Summer's (mostly) Here

This has been one of the coldest, rainiest Junes on record. Um, boo. But the start and the end have been really lovely and we have taken advantage of every second. Lots has been going on around the pad, starting with a surprise visitor a few weeks ago. Matt's auntie Mar and uncle Peter happened to swing into town, and they were able to stop by for a few minutes. Mar came armed with a princess box set for GG, complete with crown, bracelets, earrings, necklace, wand and - of course - shoes. Geeg was in heaven and immediately demanded to put on her princess dress so she could sport the complete ensemble. If you think she looks right at home it's because this girly girl loves her some bling.

Time for tea?

Thanks auntie Mar!

On the other hand, she's not afraid to get her hands dirty. Actually that's not entirely true: she HATES to have her hands dirty at meal time, but as long as we're playing outside she'll happily get filthy. Matt has been working to mulch the mess of a garden that came with this joint. If the plants and shrubs aren't going to make any sense, they can at least be plumped with wood chips. Little helper is happy to lend a hand.

She pitched a fit at Lowe's when we didn't buy her the mini wheelbarrow, so we call this the 'family wheelbarrow'. Daddy has hauled a lot of mulch and a lot of toddler in this family wheelbarrow.


Also sporting her bandana, which for about 2 days was known as her 'bobamma'.


Ralph supervises

Last weekend we finally made it up to the cottage for the first time this year. K&K are doing an awesome new addition and until last weekend there was no electricity which - when you depend on a pump - also means no water. Fortunately the septic (aka Karl's new favorite obsession) is completely installed and ready to, well, do its thing. Saturday was a nice day and the little fish decided to hop right in to the chilly water in her clothes. The good thing about being a two year old though is that you can strip down where ever and people generally find it adorable. So in the water we went.

Naked butt!


Taking a dip


Back in with the appropriate gear: a tutu swimsuit.


The worst picture of me e.v.e.r. (note to self: wear make up) but so cute of hubby & kiddo, could not resist posting.


Chillin' post-bath


The future master bedroom, full bathroom (with a tub, yahoo!!), entry way, and storage room


And the crap that goes with building it all


You know a good way to use this big, empty space?


Run around like a nutjob, of course


Between the woods, the water, and the sand, Ralphie was in his own little pig pen heaven

Later that afternoon we set sail for our first cruise around the Upper Mill Pond. Alas, our adventure was short lived as the boat pooped out on us about 90 seconds into our ride. Knowing that our chances of the boat dying were about 50/50 the guys had the foresight to bring oars. Oops, scratch that. For some reason they chose to bring AN oar. One. So if we wanted to go around in a circle, we were set. Fortunately a friendly neighbor saw that we were stranded and zipped out to tow us back to shore. Hopefully our nautical adventures will be a little more grand next weekend for 4th of July.

Fail.

This weekend we were in town and had no plans and the weather was great so it was lovely and relaxing. Saturday morning we let daddy sleep really late and the sous chef and I got to work making coffee cake blueberry muffins. Oh doctor are they good. G loves to help bake which may double the mess but is truly adorable.

"Daddy, we're baking!"


Blueberries overboard. Notice the sous chef's concentration.

Today we went to Matt's baseball game to watch dad kick butt and take names. The Orioles are on fire this year which is really fun to watch. Genevieve is quite the little fan, especially since the park that today's game was at had both a big playground and a giant splash pool. Score!

In case you were wondering, GG and daddy have 'matching owies' on their knees. Daddy does not, however, have a Sleeping Beauty band aid on his.

And tonight after dinner we took a family stroll to enjoy the perfect evening. One thing we really did not want to give up when we were house hunting was being within walking distance of daily necessities, and with our house being about 3/4 of a mile from the Elm Grove village, we've got all the necessities close at hand. Including the most important of all: an ice cream shop.

Family stroll

On the daddy horsie (horsy?) who does indeed make horsie noises


Delicious ice cream in sight


G insists on sitting on this little bench whenever we pass it. This girl loves her kid-sized chairs.

