The last weeks of "summer"

Our summer is certainly odd these days. In addition to the incredibly cold summer we've been having (highs in the lower 60s this weekend!), it's not like Anna or Kate have a real summer holiday. Yet in a few weeks our regularly scheduled activities start up again ... story time, play group, music class, Bible Study, etc. So we're trying to make the most of the current "lack of schedule" by doing random fun things.

This past week Anna got to choose an activity three different mornings. Her choices were going to the "yibary, wif da fish" (the library with the fish tank and loads of creative toys), having a picnic at the park and going to the "fower park" (Olbrich Gardens). We almost didn't make the trip to Olbrich yesterday morning because it was drizzling and cold when we left, but as we got to the entrance the sun popped out and warmed us all up. We ended up staying for almost 2 hours, although the last 10 minutes or so were a bit challenging for Anna ...

On the other days (as well as this morning), I canned tomatoes, with some help. Who would have thought that with the tomato blight that has virtually killed our tomato plants (they're literally dried up without leaves), we'd still be harvesting buckets every few days?!?!

On both Wednesday and Thursday, Alexia, our wonderful mother's helper, came over in the mornings to help. Too bad she starts school again next week! On Thursday she also took charge of two more toddlers/preschoolers since their mom came over to help me can 28 quarts (!) of spaghetti sauce.

So in general, life is good. Kate is doing great and seems to have grown and mastered a lot in the past couple of weeks. She's reaching for and grabbing toys, bringing them to her mouth, rolling from her side to either her front or back, laughing/giggling (very fun!), and loving life most days. Here's a nice shot of her still bright blue eyes. (Okay, as I previewed the picture, they don't look as vibrantly blue as they originally did in the picture. But trust me, they're blue :) Looks like the second Mischnick daughter may be a blue-eyed girl, unlike big sister Anna.


Anna's also doing well these days, too. I think she's ready for the fall programs to start, but we're certainly still having fun. I've been gathering various dress-up clothes/accessories for her this summer and I believe she likes the high-heeled red shoes and the feather boa the best. She's actually pretty good at strutting around the basement in the shoes :)


Both Anna and Matt are napping right now so I think Kate and I will try to get a few things done outside for awhile. Better get out the jackets!

A week of Saturdays

Matt was home the whole week this past week ... hooray! It was like having an entire week of Saturdays :) I think we're all going to have a rude awakening tomorrow when real life begins again.

Some of the highlights included Mommy having a whole afternoon to herself (of course, part of that alone time included a trip to the grocery store and a visit to the doctor, but still ...), a trip to the Betty Brinn Children's Museum in Milwaukee (awesome, awesome, awesome!), canning 14 quarts of salsa, having a playdate with Abby and Jessica so Matt could have some "alone time", freezing the corn (around 120 cups!), cleaning out the garage, a handful of bike rides for everyone but Kate, and today we're canning 14 quarts of spaghetti sauce. Whew! All that and Matt was able to get a bunch of items crossed off on his "honey-do" list :)

There was also quite a bit of just plain hanging out around the house or outside in the yard. Anna was certainly in heaven having both parents around all week and I was definitely spoiled in terms of having help with all of the normal house stuff (diapers, dishes, dirty laundry, etc.)

It was hard to stop long enough to take many pictures this week, but here's a few that provide a snapshot of our lives.


As you can see here, Anna has no problems eating corn on the cob, as long as it's cool enough. She's getting much more efficient at it, too :) As a side note, while we were starting the corn process on Friday morning our creative daughter decided to play with the ears of corn that were too young to freeze. She kept herself busy with these for a good half hour ... putting them down the slide, placing them in a watering can, describing to them things in the yard, putting them in the basketball hoop, etc. :)



Kate loves sitting in her Bumbo (which is a perk we didn't have when Anna was younger). This way she can keep an eye on whatever is going on around her, as well as discover her feet! She still gets tired pretty fast in it, though; all that work to keep her crazy head up.



A great phrase Anna is becoming very adept at using is "Mommy, what is that?", although seen below I believe it was "Daddy, what is that?" We hear that often when we're someplace new, or even if there's something in the kitchen that wasn't there the last time she looked.

Anna was able to spend a bit of time with Matt in the garage over the past few days and I think Matt was asked the question a LOT.

Another phrase we've heard a lot from Anna recently is "I need ___________ right now!", often accompanied by tears and frustrated cries in the midst of a tantrum. Ahh ... being 2 ...

The only real downer for the week was that Kate and I contracted another cold. Kate seems to be handling it much better than me, but of course she gets to nap during the day. What a summer of colds we've had! Must be this crazy weather with 40 or 50degree temperature swings every week or so. Well, back to real life ...

Lounging around the pool(s)

What a fun few days we had last week! It was pretty warm and humid again so we set up the backyard kiddie pool on Wednesday afternoon for some good old fashioned summertime fun. Anna, Kate, and I spent the afternoons on Wednesday and Friday hanging out around our little pool, having smoothies or popsicles, and just plain enjoying summer. I even got Kate into Anna's swimsuit from last summer (yes, it was pretty big on her yet) so she could join us in the water for a bit.

