Christmas parade and festivities

On Saturday afternoon John and I took Tizita downtown to take part in the Christmas activities that were happening before the Christmas parade.
Our first stop was at Rock River Pizza where Tiz made an ornament. She could choose either a stocking, snowflake, or reindeer. She chose a blue stocking and had fun gluing on some hearts and buttons. We finished up there with a hot chocolate which turned out to be way too hot for her to drink, but she sure did have fun adding lots of marshmellows.After leaving Rock River Pizza we headed over to Tribeca, Courtney's favorite place to hang out when Tiz is in school on Wednesdays. Tiz made a cute snowman there with lots of personal touches like feathers, ribbons, and googly eyes. John spent the time chatting with a man who's elevator didn't go all the way to the top, hardly made it up one floor, but John was patient and listened to the guy's stories over and over again. Tis the season to be tolerant of others, I guessOur next stop was at the Horse and Carriage ride. Tiz really enjoyed the horses but didn't want to touch them or get too close. The ride was only a few blocks long but it was fun none the less.After the ride we walked the six or so blocks up to the Market to see the electric trains. Unfortunately the trains were not running when we got there so we had Grandpa go get the car since Tiz's little legs were getting tired. Not sure why since this is where she spent most of her "walking" time.After our fun afternoon we came home for a bit and got bundled up for the Christmas parade which was starting when it got dark.
Tizita enjoyed some ice cream cake with mama and Auntie Lissy. She loves that cake as much as the rest of us. It is best eaten right out of the pan.
The parade was lots of fun. Tizita really enjoyed it, Alissa, not so much. We went to El Mariachi for dinner after the parade and we all couldn't stop talking about the great food we had there.
All in all a great end to the Thanksgiving weekend and a great beginning to the Christmas season.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Just finished up our turkey with all the trimmings. It was delicious, best ever, I would say. It was a small group this year justKev and MalAlissaMomJohn and IAnd this yummy looking bird!

Alissa carved our bird, as she does every year. This has been her job ever since she was old enough to safely handle a knife.Mallory took on a new job this year. She riced the potatoes for us. We usually have mashed out of the box, but this year I decided we should go back to the old riced potatoes. It brought back memories of many turkey, duck, goose, and chicken dinners at my grandma's house where riced potatoes were the only kind served. We also remembered how my dad always ate his potatoes. He would pat down a flat layer of potatoes, then gravy and top it off with cranberries. None of us follow this tradition.
We are now watching the Packers play who happen to be stinking up the field at this point. In a few minutes the ladies are heading out to K-mart for a pre Black Friday shopping trip.
Definitely a great Thanksgiving. Hope you all enjoyed your day as much as I did. We certainly do have much to be thankful for.

A trip to the Children's Museum in Appleton

On Saturday, Lynne, Melissa, the twins, Meghan and I drove up and met Courtney and Tizita at the Children's Museum in Appleton. What a fun day we all had. We started with lunch at a nice little restaurant near the museum. Everyone was on their best behavior and enjoyed their meal.
After our lunch it was off to the Children's Museum. The boys were right a home in the Big Dig area with the trucks.They also thought the water play area was fun.Lynne took Tizita over to see the snakes because, as you know, I would not go anywhere near those reptiles! Meghan enjoyed the art area where she and Courtney spent a good amount of time making a mermaid. She also had fun scanning all the food in the grocery store area.Everyone liked the firetruck and the airplane where Meghan flew to New York, Jacob to Vegas, Calvin to New York, and Tiz to Ethiopia. And finally, we all posed in the big chair.What a fun, fun day for all of us. I am still amazed that all four kids were so happy and well behaved the whole time! I guess having a one to one ratio of adults to kids is the only way to go!
I look forward to many more outings with these good friends!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I usually put all my Christmas decorations and tree up on the weekend after Thanksgiving, but this year the bug bit early and I now have my Christmas village up and lit. It did hurt to put the snow under the village because I do not want the real snow to come any too soon, but the white stuff under the village is only a blanket of cotton after all. Today I added the living room, dining room, and kitchen decorations. I was just in the right mood for all of this. Some years it is such a chore to haul it all up and then arrange it all, but this year it just all fell into place and I actually enjoyed putting it all up. The tree will probably go up the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Since our Thanksgiving is not anything big this year it won't matter if we sort of skip that holiday and roll right into the next. We will have turkey, the trimmings, and yummy desserts, but it will only be my mom, my brother, Mallory, Alissa, John, and me so there is no need to have anything too out of the ordinary. Oh and the Packers play that day, so it will seem just like a regular "Sunday" on a Thursday for this family!
Anyway, I know you are all anxious to see the village so without further ado, here it is:
This is the town church, school, and one house. The house and the church were the first pieces I got for the village many years ago and they are connected by a short cord so they always have to be next to each other.I just got this new addition last year. One of our favorite holiday movies is "A Christmas Story" and this it from the scene where the little boy got his tongue stuck on the flagpole. Funny stuff! Here's the hotel district of town which has a restaurant, hotel, brewery, and gas station.This is the hill for sledding, the ice skating rink, warming house, and town square.

