Michael, three years old

Darling Michael turned three this week. And what a delightful week it was! He received phone calls, cards, and packages from several loved ones over the past few days. He's felt so special.

If anything defines Michael, it's his talkative, social nature. Michael carries on happy conversations with strangers, memorizes moderately-long picture books, and consistently tells me "thank you for making this dinner for me." Recently he made me blush when he sighed, "Mommy, you make my life so happy." Michael, you are a joy!

We celebrated his third birthday in style with a little Betty Crocker number:

Since he loves playing "restaurant," "store," and "kitchen," he got a shopping basket, a shopping cart, 

and some fabric M&M cookies as gifts. (Zachary and I made these when Michael was napping. Does my homemade gift make up for the semi-homemade cake?)

 The next day we set up a shop for each of the three older boys

and they spent a couple elated hours shopping, exchanging, and bargaining with each other. When Eric came home and joined in, the boys became so excited that they could hardly keep their feet on the ground.

This is just about how excited I am about being with Michael every day. Oh Michael, I could take a dozen of you! Happy, happy birthday.

Campout

Fall descended upon southern Wisconsin just before Labor Day, and we've enjoyed crisp mornings and pleasant afternoons since then. We figured that we had better schedule a camping trip soon, though, before it got too cool for comfort! Friday was perfectly mild--even a midnight thunderstorm sounded beautiful from underneath our trusty rainfly.

Can you believe that we fit into our dear four-man tent? The kids slept like puppy dogs; even though Eric reported that he had slept with a tree root piercing his sternum, I know that he loved it, too. Is there anything more beautiful than waking up in the middle of a forest? It even makes the mess in my van/mudroom/garage worth the trouble.

We loved these:

an early morning hike around the campground, where the boys collected piles of treasures,

making s'mores (at night and again for "breakfast dessert"),

and a venture out into the lake, where the boys braved up little by little

(Zachary and Eric are the manliest!).

Just before going home we warmed up on the beach

and made some creatures like "upside-down ice cream cone guy."

Look at those sandy feet on that tired-out boy--this was a successful trip!

Do I dare post a picture of myself with crazy hair, no make-up, and wet pants? Yes, now we are officially friends. Enjoy the lovely trees and precious boys, anyway. I love this memory.

Boys

Last week our little nephew Jackson came to visit for a few days. We did regular things, like bike riding and going to parks and reading books and making forts, and Jackson fit right in. Hurray! That was a very good thing, because in January we're going to have a new baby. Hurray again!

A few weeks ago I went in for an ultrasound, when the OB and I discovered that our fifth child would be a BABY GIRL. My immediate response was obvious:

A green gingham sundress with a fancy white cardigan, hot pink jeans with a snazzy striped shirt, play dresses with flowered bloomers! I had a blast.

Yesterday I went in for a follow-up ultrasound, when the sonographer's first words were, "That baby is NOT hiding the fact that he's a boy." A boy? My girl...is a boy? Yes, he definitely, definitely is. The OB who reviewed the images even used the phrase "textbook boy image." For heaven's sake! At least for four weeks I was expecting a girl, which is longer than I've ever expected a girl in my whole mothering experience.

I got over the disappointment in less than an hour, when I was back with my four beautiful boys:

Jacob, who scrounges around for extra chore money to use at the baseball card shop each Saturday;

Zachary, who stealthily saran-wrapped his entire bike one night while I was preparing dinner;

Michael, who sleeps with cowboy boots on and carries a harmonica around in his pocket; and

Adam, who was squealing so euphorically in Joann yesterday that I had to take him away from the bright fabric aisles.

What are the chances of having five boys in a row? About 3 percent? Sounds like we're pretty lucky.

Jacob, loving first grade

Eric's mom dropped in to visit for a few days this past week. Yeah! Her visit corresponded with the beginning of school, which was a great help to me. The day before school started I was able to go on a last-day-of-summer-vacation date with Jacob, where we went mini-golfing:

The kid even got a hole-in-one and ended up beating me by 12 strokes! (For the record, I didn't even let him win. I am horrible at mini-golf; he turned out to be pretty amazing.)

