it's a double soccer game weekend...

Stephan with his friend Adam at his Saturday game in Port Wasington...one more tomorrow!

They won by quite a bit & Steve scored a goal.

I really noticed what poor sports the opposing players seemed to be & I was proud of our team!

Isn't the county jail a nice backdrop for a soccer field?!?

Norah told one of the other parents that it looked like the Great Wall of China.


Who is that handsome devil?

Norah is anxious to play & often yells "Kick it to me!" during the game.

"Run! Run! Run!"

Casey had a golf lesson after the game so the kids and I went for lunch and ice cream in town on this beautiful summer weather day!

pigtails and bikes

Norah's hair is finally long enough for pigtails again! (Or "ponies" as she calls them.)

I came home tonight to find Norah on a new pink bike! She is thrilled!

(Casey and I saw this in an adorable bike store in Cedarburg a while back. It's called Local Motion. They accept donated bikes, fix them, and then give them to the Boys & Girls Club. The customer then gets a 10% discount at the store. They also have a sweet little shop dog who takes naps right in front of the door.)

Miss Norah

Norah love to pretend to be a mommy, but this week she has started to pretend to be Miss Norah the teacher!

She says "Ok, mom, now I am the teacher" and shows me how to sit nicely for circle time.

She touches both of my ears and asks if they are ready for circle time too. (Her teacher must give some kind of listening reminder when they sit down for group.) Then she teaches me about the month, the season & the weather for the day.

They start their morning circle time with the calendar. That's one of her favorites; she shows me the calendar every night when I pick her up.

She is a sweet little teacher just like her real teachers Miss Holly & Miss Kelsey!

Happy Birthday, Casey!

We had a nice day celebrating Casey's birthday.

That morning we went to church (I STILL have not met our new rector, we had a sub!) for Stephan to acolyte. It was also my day to volunteer in the 3 & 4 year old Sunday school class, and Casey helped me! He seriously missed his calling as a preschool teacher. He was SO incredible with this group of little people.

Then we went to Mark and Liza's house with Shelly & Dan. (And their adorable golden, Tanner, too!) Liza prepared an excellent meal with steak, burgundy mushrooms & yummy potatoes. And our favorite Metro Market cake! Norah liked it so much that when she helped clear the table (item by item) she stopped to lick the frosting off the dessert plates!

We love our Daddy-Man!

Strike Out MS!

Aunt Shelly & "Dave"

Dan & Katie organized a GREAT bowling event to raise funds for MS called Strike Out MS. We had a lot of fun this afternoon.

Stephan and I took the bowling spots of some people named Dave & Julie who didn't make it. Stephan said that he has always wanted an alias! (A true spy at heart.)

Casey, Uncle Dan & Aunt Shelly...ready to bowl!


I was really excited about what I brought for the raffle. My friend Katie made three hair clips, two head bands & a hat that I packaged with a tutu, wand and other goodies. I entered to win it!

I really liked how they did the raffle. Instead of buying tickets to win everything, each item had a bucket, and guests put tickets in the bucket of the item they wanted. That way you could enter as many times for something you really wanted or could spread out your tickets. I am on the board at Norah's school now & will remember this at the spring celebration next year.


The Milwaukee Brewer racing sausages made an appearance!



Earlier in the day when Norah was exploring the back rooms of the bowling alley she discovered the sausage heads on the floor! Even just the head is taller than Norah!

Live from the green part of the earth

For a long time now Norah has recognized and named the globe or pictures of our planet as earth, but it has been on her mind even more with Earth Week activities at school. I thought this conversation in the car with her Daddy-man was cute...

Daddy: How was your day today?
Norah: I talked with Ms. Kelsey about the earth
Daddy: Oh, really?
Norah: We live on the green part, Dad. We don't live on the blue part. That's the water. We don't live in the water.
Daddy: What's earth?
Norah: A planet.
Daddy: What's a planet?
Norah: They are in OUTER SPACE!!!!!!!

This morning on the way to school, she told me not to make the earth dirty.

soccer recap & Norahisms

Stephan had his first soccer game of the season, but my camera battery was charging! They won 8 or 9 to 0 and Stephan scored two goals!

Norah and I skipped church today to run a long list of errands (Casey and Stephan went though & enjoyed meeting the new rector, Mother Debra.) and she had me cracking up the entire time. First we went to her favorite store, "The Depot," as she calls it. Then we hit Target where she caused a few people to look at me with their eyebrows raised.

First, she said "Mom, look at my face. Does it look mad? I have a mad face."
Me: "Why?"
Norah: "Someone is being devious."
Me: "What?!?"
Norah: "Someone is being devious."
Very random & I have no idea why she said that, but when I asked her to tell me what devious means, she was not far off when she said "Mean and not kind." Someone in the aisle gave me a weird look.

Then...when we were in the crowded pharmacy area she belted out "Come on everyone sing Ooooooh eeeeh! What up with that? What up with that?" Now, this is a song that Casey, Stephan and I once heard on Saturday Night Live and occasionally sing when we are joking around. We have not done it in a while though & will clearly need to be careful with our inside jokes. This song caused a lot of weird looks.

Finally, I often listen to a station called KLOVE. For some reason, when we are shopping & she hears someone on the loud speaker, Norah yells "I'm down hear KLOVE!" which she did after she sang the goofy song. By then I could barely speak because I was laughing too hard & had to get out of Target!