Status Update - Summer Vacation June 2017

Grace and Clara would continue their busy summer schedules in June with a few new activities. Both girls joined the Big Bend Woods swim team lead by coach Jennifer Christy. Mrs. Christy was their swim lessons teacher the past two summers so it made sense for the girls to participate in swim team once their skills and age allowed them to do so. Grace participated in 3 swim meets and Clara participated in 2 this season. It was a great experience for them to get involved in a competitive solo sport and both Mary and I believe swimming is an important life skill so we'll continue to push BBW swim team as long as we can. Good job girls on your first year on the team!

The big event for the month of June was our annual trip to Wisconsin to visit Papa Dan and Grandma Karen, spend a week at Aunt Kim's lake house in St. Germain and visit whomever else we could visit while in Wisconsin. This year's trip to Wisconsin included spending a couple of days in Eau Claire with their old babysitter/day care provider, Jolene Aasen. Jolene used to watch the girls at the Color My World daycare center until we switched daycare centers around 2012 to the Learning Center. Even after we left Color My World, we enlisted Jolene to watch them about one night a week so Mary and I could get things done in evenings after work. Sometimes that meant running errands or going to the gym, but often it meant going to dinner and a movie or just going out somewhere for a few hours. We really miss that living in St. Louis. Jolene moved away from Wisconsin around the time we left as well, but we've stayed in touch with her through Facebook. Jolene now lives in Arizona as a special needs teacher so she has the summers off. She happened to be in Wisconsin visiting family the same weeks we were up in Wisconsin this year so Mary arranged for us to all get together in Eau Claire and spend the night at one of downtown Eau Claire's newest hotels, the Lismore. Mary, Jolene, Grace and Clara went to see Grease live at the State Theater while I spent the evening with old friends of mine, Eric, Jim, and Brock. After the show, Jolene spent some time with the girls while Mary joined the four of us out on the town. What a great way to reconnect not just with the city where they were born, but a city where Mary and I met, got married and spent many years of lives in. Thankfully, the city of Eau Claire has continued to evolve and improve their downtown scene so going back is never a depressing event.

Jolene with Grace and Cylas. Cylas used to attend Color My World with Grace and he even had a crush on her. Of course, the kids don't remember each other anymore as this was over 5 years ago!

At the Lismore hotel in downtown Eau Claire.

The rest of our first week in Wisconsin was spent in Tomah, at Grandma and Grandpa's house. We went to the public pool where Grace jumped off the high dive, took a day trip to La Crosse to the children's museum, and had many trips to the various parks that my parents live within walking distance to. The week was used as an opportunity for the girls to be with their grandparents for longer than they normally would be any other time of the year. I know the grandparents enjoyed it.

Hanging out at Lake Tomah Park.

Finally, we spent the second of our two weeks in Wisconsin at Aunt Kim & Uncle Andreas' lake house. Grace and Clara spent time playing with their cousin Jackson, and Andreas' friend Glenn's son, Sullivan. Grandma Karen and Grandpa Dan joined for the entire week and Uncle Andy with Baxter spent a few days/nights as well. The weather was unseasonably cool and rainy so not as much time was spent on the lake enjoying typical summer activities such as boating, swimming, fishing and jet skiing. The good news is that it allowed us to check out some of the local museums and go on a day trip to Rhinelander where we saw the infamous Bodag! This was our first year trying out a stand-up paddleboard (or SUP) and everyone seemed to enjoy and got the hang of it pretty quickly. Guess we'll have to try that again when we are home as well.

Riding Papa Dan's boat on Little St. Germain Lake.

Clara fishing with Cousin Jackson.

Grace and I on the SUP. She eventually went out on her own.

The kids at the Vilas County Historical Museum in Saynor.

Mary and the girls with the famous Hodag in Rhinelander.

Status Update - Summer Vacation May 2017

Hi all, dad here blogging for a change. Posts have been few and far between over the past 2 years so I wanted to make sure I captured what a typical summer vacation looked like for Grace and Clara. In the summer of 2017, Grace is 8 years old and will be going into 3rd grade and Clara is 6 and will be going into 1st grade. We have been lucky for the past few summers to utilize an in home daycare provider (Melissa Long, whose daughter Makayla is one of Grace's friends) instead of a daycare center such as KinderCare, which we used our first summer in Ballwin, 2014. The use of an in-home daycare provider also offers challenges, especially when that daycare provider has 3 kids of her own, including a young son that is under a year old. We have to work around her family's vacations, doctor schedules and other "emergencies" that pop up so we know we need to find alternate activities for the girls as well as schedule our own vacations. Overall, the experience has been great as if offers the girls an opportunity to play with kids besides each other and gets them out of the house so dad can work!

Summer vacation for the Parkway school district/Oakbrook Elementary starts in mid-May. The end of the school year activity for Kindergarteners is putting on the Three Piggy Opera for family members. Clara was extremely excited to sing and the songs she'd been learning for the past month or so and thankfully she didn't exhibit any of her trademark shyness when on stage. Great job Clara!

As for Grace, she ended 2nd grade with an opportunity to share projects with family and a chance to say goodbye to her friends and teacher, Mrs. Evans, for the summer. Granted, some of her friends, like Makayla and Kara (in the picture below), she would see during the course of the summer regardless but I'm sure it seems like a big goodbye for an 8 year old.

Clara getting ready to perform.

