Sunday, May 16th-Shane's 2nd Birthday Party

Sunday is the big day for Shane !  We all got up around 6 AM  (starting to get more on a regular sleeping schedule).  We had breakfast and then got going to get ready for the birthday company.   Uncle Sean came along with some fun kids golf bags and clubs.

Bud & Jane Zomboracz got here around 2 PM and were greeted with 2 little kids running out to give kisses and hugs. They haven't been able to give those kisses and hugs since last summer.  Matt's brother Bill & Sister-In-Law Lauren & their new baby Reese came shorty after.  Uncle Joe & Great Grandma Winters came later after attending combined birthday parties for Kayle & Zachary (John's brother Mike's grandkids).

Sarah changed Shane into his birthday outfit and he then kept saying that he looked "dapper".  He is so cute!!

Some pictures of the party:

After we ate, we had birthday cake and then opened presents.  The cake was decorated with Thomas the Train.   Here is a picture of it:

 I ordered it from Cakes-While-U-Wait located in Pewaukee.  It was very good, chocolate with custard filling.  Shane then opened his presents and again, I don't have pictures in my our camera, Sarah & Sean took pictures as he was opening them.  Some of the gifts that he received were a baseball & bat, Thomas the Train checkpoint set, more train track, car wash & cards from both Great Grandmas.
We all had a great visit and I'm sure Shane had a great 2nd birthday.  Everything went real smooth, and the only issue was that I ordered way to much cake for the amount of people attending.  I ordered a 1/2 sheet cake and we could have easily gotten by with a 1/4 sheet.  Needless to say we will be eatting cake all week.
After everyone left, we cleaned up sat down and relaxed for the rest of the evening. 

Saturday, May 15th

On Saturday morning around 2:30AM, the kids & Sarah got up (still on Amsterdam time) and went downstairs to eat breakfast. I got up at 4AM and thank goodness I had the coffee maker set to go automatically so we had ready brewed coffee for us. We then ate breakfast, took showers and got ready to go pick up those bunk beds. Sarah had a hair appt at 9AM, so we took the 2 kids & Bailey with us while Matt stayed home and held down the fort. Both kids & Bailey slept on the way to Mequon and when we got there, Shane & Bailey woke up, but Kaylin slept another 15 min. Regina (the wife) came out and gave both kids a granola bar and some cranberry juice. Very nice couple. John & Kevin loaded up the trailer (that my sister Dawn & Brother-In-Law Jim so kindly loaned us) with the bunk beds and we were on our way in about 45 min. the kid were very good on the way back home, and fell asleep right before we turned in the driveway. We unloaded the trailer and then took the trailer back to Jim & Dawn's.
Sarah came home around 11:30 and she got a real cute haircut and had some highlights put in her hair. We had lunch and then I ran to the store to get food for the BBQ over at Mom Winters house for Matt, Sarah & Kids. Shane fell asleep again around 12:45 and at 4PM he was still sleeping. We needed to get over to Mom's to eat at 5PM, so Sarah woke him up, which then Shane proceeded to carry on, crying screaming, throwing himself on the floor. He was so trired and just couldn't understand what was going. on. We got him in the truck and took off towards Moms. He pretty much screamed the whole way, he got himself into such a frenzy that he was just unconsolable. We got to Mom's and he still would not look at anyone or talk to anyone. Finally after Sarah got him to eat some Shrimp salad, he settled down and was in a more pleasent mood. By the time we left he was giving hugs and kisses. Kaylin also by the time we left around 7PM was very tired and kept saying that she wanted to go home to Mana & Papa's house. When we did come home, both kids fell asleep on the way and were brought up to their bedroom right from their car seats to bed. Tomorrow (Sunday) we are going to celebrate Shane's 2nd birthday with just Grandparents and Uncles and Aunts.

The Amsterdamer's have arrived !

