More Birthday's - More pictures

I can not believe that it is the middle of August already. It has been a crazy month. I have been working more then usual to keep up with my job getting a new data system that we will be running soon. We are also trying to enjoy every last day of the summer. We are trying to make some trips to the parks and just get out and enjoy the great weather. We also made a last minute trip up north to spend some time with the Schmidt side of the family. That is Ben's mom's family. It was such a wonderful weekend. We got to swim, fish, and relax. When we got back it was time to party. Cameron's 10th Birthday was Tuesday the 9th and Kenzie's 2nd Birthday was the 11th. We had a combination party for them on Saturday. We just realize over and over how lucky we are to have such wonderful families. Cameron has also started football and it is intense! 4 nights a week he has practice from 5:30 to 7:30 with scrimmages on Saturdays. He is also trying out for the Select baseball team this coming weekend. This kid is intense sports all the time!!!!! The twins are also getting more and more into sports. Right now they are in a four week Pee Wee football class. It is pretty interesting to watch them and their different personalities come out. I will try to take some pictures at the next class!!! Other then that we are just trying to get ready for school to start in 3 weeks!!!!

Cameron in the splash pad in Jackson.

Calvin, Kenzie, & Clayton at the splash pad.




Calvin, Daddy & Clayton - Ready for fishing up north!

Clayton the fisherman!

He was a great at fishing. He had a lot of patience. He would just sit and watch the bobber and when it went down he would reel it in all on his own. He really enjoyed it. He wanted us to keep every fish even the small ones.

Calvin

Being as opposite as you can get Calvin liked fishing but has NO patience. He did not really like to watch a bobber and had more fun playing with the minnows in the pail. He also liked touching everything he could find in the boat.

Kenzie may need a little time before true fishing for her. She did ok but is a little young for actually having a pole in the water. She did help reel some in and wanted to hold/touch all the fish. Mostly she just napped in the boat.

Grandpa Gerald also taught the kids how to dance!

Clayton and Kenzie LOVED the dancing.

Ok so these pictures just made me laugh. We stopped at this little fireman's picnic up north after church on Sunday and the kids got little prizes like their fireman's hats. The boys became dancing machines. It was so funny.
Clayton!

Calvin

Cameron's 10!!!!

Kenzie's 2!!!!

Ok this picture just shows Cameron's hair! Cameron has been growing his hair out and it had gotten pretty long. I really liked it like that but he thought it was to much work because he had to wash and comb it everyday (can you imagine!!!). So he wanted to buzz it and I did not want him too. We agreed on a trim on Friday but on the way there he asked about getting a Mohawk. Those of you who know me well know I am not in agreement with this but decided that it is his hair and it is ok to try it for a little while. We compromised on leaving the sides longer and it actually turned out looking somewhat respectable. We will see how long this lasts.

Abby, Kenzie, Elise, Kaylee, Calvin, Clayton, Isiah, Lauren, Xavier, Cameron
These are all the of the kids cousins in age order.

Two more GREAT DAYS!

I sure wanted to keep the fun going - so after our great Thursday we made plans with Grandpa Dick and Grandma Grace to go to the Washington County Fair Friday. We had my nephews for the day so the three of us headed out to the fair with all 6 of the kids at 9a.m. The weather was Sunny and HOT. This is the group shot (minus me) when we were just starting out. We were going to take an after photo but by the time we left at 3:30 no one was in the mood for photo's!!!!

Isiah, Clayton, Calvin, Grandpa Dick, Kenzie, Cameron, Grandma Gracie & Xavier

Can you tell it is sunny!!

One more group shot before the fun starts!!!

Isiah, Clayton, Xavier, Cameron, Calvin & Kenzie

First we went to see all the animals. Poor Isiah was disappointed because he really wanted to see a Penguin. None of those at the county fair sorry buddy! All the kids got the biggest kick out of the baby Llama that was nursing from its mother. They were all right up close watching. The fair is oh so educational. They also liked the horses. I love the Clydesdale's. They are huge and amazing. To busy with the kids and did not get to many good shots but I did get one in the dairy area of almost all our animals!

