Build a Bear through the years

 I just wanted to document our trips to Build a Bear with Tizita.

The first time we took her was in Feb. 2009.

We took her to the Build a Bear in Mayfair and she chose a turtle that she named Geen.

 After we made Geen, we had dinner at a Mexican Restaurant.

Tizita is wearing Geen's boots in this photo.

 Our second trip was in 2010.

We took Tizita to the mall in Appleton.

She chose a dog and named him Dog.

 

 Our next trip to Build a Bear was in Aug. 2011.

This time she chose a pink bear.

She named him Pinkie.

 This year, she wanted a pet that could go on a leash.

She chose a calico cat and named her Rainbow Dash.

She also got a i pod for the cat.

We did not purchase shoes this time since the cat would have needed four shoes!

This was the first time that Tizita really understood the whole process of making the stuffed animal and she did the computer work to name it.

We always have fun on our trips to Build a Bear.

I hope they continue to for years to come.



Trick or Treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat!

 Since Tizita had spent the night with us, we went trick or treating with the Palacios family on Sunday.

I know Tizita had a great time with her good friends, Sinai and Aquila.

 We had a cowgirl, an Egyptian, and an indian in our group not to mention a mummy, Tinkerbell, an alligator, a knight, a witch, and a skeleton ninja.

Yep, it was a large group, but that is what makes it fun.

The other two moms and Becca Palacios conversed in Spanish so at times I felt like the odd one out, but not in a bad way at all.

Becca is bilingual, married to Jose who is from Mexico and she works as a translator for many of the Mexican families that have relocated to our area.  The two moms that were with us did not speak English very well yet, so that is why they conversed in spanish.

I have had five of the six Palacios children in my preschool over the years.  Becca is one of my favorite moms and I love her kids.  Tizita enjoys the twins, too, so it was a good group to trick or treat with.

 What is more fun than being able to walk down the middle of the street on this special day of the year.  All rules are set aside.

 We walked so far that everyone had to take a candy treat at one point.

 Here we are on our home stretch.

Saying Good bye to good friends after a fun afternoon.

Now home to eat that candy!

Halloween Fun in Oshkosh Part 2

 After spending the day with Soliana as told in the previous post, we surprised Tizita by picking her up from school.

It was so fun to see her excited face as we met her at the door.

We gave her three choices for an after school activity, the mall, Monkey Joe's, or Chuck e. Cheese.

She chose the mall so we headed to Appleton for some shopping.

 

 She spotted Build a Bear and decided she needed a four footed animal that could wear a leash, so she chose to make a calico cat.

 This is our fourth trip to Build a Bear with Tiz and this is the first trip where I feel she actually understood and enjoyed the whole process.

 She named her cat, Rainbow Dash.

She bought her cat a leash, an i pod, and two cute outfits.

 We had supper at Fratello's and headed home.

We spent the evening being students in Tizita's classroom.

We all slept well that night.

 On Saturday morning, we baked Halloween cut outs.

 Tiz was a great helper this year and Soli enjoyed shoving the dough into her mouth.

 We all got the usual sugar high after frosting and decorating the cookies.

 Tiz put on her Egyptian costume and we headed to downtown Oshkosh for their festivities.

 Tiz painted pumpkins for her and Soli.

 She and I got very turned around in the maze.

Soli wore a panda hat and that was the extent of her costume.

It was a fun day.

We left at suppertime and brought Tizita home with us to spend the night and trick or treat with Sinai and Aquila.

More on that in the next post.

Halloween Fun in Oshkosh - Part 1

 John and I went up to Oshkosh on Friday.

John took the day off and there was no school for me that day.

Since Tiz was in school, we got to spend the day with Soliana, what a treat!

We played with her all morning.

She rode Sally,

 read lots of books with us,

 and played with Tiz's school stuff which she can only do when Tiz is in school.

 After playing hard for the morning we took Soli to Culver's for lunch.

She is so excited about everything.

Here she is so happy to be opening her milk.

 She ate her entire grilled cheese and applesauce plus ice cream for dessert.

We played some more in the afternoon until it was time to pick Tizita up from school which will be part 2 in the next post.

Soliana is the best and happiest baby ever.

She never cries unless she is hurt and she communicates so well through sign language and her ever growing vocabulary.

She is such a blessing to all of us.

Soli is especially fond of her grandpa.  I think she is going to be a grandpa's girl for sure.



I Just Wanna Be a Sheep

 Last Sunday, my afternoon 4K class and the Kindergarten class sang in church for the first time.

This is very early in the school year for my kids to sing.  The song, "I Just Wanna Be a Sheep," has many big words and is long, so I was a little worried about how it would all work out, but as usual, the kids pulled through and performed beautifully without any problems.

I think whenever one is praising Jesus from one's heart, the end result is perfect.

 This is me and Miss Loberger, our new kindergarten teacher directing the kids.  Have I mentioned how much I love Nicole? 

I waited so long for a Kindergarten teacher that was patient, kind, and fun.

We finally found her.  She and I work together so well.

She is me when I was teaching Kindergarten at St. John's right out of college back in 1975.

I was getting married in June of 1976 right after that first year.