Matt, Sarah, Kaylin & Shane have arrived safe and sound on Friday, May 14th.  Their flight went pretty good, the volcano didn't cause any longer time in the air.  The kids did real well, slept alittle, watched some movies and read some books. 
John went to pick them up from the Milwaukee airport at around 4:30PM.  He went down to the baggage area and could not find them.  His phone started ringing and it was Matt. They were at baggage carousel #4 and John was at baggage carousel # 3. So they started walking towards each other and met in the middle.  John said he first saw Matt and then saw Sarah off to the side with the kids.  Kaylin noticed "Papa" and didn't know for sure if she should go by him.  She looked up at Sarah and and Sarah nodded to her that it was ok, and John said Kaylin took off running so fast and ran right into his arms.  After John picked her up and both gave big hugs and kisses, Kaylin leaned back and put her hands on both sides of his cheeks and just patted and touched them.  It was like she was making sure that he was really there, not on the computer.  He said it was so cool!!! They called me on their way out of the airport to say hi and to have me pick up some pizzas for supper.  They got to the house around 5:30, before I got home form picking up those pizzas, so when I pulled into the driveway, they came out of the house to meet me.  It was the sweetest feeling knowing that they are "Home" for awhile anyway.

They are almost here!!!!

Hi all,
The count down to the final days is here!  Matt, Sarah, Kaylin & Shane are coming to visit for 2 weeks.  They are flying in on Friday, May 14th and will be staying with us for the 1st week and then will go to Matt's parents for the 2nd week.  I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to their visit.  There is so much to do and not enough time in the day to do it.  I have a list to work off of, but I keep adding more things to buy or something that I need to do before everyone arrives.  I & Sean have taken vacaton for the week they are staying with us.  Unfortunatly, John doesn't have any more vacation, not until after June 18th.
We ended up buying a day trundle bed to put into Sarah's old room.  We already have a twin bed in there, so Sean will be sleeping in that.  The kids will have the trundle bed to sleep in.  Last year when they were here, Kaylin was in the twin & Shane was in the Pack-in-Play, but he's too big for that now, so I think that trundle will work out very nicely.
Here are some pictures of the trundle bed, 1st one is of it closed up and the 2nd one is it pulled out:

Shane's going to be 2 year's old on May 20th and we are going to have a small birthday party for him on Sunday.  Just the grandparents and uncles and aunts.  Hopefully it will be a nice day because we are planning on BBQ'ing.

This weekend we have to make room in the garage so we can store the bunkbeds that Matt & Sarah are buying for Kaylin & Shane.  The same people that we bought the trundle bed from have a set of really nice bunkbeds for sale and Sarah & Matt asked us to buy the beds for them to use when they move back to the States in the fall.  So we will store them at our house until then.
Here is a picture of them:

I have been working on some more jewelry, this time it's for Kaylin.  Mostly for Kaylin, but I did make a bracelet for Shane to wear.  John made sure that it looked "manly".  I took a picture and I hope they like the jewelry.  Everything there is for Kaylin, except the bracelet in the lower right (blue & green) for Shane.  He can't be left out.

So, that's it for now, tomorrow we probably will go out to eat for supper, maybe a fish fry somewhere, then do some Grandkid shopping (that's always so fun) !!!

And to all the Mother's reading this, HAPPY MOTHER's DAY on Sunday.

Have a great day.

1st ATV ride of the season !

