Falling Behind on Blogger

I feel way behind on posts, so this one includes a couple more pics from Cole's birthday, St. Nick, Christmas tree shopping, The Polar Express train ride, cousin Ellie's birthday party and some random pictures. Lots going on.

Besides everything he got from his friends, Cole got a crap load more presents from us and the grandparents. Henry even got a few, including this turtle which he has named Circley.

Skeletor

I think Cole likes orange.

We found a very nice tree. Fits perfectly in our house. Snow boots definitely not necessary.

St. Nick did come this year...I can't say the boys exactly deserved it though. Their table manners have been pretty bad lately. Kristin, I mean St. Nick, did a pretty bad job shopping. We started to fill up the stockings and there wasn't close to enough stuff, although in her defense stockings are huge these days. They looked very empty.  Also, their big gift was the Polar Express trip, so we printed off tickets which didn't take up much room. I had to make a late night run to Walgreens. I bought them lightsabers. Turns out the lighsabers are the only thing they cared about and they could barely be bothered to hear about the Polar Express train ride. Oh well.

Broken ornament. Maybe the lightsabers were a bad idea. Luckily it was Henry and I fighting, so no one got in trouble since I was involved. 

I hope he knows he could also put on some clothes to warm up. 

On Friday, we went to Middleton to catch the Polar Express train. It was a fun trip. Cole even declared it to be "the best day ever." We reminded him that maybe it was the best afternoon-evening ever, since we had just been at my Grandma's funeral that morning - not exactly a "best day ever" kind of event.

Anyway, the train ride had hot cocoa, cookies, elves, Santa, dancing and all kinds of fun stuff.

Zonked out on the ride home

And here are Kristin's pictures...she's quite the photographer.

We went back to Madison on Sunday for cousin Ellie's birthday party. Henry was relieved that the Little Gym place did not make you wear socks. This hatred of socks is becoming a real issue. He will cry about just having to bring "just in case" socks. He told me he didn't want to play soccer because you have to wear socks. And the worst part is the smell. His shoes stink. His feet stink. We may have to eventually start battling with him to wear socks or just be okay with having the stinky kid.

Happy birthday Ellie.

Fun at the Nature Center

I'm sure I have mentioned this already as I talk/complain about it a lot, but I thought it should be put into the record books (i.e. the Fuchs blog books) since it is kinda funny/embarrassing. I have sounded sick for the past 4 months, so I did go to the doctor and then an ENT. I'm not sick. I just have nodules on my vocal cords. Henry also went to an ENT (last summer) and he also has nodules on his vocal cords. Actually we both may need to take some voice therapy in the future, maybe get a family deal. I am pretty sure mine are the result of yelling at the boys. It's kind of nice now, since I can guilt them into behaving because if they make me yell, my throat won't heal. I made a comment like that to the boys the other night and I think I made Cole cry and feel bad. Sorry buddy. I'm also now able to tell Kristin that I need to rest my voice when I don't feel like talking to her.

Phew now I feel caught up.

Hanging with Dot

We had a nice visit with Great Grandma Dorothy recently. Aunt Jess showed us an activity room and a relaxation room that we didn't know about. Pretty nice. The boys played some basketball, ring toss and bowling in the activity room and then we went and chilled in the relaxation room for awhile. Everyone their also asked if the boys were twins. Hmmm, I'm guessing they all just have really bad vision at this point.

Cole and Dorothy typically did not land any rings, so there were a lot of ties, but in the end Dorothy beat Cole two games to none. 

This room had a disco ball, fish projected on the wall and a tube of bubbling water that changed color. All we needed was a hookah and some pot, which they really should have available for the people here. Why not? 

Later we made some rocket balloons.

Wtf. Sometimes these kids are too close (pun intended). I think I'd prefer them fighting.

Last night, a couple weeks after this visit, the wonderful lady I've known as Dorothy, Grandma, Great Grandma, Candy Grandma and Dot passed away. I will certainly miss joking with her and getting zinged right back this Christmas, but I'm very thankful the boys were able to have some good times with her. I'm not sure who is going to get the scissors out now when people stick out their tongues, but we'll figure something out. Love ya Grandma.

Thanksgiving and Birthday Break

We are all very exhausted after our big Thanksgiving and Birthday break. It was a lot of fun, but very busy.

I took off work Wednesday and we went to see the Good Dinosaur. Not a bad movie, but I liked the new Peanuts movie better. I'll hold off on a more detailed review, assuming no one really cares about kid movies.

For Thanksgiving we went to Normal Grandma and Grandpa's house. It was just us and John and Janet Holt. As I'm sure we all did, we ate until we felt sick. Janet brought cheesecake for dessert, which was awesome.

