A Very Special Pre Christmas Day of Memory Making

This past weekend was so much fun.

It all started on Friday evening when John brought my two favorite girls with him from Oshkosh.  Now that he works in Fon du Lac, it is easy for him to bring them to our house.

We baked cut outs on Friday.

Of course, in true Tizita fashion, she has to add her own personal touch on all the cookies.

She simply cannot cut out a cookie and put it on the tin, oh no, not Tiz, she has to cut a few out and fashion them into large cookies.

She is quite the creative cookie maker.  We had some really unique cookies and they all tassted really good.

Soli joined us for the frosting and sprinkles.

Here are a few photos from the baking night:

After baking, we just had to watch some I Carly.  I am sure that when John and I are long gone, the girls will remember the times we watched I Carly together more than anything else about us!

The girls hung their stockings on Friday night and left Santa some of their cookies.

On Saturday morning they were so excited to find that Santa had indeed come, filled their stockings, and enjoyed their cookies.

The excitement really started after lunch when we left to see A Charlie Brown Christmas at the Todd Weir Theater in Milwaukee.  Last year we saw Rudolph at the same theater and enjoyed it so much that we decided to make it an annual event.

This show was so good again.

Both girls said it was even better than Rudolph, John liked Rudolph better, and I just liked them both.

I really like this theater experience because it is so kid friendly.  There is not a bad seat in the house and the cast is made up of mostly kids from 4th grade up to high school.

There was a fun sing along at the end of the show and the actors took questions from the audience about the show.

I bought the girls these cute little pink dress/tunic tops especially for the show.

They both looked so cute if I must say so myself.

After the show, we had dinner at Culver's on our way to the lights at Country Springs Hotel.

Driving through these lights has become a tradition for us and the girls.  The best part for the girls is the fact that they get to drive on Grandpa's lap.

Both girls fell asleep on the way home, so there was no I Carly that night for us.

Our fun was not over yet.

We left by 7:30 on Sunday to get the girls back home for their Christmas service at church.

Mom came with us and we all enjoyed the service so much.

Tiz played the part of Eve and Soli was a sweet angel.

After the service, we all went to Red Robin for lunch.

Courtney and Paul had decorated the tree over the weekend to surprise the girls and it was beautiful.  They went back to a real tree this year and it is so pretty.  Almost makes me want to go back to a real one or at least try to find an artificial that looks more real.

I am guessing my search will be on after Christmas.

I gave the Van Auken family a book about the traveling wise men and I also gave them three African American wise men to use as their very own traveling wise men.

Finally, our day ended as did our great weekend as we headed back home.

The Packers won which capped the weekend off perfectly.

 

There are no Friends like old Friends

On Saturday we drove up to Stevens Point to meet up with Terri and Mark Hubbard.

Terri had ordered seven of my photo collages for her grandchildren and the purpose of our meeting was to deliver those collages.

Terri and Mark are old friends, not in age of course, but we go back a long way to our days in Elkhorn.

We had just moved into our new double wide modular home at Eastown Manor in Elkhorn, we had also just brought home our first baby girl, Courtney.

Spring was just arriving and one day as I was walking around our little "trailer park" I met another young mom with her first little baby girl, Vanessa. 

They had just moved into the double wide in our backyard and thus began a wonderful  and lasting friendship.

We were two young moms in a new neighborhood hungry for adult conversation and boy, did we find that in each other.

That summer, we would put the babies down for their naps and meet in the backyard where we would lay in the hot sun until they woke up.

Terri was an RN and worked second shift, so I watched Vanessa until Mark got home from work.

Vanessa and Courtney had so much fun together.

Courtney was the more aggressive one, while Vanessa was more laid back.

Courtney had a little blonde hair, Vanessa had a headful of black curls.

Courtney was active and physical, Vanessa was thoughtful and talkative.

It was fun.

Our little families took our babies on different outings.

Sometimes the four of us went out for adult things without the babies.

It was a good, fun time in our lives.

 

Eventually, our little family of four now, since Alissa had joined us moved back to Watertown.

It was bittersweet.

We had to say good bye to our good friends, but somehow we knew we would never lose touch.

In a few years, Terri and Mark and their now, family of six had moved to Waukesha, Waterford, and finally Medord where they still live.

Through all those moves, we stayed in touch and met a few times a year for family fun.

 

As life got busy and our kids grew into teens and got involved in activities that took over our lives, we did not see each other very often.

We stayed in touch with snailmail, a few phone calls and now finally, with Facebook.

 

We met up on Saturday and it was as if no time had passed.

We picked up right where we left off.

That's how it is with good friends.

 

We made plans for another get together much sooner than this last one.  We have good intentions of meeting again soon, but we know it may not happen as we hope, but not matter what, we will always be friends and conversations will always come easily.

 

I love these old friends. 

Thanksgiving at the Hunters 2015

It's Sunday night.