Nicole is getting married in June right after her first year.

I struggled with all the things that hit you as you step into a real classroom.

Nicole struggles with those things, too.

I am so glad that I am here to help her.

By the way, that is her fiance playing the guitar for us.

 It makes me to proud to watch my kids sing so well.

They all seemed very happy while they were singing, too.

It was a good start to a Sunday!

Silent Auction Recap

Last night John and I attended the annual Silent Auction for the Alpha Pregnancy Center here in Watertown.  We attended this event four years ago for the first time as the guests of our friends, Larry and Ruth Parker.  We thoroughly enjoyed the evening and walked away with some lovely items from the auction.  We were able to attend the next year and again won highest bid for some great items.

Last year we were out of town for the event and gave Larry and Ruth our permission to bid on baskets for us.  We were again delighted with the items that we won that evening even though we were not there in person. Last year I also donated two baskets with some baby items and two of Courtney's beautiful hats.

This year, they did things a bit differently.  I again donated two baskets each containing a crocheted hat made by Courtney.  There were far less items to bid on this year and the time to bid was much shorter.  It was actually too short for me to even take it all in.  Tables closed the bidding so quickly that I didn't have time to bid on some of the items I would have liked.  My two baskets were going to go for such a low price that I bid on them and bought them back.  I am happy to have the items back and I know they will go to some deserving baby.  John also won the bid for a very pretty bracelet that I know I will enjoy wearing.  I think he paid $8.,00 for an $80.00 bracelet.  I also was highest bidder for a cute silver scarf which I now need to know how to tie and wear.

The most fun was the fact that three of us from St. John's were bidding on a Coach purse which one of our teachers really wanted.  We filled her husband in and told him to tell her she could not bid on it anymore!  He did that, she was disappointed and we were excited to give it to her at the end of the night.  The only problem was that there was another lady going after that purse, too and the battle was fierce.  Funny thing is, she was going to give the purse to our teacher, too if she won it, so we all chipped in $20.00 and were able to surprise Carol with the $150.00 Coach purse that she wanted to badly.  That made the night very special.

John and I also bid on an ornament that our Kindergarten teacher really wanted, but couldn't afford.  We were able to give that to her, too.  It was a good night for giving.

After the auction closed, we had a Trivia Night.  I had never participated in a trivia night and didn't quite know what to expect, but I had the best time.  Our table came in 4th out of 20.  If we hadn't second guessed ourselves, we could have won the whole thing. 
I am looking forward to next year's Auction.  Such a fun night for such a good cause!

Fall Yard Clean up-a Bittersweet Time

 Today is the day that John got our yard ready for winter.

It was time to put all of our yard decor away till spring.

It is such a bittersweet day for me, it means that snow, cold, and winter are just around the corne and it will be a long time before we will feel this warm again.

 A lone bird was enjoying a snack this morning.

 The garden is done for another year. 

I didn't get one ear of corn from the Indian corn I planted, but the squirrels were happy with the treat.

The last of the tomatoes didn't make it past the last frost.

 Our burning bush is looking particularily pretty this fall.

 Time to put the swing away.

Such happy memories of sitting on that swing with Soli and Tizita.

 The yard is full of leaves which John will tackle tomorrow.

 The garage is ready to store all of our things until we bring them out again in spring.

They will share space with the little coupe and the escalade.

 When John lifted the birdbath off of its base, he discovered all these ants!

Pretty gross if you ask me.

I guess they were trying to huddle together for some warmth.

I really didn't have to do anything in the yard clean up, that is how John prefers it. 

He likes it best when I stay out of his way, so that is what I did!

So, good bye birdhouses, swings, lawn chairs, and birdbath until we see you again next spring.

Whoa, this is one big coffee filter!

I saw an idea for cute turkeys on Pinterest.

It said to use Big Texas Coffee Filters.

I had never heard of such a thing, but the turkeys were so cute, I had to google them.

Sure enough, came right up with a few sites where I could purchase these big filters.

I put my phone insite the filter so you could actually see how big it is.

I don't know how big the coffee pot is that uses a filter this huge or how much coffee this would actually make, but I know it will make a cute turkey tail.

Tomorrow I will be experimenting with how to use watercolors to make the filter tails pretty.

I will be sure and post the finished product.



A fun Night out in Bloomington with the Hunters

Just got back from a fun weekend in Bloomington visiting the Hunters.

The weather was rainy and cool, but we still had a hot time on the town.

Whenever we visit, Alissa and Nathan find us a new restaurant to try.

This time it was Lucca's Bar and Grill where we enjoyed pizza and beers.

After dinner we went over to a Western Bar that they like and engaged in beer drinking and good conversation.

Lissa and I did some shopping in the afternoon and that was fun, too.  I managed to find a few things including the striped shirt I have on in the picture.

John and I were looking forward to stopping in Janesville at Fazoli's for a late lunch on the way home.

We drove up to their parking lot and saw it was all blocked off.  Apparently they had had a fire very recently and were unable to open.

How crazy is that?

We settled for Macdonald's in Milton which was just fine.

Now we will wait to see how the Packers do tonight.