Phlog with effects

I rarely use phone picture effects, so I thought I would try to spice up this phlog post.

Cinnamon

High Contrast

Twilight

Vintage

Cold

Sepia

Lively

Bleak

Warm

Antique

You can also check out Kristin on Instagram (kestear) where she loves to play around with photo effects...and posts boring pictures of the boys and plays around with hashtags - who is this girl? I wish she looked as young as she acted.

Weekend Work (and some fun too)

I spent a lot of time this past week planning for the Open Doors Milwaukee event on Saturday and Sunday. I had a jammed packed itinerary to see a ton of cool buildings, but it didn't go exactly as planned. I often plan awesome Fuchs family outings that the rest of the family ruins.

As you may recall, Kristin signed me up for the equipment guy position on the School Board, so instead of family fun we had family work on Saturday morning. We probably spent a good four hours doing more work at the boys' school than I have done on our own house in years. We trimmed a tree, hung a swing, re-hung a bulletin board, added sand to the sandbox and power washed all the play equipment. And we still have a trip to the dump to make for this coming Saturday. Nice work Kristin. At least we got to go to Home Depot for hot dogs (and nachos for Kristin).

Luckily, we were still able to do some of the activities I planned on Sunday.  We went to the U.S. Bank building and the State Street Bascule Bridge. We got all the way up to the 41st floor observation deck at the U.S. Bank building. The views were pretty cool. We then got to see the inside of the bridge operating booth area on the Milwaukee River and watched the bridge engineer open and close the bridge. Ha Ha to anyone stuck in traffic. There wasn't even a boat coming.

Afterwards we went to my parents' house to celebrate Aunt Jess and Boyfriend Dan's birthdays. From there the weekend ended poorly. I ate too much and felt sick, the Packers lost, I lost in both fantasy football leagues, Kristin won in fantasy football and Dexter had its last episode ever. It was a sad evening for me. 

Hanging out on the porch waiting for Kristin (ladies take forever). Henry insisted on taking a bag of "treasures." His so-called treasures are just whatever crappy toys he grabbed off the floor.

 

I would have thought a couple buttons and levers would suffice to make a bridge go up and down, but what do I know. Also, I stole this picture from the Internet.

(stolen pic)

(stolen pic)

Wipeout! 

Potty Humor

I am sick and tired of our morning routine. Now admittedly, I need to go to bed earlier, but Henry has been waking up too early lately, yelling and screaming for Cole and Bella.  And there is Cole...like clockwork, Cole is on the shitter every morning. He makes a ton of noise, it takes him forever and it is literally every morning. I think we mentioned this previously and it has not changed. You could set your watch. He ends the day with a poop before bed and every morning he starts the day with a poop. Which also means I start my days by wiping someone else's ass.

Since we are talking poop, Cole is following in his parents' footsteps and has started in on the potty humor. His first real joke was looking in the toilet after making a pile of #2 and saying, "It's a poop traffic jam!" Totally was.

Being the family mimic Henry had to get in on the laughs too. I asked him if he had poop in his pants and his reply was, "No, I just have gas. I just have gas in my pants." It was total lie, of course. I guess that was the joke.

Trucks!

A couple Saturdays ago we took the boys to the Town of Brookfield Fire Department and Public Works lot to check out their City and Safety equipment. The boys got to sit in all their favorite trucks; a dumper, a digger, an excavator, a tractor, police car, fire truck, and an ambulance. They even got to hold the fire hose. Near the end of the event Flight for Life flew in low and landed and the kids were able to explore the helicopter below. Their constant favorite books are Goodnight Goodnight Construction Site and The Little Blue Truck series - so this was beyond cool for them to see their favorites from the books.

On a side note, I have been noticing lately how much talking to the boys all the time really changes how I speak. I often find myself talking in a much softer, gentler tone than necessary. After Henry used the fire hose, I turned to the firefighter and in my best 7 year girl voice said, "thank you." I constantly tell Cole to use his big boy voice. I guess I need to take some of my own advice.

Looks like we will cross Fire Fighter off possible career moves for Kristin. She can't even get out of the truck.

Hopefully the last time Cole will be trapped in a police car.

This Street Sweeper was a favorite and turned out to be the only truck locked. Thankfully everyone was too exhausted to tantrum about it. 

Back to School

The boys had their first day of school today. We weren't sure how it was going to play out, Cole has seemed excited to be going back but also sad that he will not have Mrs. Piller as a teacher. Henry has been pretty straight forward, telling us he is going to cry on his first day and he will be bringing his pacifier.  It was a little rough to get back into the school habit this morning. Cole fought about getting dressed but Henry was pretty easy going and agreed to leave his pacifier behind.  He was actually being very photogenic and I was snapping some great pictures. He was all smiles and posing with his backpack and sunglasses, and then I realized that the camera did not have a memory card. I'm a moron. Of course, after I got the memory card Henry did not want to take any more pictures. Luckily, I think I still got some decent ones.

Hiding from the camera

Look how much Kristin has to carry. Poor girl. Someone should help her.

Of course it was difficult to keep Henry from jumping off the wall. That kid loves to jump.

More jumping.

Drop off went well, Cole happily went into the bigger classroom and waved us off. He was happy to see some friends from last year. Henry was also happy to explore Mrs. Piller's classroom and didn't seem to care when we left. No tears from anyone, Kristin included!

Henry had an abbreviated schedule today so he got to enjoy coffee and snacks while he and Kristin waited for Cole.

Fingers crossed the rest of the week goes as smoothly. Mrs. Piller told us the second day is usually when the waterworks start so we will see!