The Kindergarten gang. Deetya, Saanvi, Alysse and Clara.

Grace and her favorite teacher, Mrs. Evans

The three amigos; Mikayla, Grace, Kara.

In May, we were finishing up gymnastics lessons for the season, which both Grace and Clara participated in. The season culminated in an "Olympic" event which was meant as a showcase for the students to show off their skills to their family members. Both girls participated and did their best considering they have had only 1 full season plus a partial season of gymnastics behind them.

From a weather standpoint, May is the perfect month to go camping in Missouri so our first weekend out of school, we went camping at Washington State Park. Washington State Park is located about an hour south of St. Louis so perfect location to pack up and go and hope there was a site available. There were a number of state parks and campgrounds still closed from the terrible flooding of the Meremec river earlier that spring so the few parks that were open were packed. Mary had to convince the camp hosts to let us have a site that had been reserved for the weekend by no-shows so we lucked out for sure. I  played catch using a nerf football with Grace, Clara presented a variety of topics at the amphitheater (to an audience of just me), and Mary took us on a hike, which Clara obviously protested.

Happy faces during a hike break at Washington State Park.

Grace was also participating in softball at this time, her first year on the team, so it was exciting for me to watch her grow and progress as a ball-player. I was extremely nervous watching her at catcher the first game I was able to attend. Softball at this age utilizes a machine to pitch which is just as erratic as a human. Grace took a few wild pitches and foul balls to the head (face mask/helmet to the rescue), legs and arms which resulted in bruises, but she never acted like it bothered her and she stuck in there to stop the ball whenever she could. Coach Tyler was proud of her catching ability as well as me. As a batter, Grace did very well and because of their age, the erratic nature of the pitching machine, and the requirement that the batters swing at everything (no walks allowed), each batter got 7 strikes so I rarely saw Grace strike out. Grace enjoyed the experience enough to agree to play fall ball, in spite of a scary moment when she fouled a ball back into her neck. There were some tears and ultimately a bruise, but Grace stayed in the game after taking that particular at-bat off and was back on the field the next inning. Grace and her team even got to walk around Busch Stadium with other little leaguers as a reward for an excellent season!

Grace and teammates in stands at Busch Stadium during the May 31st game against the Dodgers.

Grace's coaches and team, the Lightning, got to parade around Busch Stadium before the start of the game!

We took trips to Six Flags, where we are members for the second year in a row as well as a trip to Grant's Farm with two of Mary's co-workers, Vicki (her manager), Vicki's children, and Mark Post. Mark and Clara seem to have a special buddy/buddy relationship and Mark needles Grace about her constant Packer gear as he is an avid Patriot fan. Both girls agreed to like Tom Brady over Aaron Rodgers in order to get ice cream from him, but kept their fingers crossed so as to not disappoint their father. Now that's something I can be proud of!

Riding the trolley into Grant's Farm and having a snack with Vicki's children.

On the ferris wheel at Six Flags.

City Garden

We had July 3rd, 2015 off to celebrate the holiday.  As no big plans we went to town  to breakfast at Russell's on Macklind then we went downtown to City Gardens.  The kids loved playing in the water and finding the sculptures.

Russell's on Macklind.

 

One of the two splash gardens

Sculptures throughout the park

A couple of models on the white rabbits 

Boots

Boots

Who would've thought I would raise a boot wearing daughter!    Oh my goodness those pink boots are infamous for Clara.    I thought the pink boots were her first pair of boots.   But now that Facebook reminds you of your old photos I am finding Clara's first pair of boots were another pair from Grandma.

Now, if you see pictures of Clara, you probably know the boots are not worn because she loves the country or all things outdoors.   In fact, she is quite the opposite as she hates hiking and bugs.   She even debates if Girl Scouts is a good choice as she is very worried about having to go on a hike with the group.  However, Clara believes she is a great fashionista.   And as such, boots are a very important accessory to her glamorous outfits.

The most adored pink boots (and the earlier red and brown boots) came from Grandma Pat.   Grandma Pat hoped I would grow up a cowgirl (sorry mom).  She is still hoping one of her grandchildren get bit by the horse bug - her best bet may be in Grace.  Clara though, has been the most appreciative of the boots given to her by Grandma.

I don't think there has been a more complimented piece of clothing the girls have worn over the pink boots.

Grandma Pat originally gave them to Grace but they mainly remained in the closet.  Clara gladly took them over when they probably were still too big.  She wore them any chance we let her.
At first, we tried to keep her from wearing them at daycare and school - as they could definitely hurt someone if used as a weapon.   Hopefully though all her classmates have avoided her strong heals - I know each of us in the family have felt them come down on our toes at least once!



Now in Kindergarten, we have given up.   She wears the pink boots any day it isn't PE.   She probably has been wearing those boots for two years, I really don't know how they still fit her feet.   So when it came time for Grace to get a pair of boots for horseback riding lessons, Clara asked for a new pair too.    How can I deny when she has worn the other pair so religiously!


Clara's boots on the left, Grace's on the right

So now we have two girls wearing their new boots proudly on any day there is not gym at school.   I am not sure if these new pairs will last as long as the old pink pair.   Their mom dreams Grace's boots could be handed down to Clara to improve the return on investment.  However, we will live in the moment with the new boots and just appreciate sturdy footwear that can keep their feet dry.  
And the girls will appreciate their own unique styles are captured in their footwear.