parents and youngest sister, Katie, drove up from The Woodlands, Texas to visit us here in Milwaukee (they also stopped at my sister's in Des Moines). We had fun showing them around town and it was great to explore more places we hadn't even seen yet ourselves.

Our first stop was Kinderberg Park in Germantown. It has these really cool fountains that Avery loved splashing around in.
Then we drove up to Holy Hill but didn't realize that it closed at 5pm so we didn't get there in time to go up in the basilica, but it was a really beautiful drive a little NW of here. The next day we took a drive down Lake Dr, which gives a lot of cool views of Lake Michigan and some neat lakefront properties. We ended up right downtown and made a trip to the Betty Brinn's Children's Museum. Here's me and Katie: Merrick and Avery doing a puppet show--
My dad feeding Camryn a bottle in the carseat and stroller. Can you believe she stayed in her carseat the whole time we were at the museum, plus the drives to and from! What an angel baby!

We also went out to dinner with everyone to Brisco County Wood Grill one night, and another night Merrick and I went on a date to Olive Garden while my parents watched the kids. We had a fun time showing them around our new home and anyone that wants to visit us is welcome too!!

4 months

Camryn turned 4 months last weekend and she had her doctor's appointment this week. My parents were in town so I had my mom join me. She weighed 15 lb 11.6 oz and was 25 1/2 inches long. At her 2 month she was in the 75th percentile for height and weight and this time she was in the 90th percentile for height and weight! (Guess it's okay to start cutting out those nighttime feedings.) We love her little chunky legs and chubby cheeks. Coming soon: rice cereal!

The Twilight Zone

Is anyone else excited about Breaking Dawn coming out soon (see my countdown to the right)!!?!?

I started rereading the Twilight series (by Stephenie Meyer... if you didn't know that, we need to talk) this week and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. I have to kind of separate myself from thinking about these books on a normal basis so that I don't get too wrapped up in them ALL of the time. I kind of shut that part of my brain down and therefore forget what happened in the books until I reread them and re-enter the "Twilight Zone" as I call it. So that's where I am right now...

Another book I'm kind of excited about is Brisingr by Christopher Paolini. It's the third of four books in the Inheritance series (Eragon...) and it comes out Sept 20. Another series to reread!!

But anyways, who else is excited about Breaking Dawn?

Goodbye Grandpa Smith

Merrick's Grandpa Smith died this morning. We are grateful today for forever families.

(thanks Lindsey for letting me steal your pic!)

Rolie Polie Olie

Okay this post has nothing to do with the Disney show Rolie Polie Olie but that's what we call our girls when they're rolling all over the place. And that's what Camryn is doing! She learned how to roll from her back to her tummy this week! She's not even 4 months yet and Avery started doing that at 5 1/2 months so I think it's pretty impressive. It started out with me leaving Camryn on the floor and coming back to check on her a few minutes later and finding her on her tummy. Suspicious, but Avery maybe possibly could have rolled her onto her tummy. Then I saw her do it on her own, after several attempts. Now she rolls onto her tummy within seconds of being put down on the floor to play. Now, if she could only figure out how to roll back onto her back again easily... that one she's done a few times but it's more of an accidental thing that happens when she puts her head too far to one side and the body just follows suit.

Step 1: Lay down on back

Step 2: Get over that arm!
Step 3: Tummy time
End Result: Playtime with my sister!

Fourth of July

This past weekend we drove six hours to Des Moines, Iowa to visit my sister, Britney, and her family. They moved there in January right when we moved here to Milwaukee, so we're excited to have family within a reasonable driving distance. The kids did great in the car and the time went by quite fast. We left Thursday morning and left after church on Sunday afternoon. We had a great time and we've never seen Avery have so much fun! She was in heaven playing with her cousins Stephen (3 1/2 years old) and Emily (17 months old). For the fourth, we went to a parade in the morning and watched fireworks in the evening. It was a great trip!

Jeremy bought some sparklers for the kids, but Emily was a dangerous little girl with fire in her hands. Merrick provided some backup to make sure no one got burned!
Two peas in a pod!!
My mom got the girls these matching outfits so we made sure to take some pictures. Sorry Stephen!

Avery's Birthday, Part 2

Well I didn't finish writing about Avery's birthday, and the place we went that night was pretty cool, so here it is. It was the StoneFire Pizza Company in New Berlin, WI. It's kind of like a Chuck E Cheese but different. It's a pizza buffet with all kinds of other things like pasta, salad, etc. and there are different "rooms" you can sit in: a room that has sports on, a room that has cartoon movies on, and a room geared towards young kids called the Discovery Room. There were little areas around the room with giant legos, a playplace-style tube to crawl in and slide down, a train area, a water toys area, a do-it-yourself face painting area, and a make believe pizza restaurant. And it was all free, by the way (except for the buffet of course).
Avery had a blast running around, making new friends. Above is her in the train room. They had this big old track and like 5 outfits hanging on the wall that the kids could put on to look like train conductors. So cute huh?!

And this one (above) is her in the water room. They had little waterproof aprons you could put on your kids so their clothes didn't get wet. It was pretty cool.
We also ventured over to the other side of the place, which was a little more like Chuck E Cheese, with all the games you can get tickets on. Avery got a ride in one of those cars that move back and forth, super slow for the little kids. It was a pretty cool place. Merrick and I played a few games, but not nearly as much as we would if we didn't have the kids. They had mini bumper bowling, a rock climbing wall, bumper cars, a cool "big kid" playplace climbing area, etc. Maybe we'll go back sometime to do those things but this time we just earned about 60 tickets and got Avery a few tiny prizes.

Afterwards we came home, had Avery blow out her candles and eat a few bites of cake, and then it was off to bed for the exhausted two year old. Overall it was a pretty fun day!

Our first Milwaukee Festival

Since Milwaukee is known as the City of Festivals, we thought we'd try one out! Last Saturday was the Cedarburg Strawberry Festival and we had a great time!

We got there a little before 11am and pulled the double stroller out and hit Washington Ave. The weather was great - 80 degrees and the dark cloud passed us over without drenching everyone (at least not until later in the day). Since the theme was strawberries, there were chocolate dipped strawberries, strawberry turnovers, strawberry shortcake, strawberry wine, strawberries by the quart, strawberry slushes, and I'm sure more. Plus there was plenty of everything else you could ever want to buy, of course you can't forget the beer and brats (very Milwaukeean). You could get your hair done in an updo, go on a pony ride, learn a dance from Radio Disney, you name it. And it was pretty kid friendly too. Avery frosted a sugar cookie, got her face painted, and had some fun at the petting zoo with her friend Elizabeth (haha she calls her "Sube" from the "zab" in her name, I guess). Camy did really great. She enjoyed all the sights and noises for the first little while, I fed her a bottle, then fell asleep for a little while. When she woke up we ate some lunch in the shade of a tree and she was squealing and laughing and having so much fun laying on the ground all stretched out. She probably only fussed for about 5 minutes the whole 3 hours we were there and was in the stroller 90% of the time. Avery climbed out of the stroller about 30 times, one time with Merrick not even noticing! (She jumped out as he was turning! Luckily I grabbed her and ran up to Merrick to point out that the stroller he was pushing was minus one child!) Both the girls fell asleep on the way home, exhausted from a fun day in the sun!