More Snow Shoeing Adventures

We have had a nice quiet weekend, just John and I.

On Friday night, we enjoyed one of our free pizzas at On the Rock.  That pizza and a few beers were the perfect way to spend Valentine's Day.

On Saturday, I had a long overdue birthday lunch with Lynne at Applebees.

I enjoyed catching up on her life.  It is always good to spend time with Lynne.

After lunch, John and I went snow shoeing in the park again.

Each time we go, it gets easier to get the shoes on and off and to manuever with them.

We were out about an hour on Saturday.

Enjoyed Lasagna Soup which had been cooking all day in the slow cooker.

First time I made it and it was yummy.

Definitely will be making it again.

We watched a few movies and had ice cream sundaes, a gift from two of my students.

It was a great day.

On Sunday after church, we took our snow shoes and headed over to Aztalan State Park with the hope of being able to find some great spots to show shoe.

It was beautiful and we were out about two hours.

We both agreed that our snow shoes were a great investment and we are actually looking forward to some more snow this winter.

Here are some pictures from today's adventure.

 In case you don't know, Aztalan is an old Indian settlement which is now a state park.

It is a beautiful wide open space.

 Here I am way up on a big mound.

 These are the tracks that John and I made as we blazed our trail.

 Nothing but our tracks.

Queen of the hill!

It was truly a beautiful day in a beautiful place.

Cannot wait for our next snow shoe adventure.

The Milwaukee Art Museum and Stone Fire Pizza-Our Weekend with Tizita

We just spent the most enjoyable weekend with Tizita.

Since we won our annual membership to the Milwaukee Art Museum, we have wanted to take Tiz to see the museum.

This is the weekend we did just that.

John and I went to pick her up on Friday night.

Poor Soli cried so hard because she wanted to come with us, too, but there is no way that a two year old would enjoy the art museum.

On our way to pick Tiz up, we stopped in Hartford to pick up our pottery from last weekend.

I think that Tizita's horse and mug and Mallory's mug were actually the best finished products.

At any rate, the process was so much fun that the final product is not all that important, right?

After we left with Tizita, we stopped at Culver's for some supper, then on to Watertown for some serious TV watching.  Since Tiz does not have a TV at home, she always enjoys her TV time here.

 On Saturday, we woke up to donuts from Grandpa.

After breakfast, we left for the Milwaukee Art Museum.

Tiz loved the museum and we were very impressed with the way she looked at things and took it all in.

 She and Grandpa were discussing the glass exhibit.

 We took photos by some of her favorite works.

 We spent some time in the kids' art studio where Tiz watercolored a beautiful still life of the pink flowers you see in the above photo.

 She also made valentines and tissue paper flowers.

 We visited the chair park and tried out all the chairs.

 Tiz took this photo in front of an interesting piece.

 We had a snack of soda and muffins. 

Tiz never gets to have soda with her mama and papa, so we always like to treat her to soda when she is with us.

 Checking out the calatrava area overlooking a very frozen Lake Michigan.

 This is a lab where kids can do many hands on activities.

Here grandpa and Tiz are setting the stage for a big production.

 Tiz and I worked on some linear art work in the lab, too.

 The famous sculpture in the entrance to the museum.

 We bought Tiz and A to Z book with pieces from the museum.

We hunted for the pictures and objects from the book.

We did find most of them.

 Tiz had a sketch pad and she often sat down and sketched some of her favorite paintings.

Here are some pictures that Tiz and I worked on in the lab.

 After the museum we went to Stone Fire Pizza.

We enjoyed our buffet and all the fun activities in the game room.

Tiz loved the big ball area.

 I enjoyed deal or no deal.

 Tiz rode a few rides and of course,

there was enough skee ball to satisfy all of us.

It was a great, fun day, sure to be remembered for a long time by all of us.

Today after church, we took Tiz back.

Now we are counting the days until our next adventure.

Snowshoeing 101

When John and I were up in Door County after Christmas, we intended to rent snowshoes and see what that sport was all about.

But due to the cold weather, we decided not to rent them because I felt that the cold, cold temps might influence our liking the experience.

If it is too cold, it is hard to enjoy anything, so we put that on hold.

When we got home, I checked around for rentals in our area and found that for the cost of about three days of rentals we could purchase some snowshoes.

And that is exactly what we did.

I also purchased some kid snowshoes for the girls, hoping that we could all get out together and enjoy some snowshoeing.

Well, the cold, cold temps are still here and we weren't able to try our new snowshoes until last Sunday.

First I went out with Tiz and Soli on their snowshoes.  It was fun and I was anxious to try the snowshoes in the park with John after the girls left.

We headed down to the park, having a great time on those shoes.

As we were snowshoeing around the fresh snow on the ball diamond, John broke his snowshoe.

We were more than a little bummed, but after inspecting the break, we felt it could be repaired with little or no trouble.

As I write, the snowshoe is at a local cobbler who is charging us $4.00 to do the repair.

By this weekend, we can be back out on our snowshoes again if it warms up.

I don't have any pictures of John and I because we did not take the camera with us.

Stay tuned and I will, for sure, have photos the next time we go out to snowshoe.

What does a 61 year old do on her birthday? Pottery Paint and Skeeball, of course

The house is quiet once again after everyone left earlier today.

Everyone was here celebrating my 61st birthday and it was quite a celebration.

Tizita had suggested that we go pottery painting again, so I found a studio in Hartford right near the Mineshaft, the plan is made!

Pottery painting followed by gaming at the Mineshaft.

What else would a 61 year old woman do on her birthday?

Kev, Paul, Nathan, Nic, and John drove over to Delafield for some cigars, beers, and a TV for Paul while we headed off to pottery paint.

Soli, Tiz, my mom, Vikki, Courtney, Lis, Mal, and I all painted.

After two hours of painting and a variety of finished products, we went over to the Mineshaft and the gaming began.

We enjoyed a great meal and lots of games before heading home.

It was a memorable way to spend my birthday.

Tiz asked if we could do the painting every year and I think that is a swell idea, let the tradition begin.

I need to mention that the party already started on Friday night with games planned by Tizita.
Here we are pinning the heart on Grandma.
When it was my turn, I got quite turned around and ended up pinning my "heart" on a picture on the wall and not the beach scene on this photo, but a picture that was way over on another wall.
Everyone got a good laugh out of that one.

 This is the picture that Tiz drew that we had to pin the hears on.

 After dinner and games we went down the basement for a fire, cake, drinks, and more fun.
Best present ever is these two sweet girsl who bring so much love into my life.
What a blessing to be able to spend my birthday with them.

Gigi and Soli are deep in conversation here.
I love watching the two of them having these talks.

 On Saturday morning we mixed up a concoction of baby oil and flour that the girls enjoyed.

 Soli and her Cheddah sharing a moment with their electrics.
They have such a special bond.

 And here we are, painting our pottery.

 Soli painted this one little fish for two hours. She had so much fun.
I think it may have at least six coats of paint on it, but she loved every minute of it.

 My mom didn't really want to do any painting, but she ended up doing a napkin holder and I think it may be one of our best pieces when it is fired.

 Finished products, ready to be fired.

 Enjoying the games at the Mineshaft.

 Intense skee balling going on here.

Lots of tickets for Soli.

 Thanks, Mal, for the birthday drink.
It was a yummy Pomegranite punch.

Mal, Soli, and Tiz enjoying a ride.

And I will leave you with this.

This is what a million tickets costing roughly $100.00 will buy you.

The fun we had, priceless!

Another birthday in the books, one of the best ever.