Kid Pictures

I love love love love moms who get in the picture.  I adore dads who pick up the camera and get that shot with the mom in it. It may not be perfect. It could be an action shot, posed or maybe even blurry.  But there it is-down in history.  The mom was there too. This is what she looked like. This is what she was doing.

She was there too. 

Andy is sometimes very good at picking up the camera.  But when we are on trips with his family he is usually very preoccupied with his siblings, he just doesn't think to pick up the camera.  Therefore, on our trip to Tennessee, you'd only know I was there from the group shot.  I didn't make it in a single other shot.

But what do you expect when you are trying to capture quick moments like this:

Jake (22 months)   Elijah (26 months)

And when Andy does finally capture me (a few weeks later) this is how I look....

Oh well...I was there right?
Here's a picture of my mom

Hey-she was there right?

There's another mom who got in 1 or 2 shots for the whole week!

Ok I think I made my point.
Regardless, pictures are priceless and here are a few more favorites from our trip to Tennessee.

Elliot 27.5 months, Jake 22 months, Elijah 26 months

Snack time around the pool!

Aunt Monica made yummy peanut butter pie (and made some without crust for me)

Eli trying to drink the water at his first splash park

Uncle Chris giving Tyler a grilling lesson!

Snack break with Grandma

I love this hammock.  LOVE it.  This is just proof that Uncle Chris does take breaks to relax.

Summer

I've been reading so many blogs lately that are written about summer coming to an end and kids going back to school.  Summer is a weird concept to me.  Most people say "What are you doing this summer?"  or "What did you do this summer?.  I always want to reply "I worked."
Now that I'm out of school/college and I don't get a ~summer break~ summer just means warm weather and other kids home from school.  It's not extra time at home or change in routine for our family. 

I know I didn't take advantage of summer when I was in school or even when I was in college.  Why didn't I?  I guess because it was an expectation and was always there.  Nothing beat the last week and the first week of school.  I didn't realize that summer nights would be just work nights in the future. 

There are things that happen for me during the summer.  Eli has a birthday (among other family and friends).  Summerfest and State Fair and other festivals. 4th of July.  Our anniversary. Our yearly trip to my favorite place on Earth (Up north) and now usually Andy's family trip.  So we do go places and do things.  But it all seems to just get packed in the same routine of getting up and working every day. 

Therefore I don't have a touching blog post about changing routines, buying school supplies or sending my baby off on a school bus.  Give me 2-3 years and this will all change.  For now I just live vicariously through  friends and family who talk about the seasons changing (well I do at least notice and appreciate this) and their littles finding out the teacher's name and what to do with the plan for preschool etc.  I know I'll also look back when I do have kids who are going back to school and wish I had appreciated an end to the summer without these big changes that can affect schedule, wake up time, laundry schedule, sleeping habits etc.  So for now...yes the summer is ending.  

Here are a few things that meant summer to me when I was little:
1. Tennis, soccer, swimming, or softball
2. Girlscout camp
3. asking mom if I could have a friend over and late night sleepovers
4. Playing in the woods behind the house
5. The hammock in the backyard
6. Watermelon, sweet corn and burgers on the deck
7. The cottage
8. Playing kickball in the street with the neighbor boys   
9. The Book Mobile and the reading program at the library
10. Running errands with my mom
11. Rainy days indoors-getting creative with old toys
12. Lemonade stands
13. Playing with Julie
14. Riding the waves in Lake Michigan on the weekends
15. Lots of bike rides, here, there-everywhere
16. Closing at Pizza Hut
17. The sound and smell of the 1 beer my mom would drink while she made dinner

For Eli...I wonder what will be summer to him.  His birthday of course, but I wonder if he'll do swimming, library program, soccer or football, boy scouts, trips to the cottage etc.  I wonder what his summer job will be when he gets older. 

Here is a picture that means summer to me.

Elijah eats corn on the cob and watermelon like a TRUE Schneider

These guys....

These 8 boys and 1 gal are going to be buds for many, long years.

 And.....everyone KICK!!!

I wonder if the 10th cousin will be a girl or a boy!

The Sweat Shop

We've been to Tennessee with the family 3 or 4 times.  This year we were asked what our t-shirt size is.  I immediately knew something was up.  Many steps were taken to accomplish this goal.  I'm sure this could become a yearly event, regardless of where the family trip takes us.

Steps:
1. Aunt Monica acquires all t-shirt sizes for everyone.
2. Aunt Monica organizes shirts and writes names on them all.
3. Mr. Roeder mixes up 3 colors for tye-dye
4. Aunt Erika helps people "Swirl" the tshirts. Some designed their own with rubber bands.
5. Everyone dipped and squirted their own.

6. They dried in bundles on the grass.

7. The were opened and dried on the gate around the pool.

8. The sweat shop opened that night-Grandpa, Uncle Chris and Aunt Monica spent hours (YES HOURS) to silk screen the design/emblem onto the tshirts.  This took a lot of work because there were so many different sizes of thsirts.
(On the front it said established in 1970 meaning that is when this family started-Grandma and Grandpa got married.  On the back it said  RoederPaloza-not sure on spelling).