John & I went up north this past weekend, yes.....again....It's been 3 weekends in a row that we've made that 4 hour trip, but it's worth it !  This time it was to get back on the ATV trails again since the last time was back in mid October last year when we went on the Mercer to Hurley trail.  I did go onto the ice in Feb. when we had our Gary Kind Fisheree, but that's not like being on the trail.
We got up to the cabin around 10PM and got unloaded.  Bailey of course was full of energy (she sleeps all the way up) so I threw her ball and tugged with her on her bunny for a while.  We finally got to bed around midnight. 
We were watching the weather report for up north all week and all they were saying was rain, rain, rain.   I had been telling John all week that I was not going to go on the ride if it was raining.  I guess, I'm pretty much a fair weather ATV'er and I had already talked myself into thinking that I'm not going to have a good time when I'm trying to keep dry and look through rain drops while it's 40 degrees temp.  Up until 45 min. before John had to leave Sat. morning, I still wasn't decided if I was going to go or not.  It really looked like it was going to pour at anytime.  But I finally did decide to go (the urge to be on the trail won out) so John then loaded my ATV up on the trailer.  We left at 8:15AM to meet the other riders at Crickets Bar parking lot at the corner of Hwy 70 & Bo Di Lac Rd.  Five members from the Little Rice ATV Club (Dennis, Judy, Vicky, Jeff & their son Wyatt) were already there and a few min. later, Teddy, Skippy & Jim (Aquaman) came (story about his nickname follows later).  We then all drove to Park Falls where the Tuscobia trail starts and is the only trail open at this time.  It seemed very weird this year, because our friend and neighbor Dewey wasn't there to lead us.  He's the president of our ATV club, but he's having serious back problems and is in alot of pain right now.  He's trying to be good so he can attend the "Get The Title Back" ATV parade in Hurley on Memorial Day.
We started out at 9:30AM on the trail and it felt really good to be there.  The weather man was predicting scattered rain showers in the afternoon and the clouds sure were there, but we decided we were not going to be denied our ride.  It is so dry up north and they really need the rain, a whole week of it would help out the drout, but couldn't it wait until maybe Monday?  We got about 20 miles in when OH NO !! 1 drop, then a few more drops....OH YEAH here it comes!!! John was leading and he pulled over and stopped.  Everyone grabbed their rain gear and scrambled to get it on.   We got our gear on and continued on.  The name Aquaman was given to Jim because he has a set of  ugly aqua colored rain gear (see picture below), and we had a good laugh about it.  It really went good with his light blue helmet too...ha,ha.  We drove another 8 miles and the rain started to come down a little harder and was getting very irritating.  We arrived at the big metropolis of Winter, and at that time we all needed a break.  It was lunchtime anyway, so we crossed Hwy 70 and stopped in at Julies Trailside Tavern that is a bar/grill/restaurant.  We had a great lunch and let some of our gear get dry and then as we are sitting there, the rain started to come down even harder.  Everyone at this time agreed to turn around and go back the 28 miles to Park Falls instead of continuing on to the end of the trail at Birchwood which would have been another hour and 1/2 to go.  So we suited up again, got on our ATV's and rode back.  I should have worn my full faced helmet instead of my 1/2 helmet, because the rain felt like little needles hitting me on my face OUCH!!!   The only good thing about the rain (in my opinion) was that water was starting pool up in the holes on the trail and I just can't resist going through them.  So we got back to the trucks in Park Falls around 3PM, and with the rain coming down pretty good by now, we got the ATVs loaded & tied down.  Aquaman got kidded by pretty much everyone there....mostly being blamed for bringing on the rain.  We said our goodbyes and took off for home.  I must admit, I did have fun even though the weather was crappy, and we did what we came up north to do.... GO ATVING ! 

Here are some pictures of us on the trail:

John took this picture looking back toward the line of ATV's

Here is one of the big hills we went down and then subsequently went up again...FUN!

Here we are taking a break before it started raining.

Below, here I am in my rain gear as you must agree,black would be better....

And here he is in the picture below.....AQUAMAN!!!!!  His light blue helmet isn't showing up very well.....

Our next trail rides are going to be on Memorial Day weekend.  On Saturday, in Hurley, and on Sunday we will be riding with the Little Rice ATV Club on the Little Rice Trail, down by the Willow Flowage. 

Have a nice day.

Just an update

Hi all,
I want to keep in the habit of updating my blog at least once a week, so here goes...
John and I went up to Wausau this past weekend for the annual WATVA (Wisconsin ATV Association) meeting.  The whole weekend consisted of informational classes on Sat. and then the actual annual meeting was held on Sunday morning.  The classes that we attended were:  club website design, Club liability insurance & the Memorial Day rally in Hurley (going for the title of largest ATV parade).  If you have a ATV, please check out the website http://www.atvparade.net/ .  We need alot of ATV's to bring back the title from Silver Bay Minnesota !!!
I asked Sean if he would watch Bailey for us and he said he would.  So he came down Friday night and first went over to Jackie's house.  As everyone should probably know by now, they both have caused alot of commotion!  The explaination will soon come out, ha, ha....Anyway, we left for Wausau early Sat. morning and were on the road at 5AM to get to Wausau at 8AM when registration & classes began.  We decided not to stay overnight when our friend Dewey wasn't able to meet us there because he was in alot of back pain.  There was to be a reception & DJ on Sat. night and we were going to hang out with Dewey.  So we decided to go up to the cabin right after the classes Sat. afternoon.  We arrived at the cabin around 4:30 and were still full from the nice hamburger, potato & pasta salad lunch that the association provided for us.  I went and took a walk while John was busy attaching the 2 new gas containers that we bought at the swap meet in Wausau to his ATV back box.  I missed walking with my Bailey :( :(...she loves to go for a walk.  After I got back, we went out for supper and then stopped at Wal-Mart to pick up some breakfast food for Sunday morning.  We went up this time in the car and didn't take the cooler with us.  We felt kind of weird without that cooler...Got home and John putzed out in the barn for a while getting the ATV's ready for our 1st trail ride this year on this coming Sat.  I then talked on the phone with Sean for about and hour about his & Jackie's engagement.  Those two are like a pair of peas in a pod, what one doesn't think of the other one will.  They feed off of each other....
We left the cabin around 9AM on Sunday morning and pulled in the driveway down south at 1PM.  Little Bailey was so happy to see us and I her.  Sean left around 4PM and got up to Neenah safely.
This week we have to go to Menard's to buy a 4"x4" post for the PHA sign, and 3 floats for the pier.  I'm going to paint the post a solid color and then paint some kind of vine on it and the sign. Good thing we brought down the trailer!
Have a good day.

