1000 Books!

In January, the library held a congratulatory event in January to celebrate all the amazing kids who completed the 1000 Books before Kindergarten program in the past year.  Unfortunately, Liv was super sick with a fever and bronchiolitis the night of the event and had to stay home.  But, Mrs. C presented her with her certificate and free book this past week in acknowledgement of her achievement.  We're so proud of both of our kids and their love of books and reading.  Livi's current favorites are Llama Llama, Pete the Cat, and books about horses or princesses.  We hope that our commitment to reading to them as young children will foster in them a lifelong love of learning and reading!  Way to go, Livi!  We're proud of you!  Also, another shout out to our wonderful Children's librarians who offer such a wonderful service to our community in their providing of special  programs, nurturing of children, and support of parents.  We are so thankful and appreciative of all they do!

Report Card

We received Nolan's report card in the mail the other day and we were so impressed.  Most students that are doing well receive 3s in each category.  Nolan's report card had many 4s in a variety of academic areas, but the ones we were most proud of were in this character quality section.  It makes me so happy to know that Nolan is knocking it out of the park in the respect, responsibility, and safety areas.  We are always proud of his academic achievements, but knowing that he is a kind friend and responsible student makes our hearts swell with pride.  Keep it the amazing work, Nolan!

Happy Birthday, Miles!

Happy 5th Birthday to our super loving, fetch-playing, snuggly, weird, winking, protective, galumphing spotted pup!  We love you, Miles!

Soup-Case

One of my favorite parts of parenthood is watching our littles learn to communicate.  From sign language to first words to complete sentences, it is dazzling to watch them grow and develop their language skills.  And I love so much that our 6 year old, who has quite an extensive vocabulary, still calls his suitcase a "soup-case."

Wolf

This enormous and terrifying creature has been skulking about the woods by the cabin for the last couple of months.  He is beautiful, but the thought of such a large animal being in the same vicinity as where my children and dog play is unnerving to say the least.  Hopefully he decides our woods aren't that great and decides to move on!

Ballet Bailout

In January, Tiffanie and I had the rare opportunity for a night out.  As part of Tiffanie's Christmas present for 2018, I thought it would be a romantic idea to purchase tickets to a Russian ballet troupe that was performing at the Grand Theater in Wausau.  As I am woefully inept at gift giving, I was quite proud of this particular gift.  I had even thought ahead to arrange for my mom to watch the kids on the night of the ballet.

The night of the ballet, we dropped the kids at my parent's house, drove to Wausau, and ate dinner at Basil, an Asian cuisine restaurant.  As dinner progressed, panic and regret set in.  Despite our best efforts to appear as a cultured worldly couple, Tiffanie and I began to slowly unpack all the reasons that ballet is the worst.  The thought of sitting in a tightly confined space, unable to escape the tedium that was certainly in our immediate future became overwhelming.  The dinner conversation that followed was a lengthy negotiation weighing all the pros and cons of bailing out on the entire affair.  Was ballet really the worst?  Could we possibly sneak out inconspicuously?  How long could the ballet really be? (Turns out, at least six to eight hours in our imagination)  How can we not go when we have nonrefundable tickets?  During what turned out to be the best part of the night, (the cheesecake) we finally passed a unanimous resolution.  We would not fall victim to the nightmare of ballet and instead opted for a quiet evening at home in our pajamas.  We firmly believe to this day that we made the correct decision.

Cin-Brella's Birthday Party

One of Olivia's Christmas presents this year was a ticket to Cinderella's (She says, "Cin-Brella") Birthday Party at the Children's Theater in Eau Claire.  We invited Grandma Marcia to join us and we spent the weekend in Eau Claire for some wonderful girl time.  The invitation to the party encouraged everyone to dress in their best princess attire.  Livi chose her Anna dress so she could match Grandma Marcia, who was a good sport about being fully adorned in royal garb.  The event featured a chicken nugget lunch, cupcakes, princess themed games, and a short performance from some of the favorite Disney princesses.  Livi was enamored watching some of her heroes on stage.  It was very sweet to see how excited she was.  There was an opportunity to meet the princesses at the end of the party, and though she was really excited about the prospect of meeting them, when it was her turn to see Elsa and Anna she panicked and started crying.  I guess we're not quite ready for Disney World yet.  It was fun to have some special time with my beautiful girl.  I can't wait for the next opportunity 

to make some fun memories with her!

Fancy morning out

Katie and I met at the Briarhouse the other day for some coffee, shopping, and a chance to catch up.  Of course, my little doppelgänger came along, too and had such a great time sipping hot chocolate (with sprinkles, of course) and trying on all the adorable accessories she could find.  I love how much she loves Katie and she kept giving her hugs and kisses.  I feel so blessed to have friends who are so deeply integrated into our family and who enjoy spending time with our littles!