Last Sunday we went to the Wilderness Resort at Wisconsin Dells. It has lots of tubing, swimming, sliding, putt-putting, video gaming and eating. Kaori even went on The Hurricane, a big scary waterslide funnel thingy. And just like the Wild Thing rollercoaster she looked like she was almost in tears, but then went on it again. She's hard to figure out. Of course Cole went on any and every ride and loved them all. After being constantly wet for three days straight Robyn and I were ready to come home. I don't think the kids would have ever reached their limit though.

This week started soccer, a new experience for both kids. Cole did play with the YMCA when he was about 4 but that was so long ago. I'm trying to help out coaching for both teams but I am officially an assistant coach for Kaori's team. They both did great and had fun. We are now taking suggestions for team names. Current favorites are Orange Crush and The Bluebunnies.

A Brave New World

Seems like Kaori has entered a brave new world recently.

1) She has decided to sign up for soccer this Fall (did I already mention that?). This will be her first foray into the athletic world. It will be interesting to see how she does. I'm going to tell her to just be aggressive and go after the ball all the time.

2) Last Thursday a visit from Ellen and Kimmie took us to Valleyfair for the evening. While Kimmie and Cole became ride buddies and did all the big rides multiple times, Kaori decided she wanted to ride the wild thing. This is Valleyfair's biggest, baddest roller coaster. I was surprised she was tall enough to go. I was disappointed she picked me to ride with. I just wanted to see her after it was all done at the end but was scared of how it would be for her during the ride. After the first big drop she looked like she was going to cry and asked "how much longer do we have to do this?" Just a little bit I told her. When she was done I couldn't believe it when she said she wanted to do it again!

3) The training wheels have come off the bike. Now Kaori is truly riding a bike and is pushing for daily family bike rides. She also wants a new girl's bike as she has been riding a hand-me-down from Cole for the last year. I suppose she deserves one but it just makes much more sense to wait until her birthday next year.

Don't Wash Your Crocs

At least not in the washer and dryer. If you do they'll shrink up like a thing that shrinks up really bad when it shrinks. I really didn't know it went in with the load of clothes. Some how I missed the transition from the washer to dryer too. Maybe if it wasn't dried in the dryer it would still be okay. Now it is smaller and looks even more duck-footy. We already got Kaori a new pair.

National Night Out

Isn't national night out some thing that is supposed to get people out and chat with their neighbors? I don't know. That's what we did anyway. Our party was further enhanced by someone in our neighborhood winning some drawing that brought KDWB (local radio station), Timberwolves and Crunch (local basketball team) and 100 Subway subs (national sandwich shop) in attendance. I didn't get to meet the winner but her last name is Keebler. I'm almost positive she isn't an elf.

The other picture is just because I like it of Cole and Kaori taken at the lakehome.