April 25th: Day 115

My very exciting Friday night...menu planning and a glass of wine.

April 24th: Day 114

My very favorite kitchen appliance is my Kitchen Aid for two reasons.
1. It makes baking so much easier!
2. It was a gift from Grandma & Grandpa Newby for our wedding and will always remind me of Grandma and the many cakes she baked.

Claire loves helping me in the kitchen and today we made our family's most favorite dessert ever. Angel food cake. Amazing, even without frosting or any other extras.

April 23rd: Day 113

Bonding over Mario Kart Wii

April 22nd: Day112

Claire and I went to the library today and I picked out a bunch of books for Ella. She is so into National Geographic Kids right now and I found one that had lots of strange facts. She was so cute with how excited she was to read some of them to me.

April 21st: Day 111

Ella, Claire & Maddy have been planning and out practicing the Frozen show that they are going to put on for months now. Ella is going to be Elsa and both Claire and Maddy are going to be Anna. Here they are acting out the scene from "Do You Want to Build a Snowman".

April 20th: Day 110

Happy Easter! Christ has risen! He has risen indeed!

This morning we woke up bright and early so that we had time to find baskets before church since we were heading to visit family right after church and there wouldn't be time afterwards. Ella found her basket in her backpack and Claire found her basket in the lazy susan. Good thing the Easter Bunny put some things in their baskets that could entertain them during church as well. Smart Bunny. I normally love the REACH service at church and its contemporary music, but on holidays I still love the traditional hymns. I was a little bummed that we didn't sing all of I Know That My Redeemer Lives since that song goes hand in hand with Easter morning for me.

After church we met dad's family at The Woods for brunch, headed back to dad's so the girls could hunt for baskets there and then headed over to mom's where they found more baskets. Most of the time people were busy watching the Brewer game but I got an awesome history lesson from Grandma and Grandpa Newby instead. (And I'd much rather have a history lesson from them than watch baseball on tv!) They filled me in what Main Street in Almond used to look like, all about the little country school and some family history. Now let's hope I can remember all this or that it is written down somewhere!

April 19th: Day 109

Photo shoot this morning, so I snuck in a few shots of the girls in their Easter dresses as well.

After the shoot we had an egg hunt (and mom & dad brought Ella a bike and Claire a scooter this year!) and dyed eggs. Love tradition!

April 18th: Day 108

Heather & I woke up, ate breakfast, got ready and headed to the outlet mall for some shopping. Always a fun time! I was also too busy spending money to take a photo...sorry!

I got home around supper time (of which my wonderful husband already had ready for us when I walked in the door) and then we went to Good Friday service. I stressed the fact that it was a very somber & serious service and that they needed to be extra respectful. They did fabulous. There is something so poignant about walking out of church in silence on Good Friday, knowing what is to come in two days.

April 17th: Day 107

Today after I picked Ella up from school the girls and I stopped to pick Heather up from work and then headed to Oshkosh. We stopped to Tamara's (circus cookie cupcakes!!!) and then went to the hotel and waited for Jeremy to pick the girls up. After they left, our girls getaway commenced. We started with wine in the hotel lobby for Happy Hour and then went to dinner at TJ's Harbor. It was yummy and I finally started getting some taste back. What would a girls getaway be without a little shopping, so we stopped to Target and I taught Heather the joys of Cartwheel :-) Once we were back the hotel we chatted for a while and around 9:45 pm decided to head to the hot tub. Around 10 pm we noticed a couple fire trucks and an ambulance pulled in. A full 5 minutes after they all showed up the fire alarm went off...so guess who got to head outside dripping wet in a swimsuit. Awesome. Heather & I did get a couple good laughs out of it though. If we would've had to stay outside more than the half an hour that we did, it probably wouldn't have been so funny. Anyways, we went back to our room, ate our cupcakes and fell asleep chatting :-)

April 16th: Day 106

I have been congested for a while now, but today a cold hit me super hard. I slept while Claire was in preschool and then when I picked her up we ran to the store to get chicken noodle soup, vitamins and orange juice. I haven't felt this yucky in a long time. And it better clear up soon because tomorrow Heather & I have big plans to hit Tamara's for cupcakes and I will be bummed if I can't taste mine.

April 15th: Day 105

I thought I had a photo today, but apparently I don't.

Happy Tax Day!

April 14th: Day 104

Six is an awesome age. I love that Ella can read now (well, most of the time...sometimes it works against us) and she is always writing. She has an awesome and uncensored imagination, which makes for some great stories and laughs. Here is a writing sample that came home today of various sentences. I especially loved the dad one ;-)

April 13th: Day 103

Another fun day...egg hunt at church, roller skating (Claire's first time and Ella's second) and dinner at Stevi B's.