We just took the girls back after a wonderful four days of celebrating Thanksgiving.

We celebrated in Bloomington at the Hunters house again this year.

It was the year for Courtney's family to be with us, so that made it even nicer.

We left Watertown about 10:30 with the girls in tow.

Arrived at Alissa's around 2:00.  The girls and I made some turkeys out of cookies and candies for dessert.

We enjoyed a wonderful meal prepared by Alissa and Nathan.  We also enjoyed some fine wine.

We were all excited for the big Packer/Bear game fully expecting a win, but that was not to be.

It was ugly.

Here are some photos from our Thanksgiving.

There was also a lot of wii playing on both Thanksgiving and the days after.

On Friday, John and I took the girls to the Children's Museum in Bloomington.

I think it is one of the best Children's Museums around.

Both girls had so much fun.

We were there for over four hours until it closed.

After that, we met everyone else for pizza and beers.

It was another great, fun day.

On Saturday we headed home, again with the girls in tow.

We stopped at a Casey's where they both ordered a sub sandwich which they totally devoured on the ride home.

On Saturday night we went to the Christmas parade here in Watertown.

It was a bit chilly, but we had a great time.

After the parade we ordered pizza and watched TV together.

Today it was church followed by two straight hours of playing together.

We are so thankful for these two precious blessings.

Oh and we also managed to get a decent Christmas picture.

I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, too.

Pre Thanksgiving Weekend-Productive and Fun

It has been another great, fun weekend.

The Packers are beating the Vikings right now, looks like they will win this game which is good because they needed this win very badly.  Way to go, Pack!

Nice way to end a good weekend.

On Friday, John and I went to On the Rock for pizza and beer.

We closed the place down at 8:30, yep, nobody there at that time except us.

We headed over to Rock River Pizza for one more beer, Kev and Vikki were there so we had a nice visit with them.

On Saturday we woke up to our first snow.

It was very pretty.

It did not hinder our drive to Oshkosh to go to Courtney's Homemade for the Holidsys show.

My mom came along.

Mal and Vikki were supposed to join us, too, but neither of them were feeling 100% so it was just the three of us.

There was not one flake of snow in Oshkosh while we got 5 inches.

Homemade for the Holidays was great, lots of cool vendors.  We made a few purchases and enjoyed a yuumy lunch at Becket's.

Stopped at Target on  our way home so mom could get stuff for Vikki's goody box.  Always fun to look around in a Target, but I always overspend there.

 

My Preschoolers sang in church today with the Kindergarten class.

They sang, "This Little Gospel Light of Mine."

It was a great performance unlike a month ago when they sang "Jesus Loves Me" very loudly and all in their own way!

 

After church I put up one of our Christmas trees and my village.  I am glad to have that much done.

I always enjoy my Christmas trees and decorations so much more before Christmas.

I need it down by New Year's!

 

It has been a productive weekend all around.

Packers will win this game.

Teacher's Helpers, TV, Flabbergast, TV, Peanuts Movie, and TV

We had another great weekend.

Courtney brought the girls on Friday.  They had the day off, so they were excited to come to my classroom and be my helpers.

They were awesome helpers, well, Tiz was an awesome helper while  Soliana picked up right where she left off last year with her old friends.  It was more playing than helping for her.

 Soli planning what is going to be happening here in the house corner.

 Tiz helping string necklaces.

 Tiz with some of her best friends from last year.

 Now Soli is the teacher in our school center.

 Snack time.

After school, we went home to make rainbow cupcakes.

Unfortunately, both girls got involved in TV, as they always do when they are here, so I had to pull them in during commercials to bake.

 Soli did the beating.

 We made rainbow cupcakes out of six different colored cake dough.

The girls had fun mixing the colors in anyway they wanted.

 After they were finished the girls decorated them.

The finished cupcakes were so beautiful and tasted yummy.

John came home with sub sandwiches which we all enjoyed followed by hours of I Carly on TV.

The girls do not get to watch much TV at home, so when they come here, it is such a treat to be able to watch as much TV as they want.  Oh, TV and eating sweets!  

On Saturday, we took the girls to Flabbergast in Sussex.

It is much like a Monkey Joe's, only on a smaller scale.

Both girls really had a great time.

 There were all kinds of tubes to crawl through.

 The girls had lots of fun in the jump house.

At times they were the only two in the house.

The girls met a friend there named Kira.

The three of them had a great time together.

After three hours at Flabbergast, we went to see the Peanuts movie in Delafield.

What a fun movie.

I loved hearing Tiz and Soli laughing out loud at so many parts of the movie.

So glad that they did  not make changes to Peanuts, it is still as innocent and funny as ever.

After the movie we met Courtney and Paul at Marty's Pizza for dinner.

We sent the girls home with them and stopped for a few beers to close our our fun weekend.

Today the Packers lost to the Lions which has not happened since 1991.

It was not a happy time around here.

Way to end a perfectly great weekend otherwise!