The first thing I’d like to share is our beautiful family photos recently captured by the wonderful photographer Jill DeVries. Jill and I have known one another for quite some time but until this month I had never had the opportunity to see her in action. One of our Christmas gifts to Jeff’s parents this past year was a family portrait session - the latest professional photos we took together were before either of our children were born. To say the least, the Kladder family portraits were outdated. Jill did not disappoint; not only did she deliver an incredible final product but her production of our group of 15 people during our session was one to be respected. We highly recommend her and cannot wait to capture our immediate family of 4 photos with her again later this fall - because you guys, Christmas card session is coming!!
Big news! Natalie started Kindergarten at GRCS two weeks ago and is loving it. The kids are in school full-time, in-person and with modified classrooms including mask-wearing, lots of outdoor classroom time and table dividers. Last week after school on Friday, Natalie and the rest of her class were invited to one of their classmates houses for Hawaiian Ice from the Ohana Food Truck. We were excited to meet some of the other parents and Natalie’s classmates - something we weren’t able to do before the start of school with the cancellation of orientation.
Another great joy the start of school has brought about is our new morning routine. GRCS is just two short blocks from our home and also happens to be next door to some very good friends of ours who’s kids also attend GRCS. Our walks to school with the kids each morning have quickly become something I look forward to. We get friendly honks from neighbors who are on their way to work, stop and chat with the other parents also doing drop-off and I get to hold my daughters hand as we walk and chat about our days to come. It’s simple and I love it a lot.
Thomas is still a week out from his first day of preschool and the excitement continues to build. In the meantime, he’s been enjoying plenty of sunshine outside on his big wheel trike which he also rides to Natalie’s school drop off each morning. Last week Friday I kept him home from daycare for the day to spend time just the two of us. I’m still not working Fridays (until further notice) so we practiced the stay-at-home Mom and Thomas life for a day and had a great time. We went for a walk, ate lunch al fresco with the neighbors, ran some errands together, cleaned house (something he likes to help with, although isn’t very good at yet) and after we picked up Natalie from school we even kicked off the weekend with playtime and happy hour in the front yard.
Video work at Steelcase has been steady these last few weeks with plenty of time spent in the office for video shoots. It’s been pretty darn fun actually to get back into the swing of things and work on projects where my team gets to flex our creative muscles again. After the virus hit and things shut down causing our shoots to cancel, we spent a lot of our time repurposing archived footage and editing home videos other team members shot on their personal devices. It was a huge shift from our usual day to day work but it was what needed to be done at the time. Returning to the office and jumping back into more creative work has been life giving for myself and for the team. We know there are likely more changes up ahead but we’re confident in being able to adapt and keep doing great work for our brand.
Summer fun continued this month with visits to Fredrick Meijer Gardens, a trip to the Fulton Street Farmers Market, boat time on the lake in Rockford - Thomas took his first spin on the tubing couch (and loved it!), as well as a fun Sunday afternoon at John Ball Zoo. We were really impressed at the improvements the zoo made to its entrance including a new entry gates, walkway and what we believe are planned spaces for future new animal exhibits. The weather was warm that day which meant nearly all the animals were out and available for viewing.
There has been a ton of golf these last few weeks as well including our second Womens Association Outing co-chaired by yours truly. I had a fun time planning the outing with fellow board member Tracy Jansen where we organized a Mardi Gras themed event. My team did not place but had a great time playing the course together in what might arguably have been the nicest weather we’ve had all year.
Jeff and I also teamed up for the first time this year for the Watermark Couples Club Championship. We were 10 holes into our game with a so-far-stellar score when Mother Nature surprised us all with a flash storm that flooded the course and canceled the tournament. Jeff and I were walking (vs. riding a golf cart) that day and got absolutely drenched while trying to clear the course. About an hour later the skies cleared and the group enjoyed dinner and drinks on the patio for what ended up being a still very fun Saturday afternoon.
And last weekend Jeff competed in the Annual Member Member Tournament with his golf partner Nate Zokoe. Member Member weekend includes… golf - yes of course golf - but also pool parties, ladies happy hours and everyones favorite: the ‘horse race’ which is just a funny way of describing the playoffs. Jeff has been in the horse race in years past but he and Nate slightly missed the mark this year and instead got to spectate right along side the rest of us. The weekend long event is usually concluded with a dinner banquet for the golfers and their plus ones but much like everything else during Covid the dinner portion was replaced with an outdoor strolling appetizer station this year.
This week we’re gearing up for a long holiday weekend at the lake with family to celebrate Labor Day then looking forward to welcoming Fall. It’s no joke my friends… leaves are already falling and our Halloween costumes have been ordered. Don’t even get me started on Christmas shopping!!.