April 12th: Day 102

Busy but fantastic day today. It began with meeting up with Courtney, the two "wedding moms", my mom and 4 of the 5 other bridesmaids. Everyone is so nice and I think we'll have lots of fun! Our first stop was David's Bridal where we tried on a few dresses and probably where we'll end up getting "the one". We also stopped over to the Bridal Event, which was overwhelming to say the least. So many dresses!

I had to skip out on lunch with the girls so that I could meet up with Jeremy and get the girls so that we could meet dad for our visit to the PAC. Dad had gotten the girls and I tickets to the Beauty & the Beast for Christmas. It was both of the girls first Broadway theater experience and I think they really liked it. It was fun watching their expressions. After the show we had dinner and then dessert at Cherry Berry. Yum!

Ended the evening with some quiet time with Jeremy and an awesome foot rub. :-)

April 11th: Day 101

Jeremy went to the Brewer game tonight, so it was just us girls. I decided to pamper them with a little spa night. First step was a bath with bubbles and flower petals. They got to choose their own lotion for a mini massage once they finished their bath. Then we did facials (with cucumbers for the eyes!) and pedicures. They had a blast. (And so did I with seeing how much fun they had). Ella attempted all of her conversation in a French accent. Pretty hilarious! After the spa we had dinner and they had "kid wine" to finish off the night. Love our girl time <3

April 10th: Day 100!!!

Claire found my reading glasses that I had bought in college and wanted to see how they looked on me. We had fun playing with the camera and making faces, too.

April 9th: Day 99

I love hanging clothes outside to dry!

April 8th: Day 98

Claire & I did a little antique exploring today in Oshkosh. I found two more postcards with Almond on the front plus one that was written by someone living in Almond (possibly a relative?). It's so fun to find things with Almond on it because of it being such a small town. Apparently it was quite the town back in the day though.

I also found this little chair and kind of fell in love.

April 7th: Day 97

Last night after bath Ella had me braid her hair so that it'd be curly today. My beautiful girl!

April 6th: Day 96

It was a busy and wonderful day. Claire sang at the 8 am service, so we were up bright and early. After church Tarrah, Courtney and I did some antique mall shopping and had lunch at the Milwaukee Burger Company. So much fun spending time with cousins and even though we don't see each other a ton or spend a lot of time together as adults, we still have a bond similar to the one we had as kids.

While I was busy with my family, Jeremy & the girls were busy with his family. Jerison, Heather, Colleen and the kids came for a visit so they all went to Monkey Joe's. I was bummed I didn't get to see Gage & Hannah for long but it'll be a good excuse to plan another visit soon.

Oh, and the baby tree that we planted last summer survived the winter and is blossoming!

April 5th: Day 95

We may be dog sitting for a week in May, but since Jeremy isn't 100% sold on the idea we had Tammy over for a trial run today. The girls had a blast taking her for a walk and reading books to her. She is such a good dog and even Jeremy must have warmed up to her because he ended up letting her have free range of all non carpeted areas.

April 4th: Day 94

We had an impromptu family game night tonight. Jeremy & Ella played War and Dominos while Claire and I played some of her games from speech class and Tell Tale. Playing Tell Tale with Claire is pretty hilarious. She definitely makes you stretch to connect the parts.

April 3rd: Day 93

Mckenna came over for a playdate today. On the way to our house Mckenna asked Claire is she was still her best friend. Aww. Besties just like their mommies.

April 2nd: Day 92

No photo today, but I did work on a few more digital pages while Claire was in school today.

April 1st: Day 91

Ella wants to order some books, so we came up with some chores she could do to earn them. She helped with the list and we gave input.

1. Make bed
2. Collect garbage
3. Help with dishes
4. Help make lunch for school

Claire voluntarily vacuumed out a cabinet for me, too.

March 31st: Day 90

Good Night, Mr. Sun. See you tomorrow.

March 30th: Day 89

This morning we served for the REACH service and then since it was finally a nice, spring day Jeremy & I suggest we go take a walk in the woods. Neither of the girls were at all enthused and Ella claimed it was dangerous. Mom & Dad won the battle and we ended up going, but really the girls won the war because they made trekking through the woods less enjoyable by their whining. The photo is of them on a log that I had them sit at to eat a snack in hopes that they'd stop complaining long enough to let Jeremy & I look around (within sight of course). After we left that location and headed to another, their attitude got a little better. Ella found out how much fun it is to wade through the water with her rain boots and actually got into the exploring.

Other perks from today: bed linens being dried on the clothesline outside, supper on the grill, finishing another photo gallery and chocolate wine.

