Going for It

Summer t-ball has come to a close.  The boys both loved playing and Chris coached the team.  This is Caden's last year in t-ball, next year, he will start coach's pitch.  Cooper was in his glory all season long.  Baseball is probably his favorite sport and he also thinks he is ready for coach's pitch next summer :)

Caden requested that I take a picture of this "neat" pose.  Disregard the messy, disheveled boys... this was post game!

 Elbow up!

 The boys enjoyed playing on the Mallards team (not sure why they didn't have a green jersey).  Our neighbor played on the team and one of Caden's best friends from school (not pictured).  They will miss playing sports for 6 weeks, but the parents won't.  It is finally time for a summer break!

 Caden hitting

 Cooper hitting

 Good playing boys!

We met up with our long-lost friends, Jenny, Mason and Willow.  We met them at the pool for a day in the water. If you recall, Jenny was the boys' daycare provider for many years.  We still stay in touch and try to get together every couple months.  The picture above warms my heart... Mason describes the boys as his forever family... love it.

 Jenny treated them to Sponge Bob popsicles complete with bubble gum eyeballs.  How cute is that?  I feel like I had something similar growing up, just can't recall what the character would've been (Mickey Mouse or Hello Kitty possibly?!?!)

We are continuing to check off our summer bucket list activities~ we had a pool date at Kerri's with some friends.  This was the lonely picture that I took that day.

We also had a playdate with some of our favorite girls, Lily, Lucy and their new baby brother, Henry.  They are the cutest family of 5.  We spent the day at the park, splash pad and made a stop at our favorite ice cream shop in town.

I helped host a 39 1/2 birthday celebration for a good friend of mine.  It was STRESSFUL.  I do not like lying and making up stories, but we pulled it off.  This is not the birthday girl, just Cory and I enjoying some weird roasted marshmallow drink/toast to Ruth. Cheers!

Speaking of cheers, I randomly decided to buy a Diet Coke while I was at a store the other day, and when I reached in to grab the bottle of soda, this is what I got!  I thought it must be my lucky day.  I rarely find anything with my name on it or spelled the right way.  It's the little things in life :)

Time for big news... I have resigned from the Eau Claire Area School District and accepted a position at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.  It is a coordinator position in their Education Department.  I was NOT expecting this at all.  A few weeks ago, I received a phone call from the Associate Dean asking if I would be interested in meeting with them to discuss this opportunity.  I had some general details but declined the position after a weekend of thinking about it.  The following day, I received a follow-up from UWEC asking if I would be willing to negotiate a contract that would meet my needs (summers off mostly).  A few days later, I was in the Dean's office meeting with the Dean and Associate Dean of the department.  I was horribly nervous since I haven't interviewed in 15 years.  We talked for over 2 1/2 hours about the position and I became excited about it.  My heart was telling me to take the leap of faith, to accept the position since it would be SO different, challenging and exciting.  I would still be able to remain in education but I would work with BIG people :)  I have some connections at UWEC, they advocated for me when this position became available and it is a job that I hope to love.  I am leaving 15 years of teaching Kindergarten and the hardest part about this transition is saying "goodbye" to amazing staff and families.  My loyalty was definitely an obstacle but in the end, I decided to do what was best for my career.  So for now, I'm a Blugold!

 I will be in this beautiful, brand new, state of the art building.

Chris and the boys toured the campus with me.  Caden reminded me that I had to be smart to work at the college (ha, thanks) and Cooper reminded me that he will still be a Badger (UW-Madison) when he grows up.

 I packed my items, turned in my badge and materials and left Sherman with many emotions.  I will miss teaching, that is for certain, but I am moving forward with optimism and courage.

We needed to relieve stress, so it was time to hit the lake for some waterskiing and boating yesterday.  The boys are amazing.  Both of them are skiing long line, without connectors on their skis. They just love to ski, as much as their Daddy does.  We are such proud parents and can't help but smile ear to ear watching them on the water.

 Caden skiing long line

Cooper's first "go" at skiing without the connectors (love the stance)

The boys prepared for their big debut for a summer contest through our local dentist, haha, these crack me up!

Our family, by artist Caden

Fireworks, Family, Friends and Fun!

Happy 4th of July!  We hope you had a safe and fun holiday weekend.  As usual, we spent the weekend with our family at the lake.  The boys were happily matching for the 4th and the girls, well, they were able to be cutsie in their outfits of choice :)  We seriously wonder how long we will carry on with this t-shirt tradition?!?

