Friday, June 17, 2016

Summer Day 7- Friday, June 17th- Garage Door Painted!, Splash Pad and Movie Night

So we have a lot of projects we want to accomplish this summer:

  • Organize/clean/declutter the inside of the house
  • Paint
    • Garage Door
    • Deck
    • Swingset
    • Fence
One is checked off the list!  The garage door is DONE!  We started our morning with a trip to the hardware store for supplies (paint brushes for the kids) and then got to work.  Painting with a 2-year-old is difficult.  Getting paint out of said 2-year-old's hair is even more difficult.  Jacob was a great help and then listened to his book (Harry Potter book 6) that I had playing while we worked.  It was a great chance for the kids to help, and entertain themselves.  By the end of the day we did 2 loads of laundry, 2 lods of dishes, fed ourselves 3 times, hung out at the splash pad for a couple of hours, and got 3 coats of paint on the garage door.  I call that a successful day.  Oh... and we snuggled, laughed, read stories, Jacob worked on writing his books he wants to write this summer, read 2 stories to Mom, and had a movie night.  Ahhh... a busy but good day. 





Summer Day 6- Thursday, June 16th- Anniversary! and response to Tragedy

It is hard to believe that today marks 9 years of being married.  It has been a wonderful, rollercoaster ride and I could not imagine being on it with anyone else.  The kids were very excited and were making us gifts all morning and singing us songs.  We also called Grandma and Grandpa Ploeger as it was their 49th anniversary which the kids thought was awesome!!!

To celebrate Sierra came and watched the kids for a couple hours so Matt and I could go out.  We had a wonderful lunch at Fridays and then went for a walk to Savers.  You may not think that a date to Savers sounds very romantic, and maybe it's not but it was wonderful.  To walk, talk and shop without distractions.  We will be celebrating our anniversary next week for 3 days in Bemiji, Minnesota and are very excited!

We also have been trying to have down time every day where the kids have to entertain themselves, today Jacob decided to sing his ABCs backwards... just for fun.  We are also trying to focus on Jacob having reading, math and writing time daily.



This past Sunday our country suffered another mass shooting, this time targeted at Pulse, in Orlando, Florida a gay bar that had a mostly latinx clientele.  During this travesty 50 people were killed and 50 more were injured, yet as a society we have not taken any serious steps to make changes to our laws to prevent further atrocities.  Tonight we had a prayer service at church and in our prayers we asked God to help us take action to actively work toward making serious and fundamental change in our society.  In addition to doing this summer I want to focus on being.  Who am I?  Who are we as a family? Who are we becoming?  So this week focused on reaching out to members of the LGTBQ+ community, loved ones, and students, to my muslim students and to Latinx students to let them know they have an ally, they are loved and supported.  I pray that we can raise Emma and Jacob to be advocates for truth, peace, justice, equity and love. 




Summer Day 5- Wednesday, June 15th- ENT, Life Jacket and Pool Time

We are going to spend a lot of time in the backyard this summer. It is great.  The kids love to be in the water and I think we have made it to water everyday so far this summer... splash pad, water fights, sprinkler, pool in the backyard... today was a pool in the backyard day.  It was also Emma's 6th month check up from her tubes surgery.  Everything looks great.  It was a bit of a fiasco but it ended well.  While we were at the hospital she got a life jacket... and LOVES it! She is ready to go swimming and to the beach.  She also decided that she needed to wash Jacob's hair tonight... 





Summer Day 4- Tuesday, June 14th- Story time and family dinner

Errands!  One of the realities of summer is there are mundane tasks that must be completed.  Laundry. Dishes. Errands.  Today we started the day by dropping off my contract for next year (since I gave my principal a scare by not having it turned in yet) and then heading to Target.  We spend a lot of time (and money) at Target.  In the afternoon we headed to Spanish story time, but the regular story time leader for Spanish story time had an allergic reaction and couldn't make it.  The librarian tried but does not speak Spanish, the saving grace of the experience was she had Jacob help lead story time by doing the flannel board.  He LOVED it!

Then it was off to family dinner.  It was a great night with lots of cuddles, stories (both the boys read), play time outside and delicious ribs.  Linda was there to join us tonight which was fun.



Summer Day 3- Sunday, June 12- Kick off to Summer at the Mueller-Owens

What a wonderful day!  Church went well in the morning and the garden is looking great!  We will have lettuce ready to be picked this week.  We rested for awhile in the afternoon and the kids played in the sprinkler, then we went to Rob, Miriam, Anika and Sierra's for a kick off to summer party.  They are really great people and we were able to meet a lot of our neighbors.  We had a great evening hanging out, getting to know people and enjoying delicious food (and Jacob climbed a tree).

Summer Day 2- Saturday, June 2nd- Pool time, parties and car washing!

Today was a day full of parties, relaxation and summer fun.  We started our morning with the kick off to summer party for Cultured Kids (Emma's daycare).  It was at the Middleton Splash Pad and the kids had a blast. Emma was so excited to see her friends, in particular her BFF, William "Liam".  We had to leave the party early as Jacob had a birthday party.  Grant's family is also a member of our church but non-attenders so we thought it would be a great chance for Matt to connect with the family.  While the boys were at the party the girls rested and then Emma got to have her pool time since she didn't yesterday.  She woke up from her nap and the first words spoken were "I go swimming!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!".   The kids and I also washed the car in the afternoon and Emma thought that was a great opportunity for her to wash her car too :-)




Summer Day 1- Friday, June 10th- Welcome summer!

Welcome to Summer!!!!  Yesterday we had a wonderful surprise from Mr. Hernandez when he called an all staff meeting to let us know that he didn't care if we came in today.  I thought he was going to get a standing ovation, it was a great show of respect, care and a great gift as many of us had kiddos that didn't have school today.  We sent Miss Emmalyn for her last day of daycare before summer and Jacob and I got to have a Mom and Jacob day.

We started our day at the Monona Library with Dexter and Meghan for some fun hangout time and then stopped by school to pick up money for a student whose mother passed away.  Then it was home for a Jacob quiet time and Mom nap and then Dexter, Alida and Meghan came over for an afternoon pool party.  It was quiet the success.  Jacob invented the "water coaster" in which he places a rubbermaid container on the slide and rides it down into the pool.

A great first full day of summer!!!





Welcome to Ploeger Summer 2016

Every summer, and by every summer I mean... ev.er.y. su.m.mer I reach the fall and look back and think "We haven't done anything!".  I realize that this isn't true but thought that having a running record of our adventures, projects and shenanigans would help me in August realize we had an amazing summer and also might inspire more adventures.  So here it is... a running record of Ploeger Summer 2016... the good, the mundane, the awesome, even sometimes the ugly.