Hitting the Road

As it's been a while since we've visited Roch - and since the cottage did not have power at the time - we hit the road to MN for Memorial Day. Matt was traveling for work that week and was scheduled to fly back home Thursday night. Ha. Ha. For about the fifteenth consecutive time his return flights were cancelled due to weather. His first option back to MKE was a Saturday morning red-eye. Add that to a 5 hour car trip? I think not. Fortunately he was able to get a flight into Minneapolis Friday morning (another red-eye) and just caught the shuttle to Rochester where my dad picked him up. Ta da. The down-side to this master plan was that it left me alone on the haul to Roch. The last time I did that was last June when Matt was refinishing the hardwood floors in our old house, and it was a night.mare. Karma was on my side though and GG and Ralphie were great little travelers (although I definitely let out a huge sigh of relief once we actually pulled into the driveway and I knew reinforcements were on hand). We had a super fun weekend and enjoyed the near perfect summer weather with a few trips to the park, a little shopping, and a visit with the cutie patootie Kroening boys. Naturally I left my camera in MKE so there is no documentation of the cuteness and fun, but it was a good time. On Sunday GG got to take in her first marathon as my dad ran the Med City. She loved it and got really into cheering for everyone. The weather was runner-perfection and Pete was en fuego. Way to go, Pop Pop!

The drive home took almost six hours (traffic, pee stop, traffic, pee stop, traffic, McFlurry stop for mama. Don't judge me.) but went smoothly and it was nice to have everyone home again.

Last Thursday was Matt's birthday - 29, take 3. K&K came over to watch the wee one so we could go out to the Melting Pot with Shawn & Melissa, and Steve & Erin. Steve was the only one who hadn't been there before and it was fun to have a first-timer at the table. First off, for someone who claims to hate cheese he definitely seemed to enjoy the cheesy spinach & artichoke fondue (although he was hesitant to try the WI Cheddar, declaring it 'too orange'.). He also claims to hate mushrooms so imagine everyone's surprise when he said the mushrooms in his salad were 'cooked perfectly!'. Except they were raw. So...yeah. I truly thought Melissa was going to choke on her beer. A good time was had by all! We all went back to the house after to eat the lime meringue tart that Matt had requested and I had worked on for about 2 days. The recipe said specifically to let it sit out but I should have used my melon and realized that there was an unwritten addendum to that which said, "unless of course it's 85 degrees with 97% humidity, at which point put it in the fridge you idiot". Mmmhmmm, missed that part. It was the best tasting lime slop I've ever had (as an aside, at least I had all the ingredients right. When I was prego with GG I made Karl a Pear Cake Tatin for his birthday. As I slid it in the oven I wondered why it looked so watery. Hmmm. Only after 15 minutes of baking did I realize that I hadn't added A SINGLE DRY INGREDIENT. Hi, genius).

Pre-slopification

The rest of the weekend was hot, hot, hot. Jungle hot, if you will. Matt worked his tail off on the yard all weekend and on Saturday afternoon I took GG to the park, hoping to seek out a little shade. But once we were there I discovered that it was opening day of the EG pool, and because it was opening day it was open late AND free. Holla! That is my kind of deal. So after dinner we all went to cool off in the evening sun. GG chose her swimsuit (don't we all have a pile to choose from?) and was ready to rock. I was really interested to see if she would be as hesitant this year as she was last year to get wet. Um, not so much. She took one look at the kiddie pool and was gone. Truly laughing and squealing as she ran in and out. Too cute. This time I actually remembered the camera. We also got her in the big pool too and had a great time. She's basically demanded to go back every day since, which is super fun to talk her out of.

Declaring "I look like a ballerina!". And hello, look at that turn out!!


Peace out, pops


One happy kiddo


Daddies are so good at playing in the pool

Otherwise things are plugging along here at the casa. We've seen a few deer on our nightly walks and drove up to find a woodchuck in our garden the other day (who will soon be relocated. I do not need a poodle v. woodchuck throw-down in my yard), plus the skillions of birds who enjoy waking us up at 3:30 every morning, so it's a regular wild kingdom around here. Maio 2.0 is just over 18 weeks cooked and we'll have our big ultrasound on the 27th. I finally told my colleagues that I was prego which was pretty funny because truly no one suspected a thing. I was even told to "shut the fu*k up" when I told them I was 18 weeks along. If there's one thing I love about my job, it's that there's no beating around the bush. This weekend is a husband's playdate and then maybe one day we'll be able to get to the cottage and check out all the cool work that's being done. Onward!