March 29th: Day 88

What began as a day with no plans ended up being busy enough. First was a trip to Millbrook Place (upscale consignment) and I scored a few awesome things for the girls and I. Then I met Jeremy & the girls for lunch at Asian Garden and we did our grocery shopping. After groceries were put away and supper prepped, I went for my first outdoor walk of the year. It felt amazing! Walk followed by a pretty delicious supper of homemade chicken noodle soup and french bread. I got a little editing done and Maddy came over to have a sleepover with Ella. Surprisingly, they fell asleep within an hour or so of going to bed. A first for those girls!

March 28th: Day 87

March 27th: Day 86

This little cutie was back for his one year photo shoot today.

March 26th: Day 85

Free air purifier in exchange for a review. Works for me!

March 25th: Day 84

Look what I found at the antique mall!!!

March 24th: Day 83

The girls are at Grandma's and I am attempting to catch up on their scrapbooks. One of the digital pages I managed to finish. 

 

March 23rd: Day 82

It's finally spring. Well, according to the calendar spring began a couple days ago. Mother Nature says otherwise. At least one little area around here looks spring-y.

March 22nd: Day 81

Girls got new shoes on Saturday...Ella's first pair of heels and she is incredibly proud. 

March 21st: Day 80

Just look at their faces as they jump off the snow bank. They know Daddy will always catch them.

March 20th: Day 79

Crazy girl came out of the living room and said, "Look, I'm a potato."

March 19th: Day 78

Bath Night!

 

March 18th: Day 77

 

The big day is here! The girls have been waiting for this day since early December. Nope, not a holiday. Or a birthday. Today is the day Frozen is released. Now they can sing along to Let It Go and mirror Elsa's every move.

I planned a Frozen night. We had Anna's Sandwiches (from the line in "Love is an Open Door"- we finish each other's sandwiches), Sven Antlers, Olaf Noses & Troll Dip and Frozen Punch. We also had a little scavenger hunt I found on Pinterest that used lyrics from Frozen songs. Their prize was printed coloring pages and a little treat.

Oh, and while I was getting everything ready for supper Ella saw that I had a pile of dishes in the sink. She asked if she could do them for me. Of course! She actually did a great job and it was very helpful!

March 17th: Day 76

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We had a green themed supper tonight- green bow tie pasta, salad and leprechaun dessert.

March 16th: Day 75

Ella declared this afternoon "relaxing" and "no electronics". We ate lunch in a fort made of blankets and chairs. We read books to each other. Jeremy & Ella played War and Speed and he attempted to teach her Cribbage. Claire & I did puzzles and built a Polly Pocket village. We went out for ice cream. Ella did have to lift the ban a little early for me so that I could find the recipe for supper that was saved on my Pinterest account. At 5:00 she lifted the ban for everyone else. That Ella, she is a wise little girl!

March 15th: Day 74

Ella the Shortbread selling Girl Scout cookies with some of her troop at Goodwill :-)

March 14th: Day 73

Claire and I did a little shopping/browsing today and met Jeremy for lunch at Culver's. In addition to a couple new puzzles and a Polly Pocket car, I bought two containers of water beads meant for fresh cut flowers. The girls had more fun with the water beads than anything else in the house! I admit, squishing them is fun. And plunging your hands into what appears to be a bucket of plain water but instead having your hands meet little, clear globs is kind of intriguing.

March 13th: Day 72

Tonight Ella had her first grade musical, Swamped. She was a painted turtle and got to crawl across the stage. The entire thing was adorable!

Papa, Uncle Wes, Aunt Heather, Great Grandma & Great Grandpa came to watch, too, and then we went to Dairy Queen afterwards.

March 12th: Day 71

Claire wanted to sleep in Ella's room tonight <3

March 11th: Day 70

Jeremy had a church meeting tonight, so we did things a little backwards with bath first, then dinner once Jeremy got home. Ella read to Claire while I made supper.

March 10th: Day 69

Finally, a day in the 40s. It felt amazing to be outside. Claire rode bike (which I half jogged behind) after preschool and then once Ella got home we headed back outside for more bikes and puddle jumping/wading.

March 9th: Day 68

Since I didn't share a photo from my shoot yesterday, I am sharing one today.

March 8th: Day 67

Happy Birthday to my wonderful, strong and supportive mom!

This morning I had a photo shoot with Lacie & Mazie. Lacie was one of the first kids I ever took photos of and I am so thankful and honored that Krista & Andrew continue to have me take photos for their family.

After a brief nap and grocery shopping, Jeremy & I left for Hops and Props with Heather & Phil. Even though I am not a beer drinker, I have lots of fun at the event. It may have helped that this year they had a chocolate fountain with pound cake and rice krispies (among other things)! I love my desserts!

I also found a beer that I really, really liked- New Glarus Raspberry Tart.