Life as we go it

I've been totally slacking in the taking-photos-of-the-kiddos Department. Life has been so busy.

We've been doing lots of fun stuff. In the past few weeks we've:
Attended two weddings.
Taken a trip to our cabin.
Spent a day at the zoo.
Enjoyed Bookworm Gardens twice.
Have been harvesting tomatoes from our garden.
Matt's been canning dilly beans and making homemade salsa.
Liam has done countless experiments with paint & glitter glue & play dough.
We've taken trips to the farmer's market.
Started potty training Liam.
Started giving Chloe cereal.

But it's really the daily to-do list that's been keeping us busy:
It's the laundry.
And the dishes.
And the constant layer of crumbs and stickiness on the kitchen floor.
The picking up of toys & socks & books & random everything.
The mowing of the law, de-weeding the garden, watering the flowers, etc.
Paying bills and getting rid of piles of junk mail.
Keeping the refrigerator stocked and the diaper baskets full.
Hosting friends and family at our house.
Double bath times. Double story times. Double put-downs-to-bed.

I've been struggling during the day with how to manage the routine stuff while also making time for fun and caring for two little kids. As soon as I think I've figured it all out, something changes or goes haywire. Luckily, when Matt's done with work for the day, he's an enormous help! When he's with the kids and I things are so much easier.

We have 2 kids and I get stressed out. My Grandma Bieniek had 8 kids and my Grandma Judnic had 9 kids!! HOW DID THEY DO IT ALL?

I've been super complain-y and crabby lately (I'm so sorry Matt) but I truly feel blessed to be busy and tired and surrounded by chaos sometimes. I would rather be busy than bored!

And so we truck on...
...trying to find a balance between fun and the day-to-day....

We moved to the great city of Sheboygan almost four years ago.

The longer we live here, the more we discover things that we love about this gem on the lake.

Yes, I hear from family and friends quite often "did you hear 'this' bad thing or 'that' bad thing on the News about Sheboygan?" Or "did you hear about the crazy thing that happened in Sheboygan" blah blah blah...

But I'm pretty sure every town has some not-so-positive things about it. And we choose to focus on the positives about this city...like the amazing waterfront, the cute little shops sporadically placed around the city, some amazing restaurants and watering holes, beautiful parks and a top-notch arts center. There are a lot of little quirks that make it, what Matt and I call,  "so Sheboygan."

Over the last few years, here are some things that Matt and I have decided as being "so Sheboygan:"