Birthday Girl

 My birthday has come and gone.  (And now I am clad in brown--his favorite color-- to honor my dad's birthday!)  It was a low key day mostly by my choice.  I like my birthday, but I do not really need a big fuss made.  I like baking some favorite things for myself.  I made scones for breakfast and a brownie ice cream cake for dessert.

We had church and Sunday School in the morning, but after that there were no set plans.  The kids spent most of the day with friends.  I have learned in years past that making the kids spend time with me in honor of my birthday can backfire.  Kids get crabby and it puts a damper on the day for me.

I enjoyed my choice of pizza for dinner and we did try out a few of the trivia cards I got as a present.  That was fun.  I received some nice cards in the mail and some really kind texts from family.  I felt loved. I felt special.  I felt happy.

Spring Break

I wasn't sure what spring break would look like this year, but thanks to some well timed vaccines, the kids and I made our way up north.  My mom and I were fully vaccinated and kids pose less risk, so my mom was happy to have us stay with her for part of the week.  I wasn't sure what we would do, but we kept plenty busy and were all a little sad to leave.  I don't have many pictures, but here are a few.

We arrived on Saturday and joined my mom for church.  It was our first time at in-person church in over a year.  After church we zipped out to Honey and Mackeys for ice cream to go.  They have Timothy's favorite licorice ice cream.  We thought they were out, but they had that flavor in take out containers!

On Sunday the three younger cousins came over for the morning and afternoon.  There were Super Star Sister skits, rip sticking, games of Life, outdoor play and morning keeping the 5 kids busy.  We also zoomed for our church Sunday school. Later Timothy and the boys left with Jeff.  Timothy went off to play a nerf gun game at the Mall of America.  Fiona stayed and we girls went out to visit Dan and Krista and see their beautiful home and all the remodeling going on.  And the girls had fun with their littlest cousins playing hide and seek and wrestling!

On Monday we celebrated Fiona's birthday by going to a paint your own pottery place.  At first it was just the girls and Mattias painting, but I chose to join in and make another celebration plate.  One of ours in wearing off.  Timothy hung out with Broder and Tate while we were gone.

On Tuesday we ended up with the cousins again, this time at their house.  They played soccer dodgeball, Telestrations and played with stuffed animals.  When it was time to go, Fiona came with us for a little shopping.  She joined us for dinner and some intense games of hide and seek after dinner.

These pictures do not show it, but Timothy is quite a few inches taller than Grandma.  He is proud to be the tallest grandchild now!  It was so nice to visit family and not wear masks and feel a little bit of normalcy!  We are thankful for our spring break trip and all the fun we had!

 

February Vacation?

Often for the school conferences break in February, we have made a trip to the Dells.  Well, I was not up for that this year.  Too many people and not enough masks! Instead, I convinced Troy that we could just stay at a hotel and swim there.  Usually no one but kids like to swim in hotel pools.  And in Belmont, WI, who would actually be staying at a hotel?

So off we went on our vacation...to Belmont.  We stopped at a couple of cheese stores on the way.  Troy stopped, I browsed, and the kids waited in the car!  Next time, however, Teresa wants to come in and by the marshmallow peanut butter spread!  We also stopped by the roadside marker that declares Belmont as the first capital of WI.

Then it was onto the hotel.  We had some subway for dinner and then hit the pool.  The pool was warm!  We later found out the lady working the front desk had cranked up the heat the week before for some guests.  There is no hot tub, so she was trying to make the pool nice!

We swam again in the morning after breakfast.  Breakfast was tasty waffles!  The front desk lady let us stay past check out.  We left around 12pm for home.  It was a wonderful break and vacation for all of us.  Simple, but lots of fun!