Happy Birthday Polly!

From that...

...to this in two short years.

Happy 9th Birthday Allie!

Another Year, Another June Dairy Breakfast

June 1st marks our 11th anniversary of moving to Wausau.

Little did I know then that we would grow to call Wisconsin home, start a family, build wonderful friendships, and be so happy here (although I am still an Iowa girl at heart)!

Last Day of School!

Hooray for summer vacation!

Meredith and her friend Sienna.

Meredith and Noah - "toothless wonders".

Allie and Annie - on to 4th grade!

Spring Update - Part 2 - Bears and B&B's

Meredith's Kindergarten class recently took a trip to the hospital to learn about the emergency room.

Each student brought with them a bear to be seen at the Teddy Bear Clinic.

Meredith's bear had a broken arm, needed an x-ray and a cast, and even got a prescription (two M&M's, twice daily for a week).

Click here for a look back to Allie's trip three years ago.

My good friend, Shannon, came to visit again this year.

It was another fun weekend of eating, shopping, and watching movies. Tennis was also on the agenda but we got rained out.

I took her on a Tour de Wisconsin, starting in Waupaca where we shopped and ate at Clear Water Harbor.

Then on to Appleton for more shopping, where we both spent more money than we care to mention.

Our next stop was Oshkosh, where we spent the night at Brayton Bed & Breakfast. We were on the hunt for Oshkosh's finest margarita and the innkeepers had two suggestion for us...so...we tried them both!


Back in Wausau, broke and hungry, we ate at my favorite pizza parlor, Sam's. I think Shannon liked it too. Know why? She ate an entire 12" cheese pizza by herself!

Thanks for coming Shannon!

Spring Update - Part 1 - Running and Royalty

I've not been keeping up my New Year's Resolution very well, have I?

Here's a two part Spring Update to prove we haven't just been sitting around twiddling our thumbs!

It's been over 18 months now and Jason is still keeping up his fitness regimen. He's run in several 5K races, has been biking up to 50 miles now that the weather is nice, and is even working on his swimming technique in hopes of doing the Wausau Triathlon this summer. In April, he ran in his first half-marathon (that's 13 miles). This was his biggest accomplishment thus far so the girls and I were there to cheer him on to the finish line.

We have another runner in the family. Allie competed in her first track meet this spring. She ran in the 60 meter dash and the 1600 meter (that's one mile!) run. She finished 4th in her heat in the sprint race (see picture below, she is in the green jacket) But I think she may be more suited for distance running as she kept up her pace the whole time and even finished ahead of some really good 5th grade runners!

While half the family was running, I was preparing for the Royal Wedding and my Royal Garage Sale!

My neighbor, Jenny, wanted to have a garage sale and I had some stuff to sell. So when we chose the date of April 29th and I realized that was the same day as the big wedding, I knew we had to do something special.

I got up early that morning to watch the wedding. It was beautiful and I still cannot get enough of it. I recorded the big event and hauled a TV down to Jenny's garage so we could replay the wedding ALL DAY LONG!

In honor of the happy couple, we dressed up as royal wedding guests.

Jason's grandma Wilma had lots of fancy hats and jewelry that our kids now play dress up with at Grandma Sharon's house so I raided her collection and came up with some "fascinators" to rival any British fashionista.

This is my hat...

...and here is Jenny's.

I even put on the bridesmaid dress from my own wedding!

My excitement inspired my two preschool teaching co-workers, Mrs. Zielinski and Mrs. C., to don a hat for the day!

And, no Royal Garage Sale would be complete without Royal Wedding Punch and English Shortbread Cookies. We collected donations for the treats and all proceeds ($15) were given to Allie's Relay for Life team.

Congratulations Will and Kate!

Where's Polly?

My Mom...by Meredith

Three years ago, this is what Allie had to say about me!

It's Dance Picture Time Again...

Even though I am doing the adult jazz class again this year, I opted not to get my picture taken with the kids. All three of our picture sessions were scheduled for different nights which made it too hectic to coordinate. But just you wait, the recital is in less than two weeks, and then you will see all of us in our dancing splendor!

Where's Polly?

Allie recently found a fun new show on Animal Planet called "Must Love Cats". And after watching a few episodes I realized that, aside from her mutant paws, Polly is pretty normal compared to some of the crazy cats on TV!

Happy St. Patty's Day!

What Would You Do With $100?

The Packers Return to Titletown

It's pretty hard not to be a Packer fan when you live in Wisconsin. I resisted at first and it's taken 10 years, but I finally gave in this season. So on Monday, when I heard that the team was returning to Green Bay with the Lombardi Trophy for a celebration at Lambeau Field on Tuesday, and tickets were only $5.00, I jumped at the chance to be a part of the excitement.


Jason had Tuesday off and we pulled the kids out of school at noon. It only takes 90 minutes, door to door, to get to Lambeau Field. We were lucky enough to park in our friend's parent's driveway, which is literally 2 blocks away from Lambeau. If not for that, I don't know what we'd have done since neither one of us is very familiar with Green Bay and parking was ridiculous. There were, after all, 55,996 other people there and I later heard that people were scalping tickets for upwards of $140!


We mingled in the atrium for a while and I kept my eye open for Aaron Rodgers to stroll past at any moment. I foolishly had a newspaper picture of him and a sharpie in my purse...just in case. But we did run into several friends, including Charity's family, from Wausau before we took our seats.

Inside the stadium, sitting on freezing cold benches, we waited patiently to watch the team arrive with the trophy.

But with temps in the single digits and surely colder with the wind chill factor, we didn't last long. The kids were losing feeling in their toes and my fingers would begin to burn every time I took them out of my mittens to snap a picture.

We stayed until the team arrived and Coach McCarthy walked out with the trophy. Unfortunately, I spent most of the time turned around looking at the JumboTron behind me.

Back in the atrium to warm up with a hot cocoa, we ran into Charity's family again. And we both agreed, even though the crowds were crazy and it was freezing beyond belief...we were glad to be there and to be a part of Wisconsin football history!

GO PACK GO!

GO PACKERS!

*Cheeseheads handmade by me*

Road Trip(s) with the Neighbors

We have the coolest neighbors. They are always up for a get-together, a dinner out, a weekend bonfire, or a road trip. So, recently, when the kids had a day off of school, I suggested we head up to the Northwoods Children's Museum in Eagle River. Our group consisted of 2 moms, 2 dads, and 8 kids.

We (parents included) all had fun playing at the museum.

Here's Jenny in the dress up/beauty parlor area.


And Doug in the ambulance.

Meredith, at the top of the ranger's tower, could talk to me in the ranger station.

This bubble contraption kept everyone busy for quite a while.

After a quick lunch and a stop at the candy store we headed a few blocks up the street to see the Eagle River Ice Castle.

Last weekend, I took an overnight road trip with the neighbors (this time just the moms) to Appleton for a little shopping, dinner out, and to see "Wicked". It was a great performance and I'm glad I finally got to see the show that everyone raves about.