he's 5

My boy is 5 years old.

The best big bro a sister could ever have.

Seriously.

I love his goofiness.


And his seriousness.

Actually, I love everything about him.
Happy birthday my little man!



(From your lil sis too.)

Here's the cake that he chose to have. He saw it in one of his kid's magazines and I had to do one heckuva lot of improvisation to make it as close to the original as possible...but that is a long, boring story. It was made with love, through and through, and that is all that matters.

I love this 5 year old boy.

a happy man

I don't think I have ever....ever....seen Mr. Incrdible so happy. If I had known it would make him this happy (cuz of course I knew it would make him happy), I would have made him buy it a looooong time ago.....

Check out our brand spankin' new tractor!!!!




Nuthin' runs like a Deere!!


These pictures don't show it very well, but the man was ALL smiles as he took his first ride (in the rain) to check it out. Since it was a dark, rainy day (hmmm...sound familiar??), it was tough to get a good picture without raindrops blurring the camera....

He did finally get a bright sunny day for his very first full lawn cutting on his new baby:



Please note the difference between our lawn and our neighbor's. Yes, he is very, very proud of that...and mentions it quite frequently.

This is one happy man. He couldn't even wait to change out of his work clothes to get on it for its maiden voyage and riiiiiiiiide..... After finishing the lawn (taking half the time of the other tractor...no joke) he said, "I am really happy about that tractor!!" Mind you, this is a man who doesn't express happiness too often (not that he is not ever happy, he is just a typical stoic midwesterner type), so him telling me this is similar to, say, a husband telling his wife he just won the lottery. When the hubby is happy, this wife is very, very happy indeed.

There is even a song written just for us.

(And yes, I do think his tractor is sexy....)

Wisconsin vacay

We're back and trying desperately to recover from 10 days away in da land of da brats 'n da slow livin', 'n so. Oh yah, dey sure do talk like dat. Dey shore do yah. I perd'near started talkin' like dat maself, 'n so! Yah yah, das true yah.

Oh man, that accent is somethin' else and I have to admit that it made me smile just listening to people talk -- and dare ain't nuttin' wrong wit dat, 'n so!! Anyway...here are some pics from our wonderful trip to wonderful Wisconsin....

It was soooo cold on 4th of July eve that we all had to wear sweatshirts covering up our red, white and blue outfits...oh well.

Popcorn and cotton candy for dinner ("supper" in Wisconsin). Nutritious and delicious!


Three generations of Kappelmans.



Oh yah...wussah 4th of July wit out some polka yah! Dey were oh so good yah!

Ah yes, and then there were lollipops for dessert....


Lollipops and popcorn for dinner, what could possibly be better than that??


Dancin' with daddy.

The lil man with grandpa.

We paid a lil visit to Minnesota to visit an aunt, uncle and some friends.

Fishin' in grandpa's pond.


Getting ready for the reunion! Nana made my girl's dress. It's about as adorable as a lil girl's dress can get....

The cousins!

Goofin' cousins.

The Kappelmann reunion!

LOTS of food and fun had by all! I think I gained 20 lbs. during my stay in brats 'n cheese (and one heckuva lot of junk food) country....

happy 4th of july!

Happy 4th of July!
We're off to Wisconsin for our getaway and a Kappelmann (the original spelling of the name) Family reunion. I'm reeeeeeally hoping we see the sun while we're there.....