This weekend we went to a town called Sheboygan, Wisconsin – a small town on the coast of Lake Michigan, north of Milwaukee. Thanks to a good friend of mine, we had a gift certificate for a free night’s stay at a hotel in the area. I thought that was a great excuse to check out a place I’d heard about online recently, Bookworm Gardens, a children’s garden that is based completely on children’s literature—over 60 different books are represented, selected by reading specialists, librarians, teachers, and kids.

It was really amazing to see all of these stories come to life in beautiful gardens that our kids could not only see but also play in and explore. Best of all? Entrance to the gardens is completely free, though donations are happily accepted. We spent a few hours exploring the various gardens and I wish we lived closer so that I could visit them in all four seasons with the kids. It was a beautiful garden and a lot of fun for the whole family.

We had so much fun exploring a Magic Schoolbus, posing in picture frames, sitting in the Three Bears’ chairs, visiting the Hundred Acre Wood, reading stories together and much, much more. And mommy had a lot of fun sneaking in some nature photography while we were there.

That night we had dinner at The Duke of Devon, an English Pub on the riverfront with great food and a beautiful view of the river. Dan and I split their fish & chips and the kids enjoyed a really amazing grilled cheese sandwich (I totally had to steal a bite, it looked so  good) and fruit. Afterwards we walked along the riverfront together, enjoying the view.

The next morning we had coffee and a lemon muffin at the Z Spot before going to Deland Park where we were able to see the wreck of the Lottie Cooper in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, USA.

My husband really liked getting to read all the plaques about how the boat was made and how the wreckage was found buried in Sheboygan Harbor during the construction of the Harbor Marina. The kids liked getting to “walk inside a boat” and when we were done we walked to one of the playgrounds in the park where the kids had an absolute blast playing on a boat in slightly better condition!

Before we left, I dragged the family on another quick walk along the shore of Lake Michigan this time. We got to see the boat docks and a beach that looked like a fantastic place to take the kids next summer when the warm weather returns.

I didn’t take any pictures but we also visited the John Michael Kohler Art Center, a free museum with several different art exhibits on display, with a wide range of topic. I liked seeing The Kids Are Alright Exhibit with a lot of interesting (and okay, some very strange) pictures of the modern family dynamic. I will warn, that there were some partially nude photographs that might not be suitable for your kids – I walked most of this exhibit without them. The one exhibit the whole family enjoyed most was the Awkward Family Photos wall – it was like a segment out of Ellen Degeneres’s talk show in museum form! Certainly this was not an amazing art museum, but it was an interesting and free break from the cold air and some of the pieces were very beautiful.

After a yummy lunch & sundae at Cruisers Frozen Custard next to the Harley Davidson Store (loved their chili cheese dogs and of course the custard, we had a peanut butter cup sundae) it was time to head home.

The focus of our trip was to take in some of the free or nearly free things to see and do in Sheboygan for a fun, inexpensive weekend getaway. In future trips we’ll probably try some mini golf at Harbor Pointe, go to the Above and Beyond Children’s Museum or the Spaceport. We had a great weekend and we’ll definitely be back.

The last few days of our vacation last month were filled to the brim with everything we could fit in! After several birthday parties, a wedding, a trip to Boston (and New Hampshire and Maine), blueberry picking, kids days at the pool and more, you’d think we would have just settled into a coma for a few days before returning home but we were determined to make the most of every minute!

On the Sunday after the wedding and BB’s third birthday we went to the salon where one of my besties works to get BB her first official hair cut (besides the bang trims we’ve given her at home) along with myself and my step mom, a little Girls Day Out! I wasn’t sure how well she’d do at the salon, holding still and not getting scared but she did such a great job! I was very proud of my big girl and her new haircut looks adorable!

She looks almost scared in these pictures but I think she was just totally absorbed and concentrating on what was going on around her. She didn’t flinch at all and was thrilled to get her hair cut. We had L cut my hair first so that BB could watch the process and see that it wasn’t scary and then asked her if she’d like to have her hair cut, too, and she agreed quickly that she did.

Then she got back to work building a lego tower while we paid and chatted a bit. I was so proud of her!

After hair cuts we had lunch at one of my favorite hot dog stands in the area, then went to my aunt’s house to blow bubbles and hang out with relatives. We ended up staying for dinner and my uncle made a really delicious ragu with fresh veggies – yum!

Monday we spent the morning doing laundry, had lunch with my grandparents, went back to pack our belongings and then went to Dan’s parents to have dinner and spend the night before heading to the airport the next morning.

After dinner we took the kids out to ice cream and ate our desserts on picnic tables outside near a little trolly bandstand type thing where the ice cream parlor has summer concerts. Of course I tried to take a picture of the kids, but I think they were getting tired of mom’s photo ops.

The next day was our flight home which involved a lot of sitting and waiting and walking and luggage arranging and flights being moved to different gates and confusion and coffee.

It was a full day of travel and by the time we got back to Wisconsin we were truly exhausted. We picked up pizzas at our favorite pizza place and headed home for an easy dinner and an early bed time!

All in all, we had a truly amazing trip and loved getting to spend so much time with our family and friends while we were there. We fit in everything we could and then some. And it was just long enough to make us truly glad to come home to our normal, mostly boring lives (ignoring refrigerator deaths anyway). Definitely a vacation to remember!

Click the links to read part one and part two of my vacation wrap-up.

Week two of our vacation in Massachusetts was even more action packed than week one which included a long day of air travel, a late night viewing of my SIL’s 70s cover band, disc golf, a drive in movie, a trip to Boston, New Hampshire and Maine, a family cookout, swimming and a birthday party.

Sunday afternoon we took the kids to one of the larger malls in the area to pick out a wedding present for my SIL who was getting married the following weekend. We found a beautiful teapot at Teavana that Dan and I both saw and instantly thought of his sister. Perfect.

The next afternoon we took the kids to the playground at the elementary school where Dan once went to as a kid before meeting my aunt for lunch at the hot dog stand down the street. Massachusetts has at least two major hot dog stand style restaurants that everyone in the area has been and most love. Hot Dog Annie’s was a central figure in Dan’s childhood much the way that Four Corners was a major part of mine. The debate still rages on as to which makes a better hot dog.

BB says she doesn’t really care as long as we keep taking her to awesome places for lunch. Our kids would happily live on hot dogs which is good because they ate a LOT of them on this vacation.

Tuesday was another Kid’s Day and BB kept cool in the kiddie pool while the older kids, including MM,  swam in the large pool. I was grateful that she didn’t seem to think she was missing out because it meant I was able to sit in the shade and relax while the kids kept cool in the water.

The next day we spent basically the entire day at Cool Sandy Beach, on and off again. Morning, afternoon and evening found us making makeshift sandcastles, hanging out with friends, walking along the water and eventually swimming also. And me taking lots of pictures.

Thursday we went blueberry picking with my grandmother and cousin. I have decided that blueberry picking is the very best kind of picking. You sit on a chair and easily pluck the blueberries from their plant. Eat some, save some and then go home and eat more. The weather was just overcast enough to keep us cool and relaxed without being cold. Perfection.

Of course I had to linger and take pictures of every pretty flower that we passed…

Then we went to a dairy farm near my grandmother’s that has a few cute animals to visit, a playground and a farm store selling ice cream, eggs, milk and more.

I made Dan take this picture of BB and I because I was reminded of taking another little tyke to this farm many moons ago when my friend’s daughter was BB’s age. Now she is practically a teenager – ack!

I don’t know why this picture is so ridiculously small – a lot of my oldest digital pictures are for some reason now very, very tiny – but you get the idea. Here’s  another picture that is actually big enough to SEE from the same day…

Seriously. I was practically still a teenager myself in this picture. Point is though – little Cay, little BB, littler Jen, bigger Jen… De ja vu. You get the idea, right? Okay, moving on…

After we looked at animals the kids played in the sand tire box and then we celebrated BB’s birthday again at my aunt’s house with a birthday bundt cake and seven minute frosting. It’s tradition that there be seven minute frosting at family birthday parties and we like to stick with our traditions. Especially where cake is concerned.

The next day was July 21st – BB’s third birthday and my SIL’s wedding – how many girl’s get to wear the most beautiful dress in the world and have a hired band sing them happy birthday in the middle of their aunt’s wedding? Some girls have all the luck, huh?

I could devote an entire post to pictures from this day but I’ll try to contain myself and just show you the best ones…

Hmmm… ok this post just got very long. I’ve got three more days to share with you from the vacation but I think I’ll save them for another post. Stay tuned for BB’s first haircut, blowing bubbles with cousins, major attitude and our flight home.

Click the links to read part one and part three of my vacation wrap-up.

So three weeks ago we got on an airplane and flew to Detroit and then sat around the Detroit airport for four or five hours and then got on another airplane and flew to Rhode Island where my in laws picked us up and drove us to Massachuetts. It was a loooooong day but we were apparently crazy or still riding the adreneline fumes of Fun & Exciting and because that night we put the kids to bed at my dad’s place and then drove 40 minutes into the “city” and watched my SIL perform with her 70′s cover band at Sakura Tokyo.

I’ve never heard her sing anything outside of the church really so it was very cool to see her in “her element” – she is outrageously talented and we had a great time listening to the band as well as catching up with some of Dan’s family that had also come out to hear her perform.

The next day we spent the morning with my dad and my grandparents. We swung on the old swing on the front porch that I have been swinging on all my life. Watching them swing with my grandma and remembering when I was there age sitting on that swing with grandma brought back a lot of great memories. The weather was blissfully perfect and a nice escape from the crazy 106 degree temps we’d left behind in Madison.

Dan and I spent the afternoon with his siblings playing disc golf which is basically frisbee in the woods with a lot of chaotic hiking thrown in while you retrieve your frisbee from the stream or behind the rocks or up the hill or down the hill while attempting to get it to the basket at the end of each little course. It’s sort of like hell but almost fun. His siblings are a pretty athletic, outdoorsy group and so half of the people playing had a blast and did really well and the other half enjoyed commiserating together and attempting to find a strategy to keep us out of the streams and sweating as little as possible. I like to call it don’t throw the frisbee farther than you can predict it’s landing and plan to take awhile.

When we met up with the kids and my dad afterwards for dinner they were pretty tuckered out. BB had fallen asleep in my dad’s arms and it was adorable and a lot of pictures were taken. We took them out to Friendly’s for dinner and ice cream and she ate pretty much a lollipop, french fries and ice cream so by the time dinner was over she was pretty thrilled despite waking up cranky. Also known as, we probably got played in a major way. She’s a crafty one.

That night we went to the drivein with Dan’s siblings again to end our Epic Sibling Day and it was pretty awesome but also pretty buggy. I don’t like bugs but they really seem to like me. We saw the new Spiderman movie which was pretty good but mostly thanks to Emma Stone frankly.

We also spent a good bit of time playing outside and hanging out with one of my oldest besties who happens to live across the street from my uncle’s house where we were staying. It was awesome being able to step outside and see her and her hubby and kids and hang out in the off hours between running here and there.

Tuesdays in the Summer are Kids Day with Dan’s family. We all meet up at his aunt’s and the kids swim and eat junk food and the grown ups hang out in the shade and eat junk food and it’s pretty fantastic. Dan’s parents gave BB her first birthday present of the month, two Bitzy Baby dolls from the American Girl collection – a girl and a boy which BB named after herself and her brother. Pretty freaking adorable.

On Wednesday Dan’s parents took the kids to New Hampshire to visit Storyland and Dan and I took a little romantic getaway to Boston where we walked around Chinatown, Quincy Market and such and visited the New England Aquarium. It was a lot of walking and sore feet but also a lot of fun and nice to see and do the things that interested us but would have bored the kids.

panoramic view of the Boston Harbor

The next afternoon we headed back to MA and then up to New Hampshire to meet up with Dan’s family and take the kids back to MA.

That Saturday was a cookout at my grandmas in the afternoon and one of many birthday parties for BB that night with my best friends from high school and their kids.

My friend S made this cake for little BB who has announced recently that she is a princess and wants pink for her birthday (just pretend you can’t read the cake, okay?). Didn’t the cake come out pretty? It tasted great, too.

And that was just one week. We stayed for a whole other week and a half which I’ll tell you more about later. For now I’m going to go spend time with my family and enjoy ogling our new refrigerator which is by far possibly the prettiest thing in our home. It’ll be even nicer tomorrow when I buy some groceries for it.

Click the links to read part two and part three of my vacation wrap-up.

Sunday morning we told the kids we were going to the dentist, because the night before MM lost his first tooth.

And by lost, I mean he pulled it out himself and everything! Such a big boy! After a night sleeping on the floor near his bedroom window and waiting for the Tooth Fairy to come bring him fifty cents for his first lost tooth, we got the kids ready to go. To the dentist. Uh huh. Somehow they totally overlooked all the times we let it slip, all the plans we made. They slept through us packing the car the night before and didn’t think to question when a trip to the dentist took us an hour in the car.

Best April Fools prank ever. We showed up at the Great Wolf Lodge in the Wisconsin Dells and MM was absolutely floored! He had honestly no clue apparently, though I’d been convinced he’d figured it out. He was so excited. We had lunch nearby then checked in and headed to play. We wandered around MagiQuest for a bit but opted not to play this time due to price and time restraints – next year. Because it does look fun.

There was no shortage of fun for Dan and MM. They spent hours at a time in the waterpark, exploring all the slides and having a blast together. I’ll be honest though, it wasn’t the funnest trip for the girl and I. Apparently she was still working a bug out of her system because after 5 minutes in the kiddie pool I got to change one disgusting diaper and I refused to take her back in the water again for the rest of the day and the following day. Can you blame me? I think not.

But we spend Monday at the Tanger Outlets and had our own fun shopping in all the stores we’d typically have to drag the boys through. I tried on every pair of high heels in Famous Footwear and even found a pair cute enough to bring home. I tried on dresses for a summer wedding and found a cute coat. We browsed the kitchen goods stores and though we didn’t buy anything there we did see lots of cool things. BB got a cute pair of sweat pants at Old Navy. And of course we stopped to let her play at the little ride on toys several times.

I didn’t get a lot of pictures on this vacation because BB was absolutely all over the place. I love this girl but she is not much fun to vacation with. She’s….. two years old. Really, this should have been obvious from the start. But overlooking all that, it was still fun. And it was totally worth it just for MM and Dan to enjoy their Spring Break together – and dude, the shopping!

We really liked the Great Wolf Lodge, poopy diapers aside, and we’re looking forward to going there again in the future. They had a fun Cub Club area with board games and toys for younger kids and a paint your own pottery deal with very decent pricing. The indoor waterpark kept the boys busy for hours – next time we may go in the summer so we can enjoy the outdoor park, too.

We also discovered that our daughter might be a kleptomaniac. She tried to steal several things from the gift shop AND Wiley Wolf’s big coin. I’m sure she’d have taken the whole statue if she’d been able to lift it. Look out for this girl!

Bottom line: MM is going to be sorely disappointed the next time we tell him we’re going to the dentist… and then we actually go to the dentist.