Clayton, Isiah, Cameron, Calvin & Kenzie

The kids all loved the Dairy area. They had a great little "Farmer for a Day" event where the kids came and got a basket and then had to go through a maze of things and collect farm items and then turn them in at the end for a prize. They loved it! It was very cute.

We also went to the Rooster crowing contest which did not turn out to be that exciting as none of the contestants were to interested in crowing. We caught a bit of the cat show and all the kids decorated some tin cans at the 4H booth. Then we hit the food and finally the RIDES.

The rides were the kids favorite part of course and it was very cute watching them decide who to go on which ride with! When it was time to pick their last ride Calvin choose the Tilt a Whirl. And I was taking him and Kenzie. They both made it but did not make a peep the whole ride. They said they liked it but I hardly believe them, they looked a little green when we got off! All the kids did well and when the rides were over we gave them ice cream and went home. Six hours at the fair with 6 kids was enough for all of us!!!! Or so I thought!

Then we got home and Ben got home from work and we decided to go back to the Fair. Cameron was gone so Ben and I just took the three little kids back. This time is was PACKED. We had gotten some free ride tickets from Ben's cousin so we thought we would just take the kids and use them up. Again a great time. Feeding some animals, rides, food, and the "Farmer for a Day". Another fun outing for all of us! It amazes me how well our kids can behave sometimes. No decent naps and they still did great till after 9:30.

Kenzie feeding the goats.

Clayton and Calvin were a little nervous and they would not put the carrots in their hands just hold the cups.

Kenzie, Clayton, Calvin!

Clayton and Calvin on the Roller Coaster - The front car!

Daddy and Clayton on the Bumper Cars!

Daddy and Calvin on the Bumper Cars!

Daddy and Kenzie on the Carasol. This was Kenzie's favorite the entire day! She loved the "Horses"!!!!

Today was a really great day also. It was ALL STAR day for Cameron! Ben coaches Cameron's Boy's Minor's league along with Cody and Sam. The team did a good job this year. They ended the season in fourth place. They won their game today! Cameron was chosen by his teammates as one of the two All Stars from their team and got to play in the ALL STAR game today. It was awesome to see him play with the other all stars. Proud mommy moment! He played great in the game. He played catcher and 2nd base. Made a great throw from home to 1st for an out and had a little base hit that brought in the run that tied up the game 5 to 5. The game ended in a tie but it was a good comeback for the ALL STAR's who were losing 5 to 0. Very exciting and everyone ends up a WINNER! He was the most excited about his trophy!!!!!

Cameron up to bat!

Cameron ready to run at first!
Cameron with the All Star Team!

In front in the darker blue shirt.

Tomorrow should be another fun day -- Ben and the twins are going to Church and to German Fest with Grandma Jane and Grandpa Gerald and Kenzie and I are hanging out with Cousin Kelly and Maggie and their little girls for a girlie play date. Yippee!

GREAT DAY!!

What a great day! Today was one of those days! Those amazing days! We just got to have so much fun and the kids were all sooooo good. We started the day with plans changing so we made the best of it and scooped up a friend of Cameron's and headed to Monkey's Joe's in Waukesha. Monkey Joe's is a play place of all inflatables and the kids can just run around and play on them. It was a blast. We spent over 4 hours there. Cameron and his friend Jordan were wonderful with helping keep track of the little boys. They also have games and stuff. So the cutest part of the day was Calvin meet a little friend that he was running around with but then another little boy was playing her her also and told Calvin that he could not play with her. He came by me and told me about it and then said he wanted to go and find another friend like her. It was kind of sad and cute at the same time. Of course Cameron and Jordan being the protective older kids wanted to know why that girl was being mean to Calvin so they went to talk to her and she said she did want to play with Calvin but the other boy said no so I told Calvin to come and find another friend. He did! Another little girl and he tried to tell her all about the other little girl. Anyway long story but super cute. The second little girl's name happened to be Jane (like grandma Jane) and she was a sweetheart. Clayton saw Calvin playing with her and wanted to be her friend too so the the three of them played the rest of the time together and it was neat to see. I actually think she was a little sad when we said we were leaving.

