Saturday at Governor Dodge State Park

We joined our friends, Shannon & Jake and their boys, Max & Alex at Governor Dodge State Park yesterday and had such a good time hiking and eating and hanging out around the campfire (where Shannon made THE best smore's ever with soft chocolate cookies instead of graham crackers!) Here are some pics...

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Beautiful Wisconsin

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.Her sister's keeper.

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Luca & Max Exploring

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Starting to look (and feel!) a bit like Fall around here,

our favorite time of year!

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Thanks for the great time, Griebe family!

(Hey Jake...Can I borrow your "Rock of Love" boxed DVD set?)

:-)

My Fridge is Full of...

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I-N-J-E-R-A!!!!!

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Friday night we treated ourselves to some YUMMY Ethiopian food at Buraka on State Street. We've long since been fans of Ethiopian cuisine (Danny and I often had dates at an Ethiopian restaurant before we were married), so it was a real treat to bring our kids there, one of them coincidentally being ETHIOPIAN! :-)

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Since Ethiopian food is overall a bit spicy (lots of berbere), and is often served with a sourdough flatbread called Injera (used like a tortilla...rip off a piece and pick up your food with it...also a bit tangy), I wasn't sure how the kids would react to it. Turns out...they LOVED it!!! They stole most of my injera and scooped up their doro wat (chicken, carrots and LOTS of spices) like little Ethiopian pros (Luca of course being careful not to get a smidgen of meat into her mouth, the little vegetarian that she is)!

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Luca was especially excited to eat the injera. I asked her if she had that before and she said, "Actually, I had that at my friends' house" (which is what she calls the foster center in Addis where we eventually picked her up). We ordered some extra pieces to bring home and will be starting to perfect our own Ethiopian recipes, but I know we'll be regulars at Buraka from here on out!

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As we spoke with an Ethiopian working at the restaurant, I asked him if he spoke Amharic. He said he does and asked if Luca did too. I said I was wondering if she remembered any and if he would try and speak to her in Amharic. He did, and she looked at him like he was an alien from outer space. (I even knew what he was saying..."what is your name?") He also asked her how old she was in Amharic, and she looked at me and said, "What is he talking like that?!" So suffice it to say, she's a full fledged American girl now! It was kind of sad to see that the Amharic was gone already, but in the end it just isn't practical to think she will hold onto that language in this culture where hardly anyone speaks it, so if it goes fast or if it goes slow, it really makes little difference.

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I wanted to get some pictures at the restaurant, and as I took this one the battery died in my camera, so sorry it's a little dark...you get the picture!

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It was SHOT DAY for Miss Luca!

Poor girl got FOUR shots in her little legs and

wasn't the least bit pleased about it!

(Can't say I blame her either!)

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Here she is right after the shots...trust me, she wasn't smiling DURING!

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Afterwards we headed to McDonald's with this handsome

dude to drown our sorrows in some hot fudge sundaes!

This guy takes so much teasing from these girls...it's rediculous!

Thanks for cheering the Luca-girl up, "coffee!"

.One more round of shots in 6 months and we are D-O-N-E!!!!

In other news...There's a FOR SALE sign in our yard!!!!!!!!!!

I know, I know, great time to sell, huh?

It's been a long time coming, but we finally decided to call a

realtor and set the ball in motion, no matter how

long it will be rolling in these real-estate-challenged times!

Some Back To School Thoughts...

I found this sign on another blog today and HAD to add it to mine. It reminds me of this time of year…the month or so before school starts where I start to doubt my ability to provide quality education; to question my decision to take my children’s schooling into my own hands and out of the hands of qualified individuals; to lie in bed and wonder just how badly I will mess their lives up by homeschooling them.

(wink wink)
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It’s really quite a bipolar effect for me, homeschooling. One day I’m just sure I’ve done them in…no college will take them now! Then the next day I swear they could TEACH a college course because their carefree, “the world is my classroom” homeschooling ways have led them to complete and utter GENIUS!
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Either way…I take my role as teacher and “molder of the minds” very seriously and probably often over-think things. (Doesn’t sound like me a bit, does it…I can hear my parents laughing at me right now).
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If I don’t teach it, they won’t learn it – It’s as simple as that.
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No pressure.

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I have days where I wake up and think things like, “oh my gosh…I forgot to teach them_____________________ !!!“ (fill in the blank with something like “basic addition” or “how to survive in the real world”).
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But then the craziest thing happens.
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The little buggers learn something!

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And I taught it to them!

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HA! Take that bipolar!
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I feel as if I’ve given them something primal like light or air which they’ll carry with them into adulthood and I begin to see the complexity of their absorbent minds and I’m so grateful to be witnessing and feeling this moment with them in our own living room or kitchen or back yard. It’s triumph and joy and empowerment and accomplishment.

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It’s lovely.
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And then the next day I wake up and I think, “oh my gosh…I forgot to teach them ____________________________ (“basic addition, “how to survive,” you know the drill).
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Ah, homeschooling.
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What a trip.

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I love it. I hate it.

