Sunday, August 19, 2012

Gone Fishing

The last few weeks have been busy for our little family. Besides normal everyday life and getting ready for the baby, Owen had Art Camp, we visited the Milwaukee County Zoo, had play dates with friends and we took Owen on his first fishing adventure.

Art Camp was a lot of fun this session. Owen was very excited that it was all about fish.  Besides the normal painting projects we made fishing lures and rods and a fish out of clay. One of Owen's favorite activities is when they have the trucks and cars out to paint with. He is able to drive the trucks through the paint then leave tracks on the paper. It is amazing that we get anything else done when the trucks are available. We get to take all of the art he created home, so over the course of the last year we have lots of Owen's art hanging up in the house. This time they created a book full of all of the artwork. It really turned out neat and was a great way to display/save his art without having it all over the house. Owen really enjoys looking at it.
Making his clay fish.

Creating the book cover for his art.

Loves driving those trucks and cars!

Finger painting is fun and messy....

"Flowers" by Owen. He is starting to tell me what he is painting.

Painting his fish on the last day.

We are trying to take Owen on some fun family adventures before the baby comes. Last weekend we gave him the option of either going to the State Fair or the Zoo. Currently, the Milwaukee Zoo has a great dinosaur exhibit so the zoo won out. We saw the dinosaurs three different times that day. I think that dinosaurs have surpassed tractors in the favorite toy department, but it is good that he is branching out some. Owen was also excited to see the hippo's, giraffe's, monkeys and seals. A highlight was when we were looking at the seals underwater and Owen spotted some "zoo poo" at the bottom of the pool. The things that humor a toddler....  We also rode on the zoo train which was a lot of fun.
Love those dinosaurs!

Riding the train.


Roar!!!


This weekend we decided to take Owen fishing. He had a great time picking out his fishing rod at the store and proceeded to try and go fishing in the house when we got home. An almost three year old with a fishing rod is a little dangerous to say the least! After dinner we took him to Woodlake and try our hand at fishing. Woodlake is a man-made lake that is about 1/2 mile from our house. It is located behind the Shops at Woodlake and they keep it stocked with fish. We have ventured there many times to eat ice cream and watch the ducks and geese but never have fished. Our adventure consisted of a few nibbles from fish, catching lots of lake weed and Owen throwing rocks and gravel into the lake. Even though we were not successful at catching any fish we had a great time and are looking forward to going again. Owen did a great job reeling in his line. Casting is another story....
First cast of the day!


I am sure that throwing rocks in the water didn't help... but Owen had fun!


We have been very lucky and the heat and humidity have all but disappeared. The highs have been in the 70's and we have been able to have the windows open again. It feels more like September than August. That does make us a little nervous, hope that doesn't mean that winter will come early this year! One of the many nice things about the cooler weather is that Owen and I have been able to go to the park more and spend a lot more time outside again.  I keep reminding myself that we are in the home stretch now.... three weeks from tomorrow and we get to meet the little one!


Sunday, August 5, 2012

Happy Birthday Kohler!

This week we had a mini-visit from my parents. They were in Minnesota the last weekend in July and extended their trip to make a quick visit to see us.  They arrived Monday evening and left Friday afternoon. Owen loved having them here this week. Unfortunately, everyone except my mom came down with a killer summer cold so it was a pretty low key week. We were able to get organized for the baby and Owen got lots of play time with two of his favorite people.  Many block towers were built and immediately destroyed and a few hours were logged in the sandbox.

On Thursday we did have an adventure into the Ravine to go frog hunting. Owen was excited to splash in the creek, throw rocks and search for frogs. We did find two frogs, but Papa's frog catching skills are not quiet what they use to be....

Grammy and Owen looking for frogs.

Papa and Owen throwing rocks and splashing in the creek.

We found a frog (it is sitting on the square rock) but it got the best of Papa!


Friday was a bit of a sad day for us with my parents leaving. This was the first time that Owen realized that he was saying goodbye and was sad about it. I thought that goodbyes would get easier for us but I am not sure if that will ever happen. Thankfully we have more visits to look forward to this fall. My parent will be out in 5 weeks when the baby is born, Brian's parents will be here when the little one is about 2 weeks old and Emilie, Steve and the girlies will be visiting in October. We are very excited to see everyone so soon! 

This weekend was the Village of Kohler's Centennial Celebration.  Friday they had a big concert in the park and fireworks, then on Saturday they had a parade and village picnic. Since we were all still battling the cold we didn't get to participate in the festivities as much as I would have liked to. Brian and Owen saw the band play a few songs and we all watched the fireworks from our backyard.  They shot the fireworks off from the soccer fields that are located about a block from our house. It is amazing how loud they are when they are that close!  The parade featured Mr. and Mrs. Kohler driving a horse drawn buggy, University of Wisconsin Marching Band and the Milwaukee Brewers Racing Sausages.  For a small town of 2,000 the parade was very nice and lasted about 35 minutes. Owen has discovered the joy of picking up the candy that has been thrown out and is quiet fast at it now.  

Brian and Owen at the concert.

Ready for the parade.

Here it comes!

Mr. and Mrs. Kohler... Owen loved the horses.

The Racing Sausages.... Brian was very excited about these...

The Shriners are a little scarier in Wisconsin. They zoom around on motorcycles instead of the buggies.... yikes!

They also have little cars like they do in Oregon....I had to pull Owen up on my lap so he wouldn't get run over! 

Owen was very excited about the tractor in the parade.