I Know A Man Back Home

In July I drove the kids back to Milwaukee to visit my Mom, Dad, aunts, cousins, and more. We arrived this year just in time for the annual lakefront festival "Summerfest," which I spent many days at as a child myself. Grammy, Grandpa, the kids and I all headed down to the festival on its last day. The highlights for me were seeing old high school friends and watching the kids play rockstar on the kids' stage. The kids thought the Sky Glider was the best thing ever.

During our 5-day stay in town, the kids and I also visited all our favorite haunts, including the Betty Brinn Children's Museum, Stonefire Pizza, and The Safehouse. We also had a lot of fun hanging with friends and family at various spots around town. A highlight, for sure, was a boat ride we took on the river, all the way out to the lake. The kids all got a chance at the wheel, which they loved.

I also took the kids by Wisconsin Memorial Park, where my Grandmother (Nana), Step-Grandfather (Papa Ted), Great-Grandmother, and the Grandfather I never knew, are buried. Since we arrived after hours, the building where my Nana and Papa Ted's crypts are held was locked, which was a real disappointment to me, but we did a little detective work and found the graves for my Grandfather and Great Grandmother. Madison had been wearing a bracelet of fake flowers she found at the bowling alley the day before, so we left a touch of pink by my Grandfather's grave.

In all, the kids enjoyed our Milwaukee stay and Alex, Kaelen, and Madison were all super psyched to get their hands on some bonafide Packers gear from Wisconsin.

For Summerfest photos click here:



For the rest of our Milwaukee adventures, click below.

I'm Living in America

We always look forward to fun and fireworks on the Fourth of July. This year the kids and I spent much of the day at the Vienna 4th of July Festival bouncing, sliding, and goofing around. We later drove down to meet Daddy at Granddad Winn's house for a dip in the pool, dinner, and fireworks galore. The day was hot, but hopping. Everyone was tuckered out by the time their heads hit the pillow and fun was had by all.

Click the photo to the right to see more photos of our 4th of July fun.

Don't Tug on Superman's Cape

With Daddy and the boys full on into comic books and superheros, we decided to take a short family vacation to Philadelphia for Comic-Con in June. We all dressed up in costumes and enjoyed three days of comics, star wars, and crazy characters everywhere. The kids especially enjoyed the light-saber training and costume contest. Everybody got a chance to sit in the Batmobile and the Delorian from Back to the Future, which was a real hit. Aunt Teddy came down from NYC for the weekend to stay with us, too, and we all had fun with her. :)

Lots of photos were taken by yours truly, so be sure to check them out by clicking the picture below. :)

VereBBQ

For the past 8 years, my friend Sharon and her husband have held a BBQ in their backyard during Memorial Day weekend. Last year was the first year we had to miss it, due to a stomach bug that was working its way through two of the three Winn kids. So, I was especially glad the weather held up and everyone was healthy this year. Since all my babies are now old enough to be somewhat independent and left unattended to play in the yard, it's also the first year I didn't spend the whole time chasing a newly-mobile toddler around the (large) yard or worry that my baby would fall face first out of a sitting position while I took 10 seconds to grab a soda or bathroom break. I actually got to converse with adults, which was a welcome opportunity!

The kids all had a great time cooling off on the slip-n-slide, and I took the opportunity of my newly found freedom to play around with my camera and catch up with some great friends I don't get to see often enough in this busy busy life.

To see photos from the day, click below.

Preschool Grad Take 1

Kaelen had his pre-school graduation May 26, complete with songs and stories. Mr. Beary was in attendance, as well as Mommy and Daddy. The ceremony is just a practice for Kaelen, who will be in one more year of pre-K, since his birthday falls just before the cut off date and we didn't want to send him to Kindergarten as the youngest kid in his class. We'd rather send him with an advantage than a disadvantage.

Kaelen had a blast with the whole thing. He was so sweet when one of the songs they sang required the kids to sign "I love you." He searched Mommy out in the audience when the time came to point to "you." And he made sure to point to me every time it came up in the song, even though it required he turn almost completely around! What a sweetheart!

To see some photos of our little (almost) graduate, click the photo below.

Kachow!

This summer marks the long-awaited sequel to Cars. Lightning McQueen has had a long presence in our home, since we started potty-training Alex, at the age of three, using die-cast figures of McQueen and his friends as rewards. When Kaelen got his first glimpse of the speed racer before he was even two-years old, he was an instant McQueen fan. Kaelen and I used to have midnight viewings of the Cars movie, when, as a toddler, he couldn't sleep and would trump downstairs to my side of the bed, saying, "Queeeeen. Queeeeen."

So, when a friend of ours told me that Lightning McQueen, his friend Mater, and Finn McMissle, would be in D.C. for one day only at the National Spy Museum, I threw the kids in the car and made a day of it in D.C. We met Lightning McQueen and friends live and in-person. We toured the Spy Museum at lightning speed, since nobody, especially Alex, seemed interested in the vast knowledge the museum has to offer. And, finally, we stopped by the Washington Monument to enjoy the view and run off some energy.

For more photos of our McQueen encounter, click the photo below.

Ready For Some Football?

