Lots goin' on, not much time!

Hey Jude! That is Christian and his buddy, Jude, from preschool at St. Paul's. They are two peas in a pod and I believe they give their teachers a run for their money...and patience! The photo was taken at the Henry Vilas Zoo in Madison a few weeks ago.

Here's where the Topel family is at:

Two weekends ago, we hung out, cleaned the garage, and had "Kiki" over to our house. Kiki is an 8 month old who is being taken care of by her Foster parents, who are also our customers and friends. We had a great time with her. She is such a wonderful spirited baby and took a long nap, then crawled around, played, we went on a short walk, and she wasn't trying, but made Brady jealous since he wasn't the baby in the house! I think he was glad to see her go, but we were not!

Dan and I have been working quite a bit during the week, so when the weekends come, I hit the door running!

Last weekend, we went to the library and out for lunch with my mom on Saturday, then went over to the Selck's house for a yummy supper. Man, Kathy can cook a mean prime roast and garlic butter potatoes!! It was a great incentive to get moving this week on some walks!! We had so much fun playing with Ethan, and once again, I got my baby fix-snuggling Barrett! We also got to catch up with our friends, Jason and Stacey Forest, so that was good, too. The time was too short!

On to Mother's Day! We went out to the Sand Bar for brunch and YUMMY YUMMY, more food in my tummy! We saw Jason and Stacey, again! My mom, my Grandma Vitense, Cliff, Vi, and our family all were together. How wonderful. After that, we changed our clothes and headed over to Topel's. Vi said not to get her anything, but she wanted Dan's time. So we cleaned up some of their yard and got a nice big spot for the Topel Family Garden! We are so excited!! Everyone pitched in and you know they say many hands make light work!

Dan is off this week to help our friend, Tim Pulford move some things from his place in New Richmond, WI up to his mom's in northern MN. Tim is going to be making a major career change, as he was an engineer and is going to Florida to learn how to be a pilot! We will be heading down to move the rest of his things on May 29th, the whole fam damily! He has a condo on the Oceanfront near Daytona Beach. Man is that the life! As for this trip, Dan will be taking a few days to partake in his new found obsession: fly-fishing! Believe it or not, things are actually pretty quite here and I'm not going crazy...YET! Shelli is helping with that, I know!

Mallory's dance recital is on Sunday, so that makes her rehearsal on Saturday. This is Mallory's 5th year in dance at the Main Street Dance Studio in Fort Atkinson. The recital is at the Irving Young auditorium in Whitewater at 2 on Sunday. She surprised me this year on Mother's Day with her dance which is going to be the Nutcracker. She is a soldier! Which is ironic because we have been growing her hair long so it could be extra pretty for the recital...she is wearing it in a low ponytail (he, he, he!)

Next week: Christian's last day of school on Wednesday with a program on Wednesday night at 6:30 at school. Mallory's last day of school is on Friday which is actually the day of the school olympics. Every year the classes divide into different colors, participate in events around the outside of school, then at the end, they have an all school relay race-every team has a few from each grade!!! It is always a blast!

The kids are doing very well. Mallory is feeling the stress of the end of year activities and the nice weather. She has taken a special liking to her scooter and was riding her bike until the training wheels fell off...if we just had some TIME, I'm sure she doesn't really need them anyway!! Christian has been sweeter than ever and it just takes a few extra patience and some reasoning power and he puts his brain into good use by making good choices! Still not usually a few days in-between bumps and bruises! Boys will be boys!