Frame Park-Memorial Day 2011

Summer finally arrived today! The temps were in the 90's and we were out to enjoy this first taste of summer. We started our Memorial Day with a visit to Jack and MaryAnn at the nursing home. They were both decked out in their red, white, and blue. Jack fought in the Korean War and for that, I am very thankful as I am to all our brave servicemen both past and those fighting today. Jack participated in many, many Memorial Day parades over the years and I am sure today was a bittersweet day for both of them.

After our visit with Jack and MaryAnn, we headed over to Frame Park in Waukesha for a picnic lunch. The park was full of people enjoying the first hot day of summer. We took our chairs and little table and set up our picnic under a shade tree. Great day for people watching for sure.

I had made chocolate chip cookies for Jack, so we had some for our dessert. Since we had given up eating sweets to lose a few pounds, these tasted very yummy to us. Notice that we do drink Diet Coke with the calorie ridden cookies.

We like to call this picture, "Fox by a Fox on the Fox River." We enjoyed the riverwalk around the park. This statue of the fox is on the bridge over the Fox River which is part of the walk.

These are our chairs and our table across the river. We hoped no one would take our stuff, but we took our chances and nothing was touched. This great weather brought out the best in people.

This is a picture of one of the fountains in the river.

And this is a turtle that we saw sunning himself on one of the rocks.

Here is a bear statue along the riverwalk and

here is one of her cubs with a strange man.

I really wanted to rent one of the cool paddle boats and go for a ride, but I was overruled by John's better sense. We did like this flamingo and

the swan was pretty cool, too. Maybe sometime when we have Tiz along. We rented a paddleboat at the Lake in Milwaukee when Mallory and her friend Brad were about ten years old, so I would say it is about time to do it again.

It was a wonderful day spent in a park where John and I have spent lots of good times over the years since we first discovered this park during our college days. We have many memories here. Seemed a great place to start out our summer. The weather today is what we have to look forward to in St. George. Good to get our bodies used to it! It is going to feel so good down there!

Memorial Day 2011

Last Memorial Day weekend we took our first big bike ride of the season on the Rawley Point and the Mariner trails in Two Rivers and Manitowac. (To keep away confusion, it was the first ride of the season, but actually our second Memorial Day ride on this trail) We decided then and there that we would make this bike ride an annual one on Memorial Day weekend, so despite cloudy skies and cool temps, we rode one of the trails. We opted not to ride the Mariner trail this time due to the windy conditions but the Rawley Point trail is by far our favorite anyway.
Here I am ready to take off. I was dressed in layers consisting of my biking shirt, a t-shirt, a hoodie, and finally my green windbreaker jacket. I decided on my jeggings at the last minute and I am so glad that I did. I was comfortable the entire 15 mile ride and didn't need to take anything off. Notice John's nice red coat? Not sure if it was my dad's or is my mom's but he grabbed it at the last minute and he was glad he had it, too. Here he is at the beginning of the trail.

Immediately we noticed a large amount of trees that had been uprooted or broken off. There must have been some very strong winds that whipped through our beloved forest. It was a mess. Here is one tree that was broken right off.

Here is our favorite little cabin buried in the forest along the bike path.

We finally made it to the concession stand and the beach. It was cool but still as beautiful as we remembered it from previous years.

After some snacks, we rode to the lighthouse.

Here I am with one of the uprooted trees. This one actually brought up some of the bike path with it.

Another uprooted tree along the path and I guess I did take my green jacket off at this point.

We headed over to Oshkosh where we were staying at the Van Auken Bread and Breakfast. The owners were in Iowa visiting friends so we had the house to ourselves. We rode the five mile loop to the point on Lake Winnabego before putting the bikes away for the day. Here is John out on the point.

And me out on the point.

We ordered Rocky's pizza and had some beers at the B and B. We had planned to go out, but once we hit the comfy couch, we both decided to just relax and eat in. It was a good decision. We were both asleep to the TV by 9:30.

This morning we took a ride around Oshkosh. We love riding in Oshkosh because it is so flat. I think we could ride for hours and hours there because of the ease of the terrain. We discovered some new areas today. This is a part of the the lake called South Asylum Bay. We saw lots of big fish jumping and many fishermen trying to catch those fish.

We stopped to take a photo by the statue of Carl Shurz which is just a few blocks from Courtney and Paul's house on the lake. It states on the statue that he is the most famous German American. Who knew?

We returned home after some shopping. The temps are still cool and the sky is still cloudy, but we did not let that dampen our Memorial Day fun. Tomorrow, the actual Memorial Day is supposed to very hot and sunny, so we shall see.

Growing a salad

Sunday was a near perfect day to work around our yard. John cut the lawn and I finished planting our garden. We are so anxious for that first salad! Here is a little tour of our yard: This is the welcome sign that my friend, Lynne gave me a few years ago. I added two birdhouses behind it this year. Just waiting for a few birds to take up residence.

Here is our garden. I planted tomatoes, cukes, peas, and watermelon from seedings this year to speed up the harvest. I planted carrots, radishes, two kinds of lettuce, spinach, zinnias, and marigolds from seeds.

My favorite flowers are daisies and they are just starting to bloom all over our yard. I cannot wait to bring them in and have them decorating the house. Nothing says summer like a daisy!

This was my gift from Tizita for Mother's Day.

These primroses from Pearl and Herb's yard are scattered all around the year in different beds. Not only do they remind me of Pearl and Herb, but they are pretty to boot.

This is the front of the house with our plants from Ebert's. I always buy one basket for mom and she buys me one for Mother's Day. We are both happy with our selections this year!

The best part of the day was enjoying our first bike ride of the season. It was about 15 miles and we both came back tired, sore, but alive! Getting in shape for our big ride on Memorial Day weekend.