The cousins ran the 1/2 mile Fishy Four race on Friday morning.  We were most excited about the cool shirts and medals at the end.  Cooper admitted to having to stop and walk for a second (ha), the rest of us ran the entire way.  It was fun!

 Here I come!

Cooper ran with his tongue to his cheek almost the entire time :)

 Fishy Four Champs!

We raced back to the resort so we could cheer on the 4 mile runners-Kyra, Auntie Erin and Uncle Ben all walked/ran the race.  It was fun to give runners high fives about half-way into the race.

 The cousins (minus Whitney)

Per 4th of July tradition, we melted while watching the parade downtown.  We lasted about 45 minutes which was enough to fill our bags with candy and call it a day on the hot asphalt.  It was time for the lake!

That night we watched the beautiful fireworks over the lake, as well as had our own firework display on the dock.

 Mommy bought 4 lanterns to send over the lake at the end of the night.  They were beautiful to watch as they floated to heaven or Florida or California... we kept guessing where they would end up.

 The adults enjoyed relaxing at our favorite pub on the lake....

 There was plenty of skiing to be had that weekend.  Here is Daddy barefooting.

 Cooper decided that he should be able to go long line behind the boat as well.  Sure enough, he nailed it.  He is now officially skiing behind the boat at the tender age of 5 years old!

 Proud Skier

 Since I had to step up my game, we decided to try another pair of junior skies that didn't have the connector at the tips.  After 3 tries, I was skiing the lake, long line, while managing to keep my legs from doing the splits.  What a proud bunch of boys and parents we had!

Our friends Jacob and Aiden met us for dinner one night.  They returned for a quick one week visit; their parents and our parents are friends but we only see them once a year as they live in Tampa, FL.

 Balloons make restaurants way more fun!

It was time to pick strawberries!  We always go to the same farm each year.  You could tell it was towards the end of the season, but we still picked our 3 buckets.  With our strawberries, we made strawberry/rhubarb jam, a strawberry pie, strawberry cookie bars, and of course, we just ate them whenever we had the chance! Yummy!

 We stopped to see our favorite dentist and she gifted us these cool shades.

Mommy opened the fridge to see this sweet gesture by Daddy.  He left the LAST diet coke especially for her.  It did have her name on it afterall.

We decided to hit the bike trail for a long ride one afternoon.  We ended up riding 12 miles that day!  It was 6 miles to our school and then 6 miles back home.  Cooper started to complain his legs hurt 5 miles from home.  Mommy turned it into a "fun race" and sure enough, that was enough to pedal our competitor home.  Mom was proud of us for sticking it out that far and she was thankful for the beautiful scenery and her stronger/healing knee.

 A quick stop at school to play before returning home

 This week was the Northern WI State Fair.  It is always an interesting adventure... full of "interesting" people and food.  We had a blast and ended up staying for 4 1/2 hours.  We went with our friends and captured some exciting moments.

 Swings

 Kiddie Rollercoaster

 Magic Carpet Slide

 Blizzard Ride- I was just tall enough to ride this.  My Mom had to peek through her fingers covering her eyes.  She was having a nervous breakdown while watching us on these rides.

 Tilt-O-Whirl

And yes... this ride went nearly upside down.  My Mom had to walk away with Cooper to find mini-donuts (stress eating I assume).

 Water ball thingy....

Daddy had to buy a few tickets to accompany us on the ferris wheel. With his last ticket, he went on this big elevator drop ride.  He survived, we all lived, yay for the family.

This ride seemed like nothing this year in comparison to some of the bigger rides.  We loved the lights when they turned on at dusk.

 Me, Trevor and Cooper

 Being silly at the fair

 Best Friends

Speaking of best friends, we met up with our friends at their lake cabin on Sunday afternoon.  We were excited to spend the gorgeous day on the lake.  Nothing like lake time on a Sunday!  Mommy's friend was visiting from Arizona along with her girls.  She loved that her childhood friends and children were all playing together that day.

 Fishing

 Kid Crew

 Jumping from the new raft

 Swinging together

 The Dads as they left to put the boat back on the trailer...

 This week is a more quiet week, thank goodness!  After a horrible storm last night, that caused us all to run to the basement, we enjoyed some chalk drawings and we cleaned-up the yard.  We are hopeful our 2 apple tress that were uprooted will still survive with new stakes. Can you guess who we drew on the driveway?!?!  Me too had to copy my idea, oh well, I will allow it for today :)

Have a great week!