The Boys

The Schultzes moved in while we were up north last weekend! They now live 8 houses down the road from us. "A dream come true" according to Alec.

Tonight we watched the 3 boys for a couple hours. One of them *found* a can of whipped cream in the fridge. (Weird huh?) Knowing them like I do, I told them there was no way they were going to just squirt it in their mouths - disgusting!!. No problem - they just squirted it on Oreos. (GROSS!)

Well if you know these boys at all you know that it didn't take long before they skipped the Oreos altogether and shot it straight into their mouths! Eeewwww!

But it was all good until one of them suggested to his brother - who coincidentally had a mouthful - that he pop his cheeks. Uh huh, I don't think so!!!

So...if you are ever over here and we're serving something with whipped cream, and that whipped cream is the kind in a can....well you just might want to ask for some cool whip in a tub or skip it all together!!!

Just Some Pictures

Remember a few posts ago I commented on how days and days can go by without a single interesting thing to write about and then all of a sudden its one thing after another?? Like the bus sliding into the ditch and stuff??? Yeah well, nothing interesting has happened again for days and days so I'm just going to post a couple of pictures and call it good!

Last weekend we went to Ludington to open up the place for the season and we drove past this field of pink trees - that we drive by all the time - but I've never seen them in bloom like this before. I've no idea what they are but they were pretty and I took way too many pictures of them!!

This is Selah and the first "running through the sprinkler" picture of the year!

Here are the other kids sitting quietly watching a movie that probably wouldn't be on the "mommy approved" list but like I said.....they were quiet!

Here is Selah again wearing someone's (Alec??) glasses. Cute???

A Wedding

What do you do when you're at a wedding reception and it's taking WAY too long for dinner to be served??? Well, if you have your camera you're in luck!

When you're 10, you see how many forks you can balance on your nose.

Alec

But if you're 4 you try and suck the goblet really hard so that it sticks on your face. You have to make sure that the glass still has something it in though! Preferably a red beverage.

Caleb

The girls, on the other hand, waited patiently. Unless one of them (who we won't tattle on here) runs in circles around the cake table with her diaper falling off!

Julie, Selah & Linnea

If you're a big kid you can amuse yourself making faces at each other and the camera.

Nick & Chelsea

Or simply sit there, weak from hunger, and wait!

Christina & Eddie

After the meal has been served there is nothing like a little nap! Best in daddy's arms of course.

Steve, Selah & Caleb

Oh yeah...there was also a bride and groom!

Jessica & David

Luke & Nathan were there too but I'm not sure why I had no pictures of either of them???

CHICAGO

Ahhhh the windy city - nothing quite like it! But I learned this weekend that "windy city" has nothing to do with weather conditions. Chicago got the nickname because of long winded politicians.

Well we are just back from our annual trek to Chicago. We stayed in a different part of town this year - more towards the south end of the Mag Mile, I think. Anyways, I saw new stuff this trip that I hadn't noticed before. Above is the view from our room of the new Trump Tower and the Chicago River.This sculpture of a bull is made from car bumpers. I had to look twice to actually believe it because this bull is anatomically correct! Anyways he was in a plaza near the Tribune Building. Which, by the way, has pieces of other important structures embedded in its walls - a piece of the Parthenon, the World Trade Center, the Great Pyramid, the Taj Mahal and many others. Very interesting. I've walked past many times and never noticed before.

We also tried Chicago style pizza for the first time. MMMM! Regular pizza just won't be the same for me now!

We rented bikes and took a ride along the Lakeshore trail from Navy Pier to the end. Not exactly sure how far we went - some say 10.5 miles each way and others say 8.5 each way. Near Bryn Mawr there was a bridge that had been completely covered, both sides, with mosaic tiles. It was so unexpected to just come upon something like that. But it made the trip so worthwhile!

We learned after we got home that we were only about 3 miles from the house that I lived in when I was a kid. Maybe next time we'll take a pedal over that way and see if we can find the house. Shouldn't be too difficult, it's right across the street from the Bohemian Cemetery! There can't be more than one of those in Chicago, can there?