Kate's favored activity outside still seems to be lying around and watching trees and leaves, which is certainly fine by us. We try to make sure that she's always in the shade and has a hat on, but she has still somehow managed to get a baby tan ... hmmm.

Anna really enjoys our little pool so we thought we'd do a family trip to a local public pool on Saturday afternoon. Anna was pretty hesitant at first, which didn't suprise me too much after realizing that this was her first trip to a big pool since last summer. Once I was able to get in the water with her and goof off, she had a bunch of fun. We even managed to get past the kiddie pool into the big pool for some fun. I think kicking and piggy-back rides were her favorite activities, especially if I made up a song to go along with them :)

Besides the pool, we've been enjoying lots of good food from out garden this past week ... tomatoes, zucchini, corn ... yum! Last night we had our first corn on the cob and everyone thoroughly enjoyed it. We've been working with Anna on the concept of "ripe" so she doesn't pick green grapes, green tomatoes, etc. Last night after Anna devoured her ear of corn she said "We will pick more corn now? It is ripe!"

It's been a lot of fun lately listening to what is going on in Anna's head. When we were picking the corn yesterday she said "Here is an ear of corn; I will listen to it." So I got to explain how some words can mean different things and that the corn plants don't really have ears that listen :)


We're looking forward to a fun week with Matt being home. He's taking his second week of paternity leave since he wasn't able to take two weeks right away when Kate was born. We've got a lot of harvesting plans (corn and tomatoes mainly), but also have some fun trips planned, too! Should be fun :)

Rainy days ...

After a streak of beautiful weather, we finally got hit with several rainy days and some storms last week and over the weekend. In fact, today is the first sunny day since Thursday, but it's still pretty wet out there. Maybe we'll be able to get outside this afternoon :)

Needless to say, we've spent a lot of time indoors playing the past few days. Books, coloring, tea parties, playing in the tent downstairs, you name it ... Kind of gives me a reminder of what winter will be like, except that even when it's raining, we can still go outside to play in puddles (which is usually a MUST for Anna, as long as there's no "funder").


Because we've been "cooped up", I finally had the chance to sort some of Anna's toys (which are stored in old diaper boxes in her closet). Not only were the buried toys fun to discover, but we pulled the boxes out to play with on Saturday morning. Good fun :) Matt told me that this picture wasn't even posed; Anna crawled under his tower on her own to read a book.


Before the rain set in, we were able to get quite a bit of gardening stuff done. We dug and stored the potatoes, pulled the onions, made some freezer pickles, picked and snapped green beans, and also got to eat some of the first tomatoes of the season ... yum!

We love summer!

The past few days here have been absolutely gorgeous (about 80 degrees, sunny, low humidity, slight breeze ... perfect) and we've spent them almost entirely outside.

Anna was pretty bummed after a cancelled play-date on Friday morning due to a friend's cold so I convinced Matt to call and invite her to a picnic lunch as a way to improve her morning attitude. Anna was very excited and started saying "we ready to go?" at about 10 a.m. It certainly was fun to see Matt during the day and I know the experience was the highlight of Anna's day.

Friday evening Anna helped us pick some green beans while Kate just lay around watching the leaves blowing in the wind ... one of her favorite activities right now :)


Saturday afternoon I packed the girls up for some time at the Sugar Maple Traditional Music Festival (bluegrass, cajun, folk, you name it) while Matt went mountain biking with some friends. We met up with Peter, Tina, Sadie, and Lukas for some great music, fun times playing in the sand and on the playground, and another picnic meal outside. Anna seems to be getting better with picnics :)

Sunday after church we met up with Melissa, Anna's godmother, for a special afternoon for Anna in celebration of her baptismal birthday (August 5). We went out to lunch at Chipotle (yum!), and then headed to the splash park. Anna had a great time in the water until Daddy accidentally stepped on her foot and she went crashing onto the cement. The major skinned knee kind of put a damper on the water park, although Anna might also have been tired of being wet and cold ... it really wasn't THAT warm out.

So we walked to a nearby playground and Anna got to play with Melissa while Kate enjoyed looking at some different trees. After a little encouragement, Anna decided to go down the big slide. Once she mastered this slide, she wouldn't go for anything else. Melissa kept asking her if she wanted to go down the little slide and Anna would respond "No. I'm a big girl. I go down big slide. Little slide for Kate." Or something to that effect :)

After a not-so-successful nap in the van on the way home, Anna was right back outside for a bike ride with Mommy and then Carly (and family) came over to play in the evening.

Needless to say, Anna is wiped out. Kate got up early this morning (5:15!) and is already taking a nap whereas Anna is still sleeping. So here I am at 7:45 a.m. with two sleeping kids ... this doesn't happen very often!

Speaking of Kate's sleep, the crazy kid is just not nearly as predictable as Anna was as an infant. She's still pretty much sleeping through the night, but if she manages to get her arms out of her swaddler, they immediately go to her face and wake her up. That means that Mommy has to pin the arms back down and give her the pacifier ... unless it's 5:15 a.m. ... at which point she's hungry and ready to get up. It sure seems like she wants to suck on those fingers, but she just can't quite get control of them yet. One day, right? At least she's super smiley when I'm lying around with her until the rest of the family wakes up.