Two Peas in a Pod

When our neighbors across the street moved and rented out their house, I told them that the new occupants needed to have 1) a four year old child 2) preferably a girl and 3) a stay at home dad. Well, they tried their hardest, and they got two out of the three. A couple weeks ago, Kasia's newest friend moved in across the street, and the two have been inseparable ever since. Kasia's first thought in the morning is now what the fastest way is to get ready so that she can go out and play with Kalina.

The great thing is just how similar the two of them are. Their personalities compliment each other so well that they end up playing for hours and hours at a time without so much as a fuss. They love to play the same things. They get along great. It's awesome. And they both have a sixth sense about when the ice cream truck is coming through the neighborhood. The other day, they both came running through the house screaming "ICE CREAM MAN! THE ICE CREAM MAN IS COMING!!!" Kasia was tearing through drawers looking for money to buy some ice cream. I went outside with her and listened for that familiar music. All I heard was silence. Occasionally I could hear the faint sound of wind chimes from a neighbor's house, but nothing else. Then about thirty minutes later, sure enough, here comes the ice cream truck. I was floored. How did they do that? It reminded me of Radar from MASH. I'm not sure how these kids know, but they know.

Our Little Beach Bum

At the beginning of the summer, I was really looking forward to going to the beach with Kasia this year, because she is now finally old enough to really enjoy the beach. Now, while the crashing waves of the ocean are still a little too much for her, she is definitely enjoying playing in the sand a lot more than she was last year.

Earlier this month, we made a trip down to Salvo to visit Karlie, Bryan, and the girls again. We always have such a great time when we go down there that it's a shame we don't do it more often. Sadly, we haven't actually gone to the beach all that much this summer. But now that school is starting and the crowds down in the Outer Banks are thinning (and the water is warming up) we are probably going to head down a few more times in the up coming weeks. We were just down there this past weekend, and it was absolutely perfect. The weather was not too hot and the water was not too cold. Kara and Kasia walked the beach looking for seashells, and then Kasia and I built sand castles together (or rather, I built and Kasia stomped on).

Now we just need to teach Kasia to surf, and all will be good with the beach.

A Barbie Princess Party!

On August 14, Kasia went to a "Barbie Princess Birthday Party" for the birthday of a girl she knows from story time at the library. The girls were all decked out in various forms of princess costumes, and everyone had their Barbies for play time. Kasia was feeling a little shy though, and she had a hard time getting really comfortable around the other kids and having a good time. It's too bad, because as much as Kasia enjoys her "girl time," this party was all girl.

The most impressive thing in my opinion was the birthday cake (pictured above). This girl's mom baked a cake in the shape of Barbie's dress. She was up all night making the thing look perfect. That kind of made us feel bad because we just go to the grocery store and let Kasia pick out her own birthday cake. But since Kasia only eats the frosting off the cake, I don't see the point in putting that much effort in to a cake.

The World Cup

In case you've been wondering what I've been doing since I last posted in the beginning of June, the answer is "Watching the World Cup." Every four years my life gets consumed by the greatest sporting event on the planet, and this year was no exception.

It's hard work keeping up with this tournament. For a couple weeks, I had to watch three games a day and then squeeze in the rest of my life between matches. It was pretty rough.

And while I am a Netherlands fan, and was thrilled that they went to the final, it was nice to see Spain win it all. They deserved it. Though, on a sad note, our air conditioner broke down during the final game between Netherlands and Spain. So while I thought I was just getting hotter because of the excitement on the field, it turns out that I was actually just getting hotter. I also discovered that it's no fun having your air conditioner go out when it's 90 and humid outside.

My God. It's Full of Stars!

Is there anything more wonderful to a child than the magical realm known as Chuck E. Cheese? According to Kasia, the answer is no. We were able to go there to celebrate Noah's 5th birthday, and Kasia was in a dream world. Now, she had the idea of Chuck E. Cheese in her head and hyped up by her cousins, but until we were actually there, I don't think she knew quite what to expect.

As soon as we walked in the door, and she saw the games buzzing and the lights flashing, her brain went in to an overloaded state of excitement. She stood there. Staring. Her eyes were wide as she took it all in. Her tiny hands were trembling from excitement. It was too funny. She was so excited about what she saw that her body was literally shaking. Then it was off to the races.

Now, Kasia is maybe just a little too young to play most of the games at Chuck E. Cheese, but she is not to young to know that getting more tickets is a good thing, and that after you get a lot of tickets, you can get a toy.

