We had a great day eating orange pancakces, jack-o-lantern shaped grilled cheeses, and more than our fair of candy from the trick or treat buckets. The girls had a great time, and so did we. Kudos to Summer for loving the Wizard of Oz and organizing our costumes this year! Hope you had a great Halloween too!
We joined the Milwaukee Children’s Tour Club this fall and have been loving it. It’s a group of 50 families that go on tours of places around Milwaukee. It’s great because they schedule each tour 4 times…like 10 and 1 on both Tuesday and Wednesday, so there’s pretty much always a time you can make it. So far we have been to a model train company, Miller Park, the Milwaukee Planetarium, and Glacier Rock Pumpkin Farm. It gives us something to do almost every week and a chance to meet other moms (and dads sometimes).
This week we went to the pumpkin farm. I wasn’t sure how the girls were going to react to all the animals, and if I weren’t there to witness it firsthand I would not have believed it myself. Summer, the same girl who freaks out when she sees a dog within a mile vicinity, the girl clung to me at the zoo as we fed the goats, the girl who panics when there is a fly buzzing around the kitchen, is the very same girl who RODE A PONY, who MILKED A COW, who PET SMALL ANIMALS!! Seriously, folks, I thought were were years away from this breakthrough. She hopped right up on the pony and was all smiles the whole time. She fearlessly grabbed that udder and milked it. She voluntarily reached into the pig pen and stroked the Vietnamese Potbellied pig. Whose kid is this??? Surely not mine! Hannah loved it all, but she’s always been a little braver than her big sister in matters of animalia.
It was a windy, chilly day, and my body definitely paid the price that night for pulling the wagon around the hilly farm, but we all had a great time and left with lots of exciting stories to tell. We got to pet kittens, bunnies, hedgehogs, and chinchillas (soooo soft!) We chased and caught chickens, saw emus, llamas, goats, pigs, horses, cows, peafowl, and a giant turkey named Doug. We even got to go on a hayride and pick out a pumpkin to take home. A lovely little field trip to the middle of nowhere. 
Did you know cranberries are Wisconsin’s #1 fruit crop, both in value and acreage? Neither did we until we went on a tour of the cranberry bogs! It’s been on our list of things to do for awhile and this year we finally made it happen. Cranberries are harvested in late September and October, when the fall colors are absolutely gorgeous. Seriously, this was one of the coolest, and most gorgeous tours we’ve ever been on. And we’ve been on a lot of tours!
We went to Glacial Lakes Cranberries near Wisconsin Rapids (acutally in a town called Cranmoor) and for $15 per adult for an hour or so tour, we got to ride the Berry Bus around a huge cranberry farm, through the bogs and everything. The owner of the farm was the guy who actually drove us around and narrated. We even got to walk into a cranberry field and pick and eat the fruit right off the vine. Yes, they grow on vines in dry, sandy soil. When it’s time to harvest they flood the fields with water then run this machine over them that shakes the berries off and then they float! Then they corral them with these floating tubes and then run them up into the trucks. The bright red cranberries against the changing trees was so pretty. SO pretty.
You can buy all sorts of cranberry related stuff in the gift shop, including fresh cranberries, cookies, caramels, and jams and jellies. We got some fresh berries, cookies (which were delicious), our traditional magnet, and some chapstick (of course). The girls were pretty good on the tour, although neither really liked eating the raw cranberries. They are a bit tart!
We had plans to go on the Point Brewery tour next but ran out of time. We did stop by and pick up a case of root beer and a variety 4-pack though. Summer loved the Orange Cream soda and said it “tickled her tongue”. Hannah wasn’t really digging it. By now though, it was after 2 pm and we got the girls up at 6:45 am to leave. They were pretty much spent. They would have been a disaster on the brewery tour….besides, we’ve been on plenty of brewery tours and once you go on one, you’ve pretty much been on them all, right?
It was such a fun little excursion, and interesting to learn a little more about our state. And one (or 3!) more things to check off our list!
