Island

Can we go to the island today?

This is the one question I hear all winter long. My response every time...No guys we have to wait til it gets warm.

Well guess what...Its island time!!

What is the island you ask? A quick hour from our house is a town called Hustisford. There is a lake called Sinnissippi Lake and on that lake is an island called Campers Island. This is where our campsite is. My parents have taken me and my 3 sisters out there since we were babies. It is a place we love to get away to and the best part its close to home so the kids can handle the ride with no problem. Because it is an island you need a  boat to get across which makes it even more fun. There is no running water or electricity....Just the great outdoors! We have upgraded over the years and are no longer tent camping. We now have a small 1 room cabin that we sleep in. The rest of the time is spent outside running around, swimming, flying kites or just taking it easy in a lawn chair.

The kids are starting to wake up now so off I go to get the last of the necessities packed up.

To the island we go!

Count down

For the past 3 years at this same time of the year I find myself saying...where did the school year go? Each year at the beginning of school I can't help but think how the end looks so far away, but just like everything else it goes by like a blink of an eye.

I thought we'd try something new this year to help the kids keep track of the final day of school. I wrote numbers 1-9 on individual pieces of paper and we all sat down to color them in. Then we put them in order, hung them on the pantry door and are looking forward to pull one off every day they get home.

I put together our bucket list for this summer and will have to post that later. I got the idea last year from my favorite blogger and cousin in law as she had posted one for her kids. I loved the idea last year and the kids loved looking thru the the list and picking out things they wanted to do. They also loved crossing out the things we got to do, so we shall do it again.

In only 8 more school days we will begin our new journey of completing our summer bucket list.

Its only just begun...

And so it begins the countless hours of Michael wanting to play baseball. He waited so patiently all day as Steve and I busily worked on our outdoor chores. After hours of car scrubbing and weed pulling it is now time for you Michael. So to the backyard we headed. Me to to keep the others entertained and Steve to get some practice time in with Michael.

Every year I am simply amazed at how well this boy plays. Michael you don' t just like baseball, you looove baseball. Its fun to watch how you have improved from your days as a t-ball player to now in coach pitch. I'm looking forward to my spot on the bench this year to watch you in action. I was really hoping you be on a stronger team this year to work on your skills, but looks like we'll have to wait for next year, as you are one of the 3 oldest on your team. So instead we'll watch you run after every ball even if you are playing 1st base and the ball lands at 3rd base, hopefully you will give the younger kids a chance to grab the ball.

Warmth

This household is getting excited for the warm weather to stay! As I got myself organized to head out the door to run errands I couldn't help but enjoy the site of my 2 little ladies checking out the world outside.

A year ago Lainey was too little to be moving with the older kids. She spent the summer watching the world moving around her, this year I already know she has no plans to sit back and watch the movement, she WILL BE the movement. Mackenzie spent the summer following the boys around, this year I hope she will help Lainey discover the amazing outside world

Get ready girls, soon enough we will be spending countless hours enjoying the warm outside world around us.

Happy Mother's Day

It has come again, the one day a year that is all about us Mom's. After another crazy cookie week (393 cookies and 60 cupcakes to be exact) and a 2 day rummage, my day of rest has finally arrived. Last night all I had planned for today was to sit at home and relax, but then I woke up to the sun shinning and 2 little men who were so excited to give me their gifts, I quickly wanted to do something nice with them. So after a quick house cleaning we ran to the truck and piled in for a fun filled day.

We ventured off to Possibilities Park, a place we don't get to often enough, but that makes the kids love it even more. I love it for that fact that it is completely fenced excepted for the entrance so if 1 kiddo ventures out of site I know they haven't gotten too far.

Lucky for us it wasn't crazy busy today so we were able to run and try everything out, but no matter where we went they always ventured back to the swings.

Once we wore out our running feet and swinging legs we went down to the Marina to see all the boats. The slips are starting to fill up, but there are plenty of spots open to be filled by new boats for us to check out on a future trip.

We rested our feet to watch a boat head out to the Lake, then off to the truck we went again, this time to enjoy a visit at grandma's house.

And finally home to enjoy the rest of our evening blogging about our fun filled day!

Happy Mother's Day

Shopping rain or shine

Today we planned a girls shopping trip downtown Cedarburg to all the fun little shops. We had our eyes on the forecast last night and all morning and knew rain was heading in, but said the heck with it we're going! So I packed up my girls and met my mom and 2 of my 3 sisters for a day of fun.

Miss Mackenzie

Miss Lainey

Making our way down the first side of the street we quickly noticed many of the stores are still closed on Sundays (until it warms up) or they opened later than we arrived. But low and behold we found a store Miss Mackenzie LOVED!

She was so proud of the loot she picked out at the candy store that she carried that bag all day.

After visiting Mackenzie's candy store it was off to Mom's candy store. I must say if you are ever in Cedarburg you must stop at Amy's and pick up one of her Apples, they are AMAZING!

Miss Lainey sure loved eyeing up all those chocolates. Thank goodness they were all behind glass, or they may have all been on her lap.

Thanks to the rain we made a quick run back to where we started to have a yummy lunch at Creme and Crepes.

So thank you to my wonderful Mom, sister Shelley and sister Tricia for spending the day with us. And thank you to my 2 beautiful girls who were so well behaved and such good sports in the rain. Here's to Mackenzie and her favorite words of the day....

Let's go shopping!

My Hobby

12 years I came across a simple recipe for cutout cookies. I wanted to make something for a work bake sale so I thought why not give this a try. Never in my wildest dreams would I ever image a small little hobby would turn into a busy home built business. Last March I was asked to make cookies to sell at a local cookie shop. That also meant I had to spend more time away from the kids as the cookies needed to be made in a licensed kitchen. I gave it a whirl but the extra time away from home grew old fast so quickly my husband and I went to work on a 2nd kitchen in our home to become licensed with the state to bake from home.



We put in a VERY plain, basic kitchen in our basement making sure to follow the health departments guidelines to pass inspection in a timely manor and the rest is history. When the health inspection game through he asked me how many cookies I thought I would make over the next year. My answer...oh I don't know maybe 1000. Well it turns out I was WAY off. That 1000 ended up being 5,060 cookies. Yep that's right, over 5,000 made all by myself in the comfort of my own home.

The next question I always get it how do you possibly get all those cookies done with a house full of kids? The answer... I don't know. Some how its just all works out. I manage to find time at all different hours of the day, or night to get them done. Sometimes its first thing in the morning after I get the boys on the bus, the girls and I head downstairs to get to work. Other times its early evening when Steve is home to tend to the kids. And other times its late at night after I get home from working 2nd shift at my Nursing job.

Last week alone I made 340 cookies. At the beginning of the week as I plan it all out I can't help but wonder, will I get it all done. So far I've successfully met every timeline. So here's to next week and the 200 cookies and 75 cupcakes I have agreed to make. I'm not too nervous, I know I'll get them done, but I am nervous about the fact that I am also having a rummage next week too. So away I go to find my running shoes as another busy week is right around the corner.

Monday so soon

Another busy weekend has left us with a quick return to monday. So quick in fact that we over slept until 20 minutes before the boys had to be out the door to the bus stop. So quickly we ran to get dressed  get the school bags together and out the door they ran. Here's to hoping tuesday morning is a little less hectic!