Jordan and Cameron playing games!

Calvin being Calvin!

Kenzie coming down the slide!

Clayton climbing the wall!

Then we got home from Monkey Joe's and ate dinner and then headed over to Up Town were they had Corey Hart (from the Brewer's). Thanks to Grandpa Dick for the passes to go! We had to wait over an hour but it was worth it! All the sausages were there! Oh and COREY HART!

Cameron and Jordan

They were all ready for there baseball game which was at 8:15!

Clayton and Calvin




The boys waiting their turn.

I had to convince the boys that they could only pick one thing to have signed which was not easy considering they wanted him to sign everything! Cameron picked a bat, Jordan a ball, and the twins picked their Brewers school backpacks!

After this we still made it to the baseball game in time and it looked like it was going to be a good game but in the second inning the rain started coming down and the game got called off! Seeing as this was the third time this game got rained out I think it just was not meant to be played. Saturday is all star day so there is not more time for make up games. The team ended in 4th. The league most have been pretty even this year though. The first three teams all have the same record and then the last 3 teams all have the same record also. Cameron was choose by his teammates as an All Star. There are only 2 per team so that was very exciting. So two more games on Saturday to complete our baseball season. Then on to tackle football season!!!!!

Tomorrow should be a good day too. Hoping the weather cooperates - We want to go to the Washington County Fair!

Couple of fun shots of the little kids before the game and before the rain!

Put me in coach!

Kenzie is ready to play!

Calvin is also ready!

Clay looks like a natural!

The backup players!

And the new catcher! Looks like it fits her great!

Stitches out and HOLY HOT.

Last week was very busy and fun. The twins had PeeWee t-ball camp all week for an hour a day. It was so darn cute. They did great and it was a lot of fun to watch. I feel like they learned a lot and they both were very excited to go to their "own baseball". So Kenzie also made it the whole week with her stitches. She did amazing and did not bug them. She actually seemed kind of proud of them. She got them taken out yesterday and did well. It seems to be healing well also. Glad that experience is over and not looking forward to the next time but I am sure there will be more in our future. The weekend was pretty low key. The family took a little trip to the Cabela's on Friday and the kids LOVED the fish tanks. Saturday I worked and Ben golfed for work. Then we got to spend some more time by my parents with my brother and Joachim. They leave early Monday morning to go back to Germany. Boo. We spent the evening in the pool and eating it was really nice. Sunday we also got together at my parent with the family and enjoyed the pool and spending time together. It was hard to leave and say goodbye for another 6 months - possibly a year! I hate this part. Now I look forward to Christmas (hopefully) or next July.

As much of you know it has been HOT HOT HOT this week. I am not complaining just stating a fact. Poor Cameron had his first tackle football camp this week. 1:00 to 3:00 Tues, Wed. Thursday. They still had camp and I watched them from the van thinking about how hot it was. Clay, Cal & Kenzie were less aware of the hot weather and wanted to watch practice outside. Let me just say that I was sweating just watching them practice in this heat and had to bribe the little kids with Popsicles just to get them to go home to cool down instead of sitting through the whole practice. Then this evening Cameron also had a baseball game. Tomorrow same deal. Football camp and then another baseball game. Whoot Whoot at least we will not get bored!!!!

Clayton running for home during pee wee baseball camp! Calvin cracking one off the T!
The t-ball camp team! Clayton is 2nd from the left and Calvin is to the right of him.


Brothers ready for their turn to bat!

Just too fitting for my little boys. They loved Cabela's. They posed for this picture by the 'Bigee Bear' with some pop guns they found nearby. The bright colored crocs really make them look tough.

Kenzie with her Uncle Troy. They became buddies while he was home!

Well at least while he was bribing with candy!

Kenzie, Cameron, Joachiam, Calvin, Troy, and Clayton

Group picture at last!

Clayton trying on Cameron's football gear. Clayton asked Cameron if he could come to practice with him tomorrow.

Clayton is ready to play!!

Calvin was also getting ready to go to practice.

He even ran a couple plays in the living room with Cameron.

And we thought that Cameron looked small in all this big gear. Calvin looked like a mini football player for sure!