For years I’ve heard about this Bay Beach park up in Green Bay. An amusement park with kiddie rides and they are all just a quarter. Jigga-wha?? Sign me up! So we finally made it up one Saturday and had an absolute blast. The only hiccup was that our 2 hour drive up turned out to be a little longer because we got caught up in what was apparently the World’s Largest Truck Convoy. Who knew? But you better believe we saw a TON of semi trucks!
Indeed, most rides cost just one ticket, or 25 cents. We got $10 worth of tickets and it was just perfect for us. The girls got to ride everything once, and we all got to ride the train, the giant slide, and I took the girls on the ferris wheel, which was slightly terrifying and fast, but the girls loved it. We finished with some snow cones, which tasted just like I remembered they did when I would get them as a kid from the little truck that drove by my grandparent’s house in Texas.
Did I mention there is no admission price to get in?? This place is awesome. The weather was perfect, it wasn’t too crowded, we had a nice little picnic in the park next to it and just had a fabulous little family outing. I love days like that. We’ll definitely be back!
We had a party when we got back home with some of her little friends. I suppressed my desire to do a cute original theme and went with her one true love: Elmo. I will say that since he is so popular there were plenty of ideas and Elmo paraphernalia available! Although now that I think of it, I still made everything myself…
Hannah was being a little bit of an anti-social stinker that day, so I’m lucky to have any pictures of her smiling at all. It was a pretty low-key party, the weather was gorgeous, so we all just hung out outside and played.
At her 2 year check-up she weighed in at 21 lbs (.9%) and 31” (2%). Keepin’ it real below the growth charts! She eats like a horse so I’m not really sure where it’s all going. She loves to chat, chat, chat and sing, sing, sing. She sometimes insists that we call her “Hannimal”, a nickname I made up for her awhile ago when she was acting crazy. It’s totally fitting for her, because sometimes she is straight up an animal. She won’t be winning any color identification contests any time soon—every color is blue to her. But we’re working on it. She’s still not the best sleeper, much to my dismay, and despite all the stuffed animals and blankets and books and tissues and water cups she says she needs in her crib to help her sleep. It’s a wonder there’s any room for her at all.
She really is in the most fun stage right now. She says and does such funny things, and she knows that they are funny so it makes it even funnier. One of her favorite things to do is run somewhere and yell “I’m running!!!!”
She loves dogs and can always hear one barking.
Every morning we have this exact conversation:
Hannah: Where’s daddy?
Me: At work.
Hannah: To make money?
Me: Yup
Hannah: Again?!?! (except she pronounces it o-gain, which I love)
She and Summer usually fight all day long, but there are brief moments where they will play together or share and it gives me hope that one day they will actually get along and be friends. Just yesterday they put on their dress up clothes and Summer asked Hannah if she wanted to “get married at the temple with me?” Too cute.
We love this little peanut. Not that I’m happy about my miscarriage last fall, but not having a newborn right now is really helping to be able to appreciate and enjoy her and all the things she is learning and doing. I feel like I don’t really remember Summer at this stage because Hannah was a newborn. I guess it all works out the way it’s supposed to. But I still can’t believe I have an almost 4-year-old and a 2-year-old. They are growing up just too darn fast. :(
The stars aligned and miracles occurred and all of Derrick’s siblings worked it out to get together and hit up Newport Beach for our annual beach week vacay. It was kind of hectic leading up to it since we had just gotten back from New York 2 days before, and of course I had to go to the state fair the one day in between! But we made it and had a great time. The girls had an absolute blast with their cousins, and it was so sweet to see them interact with cousins they had never met before but soon became inseparable. It still makes my heart smile to think of how sweet all the older cousins were, boys included—the boys especially—to my girls.
It was a week full of relaxation, fun, food, and family. The girls loved playing on the beach in the sand and looooved playing arcade games at night and riding the ferris wheel. To this day they still talk about “games and the ferris wheel” and how much fun they had. Sad to say it, but my guess is that we’ll never get the entire family back together in Newport Beach ever again. So sad. We’ll probably have to go there solo if we ever want to go again. 