Being from Hartland, where the biggest building - (since they tore down the truck stop!) - is the High School, I love the tall buildings in Chicago. I probably took about 100 pictures of them this weekend. Here is the skyline from somewhere north of town on the bike trail.

We also did some shopping and took an architectural boat cruise on the river and walked about 968 miles! We went to see A Chorus Line. It was okay......not enough action to capture my attention but the music was pretty good.

We came back home on the late train and I think it was the quietest train ride we've ever had!!! Nearly everyone was sleeping before we even pulled out of Union Station.

BUBBLES!

Selah turned 2 last week. She celebrated her birthday at our house with cake and ice cream and presents.

One of her presents was a giant jug of bubbles and a container full of about 25 bubble "tools".


She got some other stuff too. But I think the bubbles were everyone's favorite. I know that because my front porch was a slimy slippery wet mess when they were finished! And I can usually tell by the mess whether or not an activity was a success!
I think those bubbles will keep them all busy for a while!

Are You Kidding Me??

Isn't it weird how days and days and days can go by and nothing interesting happens? And then all of a sudden it's one thing after another. Yeah well that's how it has been here for the last week or two. So here is my one thing after another....

The teacher we've worked with all year is informed one day, a week or so ago, that her last day will be the next week. Hello? We have only six weeks of school left, our students are special needs young adults, mostly autistic and this will be the THIRD teacher this year! Is anyone paying attention in administration?????

Tom is notified this week that his company is *re-structuring* and while I'm not at liberty to discuss the details, you all pretty much know what that means. Thank goodness we went to Florida when we did!

At least things are going well at the new house. Painting is coming along, the storage unit that they'd been using has been unloaded into the garage so most of their stuff is at the house now. Plumbing issues seem to have been resolved (knock on wood!), drywall has been delivered, etc....

Selah turned 2 and Maggie turned 7 months - both on Monday. Time flies!

Today a funny thing happened on the way to swim in Hartland. Not funny in a hahaha way but funny in a strange are you kidding me kind of way. We took a bus, but not a school bus. On the way we were on a dirt road that was being graded by a very large yellow road grader. It was going very slowly so the bus decided to pass the grader. The driver didn't realize how soft the side of the road was and the bus slid right off the road and into the ditch. I was annoyed more than anything else until the driver asked us all to move very slowly to one side of the bus. Hmmmm...... That was when I realized that she was afraid the bus was going to roll over. About this time I decided that we were going to get off the bus. Quickly. So we got off and sat in the grass and waited for the tow truck to come. One of the students was only interested in getting to the pool, completely oblivious to the situation. Another student was enthralled with the abrupt change in plans, sitting in the grass, looking at the goats in the yard across the street, watching the cars go by (probably laughing at us and our predicament :~). But the third student was very upset and fretful, unable to sit, or stop fidgeting. Interesting afternoon to say the least! We did finally make it to the pool where they swam for about 20 minutes before the bus came back to return us to school. Without incident thankfully!

I am so glad I don't have a boring office job!

The New House

Well our part in preparing the new house for occupancy is almost finished. YAY! And now Julie and Steve have started their work painting and cleaning. So today on my way home from work I drove by the house (it is about 8 houses down the road from us) and I saw Luke and Caleb outside playing so naturally I had to stop and say hi. I had my camera in the car so I took this video of Caleb practicing for the Olympics in his new backyard.

Everyone else was in the house painting or "helping". Linnea was taking all the covers off the outlets with a screwdriver (YIKES!), Alec was supervising the painting of his new room - bright orange - it looks awesome! It will practically glow in the dark just like Uncle Nick's room. And Selah was busy "spackling". Well she had one of those smoothing tools and she was wiping it on the walls. The little boys were in and out depending on if it was raining or hailing or sunny or whatever! They have moved so many times that they are pros at this painting, cleaning, packing, moving thing! UGH - I don't know how they do it but i will be sooo happy if they never have to move again!