As members of the Washington Redskins Kids' Club, Alex and Kaelen had special access for autograph signing by Redskins alumni during the annual Redskins Draft Day Party at FedEx field. Grandma was kind enough to babysit Madison for the day, while the boys, Daddy, and I enjoyed an afternoon at the ball field. There was a football obstacle course to run, a quarterback toss, and a chance to make a field goal attempt at the uprights. We got a behind the scenes tour of the locker room and a chance to see the three Superbowl trophies won by the Redskins.

A chance to meet Redskins alumni and, especially, to play ball right on the green of FedEx field were the highlights of the trip for a football-obsessed seven-year old and his younger "superstar" brother.

For photos of our FedEx field adventure, click the photo below.

Because The Night

Slight drizzling turned our Saturday Easter egg hunt at Grandma's into an indoor event, but the kids were equally as eager to hunt down the goods. For the first year ever, Kaelen found the golden egg with the coveted $20 bill inside. He was so excited! Everyone had lots of fun rummaging through candy and coins. Madison was a true lady with her white dress, Easter hat, and wrist-length white gloves.

For dinner, we joined Granddad Winn at his house for some golden arches, dandelion picking, and another fun egg hunt. Eggs were hidden with either an "A," a "K," or an "M" marked on them. The kids had a blast looking for their eggs and the boys were very good big brothers helping their little sister find all of her "M" eggs. :)

On Easter Sunday we made our annual trip to our neighbor Nancy's egg hunt at her son Bruce's house. With several acres of land and over 600 eggs to find, it's a kid's dream come true! Madison had fun playing with Nancy's new grand daughter Lily, and of course, all three of the kids enjoyed running around with Emma, Alex, and other friends.

For all the photos from our adventures, click the photo below.

April Showers

The first weekend in April was very busy for the Winn clan. On Friday, April 1, Alex took part in his school's Boosterthon Fundraiser Fun Run. The kids asked friends and relatives to pledge money for each lap run, up to 35 laps. Alex ran all 35 laps and raised $480 for his school to help buy SmartBoards for the classrooms. The school raised over $25,000 through this fundraiser! Yeah London Towne Lions! For more photos from the event click on the photo to the right.

On Saturday, April 2, Kaelen had his first tee-ball game. Grandma and Grandpa Roth came up to see the little guy batter up and run the bases. Kaelen loved playing first base and especially hugging every first base runner and saying "Hi. My name is Kaelen." He's so sweet. Of course, he would follow the introduction up with "We're gonna beat you!" What a character! at some point, the game became more football than baseball, when every boy on the team would run after the baseball and pile on top of each other to see who came out alive with the coveted baseball.

Saturday evening I took the boys to Borders bookstore to see a live performance by Jack and Annie of the Magic Treehouse book series. Alex has already read 6 or 7 of the "Chapter Books" as he calls them. I read the books at night when putting Alex and Kaelen to bed and we have all enjoyed following them to see dinosaurs, mummies, ninjas, cobras, and more! After the show, the boys were ecstatic to meet Jack and Annie in person and get their new books signed by them.

Madison was a good sport all weekend, despite the focus of attention on her brothers. She happily cheered Kaelen during his tee-ball game and even ran onto the field to give him a hug.

Voices out of Photographs

My mother had a dark room in the basement of our family home. In my teens I remember losing days down there developing photographs. Watching the black outlines and gray shades come to life on that glossy paper was exhilarating. As the repetition of adult life moved in, much of the time I had to concentrate on that creative effort was pushed aside.


The digital photography revolution made photographs more accessible and took much of the trial and error out of the process, which was exciting. But a good DSLR camera does not come cheap. With a growing family, mortgage, and student loans still hanging overhead, it's been hard to justify the cost of one. And, thus, I feel as though years have gone by and images have been stuck in my head. Now that I have my Nikon D90 (thanks to my generous husband, sister, and mother) I'm finally able to extract them from my mind and share them. The children are a bit annoyed at how often I stick a lens in their face, but I can't control my impulse lately to shoot. A digital photography class I took has helped me to realize more of my vision and I am enjoying the creative learning process that continues everyday. I feel alive.


With the help of some tweaking from my amazing sister, I have a Web site to show off some of my work. As my vision and ability grows, so will the site. Enjoy!

www.melissawinn.net

Red and Yellow, Red and Yellow

With the NFL football season over, and in limbo for the coming year, we were a little worried about how Alex would channel his football obsession. The boys are both big into football, but Alex has taken it to a new level. He eats, sleeps, and breathes the game. He spends all free time practicing his "spiral" and honing his catching skills in the backyard. When the physical game wears him down, he plays Madden 2011 on the Xbox 360 and my iPhone, and takes to the computer to watch old game footage and run through team and player stats. He's also been known to plot out a few offensive and defensive plays using not only paper, but football cards to chart it out.

Since the boys both love the Redskins (almost as much as they love the Packers! Ha!) I signed them up for the Redskins Kids Club. Today their membership packets arrived, complete with a t-shirt, backpack, id card, activity book, Redskins pennant, certificate of membership and more I am forgetting. Throughout the year, kids in the club have the opportunity to take part in some cool adventures at FedEx field and sometimes compete for free game tickets! Woot!

Here are the newest members of the Redskins Kids Fan Club!

I Want To Be A Billionaire

Kaelen has declared lately that when he grows up he wishes to be "A rock star!" Here are two videos of him practicing. Some backup vocals and instrumentals are provided by his sister Madison Jane. ;)