Oshkosh Visit, weekend fun, and church picnic

Yesterday, I said "Good bye" to  my three girls after a wonderful week full of fun.

Here are a few of the things we did during the first part of our week after we returned to Watertown on Friday, June 7.

We had just spent the day at Bay Beach and were now ready for a weekend of fun with Cheddah and Alissa who had come to visit and spend time with the girls.

They gave Soli her birthday gift since they are not sure they will be around for her actual birthday on July 7.

They gave her a huge gorilla.

Now both girls have large, soft stuffed animals.

You might remember that Tizita has a huge bear named Darrel which was given to her by Nathan's (Cheddah's) dad, Darrel.

Lissa and Cheddah wanted Soli to have a big animal, too

Soli named him Jimmy and she loves him.



On Sunday we had a beautiful day for the church picnic.

Again, the weatherman was wrong since he had predicted rain and storms all day.

Here are Mallory and Courtney sporting their sunglasses at the outdoor church service.

Alissa and Cheddah came down and joined us before they had to leave for home.

There were games for the school kids.

Tizita joined right in.

I had blown up many, many water balloons on Saturday.

It took me hours to blow them up and minutes for the kids to break them all, but they had fun doing it.

Note to self:  I bought these cute little dresses for the girls.  I have good taste.

Here the girls are saying their good byes to Lissa and Cheddah before they left for Bloomington.

It had been a great weekend.

On Saturday, Lis, Courtney, Mal, Gigi, me, and Soli had lunch at Applebees and went shopping at Kohl's.  We helped Marge spend her Mother's Day money.
Tizita and Cheddah went on a walk to Mullen's to buy candy.
They came home with a new bike helmet from our new bike shop.
Tizita was so excited with her new unicorn helmet.
She and Cheddah had fun bonding that afternoon.
Saturday night we grilled hamburgers and watched movies.
Sorry I had to backtrack there a bit, but I wanted to document our Saturday activities, too.

Later on Sunday, after the picnic Courtney, me, Soli, and Tizita headed back to Oshkosh for a few days.

Tiz had her first tennis lesson on Monday morning.

We played at the South Park and then went on a bike ride, just me and Tiz.

She likes to lead me around and show me cool places in her neighborhood.

She took me to these beautiful spots along the lake where we skipped rocks and watched sailboats.

We went to the library and checked out lots of books and the movie, Parent Trap which we watched that night.

When Soli woke up from her nap, we played some more and then headed to Cranky Pat's for a pizza dinner.

I dressed the girls up in these cute dresses that I had bought for them before Soli came home last June.

I could not button Soli's anymore but we squeezed her in it for one last time.

Tizita cleaned up Natnael's memorial garden which is in their yard.

We talked about her little brother for a bit.

One last photo and we were off to Cranky Pat's.

We walked, Tiz scooted, and we enjoyed our dinner despite two rather ill behaved little ones.

One the way home, we stopped at a park and got rid of some of our energy before bed.

On Tuesday morning, Tiz and Courtney went to tennis while Soli and I hit the park and zoo.

She had so much fun feeding the animals.

Tiz and Courtney met us after tennis and Tiz needed a lift in the stroller, too.

This caused much laughter.

We enjoyed popsicle treats,

a ride on the merry to round,

and a ride on the paddle boat.

It was Tiz's idea.  She thought it would be a good memory maker for us.

That it was!

We were all a bit sunburned, not really expecting to spend time on the water, but it was all good.

After a quick lunch, we headed back to Watertown where spent the next three days.

I will post about those next.

It is such a blessing to spend this much time with my precious little ones and with Courtney.