I also have a candy shop, cookie shop, and a movie theater, but the sun was streaming in the window behind that area and I couldn't get a good photo of that area. I am anxious to see Tizita's reaction to my village. It should be fun!

A fall walk on Tivoli Island

As you know we had a wonderful Saturday with Tizita at Sesame Street Live and later at Ella's Deli. She slept soundly in our bed between us on Saturday night and on Sunday Courtney, Paul, Tiz, John and I took a walk to Tivoli Island. It was a nice crisp fall day and the Island was not disappointing.When the girls were little we spent so much time on the Island. In fact, we have numerous pictures of the girls sitting right here n this very bench! Fall is particularilly pretty on the Island with winter close behind. Summer is the one season we stayed away from the Island because of the mosquitoes.Looks like this happy famly enjoys this Island, too!A happy Grandma and Grandpa, too with Tizita.John's knees were hurting that day so we found him this nice walking stick, not really sure if it helped him too much though.Just kicking around in the fallen leaves.Courtney was very nervous about climbing up on this fallen tree. We were both just coming off of falls in the previous week so I think she was being overly cautious! She did make it up and down just fine.Paul and Tiz walked way out on the wall to the view the dam better. It made me very nervous to watch them walk out there. Brought back the memories of when my girls made the walk.And then our time on the Island was over and we headed back to our house. A nice step back in time for us. John and I can't wait to show Tizita the Island when it is covered in snow.

Sesame Street Live

Today John and I took Tizita to Sesame Street Live at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison. It brought back memories of when our girls were little and we would take them to the Sesame Street Live shows. The show was awesome and Tizita had a wonderful time. She watched the entire show, spellbound by all the action, lights, and of course, her favorite characters. John spent 25.oo for a stuffed Elmo she chose from the sovenior cart, 8.00 for a very nice program, 15.00 for a CD of the songs from the show (that was for me and my Preschoolers), 7.50 forpopcorn and water and 10.00 for a huge Elmo balloon, but that's what Grandpas do, right? Tizita really wanted some cotton candy when she spotted it, but we were able to get her mind off of that. John and I have a policy to only buy something we like because we know we will be finishing it and cotton candy does not fit that bill. Here are a few pictures from our exciting show.
After the show we headed over to Ella's Deli for lunch. Tizita had five french toast Teddy Bears and ate four of them. It was so much fun to watch her enjoy them with the maple syrup. We finished up with an ice cream cone and headed home. What a fun, fun day!

The Pack is not back around these parts anyway!

Unless you live under a rock, you know that the Packers played horrible, horrible football yesterday and lost to a winless Tampa Bay team! It was painful to watch, so painful in fact that John headed outside to do yard work before the first quarter was over. He just cannot stand to watch his beloved Packers play so poorly, so instead of watching and letting it eat at him, he walks away from the TV and finds other things to do. Anyway later last night this is what I found on our Packer yard sign.
John took some of his electrical tape and made a slash right through the big G meaning, I am assuming, no Packers wanted around here or maybe it means Packers, you stink! Whatever, I know it is not a good symbol!
So, I think we are done with the Packers until next season!

