Still here

We are still alive.  Just busy with school, homework, tae kwon do, soccer, scouts, and gymnastics.  The weather is cooling down nicely and Fall is just around the corner.  My favorite time of year!

We do have some exciting news.  We finally decided where we want to build our house and have purchased some land.

Here are the kids standing on the property.  We probably won't be able to break ground for a few more months while we wait for building permits (they take a long time here).

The community is awesome, it's located in Pewaukee.  There are paved bike trails and a green space for the kids to play.  There is a community pool and park and tons of kids that live in the neighborhood.  We are excited!

Service Project

The kids school has been working on building an outdoor classroom at a park across the street.  They are building paths around the river and trees and will have a pergola and storage units so the classes can use this space for teaching.  The kids have been spending time with their classes working on creating the paths.  I went with Cole and Liv's classes to help with the Service Project last week.  They worked really hard and had a good time.

Weekend

We spent our time this weekend watching soccer games.  It was the annual Tosa Fest Tournament, which both the boys teams played in.  It was a crazy weather day with horrible humidity and thunder storms.  We got drenched a couple times.

Liv was very patient watching all the games.  She did have her own drama earlier this week when she decided to practice some of her gymnastic tricks on the school monkey bars and fell.  She landed on her head/neck and at first was complaining that she couldn't move and she was shaking and crying.  Her teacher called me instantly and Shawn and I were able to run down to the school pretty quick.  By the time we got there she was moving and seemed to be okay, just pretty scared and banged up.

Here is a quick video of Liv I found on my phone.  She spends a lot of time waiting at soccer fields while her brothers practice.  She likes me to record her doing her gymnastic stuff.

IMG 2798 from Jenn Reese on Vimeo.

First Day

Today was the first day of school. 

Everyone was excited and ready for a new school year!

Ethan is in 5th grade, the last grade of Elementary here, and he is not shy about pointing that out.  This means that this year he is the "top dog" at school!  He has Mrs. Wegner and is very excited.

Cole is in 3rd grade and has Ms. Petri.  She is young and full of energy (and she is cute) so I think Cole is going to love her.

Liv is in 1st grade and she has Mrs. Netko.  We LOVE Mrs. Netko.  Cole had her two years ago and her son is one of Ethan's best friend's.  She is an amazing 1st grade teacher and I am happy that Liv gets to have her this year.

Back to School Dinner

This year we had to something a little different for our annual Back-to-School-Dinner.  In our new place, we don't really have a backyard.  So we decided to head for a local park and try a picnic instead. We ended up picking a rainy day, but the kids didn't care.

Our theme for this year is a little different than in the past, as we have found ourselves leading a different path than we thought.  Shawn and I always pictured us raising children close to home, close to family and cousins.  Similarly to how we grew up.  This past Spring we realized the Lord wanted us in Milwaukee, thousands of miles from family.  We feel good about our choice, but still long for and miss our family.

While reading a talk I came across a saying that stuck out and seemed to fit the place we are at in our life, "BLOOM WHERE YOU ARE PLANTED".  As a family, and as individuals, I want my kids to BLOOM here in Milwaukee.  Bloom in the gospel, bloom in confidence, bloom in serving and loving, and gain deep roots and testimonies of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  

We talked about how hard it is to bloom if we are negative, angry, and prickly like a cactus.  We planted some small cactus.  No one wants to be around a cactus.  We can't bloom if we are a prickly cactus.  My kids meet all kinds of different people, different races and religions.  I want my kids to love and accept everyone.  As they do this, I am sure they will bloom where they are planted.

I tried to take a few pictures of the kids with some balloons after our dinner.  
Cole was more interested in hitting the balloons.

We finished off the night with our traditional back to school "Big Carrot".  It actually is called a Schultute and it is a German school tradition, but a couple years ago I randomly chose orange cardboard and green tissue paper on top and the kids have changed the official name to the "Big Carrot".  It was fill with fun back to school supplies and treats.  

I think we are officially ready for school. 

kids stuff

We had to squeeze in one last summer swim before school started.

Lately we have struggled with the kids fighting in the car.  This was my latest attempt to get ride of the fighting.....push ups until they were ready to stop fighting.

We had to spend a little more time at our farmers market.

Last year none of our kids were interested in playing soccer.  It was wonderful.  While I love soccer, I don't love having my weekends taken over by soccer games.  This year I am not so lucky and both boys wanted to play.

So I can kiss my saturday's goodbye for the next 8 weeks, and I am still trying to figure out how to get both boys to soccer practice on Tuesday and Thursday at the same time, but opposite ends of town.

Despite the logistics of getting to soccer practice and games and all that frustrating stuff, I love watching the game.  Shawn and I have been enjoying ourselves at the locals park in the late summer evenings watching our boys run and play.

sleepover

In an effort to savor the last few days and get all the fun we can out of summer, the kids have been having a sleepover every night.  They put all their mattresses together in the same room and are having a blast.  The first night was a disaster, but after that the nights have been pretty good.

Biker Weekend

The first person we met in our new home was our neighbor Nick.  He was the first person to come and help and even offered us storage in his garage.  Nick is a biker.  He spends every hour after he comes home from work in his garage late into the night restoring old Harley Davidson bikes.  He wears black leather and bandanas and looks mean and tough, but he is one of the nicest people we have met while here.  He lets the kids play in his yard, on his basketball hoop, work on projects with him, and he always indulges Shawn and shows him his bikes and teaches him things about motorcycles.  He's a great neighbor.

This weekend Milwaukee is hosting the Harley Davidson 110th Anniversary.  It's a huge festival and bikers from all over and in town.  I can't go anywhere the past few days without passing lanes full of motorcycles.  The kids are in awe every time a huge posse of motorcyclist drive by.

Right now I am looking out my window at a sea of bikers.  Nick has some friends over who all are dressed in black leather, bandanas and riding bikes.  It's fun.

Ethan made a comment today.  He said something about how it's weird that people judge bikers and think they are mean or cause trouble.  Ethan said that our biker neighbor is one of the nicest people he knows.

Shawn just hopes this all means someday he can get a bike :)