Friday was Cole's birthday party with his Kindergarten friends at Pump it Up, an inflatable place in Brookfield. All went well and the kids seemed to have a lot of fun. The pro of Pump it Up is definitely that they do everything for you. They take pictures, write down who gave all the gifts, set up the party room, organize games for the kids etc.  Kristin and I didn't have to lift a finger. Actually, I did when it was time to pay the bill, which was the con to Pump it Up. It turned out to not be the cheapest birthday party. I suppose Cole is worth it. Oh yeah, we paid extra for the pictures, but I'm too lazy to download them, go through them and post them on this blog. So these are just our stupid phone pics. 

The universal silly face.

Saturday, we had neighbor Jane's birthday party. The boys got to run around a gymnastics place, so it was a lot of fun. Later we ditched the kids at Normal Grandma and Grandpa's, so we could go to a party. We drank too much and stayed out too late...surprisingly, so unlike us. Our Uber driver drove us home on the wrong side of the street so there was that too. 

Sunday, Cole requested a stay at home day and we couldn't have agreed more. We did have to run a couple errands, but otherwise, we stayed at home, watched Frozen, played with Legos and just relaxed. It was pretty awesome. I need about a week more of that.

Oh yeah, Sunday was also Kristin's birthday. For a couple past birthdays, I just took the kids to a store and let them browse and pick something out. This year they made a fuss and we didn't get a chance to go, so Kristin got nothing. Yep, now I have an entire year of hearing about how I didn't do anything for her birthday. Thanks kids.

Per our tradition, on Monday morning Cole woke up to find balloons in his room. He was the Star of the Week at school and we had a little family party after school with his favorite, Cheeseburger pizza from Fillipos. Pretty great day for our biggest boy.

At some point Henry decided it was okay to write his name on the wall.

D & B Weekend

Kristin and her mom went to Philly to visit Ben and Kim last weekend, so it was an all guys weekend. As previously mentioned the boys also had Hand Foot and Mouth disease.  Being scheduled to have the kids for an entire weekend solo, I was luckily able to make plans to ship the kids off to Great Grandma's and Grandpa's house for a sleepover on Friday night. One night down, two days to go. I got to go to the Marquette game with neighbor Mike, who has awesome seats. Sadly they lost. We also went to The Harp and Trinity. I think I was the oldest person at both bars. That makes me sad.

Before the grandparents came to pick up the boys, I had to play pretend Star Wars. I was R2D2, Cole was Luke Skywalker and Henry was either Bomb Baby or Obi-Wan-Puncher. I don't know what the fuck Bomb Baby was all about. Obi-Wan-Puncher seemed to be similar to Obi-Wan-Kenobi, just with more punching. Pretending is by far the worse activity.

Most of our weekend meals involved items Kristin would not have approved of. Hen started us off by having a plain cold hot dog for dinner. He also ate a frozen waffle at some point. Kristin barely approves of eating hot hot dogs, she would never approve of eating a cold one.

Saturday
On Saturday, the boys had swim at noon, so we started the fun activities after that. Henry picked up a "rock" after swim. He later showed me that his rock got soft because he flattened it. Then I realized he actually just picked up some chewed up gum. So gross.

We immediately headed to the theater to see the new Peanuts movie. We ate some popcorn and way too much candy. The boys liked the movie and Cole even asked if we could buy it so we could watch it at home. Both said their favorite part was at the end when everyone liked Charlie Brown and their least favorite part was when people didn't like Charlie Brown. Makes sense.

We then made a couple lightsabers.

We had breakfast food for dinner. Kristin probably would have been okay with this.

Sunday
Sunday we had to do some cleaning and grocery shopping. I would have skipped these chores, but it's not worth listening to Kristin complain about the house looking bad when she got home.

We hit up George Webbs for lunch, which is definitely a better without Kristin type of outing. She is not a fan of G Webbs. Same with our dinner choice of Sloppy Joe's.

The waitress put their pictures on the wall. They were very excited about that. Cole may really have a future in art. First, a lady bought a picture of his for 50 cents (he was asking 50 dollars) at our rummage this summer and now his work is on display at George Webbs. Not bad.

We/I, of course, watched the Packer game. That was painful. I actually wish Hen covered my eyes throughout the entire game.

I hope some day they pay a little more attention to the game itself. 

More Star Wars.

In the end, the boys were great all weekend. A couple crabby moments Sunday around dinner time, but otherwise, all went well. They listened, helped me with Sunday chores, and Cole even helped me out by getting Henry dressed.

This happens no matter who dresses Hen.

And now it's official, we can survive on our own without Kristin. I think she had serious doubts.