The next day I sent Jacob off to school smiling:

He literally skipped off the bus that afternoon: "That was just TOO MUCH fun, Mom. The teachers are nice. Everyone is nice." And the next day: "That was 10 BILLION times more fun than yesterday." And the third day: "The days just keep getting more and more fun. It's going to keep going that way forever." If that weren't enough, Jacob has an after-school friend: another first-grader on the bus and he have hung out for a bit after school each day. (Here they are hanging with Zachary.)

He hasn't been this buoyant for months. Do you know how much his happiness cheers my heart? I grin every time I think of him. Hurray for first grade! 

Devil's Lake

While cleaning this morning, I realized that I was fighting a losing battle: the kids were actually making messes faster than I was able to clean them up. So I decided to cut my losses and leave for a day trip to Devil's Lake, a state park about 40 miles north. I left half the breakfast dishes in the sink, a couple loads of unfolded laundry on the couch, and possibly some other messes around the house. We took off!

We only forgot two things: the sunscreen (which cost us about $7) and the camera (which cost us about 8 megapixels). Oh well. Here are some phone pictures of the kids building on a perfectly sunshiny day:

Forestland surrounded the beach area on three sides, and the warm water extended for a hundred feet before becoming deep--just ideal!

This river system became more complex throughout the day, with dams, reservoirs, and cities across the area. 

Sunny Michael told me, "Mom, this is the best place in the world!" 

Adam has officially figured out how to play in the sand instead of eating it--hurray! Even though he missed a nap, he was a darling all day and really had his share of fun.

After scrubbing down and redressing (you've got to love those dank state park showerhouses!), we stopped by the concession stand and bought some reasonably-priced ice cream cones:

We ended up being gone until dinnertime, which was long enough to wear them out: three of the kids fell asleep on the ride home. I took this picture at a stoplight, which was probably even more irresponsible than leaving my housework undone at home.

I tidied up and de-sanded the swim gear tonight after the boys went down. Being in the sunshine all afternoon has made the clean quiet even more satisfying. Good day, good night. 

Fun to be one

Can you believe that Adam is one year old today? Happy, happy birthday, darling boy!

We celebrated with a bike ride and baseball in the morning and a trip to the toy store in the afternoon:

Topped off with some carrot cake, 

I'd say it was a successful commemoration.

Fun facts on Adam:

• He snuggles up and hears a song to go to sleep. I rock him to sleep with "Nearer, My God, to Thee;" Eric sings jingles from 1980's toy commercials. Adam loves both.
• In his first year of life, Adam has traveled to twenty-three states!
• Adam has probably read Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar a few hundred times. He always relaxes on the page about Saturday and then impatiently turns the pages until we get to the butterfly. 
• He shouts "hi" to strangers and puts his right hand straight up in the air to wave.
• He lies on the floor with a toy car and runs it back and forth while saying "brrrmm, brrrmm!"
• A few weeks ago Adam met his great-great-grandpa, Grandpa Roy, who is 102!

How would our family be complete without our little Adam? A friend to everyone, Adam fills our home with joy. Happy birthday, little one.

Fenced

This week we got a fence, and it came with all kinds of bonuses. First of all, the fencers brought in a skid steer with a drill attachment. If you ever want some time to fold your laundry, I highly recommend the skid steer:

The skid steer was more than captivating, however: it also left some wonderfully large clumps of dirt behind

PLUS some kid-sized holes.

Are you beginning to see how exciting this all was? There was also a pile of wood perfect for climbing

and some scrap wood for building.

We're talking HOURS of building

(and painting).

I dug this "garage tunnel" by Michael:

We were also given a pile of extra fence planks for the boys to build with. Jacob made a list of 18 ideas for that project, including "a clubhouse," "a pretzel stand," and "a go-kart." We'll see how it goes. 

The fence served us nicely last night, when the boys dropped and retrieved parachute guys during the entire time that I prepared dinner:

Ah yeah.

In other news, 

• Eric and I had our 8th anniversary on Friday! It's our special tradition to have Eric either be on overnight call or out of town on our anniversary--we observed this ritual for the sixth time in a row. But we celebrated yesterday, when we bought ourselves bikes and then took a fun family ride around Madison. Being married to Eric is my greatest joy.
• I am the new organist for our church! I've been working for a few hours each week to pipe some new life into my repertoire. It's been a delight and a challenge.
• The house is coming together! There are many rooms that have NO BOXES in them. Eric's study is "done." There are also blinds in the windows now, and I think that it turned out nicely: