Children will be Children

The Spieler children were up to no good this morning. They usually play together very nicely and so I did not hesitate to leave them to their own devices this morning while I did some cleaning upstairs. They were playing with some gift bags and pretending to have a birthday party. I heard them talking about cupcakes (I do keep an ear out especially since the great dresser incident that happened two weeks ago) but didn't think too much of it. I came downstairs to discover they had tried to make their own cupcakes for this birthday party. They got out the cupcake tin, opened a package of instant mousse mix and dumped some in each muffin spot, used food coloring to add a little color, then broke up a granola bar and put a piece in for each one. Some "cupcakes" were also decorated with Hershey's kisses. I was torn between being angry and laughing. They had worked well together and had fun and there really was no damage other than a little of the mousse mix on the floor which Brooke was already cleaning up when I came into the room. It was amazing that the food coloring was contained in the cupcake tin-- and Riley's mouth! That could have been a real disaster and the food coloring has now been moved to a very high shelf. The funniest part was when Brooke said, "The cupcakes would have turned out better but we couldn't find the eggs." Thank goodness they don't know where the eggs are kept!

Cabin Days

We spent the past weekend up at Eric's parent's cabin. The weekend was filled with boat rides, fishing, moped rides and swimming on the new swim raft. Above, Brooke and I are on the pontoon boat.

Some fish were caught off the dock so we had a fish fry on Saturday night. It was yummy! Riley loves to reel in the fish.

Brooke invented dock dancing this weekend. She loved to dance on the dock and watch her shadow!

The kids loved going for moped rides. Eric picked up a battery for this and it started right up. I guess it was pretty much a miracle since it hadn't been run since the early '90s. It sure was fun.

Perfect weekends at the cabin end with beautiful sunsets like this. This was our view Saturday night by the campfire. It doesn't get better than this!

Race Day

Saturday, July 25th was the Outing Fun Run. We have been doing the race the last four years with Eric's parents. Last year I decided to run it and realized that I was not a very fast runner. This year, I really practiced a lot--getting up early in the morning to run before Eric goes to work-- and it paid off. I improved by time by over 13 minutes. It is a 5.5 K race and my time was 33:12. There were actually people behind me and I passed people! I feel like I have accomplished something since I could never even run around the track once in high school. Eric got third place in his age group, Peggy also got third and Milt got second this year. All of us improved our times so it was a very successful race.

Coral's Wedding

On Saturday we celebrated Coral's wedding. It was a fun day. Here are the ladies before heading out to the ceremony. Don't we look spiffy?

Eric and Riley smile for a moment after dinner. The dinner was very yummy indeed. Chicken, pasta, veggies and a wonderful salad and bread. The chocolate wedding cake was delicious as well.

Brooke and Grandpa danced a song and Riley was dancing a way too.

Both kids said that dancing with the bride was their favorite part of the wedding. Here they are participating in the Dollar Dance. What a fun night!

Parade

We went to the 4th of July parade in Leopolis, WI on Saturday. It was short and sweet! Eric waved to a passing float. The kids picked up candy and ate Cracker Jacks. It was an All American day!

Camping Fun

We spent the 4th of July at Pine Grove Campground near Shawano, WI. We stayed Thursday-Sunday. Eric did the Leopolis Triathlon on Saturday. He came in 5th overall and 3rd for his age group. What a guy!
Below are just some photos from the weekend. The kids were quite messy eating their holiday dinner of long noodle and hot dogs. Gavin and Riley are in the first photo and Trent and Brooke in the next.

Each year my mom makes an ice cream sandwich cake with the kids. They help her unwrap the ice cream sandwiches but I think they just like eating the whipped topping and leftover ice cream sandwiches. They all have a fun time doing it though!

Here we are headed out for a golf cart ride. The kids love saying "Happy 4th of July" to everyone we see.