FHE with the Moores

Today was a great day all around. Working out, shopping with my Mom and Sister at Bridgestreet, lunch at Connors, a whirlwind clean up of the house and putting dinner in the crockpot, Karate and finally, a fantastic dinner/FHE with the Moore family. I have been wanting to get to know this family better for a long time, but now that I am old, time moves so quickly and "sometime" turns in to years later. (Plus, I always thought that Sarah was way too cool for me!) Anyway, on sunday they accepted our invitation and we had a blast tonight. Dinner went well, and all the kids even ate my curry. Then we had a short FHE lesson and 9 year old H taught us a game that she had made up. It was super cute. We ended up with a fantastic dessert idea from Sarah, Microwave s'mores! I had a great time, I hope that we can hang out with them again sometime soon.

Busy busy monday

Seems like every monday is a busy one around here and today was no exception. I did laundry, worked out at the gym, picked up a toy from a friend, dropped off Gymnastic fliers, went to Sams and had lunch with my buddy and shopped, dropped some groceries off at Mom's house, went to Krogers and then came home and folded laundry and made dinner. When Jon came home I delivered the gymnastics fliers to the other gym and then had dinner with my family, I also snuck in a few min of playtime in the back yard with the kids, it was such a nice day today! I am such a lucky mom to get to do so much with and for my family!









I also got a fantastic surprise in the mail box. My Christmas gift from my sister arrived today, a homemade harry potter pillow case!

Sunday

Had a great Sunday. Church first, where I got to teach my fabulous class of 12 year olds. Then home for lunch and a movie with the kids before heading to Nana and Grandpas for dinner. Had some AWESOME lettuce wraps. Such a nice quite day! Tomorrow is busy busy busy though, so better get to bed so I have enough energy to get it all done.

Saturday with the fam

Today we decided to keep things low key. We lounged around the house all morning and just had fun being together. At lunch time we took the kids to Chick-fil-a to run off some energy and have some lunch. The kids had a great time playing together and Jon and I had a great time talking. After lunch we went down to the dollar theater to meet mom and dad and Kerri for a Movie. We took the kids to see Happy Feet 2. the kids liked it well enough, but I thought it was kind of lame and a little boring! After the movie the kids played quietly by themselves while jon and I watched some netflix together. All-in-all it was a nice quiet relaxing Saturday. Now to plan for my lesson tomorrow.

Lunch with Kerri

Earlier this week Ella asked Kerri if she would come and have lunch with her at school this week. We had plans the other days, but today was open so I took Kerri and Wesley down to the school to have lunch with Ella. Since the kinder gardeners have lunch horribly early (10:35), Kerri and I just talked with Ella and she and her classmates (and wes) ate. It was so cute to see how excited she was to have her auntie there to eat with her. Ella sure does love her Aunt Kerri!

Story time on thursday

Wes is loving story time, so we made sure to catch one on thursday. We sang songs, read books about dragons and made a "dragon's breath" tube that blows "fire". It was a lot of fun!

Strawberry Pretzel salad

After Telling Shrek, Donkey and Fiona about Strawberry pretzel salad, Mom and Kerri mentioned that they had never hear of or had that. I had it the first time at Main Street Cafe in Downtown madison and I told kerri that we could go there when we got home and she could taste some. Today was the day I took her. After doing some photog work at home, volunteering at Ella's school and working out at the Gym we headed over to the resteraunt to have some delicious "Salad" We were both impressed with the confection and we brought Mom home a slice as well. It was super rich, and we probably should have shared a slice instead of getting one each, but it was totally worth it!

I am a pillow Man!

'Nuff Said.

Displaying my Wand

Today was our day to get back into routine. I accidently set my alarm for 6:30PM instead of 6:30am, so we got off to a late start, but I got Ella off to school on time. After drop off I got things done around the house until it was time for Working out with Mom and Kerri. After the Gym we headed out to do some shopping. We managed to get home shortly before Ella was to get home and I started on a project that I have been planning since my Ollivanders experience.

I wanted to have a way to display my wand, something as special as my experience was, so I created a plaque with the ollivanders logo and the details of my wand. I love the way it turned out! I found the Ollivanders logo on line and printed it out in the size I wanted. Then I used an old pen to trace around the words on a piece of wood I got at Hobby Lobby. Then I traced over the dents I made in the wood with a marker. I printed out the details of my wand on another sheet of paper and did the same to transfer it. Then I used my Dads Dremmel to carve out the design. I sanded down the edges, filled the carved part with black paint and then did a white-wash type finish over that. I finished by screwing on two hooks at the bottom to hold the wand. Now I can hang it on my wall and remove it any time I like to play with it!

I may have to go back around the letters with a paint pen or sharpie to get a cleaner line on the letters, but for now I like it as is.

So glad to see daddy!

The kids are so glad to have their Daddy back after our 8 day vacation. We sure love that guy!

Wet n' wild and Driving home

Saturday was our last day in orlando. We got up early and packed up the house since we had to be out by 10am. Once we got everything in the car, we got our swimsuits on and headed to Wet n Wild one last time. We were greatly dissapointed to find that the lazy river was closed for maintenance. It was the ride we were all most looking forwards to. The wave pool was open but really cold, so Kerri and Ella went in while we watched. Then Kerri, Ella and I went on a few water slides, then since I was already wet, I went in the wave pool for a while too. Mom, Dad and Wes stayed dry on the sidlines. We didn't stay too long, maybe and hour and a half or so and then we decided to call it quits and head home. We changed into clothes, had lunch at the golden corral, (which was fab!) and started driving. The kids were great, and we had a nice quite drive home. We got home at 12am and went straight to bed. I had a great vacation, but I sure am glad to be home!

Last day

Today was our last day at Universal. Mom and the kids were tired and needed a rest day so they stayed home while Dad, Kerri and I went out to ride every coaster in the parks. We started off in HP world since it seems to be the most crowded part of the parks. We rode both dragon coasters, went to the owl post for some post cards and stamps, checked out Honeydukes again where Dad got us Treakle fudge and a rock cake. Walked around the other shops and such and then grabbed butter beers before heading to the next ride. We rode the spiderman ride, and the hulk coaster and a few other things before leaving Islands of Adventure. Dad took us out to lunch at the BubbaGump Co. resteraunt for lunch. I had the pingpong penne pasta, it was delish! After lunch we went to Universal and rode the rockin coaster, the mummy coaster, watched the fear factor show and rode the Men in black ride. We managed to ride every "big kid" ride in both parks! We ended our day with some shopping. We ended up having to walk all the way back to the Jurrassic park area to get Kerri's T-shirt she wanted. Since we were up there anyway we grabbed one more butter beer each! then finally around 6:30 we left the park for the final time. Tomorrow we have to be out of the house by 10 and then we are going to hit wet'n wild for a few hours before starteing the very long ride home. I have had such a wonderful vacation!! i am too tired to deal with pictures today, but i will get them added later.