Busy Weekend!

Extraordinary circumstances have kept us housebound for most the summer, so as you can imagine, we were super excited to load the van and head north over the weekend. We haven't mastered the skill of efficient departures just yet, but we're a work in progress. Preparations began at 7:00 am and we finally hit the road at 3:00 pm. It wasn't our worst exit, but there's definitely room for improvement. Eight whole hours between breakfast and bottles, baths and showers, packing and loading, followed by one final round of lunch, more bottles, and last-minute diaper changes. We arrived in just under 3 hours with no stops and no crying, so that's a semi-success in my book!

Our revolving-door of chaos gets a little tiresome, so I found it completely refreshing to shift gears and focus on someone else for a change. With the much-anticipated arrival of Baby Bender right around the corner, my mom, sister, and I co-hosted a cozy brunch with plentiful showering for one of our favorite people on Saturday. My game has been pretty sub-par for most of all of 2011, so it was a (rare) proud moment when we pulled off a super cute (if I do say so myself) vintage nursery rhyme themed event.

Of course nothing ever goes that smoothly. Upon our arrival, William rolled down the hill with Auntie for an hour, ate dinner, slugged three cups of water, and then topped it all off with some indoor chasing while chanting the "Pease Porridge Hot" rhyme from one of the books. Not surprisingly, he came into the kitchen (red, sweaty, and breathless), as we JUST finished cleaning and barfed all over the floor. Awesome. I have a total vomit phobia, so a pukey kid is my worst nightmare. Unfortunately, I think he inherited this trait from his auntie because it wasn't the first time there's been unnecessary, self-induced, throwing up. We detoured from party prep to hose William's feet in the yard, give another bath, scrub the floor (again), satisfy his now empty stomach, and THEN put him to bed. Whew. Once we got rolling, we cooked, baked and decorated into the wee hours of Saturday morning, but it was totally worth it because the party turned out great.

Jason and "Pa" (my dad) were scheduled for kid duty during the party. It's not easy to disappear with 4 kids for 3 hours, but they tag teamed it and conquered the challenge with two parks, one zoo, and ice cream at Culver's!

Setting up the dessert table: A tablecloth made from Annie's nursery rhyme toile and banner created from 1940's  book pages, antique clothes pins, and ribbons. Baby's Breath in metal pitchers and vintage nursery rhyme figurines found on eBay.

Pease Porridge Hot looks pretty innocent...you'd never guess it was nearly the end of us on Friday night.

Baby Tears in tea cups

Pretty Mama!!

We spent Sunday at the farm with Jason's side of the family. The kids had a great time...cows, tractors, and cousins!

Calling the cows over

Tug O' War with a corn stalk

Our nephew Jaxson, 6 months

Hanging by the barn

First official cousin pic! Because the trips can't sit up, we had to improvise with tires from the barn. Top tire: Charlie and Jaxson. Bottom tire: Ikey and Benny.

Driving the old F-30, Great Grandpa Moll's tractor when Jason was little.

Trying out the newer Ford

From left: Ben, C-Bear, Ike

So, that wraps up our weekend in Wisconsin. We've only attempted that trip once before and this time was exponentially better. (Quick summary: The first time, all 3 babies fussed from Sun Prairie to Stoughton, and then SCREAMED from Stoughton to Beloit. We were embarrassingly unprepared and had to pull over at an interstate BP to ask directions to the nearest Wal-Mart. It was a pathetic scene in the end...there we were, buying ready-to-drink formula at 10:00 at night from the Beloit Wal-Mart, feeding the babies in our van...in the Wal-Mart parking lot. It wasn't my best mom moment. Needless to say, we did better this time...at least we had the necessities packed.)