On Sunday night we had hard rain storms and hail. I worried about my tomatoes, but upon inspection, we will still be enjoying our salads soon.

Sleepovers

I snapped this picture early this morning of this sweet little sleeping beauty and a not so little, but ever so sweet big sleeping bear. Whenever Tizita spends the night at our house, she likes to sleep between us in our California King sized bed. We always consent because, truth be told, we enjoy having her in there, too. Before bed, we put in a movie and then the three of us watch it until we fall asleep. As is usually the case, John and I doze off and never catch the end, but Tizita is always wide awake until the very end of the movie. During the night sometimes, we will hear her laugh out loud in her sleep and occasionally

we will hear her making some crying sad sounds, too. I assume she is dreaming and today I found myself wondering:

Is she dreaming about sleeping under a mosquito net on a mat in a hut in Ethiopia or under a Dora blanket surrounded by stuffed animals in her soft bed at home in Oshkosh?

Is she dreaming about eating a meal cooked over a fire in Ethiopia or a meal of chicken nuggets eaten here in a McDonald's?

Is she dreaming about the first family that loved her in a far away place or about this family that loved her and brought her to this new place?

Who knows? She is probably dreaming about bubbles, princesses, and swings, but that wouldn't have made for such an interesting post.

At any rate, we love our sleepovers just as much as she does and look forward to many, many more!

Stories and Ice Cream

Yesterday, (Monday) my afternoon class of Preschoolers walked to the Library and Mullen's. I was so proud of their behavior. They represented St. John's well.
Here we are listening to my good friend and librarian extraordinaire. Lynne. She enjoys sharing her love of books with children and she has a real gift when it comes to reading to little ones. My children were captivated by the books she shared. We also got a tour of the Children's Room and learned how to check out books and how to take care of the books we borrow. Thanks, Lynne, for another great tour and storytime. We loved it. After the Library, we headed over to Mullen's for an ice cream treat. We ordered and enjoyed six scoops of Blue Moon, two scoops of chocolate chip mint, one scoop of strawberry, one chocolate chip, one chocolate, and one cookie dough. Quite a variety of flavors, but one just as yummy as the next.

The walk to and from the Library and Mullen's was also fun and stressfree. We took our time and enjoyed looking in the windows on Main Street and at all the other things along the way. We took time to smell the flowers so to speak and we all had a great day!

Mud

It was a weekend full of fun and hard work. As I said in the last post, we celebrated Mother's Day and I put everyone to work on top of it. First of all, Courtney did so much to help me run the rummage sale and despite very chilly weather, as in glove and winter hat chilly, we made out with about $300.00 worth of profit, so all in all a success. Clean up after the sale went pretty quickly and our garage could again house the two cars.
We all went to El Mariachi to celebrate a successful sale and once home, we were all ready for an early bedtime.
On Sunday after church, we headed up to Herb and Pearl's to get a few more plants and then Courtney, Paul, and John worked hard to get our garden ready for planting. I really cannot forget to mention Tizita in the list of helpers. She worked hard on the garden, too, when she wasn't laying down in the soft, warm dirt.

Is there anything better than the feel of squishy mud between your toes? Well, truth be told, if you ask me, I would say "Yes." I don't really care much for dirt or mud, but Tizita certainly enjoyed it.

And of course, there were mud balls to make.

The Van Auken family took a well deserved break between digging.

There was rhubarb to taste and enjoy.

There was a birdbath that needed cleaning and filling. Here Tiz had to inspect while Grandpa planted a new plant.

And then there was watering to do!

So, as you can see, it was a busy Sunday. After all the work we ordered some Rock River Pizza and enjoyed some homemade cookies warm from the oven. Not a bad way to end our weekend. Courtney, Paul, and Tizita stayed over one more night and today (Monday) they are headed home.

Lots of happy memories from this Mother's Day both from the weekend spent drinking, wiinng, and visiting with the Hunters and this weekend with the Van Aukens!

Thanks girls and significant others for a great celebration.

A Rummage, a late Mother's Day, a Farm, and other tidbits

We are in for a big weekend. Tizita and Courtney arrived on Thursday for Preschool in the AM. I had a big meeting about teacher assignments for next year and it was a bit heated and lasted a little long for my tastes, but finally I could get home to my Tiz. We got things ready for the big city wide rummage sale which we are having on Friday and Saturday. Grandpa came home from work and proceeded to carry Tiz around in our Market Day bag. Such silliness! On Friday the Preschoolers and Kindergarteners headed to Schuster's Playtime Farm in Deerfield. Here Tiz is with Jacob enjoying the bus ride.

At the farm, the kids got to pet lots of animals, feed goats, plant a plant, play on an awesome playground, and ride a barrel train. It was definitely a fun day despite the cloudy weather.

And on the way home Jacob and Tizita were all tuckered out and fell asleep. How sweet it that?

Courtney ran my rummage sale until I got home from our field trip and a lunch at Allianna's for all of us after the farm. I thought I would come home to empty tables and lots of money, but there was still plenty left to sell!

After we shut down the sale for today,we went to Ebert's which has become an annual trip on our Mother's Day whenever we celebrate that day. Tiz had fun pulling the wagon around. I bought peas, cucumbers, tomatoes, and watermelon for our garden. I decided that this year I would be putting in started plants instead of seeds to speed our process along. I cannot wait to get to those fresh veggies.

I have taken a picture of Tiz each year for the last few years and here she is holding a pretty plant.

Tiz again used her photography skills to take this nice shot of the three of us! We all agree we have the same nose!

There is more tomorrow with another day of rummage, Paul joining us, dinner out, and lots of Tiz time. It is going to be a great weekend.