Carter turns 3!

Carter's birthday was Saturday and he turned 3. We had a birthday party at our house in the evening. We spent the day getting ready. His big highlight was going to get his balloons. He had a great time. We thought it might rain so we planned for it and of course it didn't. It really was a great night and everyone had a good time. Here are some pics from my little man's party.

Carter with his cousins Lila and Tyler swinging


All of the kiddos eating dinner


My 3 year old


Carter with his new firefighters helmet


Aunt Abby made Carter an awesome construction cake. It was an orange construction cone with a big pile of dirt(chocolate cake) with a Tonka truck driving into the cake.



YUMMY! Thank you Aunt Abby!


This is Carter's attempt(of course he could not do it without the tongue hanging out) to put the stake in the ground to play croquet.


Future baseball player. I love this gift because he can play baseball without me! I know that sounds terrible but he always asks me to throw the ball just two more times. It is funny when he actually hits it because he gets so excited.


There goes Spiderman. Carter just loves to dress up and before his birthday he only had Cinderella and girly stuff. He got Spiderman, a police officer and a fisherman to play with now. What a relief.


At the end of the night we put his new GeoTrax together.

Carter opening his birthday cards that came in the mail

Last Wednesday

So, we bought a new computer which easily solved the internet problems I was having. Now I am learning a whole new computer. I love it though. Anyway, last Wednesday Carter and I went to an Outdoor Discovery class offered through the rec dept and it was so much fun. It was for 2-5 yr. olds and they read a story, went on a nature hike and made bird feeders. Carter loved it. He called it his school. His teacher's name was Mr. Jamie and Carter has been talking about him all week. Here are some pics from that day.

Reason for not posting

My computer cannot connect to my internet (need to get a new wireless card or a new computer because the battery is shot too so why not?) so I cannot upload any pictures right now. I will post pics soon. Carter's birthday was yesterday so I have several to share.

A few scenic pictures from the weekend in Wisconsin

The perfect holiday weekend...

Our holiday weekend started out a little rough but turned out perfect. We were one of the "unlucky" ones to lose power from last Wednesday's storms. Unfortunately, we were leaving for Door County, WI Thursday morning. It sure made packing a little difficult with no way of doing laundry, no lights and I couldn't bake my cookies. We went over to my mom's to have dinner, get things ready to go and gave the kids baths. The estimated restoration time was not until Saturday at 11pm so I knew that I had to take care of all the food in my refrigerators and have someone watch the house. My neighbors were all getting water in their basements and running generators to keep their pumps going. Luckily I did not see any water before I left. My dad came and took all of my frozen food to his house and we packed up in the dark. I kept calling the house to see if the power was on and the answering machine finally picked up Friday evening. My neighbor said she came over and turned all my lights off because the house was really lit up. So, I think I lucked out because I did not lose any food and no water in the basement.

So, the kids and I left Thursday morning and had to pick Matt up in Milwaukee on his way home from his business trip to Texas. Traffic in Chicago was terrible and we got behind so Matt waited for us for a while. But overall we had no car problems and arrived safely! We spent the weekend at Matt's aunt and uncle's cottage. Friday morning my father-in-law and I went out fishing with Matt's uncle and caught 4 salmon. It was a blast. I didn't even mind getting up at 4 because it was sooo much fun. I spent the afternoon back at the cottage resting out in the sun and playing with the kids while Matt went out fishing for the evening. He and his mom each caught one. We had dinner and watched the fireworks around the bay(their cottage is on Green Bay). I have NEVER seen so many fireworks going off all at once. Saturday morning we got up at 3:15am to go fishing again. We wanted to get an earlier start. We caught 4 more fish. Thanks Uncle Dave for the wonderful fishing! We spent the rest of the afternoon at the cottage enjoying the sun and playing in the other boat. Riley and I tried tubing together but it worked better with her by herself. I thought she would be scared but she just kept wanting to go faster and faster. We also did some kayaking which was a first for me. Overall, we had a terrific time and cannot thank them enough for a perfect weekend. We decided shortly after leaving that we wanted to check into taking the ferry home. We were dreading the trip through Chicago. We opted to take it and everything worked out perfectly. We loved it and the kids had so much to do. It was really relaxing and we would do it again. It was nice to not be buckled in the car all day and we ate lunch, played cards and Carter even took a nap. We got home and unpacked in time for bed. It was a perfect weekend.

Finally a slow week...

So far this week has been slow and somewhat relaxing. We had a really nice dinner at my Dad and Phyllis' Sunday evening. My dad makes the BEST BBQ chicken ever. We all try to make it like him but it never turns out. So it was a huge treat for all of us that he made us his chicken. It is truly an art! We also tried to get the bathroom ready for tile again and it did not happen. This bathroom project was not timed well with all of Matt's travels. We only have a couple days a week that he is home to work on it and there are a million other things to do when he is home too. So we gave ourselves a deadline and we will meet it no matter what. Since Sunday I have been mudding and sanding and now I can start painting today. I am planning on being done with my part before the holiday. I am sure something will come up as it always does!

Riley is having a friend over today and she has been looking forward to that for a week. Jason bought Rockband for the Wii and that is all she has wanted to do. She is really good at singing but only knows one song. Jason starts his job today too. Kids are waking...better go.