FFF-“Teenager”

This week we celebrated Hannah’s 13th birthday…now I have TWO teenagers in the house! It is hard to believe how fast the time goes.  Wasn’t it just yesterday that she was my chubby-cheeked little ballerina.  In a few weeks she will be starting 8th grade and busy with volleyball and hockey.  Hannah is such a sweet girl and a wonderful helper for me.  Some days I don’t know how I would get by without my big girls helping out!  She’s also a wonderful babysitter and her younger siblings adore her.  Happy birthday, sweet girl!

To see more FFF, go to Sarah’s blog. Have a great weekend! This is our 3rd day of cool(70’s) and rainy weather so I am hoping the weekend weather improves!!

Another Vacation and 50th Anniversary!!!

We just returned from a fun vacation in Wisconsin Dells.  We rented a 4 bedroom condo at the Wilderness Resort along with my parents and my brother and his family.  It was a beautiful log home with lots of space for all of us and a full kitchen to cook meals for the entire crew!

My parents didn’t want to have a big party to celebrate their 50th anniversary and preferred to spend it with their 5 children and 22 grandchildren.  We decided that we would all meet in Wisconsin Dells.  The weather was perfect and we enjoyed the EIGHT waterparks that this resort has to offer! We also went to the Tommy Bartlett Water Show.  They announced my parents 50th anniversary during the show and one performer dedicated a song to them.  Our entire family had dinner at a nice restaurant and then enjoyed a cake to celebrate their anniversary.  Years ago my mom gave me the cake topper from their wedding cake so we added that to the top of this cake to make it extra special.

The weekend was so much fun and it was such a blessing to have most of the family together all in one place.  We are so blessed to have such a wonderful healthy family and parents/grandparents that are so awesome.  My parents are good Christian role models for their family and anyone else who knows them.  Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!!!  We love you!!!

This is the condo that we stayed in.

Wisconsin Dells is known for their candy shops and homemade fudge…doesn’t this vat of chocolate look yummy!!!

We rented a private room at the restaurant to accommodate our big group!

Don’t my parents look great…50 years together and going strong!!!!

The gang!  One brother and his family were unable to be there to celebrate this special event. This is the place we stayed at.

Tommy Bartlett Water Show.

We had front row seats at the Water Show in town and they asked some of our kids to come up on stage for a hula hoop contest.  Hannah is in the pink.  She won the contest and a free pizza!!!

After all the traveling we have done in the past month, I am ready for a vacation from vacations!!  It’s lots of work to pack before we leave and to deal with mountains of dirty clothes once we return home. I need to start thinking of back-to-school time so we can get back into a routine!!

Stop by my friend, Nora’s blog, for a great give away!

Wordful Wednesday-“Alfalfa”

We have been back from Paris for several days and I have not had the energy to blog until now.  It’s difficult going through so many time zones and it always takes me a while to get my system back to MN time once we return from overseas.  Plus the dirty laundry alone is enough to set me back for a week!!

I spend most days taking Ricky to the pool to work on swimming with a Special Olympics coach.  He is an amazing teacher!  Ricky would NEVER even get into the water and now he’s become very comfortable in it.  He still has a ways to go before he’s actually swimming but his coach is confident that if we keep up the lessons, he will be competing in Special Olympics next year!  Yesterday Ricky was in swimming classes twice…morning and evening…so it really cuts into my “free” time!

Today’s Wordful Wednesday photo is one of Peter and Hannah.  Peter had just got out of the bathtub and Hannah made his wet hair stick up like Alfalfa!!  Peter is a good sport about letting his siblings experiment with him!!!

 

To see more Wordful Wednesday photos, go to Angie’s blog.  Have a wonderful Wednesday!!

We’re in Paris!!!

Bonjour!!!  Okay, a few of you guessed it right on my last post.  I thought I would have more people guessing New York City!  I believe that when France gave the United States our Statue of Liberty, they made a smaller version to keep in Paris.  She is located on the River Seine and when we looked out our hotel window the first night, we saw her there all lit up and beautiful! 

Here are some photos we have taken of Paris.  The weather is HOT and the food is wonderful!!

Hotel des Invalides-The tomb of Napoleon the First

The Louvre Museum

The original Mona Lisa…that was cool to see it up close!  It’s a really small piece of art…not what you picture it to look like!

Venus de Milo-At the Louvre Museum

Notre-Dame Cathedral

The French make amazing crepes…Hannah had this one filled with Nutella Chocolate!!

The Arc de Triomphe taken from Champs-Elysees

Double Decker open bus tour through Paris

Lil’ Sister to Lady Liberty!

We took a boat tour of the Seine River

Flower Markets and Street Cafes are everywhere!

I think this is the neatest thing we saw in Paris…the Eiffel Tower is so impressive and absolutely beautiful when it’s all lit up at night.  Words and pictures don’t do it justice! Rich and Hannah went to the top of it…they walked up the first 700+ steps and then took the elevator from the second level up to the top!  Taylor didn’t want to go up because of her poor vision so I stayed on the ground with her.

With all the wonderful(and extremely expensive) French food, this is where my girls wanted to eat each day…we only ate there once however!

Some more “ART” at the Louvre Museum…Taylor was NOT happy about posing in front of a naked man statue and said she never wanted to see another one in her life!!!

Once again, we left our three youngest home with Grandma and Grandpa!  We miss them alot but they wouldn’t enjoy Paris and the fast pace we keep.

Finally, Holly(of Holly’s Kick Ass Bows) is the winner of the prize.  Email me, Holly and I will get it out in the mail to you!!

Guess Where I am and Win a Prize!

Remember I said we were going on a fun vacation? Well, we're here! Take a look at the photo and tell me where I am. Everyone that leaves a comment will be entered in a drawing to win a prize that I will bring home from this vacation!

Sorry the photo isn't very clear...it was taken from my hotel room window.

Family Reunion

Last weekend we had a family reunion in Rich’s home town.  Although his parents have been gone for several years, all his siblings made it home for this event.  My husband is the baby of his family with most of his siblings being 20 years older than him!  With his brothers and sister and their children and grandchildren, there were over 70 people…all from Palmer and Anne!

 

We had tee shirts made up for each of the 6 siblings and their families.  Each family had a different color.  The design on the shirts was pretty special…representing this family and where they came from.

 

Our children loved getting reaquainted with cousins and meeting new ones. We even had a golf tournament played on his brother’s farm in a cow pasture!!!

 

Next week we are off on an exciting, exotic vacation…stay tuned….

Blog Hopping

Welcome to my blog! This week's theme for the blog hop is "Favorite Children's Photo". With 5 children, it's hard to pick just one!! I recently had my kids photos taken professionally because it's been a long time since we got all five together and also because I was way behind getting Peter's 2-year-old pictures taken. The studio did a great job and once I receive them, I will be sure to post them here! This picture was taken that day before we went to the studio. The three youngest were in matching Ralph Lauren outfits for some of the pictures.

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Meeting our new “Blogging Buddies”

On Friday, we met Rebekah and her beautiful children for lunch at Chuck E Cheese.  It was so fun to meet in person after following her blog for a while now!!  Greta and Jaden are the same age but it took them a  while to warm up to each other.  By the time we had to leave, they were good buddies and promised to keep in touch with one another on email! 

When we got home, Greta put a picture that was taken at Chuck E Cheese of her and Jaden up in her bedroom.  She wrote on it “Greta and Jaden…BFF!!” How sweet is that!

Rebekah, thank you for taking the time to get together.  I could just hold your little sweetie all day long…I wished I could take Charlotte home with me!