Spring is in the air-Yeah !

Hi all,
I know, I know, it's been awhile and I am really feeling guilty about not updating like I"ve been wanting to.  Since the wonderful Celtic Women concert that John and I went to in March, we hosted my side of the family for Easter on the Saturday before Easter Sunday.   We had a nice time and  most everyone came and got caught up with what's going on in each other's lives.  There was no Easter Egg hunt this year....There isn't any little kids anymore.  Next year will be so much fun though.....Kaylin & Shane will be here to find eggs.  We got to talk to Matt, Sarah, Kaylin & Shane on Easter Sunday before everyone came over.  They are all doing ok, and were getting ready for their exciting Greece trip.  Actually, as I'm writing this post, they are already in Athens and tomorrow will be getting on their cruise ship to vist some islands in the Mediterrainian Sea.   One of their port of calls is Turkey.
On Easter Sunday John, Sean & I went over to Grandma's house and visited and ate some more great food.  Unfortunatly, my diet has suffered and I ended up gaining a few pounds reather than losing them.    Oh well, back again on the wagon.  I've lost 26 lbs sine the beginning of October last year.
Sean and I took last Friday off and drove down to the Chicago Field Museum. We got down there about 11AM and boy was it busy. Lots of families and lots of kids!!! Not sure if it was Chicago area spring break, but we were thinking that it would not be so busy during a weekday. We made the wrong choice of viewing the 3D movie Ancient Egypt at 3:55PM.  It lasted about 25 min. but trying to get out of Chicago on a Friday afternoon at rush hour....Needless to say it took 45 min. to get to the freeway again when it should have only taken about 10 min. Those Chicago drivers are so rude! You have the green light, but then you have people making right turns into your lane, even when you have the right of way UGH!! I was not in a very good mood. We made it out and north and pretty much cruised all the way back to Wisconsin without any incidents. Sean stayed for supper and then at 10:30PM decided to go back home.

Then John and I went up north early Saturday morning and got up there around 9AM.  The weather was very nice and very sunny ( in the 60's) and we had a good time.  We had to go up and get the lawn mower that we took up there last fall to cut the lawn and mulch all the leaves that had fallen in the back yard.  The grass is getting pretty long down here at the house so the lawn mower will be needed shortly.  John and Dewey also had a ATV meeting to go to hosted by the Little Rice ATV club by the Willow Flowage so I took that opportunity to go shopping for a bit in Minocqua.  I had to pick up some dog food that Bailey ran out of and then went to the Dollar Store to get a table runner for my dresser in my bedroom, and some new silk flowers to put in the barrel at the end of the driveway.  After I got home, Bailey and I took a walk down to the lake and she splashed around in the water for a while.  She did scare up a huge frog and I think both scared each other at once.  It was funny to see Bailey jump.  The lake is down about 2 feet and everyone is hoping that it rains soon.  It"s very dry up north and all burning permits have been cancelled.   John & I are going up to Wausau this coming Saturday for the WATVA (Wisconsin ATV Association) annual convention.  Sean will be coming down to our house to watch Bailey for us, what a wonderful son to do that for us !!! We are staying overnight Saturday night in Wausau and then going on up to the cabin early Sunday to get the ATV's ready to go for our first ride of the season on the following weekend (April 24th & 25th).  We will be riding on the Tuscobia trail near Park Falls.  A few of the club members and John's brother Chris and his wife Dannette are coming also. 
I do have pictures finally of our newly painted bedroom & border that we put up.
Here are the bedroom pic's:

I did have pictures of Bailey when she was helping me paint, and ended up wearing some of it too but somehow they got lost or deleted, don't know.  I will still try to find them and get them posted.

Have a nice day