Soccer, School & Springtime

Well, we are having a busy Spring and enjoying all the good (and not so-good) weather. Here's a quick recap and some pics....

Both big kids are in soccer. The first week was in the gym, then outside and as always, it has been hit or miss. Kate had some nice weather, Collin has been stuck with crappy weather. Kate is doing great, always wants to be goalie and blocked two goals last week! She also likes playing other "positions" (they haven't really learned about that yet) and is aggressive and runs the field like a pro! She often drops back to defend but if the ball doesn't come back that direction, she takes off to go get in the mix. It is SO fun watching her and Collin even stood there and cheered her on...so sweet. He was saying all the right things too!

Her biggest fan

Collin....well. He did great in practice. Dave has taken him to the last two "games" and well, he may not be ready for "games." :) He will go after the ball and kick it  - he's pretty quick and he's great at dribbling. But he has been losing his mind when someone bumps him, kicks him, the ball gets taken away, etc. He really just doesn't get the concept. Dave has been having a tough time getting him to calm down and so on Tuesday, he just packed him up and left. It was also miserable out there, so kind of an easy decision. But Dave said he took his picture great - so we'll be able to look back and say - see! He loved it!  :)

Standing, crying, in the rain - good times

On Tuesday, I registered Kate for summer school and swimming lessons. They have a free summer school session in June and offer all kinds of classes. She (and all her friends) are taking "Kids in the Kitchen" that is being taught by her Kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Dummer. She is really excited. While we were there, I learned there are swimming lessons offered right after the class (run by the other Kindergarten teacher:) and they make it all really easy and smooth. The pool is right next door to the school. So, sure! Put her in that with her friends (last year I put her in the pool at Mauston, so this is different) and added Collin in too! So they will both have lessons at the same time. Perfect. Now, we just hope for good weather. As always. 

Check out the options for Kate for summer school!

I also picked up the information for t-ball through New Lisbon Summer Rec. I totally missed this last year and her friends all played t-ball. It looks like they practice for 1 hour each week and have a game on Monday nights. Not too bad. I LOVE softball/baseball so I really want this, but we are trying to gauge how much we want to do. There are also short dance sessions offered throughout the summer.....hmmm....

They also had a little art fair on display last night and Kate was excited to show me the picture she chose to display. So fun to see that artwork. I'm not great at art but love seeing what comes out of the kiddos brains....it's amazing! 

Art Show! We had to go around twice before we found her picture:)

We also went camping again! Since we had the camper ready to go and we may not be able to camp for a little while...we decided to go for it. We had some other commitments but just crammed it all in! So last weekend, we booked a site locally, near Lyndon Station. We looked at the website and were impressed. We drove separately down there on Friday evening and rolled in just before sunset. The plan was to have fish fry at the restaurant right on site, on the water. Well, the campsites were super close together and the place was 95% permanent/seasonal sites. The office was closed the whole time and so Dave went in to the bar/restaurant as directed and some local drunk (self-appointed "Mayor" of the campground) came out to help him. Dave said the place was so smoky, we were NOT eating there. So, we set up and drove 8 miles into the Dells to eat. We had a good time at Sprecher's and then went back. We put the kids down and started a fire in our new fire pit from Ron and Bobbi (smoke-less!!)

The campsite

A tired, silly boy

They just love coloring! 

Another family was just pulling in and setting up in the dark (no fun!) when this drunk guy wanders down the path yelling, "Look out, Kudjo! Kudjo!" to his tiny little dog. He went up to these people and started talking to them THINKING THEY WERE US. They were confused. I was like, "Dave he is going to come over here and if he keeps yelling, he will wake up the kids. I am NOT having him wake the kids." 

Then we heard, "Oh, there's that guy...I'm going to go over and say hi.".... I started walking to him and said,"Sir, we have 3 children trying to sleep. It needs to be quiet, have a good night." He kept talking and his little dog ran circles around our feet, wrapping us up in the leash. He was clueless and just smoked in our faces and ignored our requests that he leave. We finally said goodnight and turned around and he did leave.

Oh my goodness...we were thinking - what did we get ourselves into!??!

It was cold overnight, but we were fine in the camper!! They slept well, but were up early. I went for a run around the campground....real interesting place. Most of the trailers had decks/sunrooms/additions that were built on to them that were 1-2 times as big as the trailer. Crazy. I also took my first shower in the camper as you had to pay to use the showers at the bathhouse. Our camper rocks!

Yep. This campground has a riverboat.

And bayou fan boats. And there was a junky limousine
Super normal

Ay was tired after our run

I had to take Kate to birthday party back home and Dave took the boys to Home Depot to grab some more stuff (of course:). We met back at the camper around 3:30 p.m. The boys were napping. The sun came out and we had a nice afternoon/evening! Went for a walk/to the playground, rode bikes, cooked over the fire and played some more. Put Ayden down early and the big kids roasted marshmellows. Put the big kids down and had another drink by the fire. We saw and were bit by the first mosquitos of the season:)

The kids did love the various playgrounds

They LOVED this. And of course 2 of the 3 got hurt on it. Or maybe it was all 3

I only have one thousand memories of biking around campgrounds with Tony when I was younger:)

Nice evening!

Other playground! 

Amazing craftsmanship

Please make sure your tetanus is up to date

They don't care!!!

Dragging her long hair through the dirt

The pirate ship. I was a crocodile that they put in the dungeon

Marshmellows! She had waited all day!

He had one smore, but then he just wanted to eat the untoasted ones.
Kate was the same way previous years, but now wants to toast them.

All showered and getting ready for bed
TV on in our room while we shower them one at a time

And....a little bit of time out by the fire by ourselves

Our plans were to make some french toast the next morning, but it was raining and the kids had been in the camper for many hours and so Dave convinced me to go get brunch somewhere:) However, we forgot that the Dells are now busy. All the places had lines out the doors, in the rain. But we found Perkins and got in. It was okay. And we went back to the campsite, hitched up our Bullet and headed home. It was a bit of a rush once back home. We had to level the camper on our driveway, get a little unpacked, get Kate inside and ready for dance pictures, let them play and get changed, then I took Kate and Ayden to dance pictures and Dave took Collin to a CSA Core Group meeting at the farm.

Hanging out in the camper for hours on a rainy morning

Kate drinking water out of a "pioneer cup"

Kate helped do the boys hair...

Collin learning about growing plants from Farmer Craig!

He had a blast:)

Turns out Dave and Collin got the best end of that deal! (no surprise:) They had a great time with friends on the farm and enjoyed a yummy potluck. I struggled with Ayden waiting FOREVER for Kate's turn for pictures. Not fun, but we survived and Kate was a good sport.

Kate and her dance friends (Kate's way on the other side)

Her recital is coming up in a week! I will admit to being excited that we will have a break for awhile:) And I always love seeing her perform - she does so well. And it will be quite a distraction for the following week. We are trying to figure out the logistics of it all, which is quite hard when we have no idea when her surgery is scheduled for or how long she will be in the hospital. :(  But at least the boys aren't in school - that would be much more difficult.

Yesterday we started moving the boys into one room and Kate into her own room. It will be a long process (not sure exactly how we want it) but I need to go move some things around and keep these monkeys from completely destroying this house.....oops too late!