Milly-Vaw-Kee, Day 2

So day in Milwaukee was just as good, if not better, than day one. We hit the Lakefront for some summer fun.

But before we get to our day, check out these photos from two years ago when we did much of the same. Here is me at 4 and Mae at 2 years old.

Alright, now that we've got that covered, we took to the park and at the end of a seriously long game of Base (which is like tag only there is a home base where you're safe) I found myself far from Base with Eli chasing me. Well, as you can see, I gave him quite the run for his money. He eventually got me but then collapsed to the ground and stayed there for about ten minutes. Girls rule, boys drool buddy.

Got out our kites and flew 'em high. The Milwaukee lakefront is the perfect spot for flying a kite. The wind comes off the lake and next thing you know, you're out of string and you can barely see your "flag," as Mae likes to call it.

Meanwhile, Pax was getting into some yoga in the park with a little "downward dog" yoga posing on his mat.

And then it was time to hit up the group bikes. We got all six of us on there - Mom and Dad pedaling in the drivers seat with Eli in the middle and the three birds up front.

And here's pretty much mom and dad's favorite picture that's ever been taken.

Milly-Vaw-Kee, Day 1

That's what some people call Milwaukee... and by some people I think it's probably just my dad.  Anyway, we made our annual trip up to the Great Escape but the Lake last weekend on the 4th of July.

Brought along my homeboy, Eli, too. First stop was the zoo. Rode trains and carousels, saw amazing animals, had a peacock storm our lunch picnic. All in all, great stuff.

Okay, so wanna see something cool. Other than the fact we forgot which animal we were on two years ago, check out the below. First shot is May of 2012 and the one below is last weekend.

Before

So what was Pax doing? Well, first he was checking out the brown bears and giving them his "rowr" sound that he basically does most of the time he's awake (strong possibility he actually thinks he is a wild animal).

And then the coolest thing of the whole trip happened. So we went down underneath the polar bear spot to watch the seals swim. So this huge daddy seal would swim by slowly upside down and then he would do a loop and he would swim STRAIGHT for Pax. It was like he was staring Pax dead in the eyes as he would swim toward him all the way up to the glass and then he would swim up and rub his belly against the glass. He did this twice and then Dad took Pax up to Mom for a switch and while Pax was gone he didn't do it at all. Then when Mom came back with Pax and he did it two more times. Then we left and we looked back to see if he would do it again and he didn't. Dude was in LOVE with Pax.

And since you weren't there we're bringing it straight to you just like it happened, compliments of my lovely and talented and always bursting with fruit flavor photo editor, Dad.

 Slightly creepy, right?

So that was it for day 1. Day two of Milly-Vaw-Kee is coming up.

The Bird Whisperers

So there's a common theme around the Skertich family for the past 40 years that the cardinal is the Skertich family bird. Wherever we have lived, we have had families of cardinals living within our yards and surroundings. Now this is not really all that uncommon, I wouldn't think, because there are a lot of cardinals in Chicago, but nonetheless, it's been labeled the family bird for a generation or two.

And now, we've got two families of cardinals in our very own back yard.  There are two moms and two dad cardinals and they frequent our yard and our back porch quite often, whistling about and just doing their thing.

So here's what happened the other day - we're chilling in our backyard and one of the dad cardinals comes through and hangs on the wire.

So Mae has this great idea of getting our cardinal stuffed animal that has this amazing cardinal whistle when you press his wing so she runs and gets that and we start whistling with it and then more cardinals start to come.

So then Mae goes in and gets her bird's nest and eggs that she made out of clay and brings that into the backyard.

2-3 minutes later we've got four cardinals singing sweet music in our yard... and the tradition continues.

Hugging Lessons

So we've been teaching Pax about hugs and he's pretty much become a natural. This one came out of nowhere - Mom went in for some breakfast business when he was in his high chair and he just went after it.

Then I thought I'd get in on the action and then Mae wanted a hug (she is the hugging queen, after all).

And now, he pretty much dishes them out wherever, whenever.

The Tooth Fairy Cometh... Finally

Before...

After.

And somebody just got $2.00 richer.

Can I Graduate?

If you didn't know it (and I'm very positive you didn't), the title of this post is also a great song by an early 2000's rock band called Third Eye Blind. It's also appropriate because I shouldn't go much further into the summer without letting you all know I actually graduated Kindergarten.

I know, not everybody does it, it's a very difficult thing to do so we should celebrate the fact that I made it through.

Here's the old group shot of all the Kindergardeners singing and there's li'l old me right there in the middle.

Now it's time for the most important walk of my life. Let's go get that medal.

PAUSE - So here's the thing. Mom and Dad let me dress myself, right? Doesn't really matter the occasion. It's probably because they're both running around trying to take things out of Pax's mouth or wash his hands off of toilet water or basically just ensure he lives through the day. Either way, after I came down they mentioned that most of the girls would probably be in dresses and dress shoes and they just wanted to let me know in case I wanted to skip the comfy for a day. Well, as you can see, I didn't. And they were right - I was the only one who looked like she came straight from gym class that day, but that's cool... I'm sure I was also the only one whose feet didn't hurt in those silly looking dress shoes.

On to the medal.

Then it was party time and some pics with my friends.

Here's one of my best friends Ella; she's moving to Dallas next month.

Here's one of my other best friends, Gwen; she moved to Iowa two weeks ago. Noticing a theme here?

Here's the honorary Nadia-Finley and Nadia-Mabel-Finley shot from basically everything we do. Nadia is not moving anywhere, she still lives 3 blocks away, thank goodness.

And here are the lovely ladies who made it all possible. The top pic is Miss Stefanec. She was the teacher's assistant and such an unbelievably nice lady. She cried the entire time during graduation and then the entire time in our classroom party afterwards. Something tells me she's going to miss our little group.

And then there's the big dog - Ms. Emily Matus. Walk in her class and you might as well say "Reporting for duty, Ms. Matus." She kept it in order, let me tell you, and I think you'd have to if you were her with drooling boys acting like they were all hopped up on some amphetamines every morning at 8:00. Yet at the same time, Ms. Matus was an amazingly loving person who got to know me right to my core and understood what made me tick, and then she taught me based on that knowledge. And I could not have had a better teacher, I'll probably remember her for the rest of my life.

Well, that's a wrap.

Father's Day

The Big Dog, The Main Man, The Enchilada, Chief Blackhawk... he goes by a lot of things in this house (even a couple things Mom has called him over the years that I'm not sure what they mean but they don't sound particularly wonderful).

I call him Dad, and that's good enough for me.

And here is three generations of my homeboys.

Oh, and one clarifying statement: you don't see Mabel Jane in any photos because she was a nasty hag that day and refused to be in any (turns out she had 104 temperature, but whatever, no excuses in my book).

Ya know, I was gonna end the post right there but I decided in honor of this day I wanted to take a look back at my pops and me over the years, just hanging like only we know how.

I could have totally included pictures coming up of Dad with Mae and Pax, too, but they don't call this blog Mabel's Fabels, do they? Or Pax's Picnic? Nope, they don't.