Three party dresses and a slight mishap

We had an awesome day of Christmas shopping yesterday. The weather was absolutely gorgeous so in between stores we added in some walking which is when the big mishap occurred. We had just purchased a few things in a downtown area of Wauwatosa and decided to walk up and down some of the residential streets in the area, very beautiful old houses to look at while walking which is what caused the problem. John and I were admiring some nice old house when I tripped over a raised sidewalk (let me tell you, the sidewalk was up at least six inches or more, I should sue) and went down HARD. John says he was sure I had broken something, but in true Sherri fashion I sprang up and continued on. My left knee took the brunt of the crash and it hurt like the dickens, my right knee hurt a bit and there was a little hole in my jeans, and my left hand had a small scrape. The car was about six blocks away so I didn't really access any injuries until we got back to the car. I was a bit afraid to look at the left knee since I figured it would be all scraped up so I started with the right one. A very small scrape, no big deal, now on to the left one. No scrape at all just a huge bump and bruise. So, not really too bad for such a loud crash! My left knee has one really sore spot where I must have hit, but other than that the swelling is down and it doesn't feel so bad. So, there you have my mishap!
Anyway, after the fall, we headed over to Puzzle World. We have driven past this store numerous times and decided today was the day to stop and check it out. We were not disappointed. A mixture of a teacher store with lots of puzzles and many high quality learning toys. We did not leave empty handed!I would highly recommend this store to anyone looking for unique and educational toys, games, and puzzles. After our stop here we headed to Toys Are Us. We found just what we wanted for Tizita! Then on to Brookfield Square with a few stops and again our success continued. We had taken John's Kia and by the time all was said and done, it was loaded to the max.
One of my goals was to find a Christmas dress for Tizita. Well, not only did we find one, but we bought three of them and the total for all three was less than $40.00. Each dress alone was $40.00 before the sale price. I am posting the dresses here so Courtney can choose the one she wants for Tizita's picture on Wednesday at a local photographer. So, here you go, Courtney.This one is off white with gold flecks and ribbon, probably my favorite, Our last one purchased at Penney's. I think it will look just beautiful with her chocolate skin.This was our first purchase at Shopko. It is black velvet with a poofy skirt. I bought some black tights to go with this one.
And finally, our second purchase from Kohl's where things are always on sale. This one is green velvet with sparkles and white fur on the sleeves and bottom. Very cute! Bought white tights to go with this one!
Now I know that Tizita will look absolutely beautiful in any one of these numbers, but I am anxious to hear what Courtney has to say. If you leave a comment, feel free to voice your favorite pick.
Anyway back to our day, after Brookfield Square, we met up with Alissa for pizza and beer at Balistreri's. It was a yummy meal, great conversation, lots of laughs about my crash and about an old woman in a hat with a younger man!
So, to sum up the day, a white and gold party dress, $13.00, a red and black party dress $14.99, a green party dress with fur $14.00, Tizita wearing any one of these, Priceless!

Oh, and a crash by her grandma, also priceless!

Necessary things learned from a grandma

Getting back to my last weekend visit with Tizita, I wanted to share with you a few of the imp0rtant things that I taught her while I was visiting.First of all, I taught her to eat her breakfast in front of the TV. Each morning we put in an Elmo video, same one everyday and we sat on the floor and had our Yogurt Cheerios. We had a few spills, but nothing that couldn't be cleaned up quickly. One day she ate four bowls of cereal while engrossed in Elmo's country singing. The beauty of this arrangement is that while she sits and eats for almost an hour, I could get some things done for Courtney and Paul. I suggested that Courtney may want to continue this ritual just to be able to get some work done, but I hear crocheting and online farming can be done with Tizita engaged in other activities.
Secondly, I taught her to play the piano. Well, not really, but we made up quite a few songs and composed our own music to go with them. Her song went something like this:
Jesus walks in Heaven
Jesus walks in Heaven
Jesus walks in Heaven
I will walk there, too.
She came up with this song all on her own. I think she has some of her papa's musical abilities!
We also had fun making thunderstorms on the piano. She made the thunder and I did the rain.

Next, I showed her how to play Elmo games on the computer. Here she is showing me what she wants to dress Elmo in for his day. If only I could keep her fast fingers off all the keys, but that will come in time. She also watched a few Elmo videos online. I am getting her ready for the Sesame Street Live performance that we will be taking her to in a few weeks.And, lastly, I taught her that you are never too old to dress up and act silly!

There you have it, some important life lessons learned from Grandma!