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But mostly I love it.
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Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.
-William Butler Yeats-

Warner Bros Got It Right This Time!

Now THAT's worth the price of a movie ticket,

and I for one will be there opening night!

On our vacation, the room was a bit crampy...

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...but you can't beat the view!

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We spent the week up North camping with family from both Wisconsin & San Diego. We couldn't have asked for better weather (and frankly it was a nice reminder that it DOES in fact get warm up North, however brief it may be). It was a wonderful dose of summer at summer's end.

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We found gigantic marshmallows at the Mexican grocer here in town to create the ultimate s'mores (and of course the proportions would all be off if we didn't add extra chocolate...balance, baby, balance!)

oooh....so good!
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...and this handsome fella was there too!

We got 2 days of beach time in, so our little fishes were more than pleased.
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Unspoken rule of the family: NEVER follow this man into the woods on a bike!!!! I felt pretty good when we returned from our 5 mile ride and ready for a rest. As I settled in with a nice cold bottle of water, I look up to find him swapping his bike out and heading out for ANOTHER ride!!! The man is crazy (and so is anyone who follows him into the woods on a bike!)
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The kids were in full Native American mode all week and created their own tepee with a fire pit, walkway and all! They also toured an Ojibwa museum. Brenin has already asked to study Native Americans in school and has gained a real interest over the past months, so I'm sure we're in it for the long haul!
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total cuteness
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We sent the kids to bed one night for a bedtime book, and by the time we got there, this is how we found Luca. Looks like an intersting book, huh? Very MIND stimulating? Well, take a closer look...

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...the girl is SLEEPING!!!!

Knocked out cold from all her camping activities!

Boy can I relate!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like...

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...school supply season!!!!!!

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I am a bit of an office supply junkie (and by "a bit," I mean an obsessed loser), so "back to school" season at the stores is as good as Christmas for me! Seriously...my husband brings me nice pens and decorative Post-Its instead of flowers. (And if he's really in trouble, maybe an electronic labeler or new dry erase board...so sad, I know, but he knows the way to my heart!) :-)

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Friday was a great day because the girls and I headed to Madison in search of the perfect folders, notebooks, gluesticks, pens, pencils and anything else we might need for the school year. It was fun to see what they would pick out. We also stopped at the Learning Shop to pick out some supplemental materials for our curriculum, and I'm so excited to try them out!

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Brenin tends to go for as colorful as she can find with lots of variety.

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These lovely ladies also found their way into our cart...

who says mommies don't need school supplies too!

(Did you get chills when you saw them? I know...me too!)

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Luca was super excited about this folder, and it fits her to a T...

she always goes for the pink and froofy things.
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Brenin is also pretty excited about music right now and spends lots of time on her MP3 player (which is loaded with everything from African to bluegrass to pop to you name it!) She saw this notebook and had to have it!
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Brenin's lunch box is holding up pretty well, but Luca

was in need and picked this lovely piece!

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And how could we pass this up when Luca's alterego is Wonder Woman (you have to see her teeny little self look up at you with her WW cape on and say, "I'm wunnnndur wohman!"

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All in all, it was the perfect day...

office supplies and my two favorite girls!

First grade and Preschool...HERE WE COME!!!

Six Flags & Swimming Pools

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Brenin participated in a reading program last school year which granted her (and her teacher...woohoo!) free passes to Six Flags Great America! Kristin and I had been meaning to take Brenin & Tucker as a celebration of their kindergarten completion all summer and finally took the opportunity last Friday. It was PERFECT weather and so much fun to have some "one on one" time with our big kids.

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Friends for Life

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Count 'em...SIX FLAGS!

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My big first grader...my, how I love this girl!
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Our big first graders turned out to be...well...big chickens! They found every baby ride in the place and wouldn't so much as look at anything that went more than 10 feet off the ground (and even that was a Scooby Doo bus which they happily rode with all the other babies and toddlers in the park.

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Seriously...it was bad...I won't even post the pictures because it would be too painful for you to look at! At one point they were riding a Tweety bird mini ferris wheel (and I mean MINI!), and both of them were in tears because the cage was rocking. Brenin gave me a look of desparation as she slowly circled around and gently placed her hand on the cage wall, reaching in complete Brenin drama for her mother as if through prison walls. I went up to the ride attendant and asked if he could stop the ride and let our kids out.

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"Sure," he said. "Which ones are they?"

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"The really BIG ones!" my sister embarrasingly chimed in behind me.
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Oh well...guess they're not amusement park material.

Next time we'll bring the babies to liven the place up a bit!
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We saw lots of characters, including these two!
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Cheating on Grandma...she didn't hold a candle to their gradma though!
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oh dear...
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.NNot sure who this character was, but he certainly was into it!

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The girls also started swimming lessons this week and are loving it. Brenin should probably be in a higher class because after she takes her turn swimming with the barbell and while the others are taking their turn, she swims by with perfect strokes and NO barbell!

She's loving it nonetheless, and it's always fun to be top of the class.

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Luca's favorite thing to do is swim, so getting to do it every day is such a treat for her!
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