9. Again those dried overnight.
10. Grandpa, Uncle Chris and others helped iron all the shirts.
THEN we took the group photo.
First we tried to take the picture on the stairs....and let me tell you-it IS a hassle to get these pictures taken with all the kids and fitting everyone into the shot (hence-the happy faces on the stairs)

But the outcome is always worth it!

Can you imagine.....

Can you imaging holidays and vacations with this big of a group?   It can be done!  Believe it or not, the planning is typically the most difficult part of the whole trip.  Usually we stay in 1 house with 1 bathroom or split into 4 hotel rooms.   We squeeze, take turns, smile, hug, fight, eat, relax, play and make a lot of noise. You know...family stuff. 
This vacation we stayed in a very large house with multiple bathrooms. 

1 child missing at school, 1 baby in tummy

More to come on this trip to Tennessee....

What worked & What didn't

Recently our family went on a few vacations which we drove as our means of transportation.  Our time in the car started to add up.
I have a sister who is fearless and drives her tribe of 3 around, far and wide. Not much complaining from them. As the little sister I'm slightly competitive but not even half as confident.  But we survived.
Here's what worked and what didn't work:

Worked:
-Thomas the train lunch box filled with "new toys" every time he opened it
-Passing windmills for an hour, he looked, talked and imagined
-Snacks and water
-The polar bear board book
-The dvd player. We used it once each way.  He was quiet.
-Stopping to eat.  He's too young to eat a meal in the car. And I get car sick if I try to turn around
-Both cars.  We took the big car on the shorter trip and the smaller car on the longer trip. Both cars worked for this travel.  Although the smaller one would not have worked if we had to bring stroller, pack n play or booster seat.
-Stopping at a sit down restaurant for a nicer/bigger meal vs. attempting fast food AGAIN.
-The GPS  (LIFE CHANGING remember Sarah?)
-Cell phone-riding for 6 hours straight....as a passenger of course-anyone who texted me helped pass the time. Thanks!
-Books on tape for Andy. (Boring to me) but he drove the full 6 hours the first night because he was listening to a book on tape.
-Changing his diaper in the gas station because the car was so packed there wasn't room to lay him on the seat.  Each time I gave him a different body part to hold on to. When I laid him down I told him to hold his ears. His nose or his chin. that way he wouldn't touch any dirty parts of the cahnging table in the restaurant or gas station.Ick.  Taking him in the bathroom when I needed to go, I made him hold my knees while I peed so he couldn't touch anything. 



What didn't work:
-Any sort of music.  We just haven't found anything to play for him to get excited by. Any ideas?
-The repeating...seriously everything we said. everything he said. everything he thought. everything he saw. he would repeat. repeat and repeat again.  I finally found myself telling him not to say it again.  I tried to sound excited and answer every time. Sometimes I just agreed with him. I even tried sounding bored.  But the repeating was definitely a little mentally disturbing. 
-Ignoring.  After a while, the repeating got so old that we tried to ignore it instead of responding.  It didn't work.
-Setting up the DVD player on top of a sleeping bag on the console between Andy and I. No fun.  It was uncomfortable for all of us except Eli.  I swore only once.  Good thing our new van has one built in, enough of this positioning and fast forwarding and falling and strapping etc.
-Being gluten free and pregnant on these long trips.  So cranky about lack of choice for stopping.  10 hours in the car and it's only so long that nuts and water and candy hold me over.
-Eli's naps-he only takes 45 min-1 hour naps in the car. He wakes if we stop the car to get gas or even slow down at an exit.  He also doesn't fall asleep unless we travel past 10 pm.  That means...after your long driving shift and you just want to shut your eyes-it's almost worse to be in the passenger seat.  He won't be sleeping. So you have to deal with his repeating, grabbing the snacks and constantly turning around.
-Temperature: I'm always cold and Andy is always hot. Our new van will fix this problem too.

Both trips were great and successful. I hope the above didn't sound too negative. I hope to be able to look back when the next one is around 2 for travel tips-that's all.
I cannot imagine how this list will change NEXT year when we travel with a 3 year old and a 6 month old!

Boys

All week it seemed like we were partaking in boyish activities.  Lots of dirt. Minnows and fish. Trucks and trains and even some planes.  I kept mentioning it and nobody seemed surprised.  But I was looking ahead.  Thinking of next year when little Sydney will be pitter pattering around in pink, purple and frilly swim suits.  This year she wore white and never got dirty.   As I watched her, (imagining what our little one will be like next year at almost the same age) I noticed often that she hardly ever cried.  I know Sydney will make her own "wavves" and do the boy things with the best of 'em next year, but I'm excited for her, a little more girl to carry on the tradition of the "Cottage".  Some of my favorite shots from the week. 

A whole lot of boy....

oh yeah....and just a little bit of girl