So I helped get as many tickets as possible. I discovered the secrets to Street Basketball and raked in nine tickets for every token spent. Kara spent a lot of time with Kasia and helped her to enjoy the games and rides that were just right for her. I think everyone had a great time.

And then when it came time to decide what to get with all those tickets, Kasia must have spent thirty minutes trying to pick something out. On the one hand, she wanted the same things that her cousins were getting. On the other hand, she didn't want all those "boy things" and wanted something more girly. In the end, she was happy.

And Then To Wisconsin

We were truly some traveling fools when we went up to Chicago. We left North Carolina on thursday, and drove all day until we got to Dayton, Ohio. On friday, we drove all day to my parents' house. Saturday we then drove up to Wisconsin. On sunday, we then drove back down to Chicago. Finally, on monday, I said enough is enough and let the car sit all day in the driveway.

The main reason we were going up to Chicago though (aside from seeing my parents and Rick, Susan, and the boys of course) was for a little family reunion we were having up in Wisconsin. At one time, all of us cousins were spread out all over the country. Now everyone has moved to Wisconsin with the exception of Rick and me. So it was nice that we could all get together and head up to Schumacher Island in Shawano for a great cookout and get together. It had been a long time since we had all seen each other, and so even though we live in a world of Facebook and email, it was nice to catch up with them and find out they've been up to (mainly because I'm horrible at keeping in touch, and don't use Facebook very often).

It also let us get this great family portrait.

The kids had a great time playing together and swimming in the lake. And the real excitement came when Noah went fishing for his first time. A few minutes in to it, he caught himself a 17" bass. Not too shabby. Sadly though, I feel bad for him because fishing from now on is probably only going to be disappointing. He peaked too early, just like Orson Welles (hopefully Noah won't get as fat as Welles did though).

On sunday we went to visit my grandpa who is currently in a nursing home and isn't doing so well. He was looking better than I thought he would, but still a far cry from the robust man and farmer that I knew while growing up. And while he always seemed "old" to me (I mean, I remember him at 64... an old man) it seems that his age has finally caught up with him. But it was great to see both he and my grandma while we were up there.

Then on the way back home, we stopped off at the Mars Cheese Castle for a taste of real Wisconsin goodness (aka, cheddar cheese and summer sausage). Once we got home, my good friends Chris and Jessica came over for a visit that was unfortunately shorter than I would have liked. But the last time we saw them, Kasia was an infant, and Chris and Jess managed to have two beautiful daughters. It's great that they now live in the Chicago area, so we can get together again the next time we go home to visit.

A Trip To Chicago

Ah, Chicago. The land of my youth. Around once a year, we like to make a pilgrimage back to the Mother Country to see how the locals are fairing up north. So, at the end of the June, we loaded up the old Family Truckster and made the journey once again. Now, people often ask me, "Brad, why is it that you always drive to Chicago? Why not fly? I mean, how long does that take you anyway?"

Well, the answers I could give vary anywhere from "It's cheaper for us to drive, and deep down, we're very frugal people," to "It's Gruetzmacher family tradition to always drive on long trips." The truth though is much simpler. We love the American highway system. This beautiful engineering phenomenon allows us travel great distances in very little time while at once being able to see the majesty of this country. We're not like some pretentious Northeastern snobs who refer to the Mid-West as "fly-over country." No. We call that Driving-through country. The wonders of Charleston, West Virginia. The dazzle of Dayton, Ohio. They are all simply breathtaking. It's so wonderful, that we take what would normally be a 16 hour trip and break it up in to two days worth of driving just so we can take it all in. That way we see everything we wouldn't have seen had we flown. Did you know that there was some awesome wind turbine farms just north of Indianapolis? No, because you flew right over it.

This was also our first long trip with a child who is now potty trained. That makes it a completely different kind of trip entirely. We're working on teaching her that if she needs to use the potty, she needs to give us a warning instead of just blurting out, "I NEED TO GO POTTY NOW!!!!!" Though, because of this, we saw some small, out of the way towns along the way that we probably wouldn't have seen otherwise.

It was also our first trip in which Kasia discovered the phrase, "Are we there yet?" We weren't more than three hours out before Kasia started up with this phrase. And she would use it over, and over again, as I'm sure any parent is well familiar with. I feel like we can now be let in to the Car Club With Kids. It was driving me to the point where I almost thought that we should fly from now on.