Third Person: The Merry Merry Month of May

Every summer we look forward to spending a weekend with friends at the cottage. But this year we'll be down a couple attendees due to, well being due. The Bansemars will have two new baby boys in their house in a few short weeks so we decided to all get together earlier in May to let the kids wear each other out and let the grown ups catch up (although yes, there was a lot of comparing renovation plans and mortgage rates. We are oooooooooooooooold).

We went to Three Bears which was about a 3 hour drive for everyone. We are now veteran water park-ers and although completely adequate for our gang, this water park did not rank high on any of our list of recommendations. In previous trips to Great Wolf or Kalahari there have been hundreds of life jackets available and dozens of life guards keeping watch like German Shepherds on patrol. Three Bears had about a dozen life jackets total, which wasn't really a problem since we were the only parents in the joint who had our kids wearing them. Awesome!

geeg-ala

soontobebigsis alana

henry - notice that bad a&& tat

lukie

scott's tiny clone, addie

and ethan's tiny clone, elle

mr miles

the elder statesman, ethan

reecy

g is on the tall side, and addie is a full year younger and nearly the same height. future volleyball stars?

luke was much happier than he appears

still slays me that he has those hazel eyes

We were able to rent a cabin that slept 20 for el cheapo which was perfect. The top floor loft featured four single beds where the big kids slept (Ethan and Addie shared, which was adorable, and Miles camped out on the floor). Matt and my room was directly beneath the kids. The first night we both woke up to a huge ::thud:: and sat motionless while we waited for the inevitable shriek. Sure enough the next night G confessed to me that it was she who had tumbled (no surprise there, the girl is used to her queen-size quarters). But 'don't worry mom, I just got back into bed'. Atta girl.

Unlike the sleeping arrangements, some things were just like home:

time to wrestle with dad/uncle matt!

poor luke trapped in his life jacket

the rowdy harms's

smiley kroenings

'big eyes' bansemars

ladiez

Saturday afternoon the weather was not horrible, so while the three babies napped on and off the rest of us hung out outside and played a little baseball, ate some snacks, and chilled out before heading back to get our slide on.

deep conversations

a la lady and the tramp, natch

what the heck do you call this?

muscles 1

muscles 2

muscles 3

Since the Bansemars do indeed have two buns in the oven, Anna, Robin and I decided to do a wee baby shower while we were all together. The theme was Thing 1 and Thing 2. Cute, no???

i'm getting freakishly good at constructing diaper cakes

cutie cute bibs and onesies

elle seems unimpressed

four ladies who have been there, wiped that

playing a little shower game, tucking balloons under their shirts and trying to waddle the ping pong ball into the mason jar. there may have been a little melting down

diaper baby

notice lukie in the background, helping himself to reece's tray

a glimpse 25 years down the road?

now THAT'S attractive

And other snapshots of May:

a night with hubs at the fisher house gala (fisher house is like ronald mc donald house but for military families. i've become very involved with them through work over the years and we were happy to be part of the night. bonus: i never thought i'd get to wear that dress again)

the curls erupt after a humid nap

what dirt on the floor? i dunno what you're talking about

rain rain, go away

had to include this action shot - look at his hair!

pasketti man

and all clean again

gg-ups (PS notice her new trend: 'mixed pajamas'. PPS, excellent point)

i happened to meet the vp of alumni relations for MSOE at work and she sent me two raider t's (she also happens to live about four blocks from us). look for these two nutter butters in the next edition of dimensions