'Twas the Night Before Christmas

'Twas the night before Christmas
and all through the town
Not a sign of Baby Jesus
was anywhere to be found.

The people were all busy
with Christmas time chores
Like decorating, and baking,
and shopping in stores.

No one sang "Away in a manger,
no crib for a bed".
Instead, they sang of Santa
dressed-up in bright red.

Mama watched Martha Stewart,
Papa drank beer from a tap.
As hour upon hour
the presents they'd wrap.
When what from the TV
did they suddenly hear?
'Cept an ad...which told
of a big sale at Sears.

So away to the mall
they all flew like a flash
Buying things on credit
and others with cash!

And, as they made their way home
from their trip to the mall,
Did they think about Jesus?
Oh, no... not at all.

Their lives were so busy
with their Christmas time things
No time to remember
Christ Jesus, the King.

There were presents to wrap
and cookies to bake.
How could they stop and remember
who died for their sake?

To pray to the Savior
they had no time to stop.
Because they needed more time
to "Shop 'til they dropped!"

On Wal-mart! On K-mart!
On Target! On Penney's!
On Hallmark! On Zales!
A quick lunch at Denny's.

From the big stores downtown
to the stores at the mall
They would dash away, dash away,
and visit them all!

And up on the roof,
there arose such a clatter.
As grandpa hung icicle lights
up on his brand new step ladder.

He hung lights that would flash.
He hung lights that would twirl.
Yet, he never once prayed to Jesus,
Light of the World.

Christ's eyes...how they twinkle!
Christ's Spirit...how merry!
Christ's love...how enormous!
All our burdens...He'll carry!

So instead of being busy,
overworked, and uptight
Let's put Christ back in
Christmas and enjoy
some good nights!

Merry Christmas, my friends!

The Digital Story of the Nativity

This came out a few years ago, but I still think it's so creative!!

 

Advent Calendar

I've wanted an Advent calendar for awhile, but never found one I liked and there was no way I was going to pull out my sewing machine!

Sarah and I did a Mini Monet class and made one together.  It turned out cute and while I had to help make a lot of the pieces, she loved picking out the colors and where everything went.  I will post a picture soon.

Each kid came up with three or four different activities to put in the pockets and then we did the rest.  The pockets aren't big enough for three pieces of candy and this is more fun anyway because they don't know what we will be doing until they open the note every morning.

So, last night we had Christmas Waffle night.  The kids loved them!!

 

Christmas Books

Another idea I got from Pinterest!!  You read a Christmas book to your child every night starting on December 1st until the 24th.  Very cool and we have tons of Christmas books, right?!?

Well, we only had 6 or so.  The classics that everyone has in their library.  So, off to the internet and half price books I went to search for meaningful Christmas books.  You know, not those filled with Santa, but what Christmas really is about.  As I said before, we try to minimize the commercialism of Christmas and focus on the real meaning.  This comes from lots of talks and activities surrounding the holiday season.

So, here's our list:

1.  The Legend of the Candy Cane
2.  Mr. Willowby's Tree
3.  A Cat in the Stable
4.  Snowmen at Christmas
5.  Santa's Coming to Wisconsin
6.  Laura's Star
7.  Can You See What I See
8.   Curious George Christmas
9.  12 Days of Christmas in Wisconsin
10.  The Sparkle Box
11.  Gingerbread Baby
12.  Humphrey's 1st Christmas
13. Legend of the Christmas Stocking
14. Room for a Little One
15. Best Christmas Pagent Ever
16. Spirit of Christmas
17. Carpenters Gift
18. Little Fir Tree
19. Christmas Magic
20. God Gave Us Christmas
21. Charlie Brown Christmas
22. 'Twas the Night Before Christmas
23. Polar Express
24.  First Christmas


The kids love the idea and are having a great time unwrapping each book and listening as I read it to them.  They decided that after we were done reading the books go back under the tree.

I know we will be doing this again next Christmas and now I have a good set of books to use and hopefully will only have to get a few new ones to add to the collection.

 

Sarah's First Dance Recital

Sarah had her first dance recital on December 9th.  It was very cute and she did well.  I'm going to try and get the video to post, but thought I would share a picture first!

 

Is Santa Real?

Ah, yes, the age old question.  Is Santa real? 

Once your first child is old enough to understand the Santa concept you have to decide as parents how you are going to handle Santa in your house.  For us, the decision was made easy by Caroline.  With her birthday being at the beginning of January, she was almost a year for her first Christmas.  We took her to the mall and walked past Santa, Brian's company had a party where Santa gave gifts to the children.  In all of these cases she started crying and would cling to us.  Plain and simple, she was scared.

We figured that as time went on that first Christmas she would get used to the idea.  Nope.  We even asked if Santa could leave the presents on the front porch, thinking the scary part was someone coming into your house.  Nope.  She wanted nothing to do with the man.

Well, that decision was made easy!  By the next Christmas Julia was born and only being 6 months old she didn't understand the Santa concept either.  So, we just went on like there wasn't anything important about Santa.

People ask how we explained it to our kids and it actually wasn't a big deal.  Caroline was scared and we told her it was a person dressed up like Santa.  That helped a little.  When Christmas Day came the presents were under the tree (if not before the actual day) and no questions were asked where they came from.

Now Caroline and Julia both knew not to tell other friends that Santa wasn't real.  We didn't want them to ruin the magic for other kids.  And we can say they did very well at keeping the secret.  Of course, when you don't believe in Santa out goes the Easter bunny and the tooth fairy. 

This year is the first time Sarah is able to understand the Santa concept.  And while we like her daycare, they do things to promote the Santa idea.  We've talked to her and so have the older girls about how Santa isn't real and what the true meaning of Christmas is - Baby Jesus' birthday. 

Both Caroline and Julia know the answers to the questions:
Why do we celebrate Christmas or What is Christmas really about?  Jesus' birthday.
Why do we give gifts at Christmas?  To show our love to others.

Sarah understands that and the Santa parts will become clearer over the next year.  Christmas has become much more commercialized.  This makes it harder to focus on the real meaning, but we try our best by reading books, baking a Jesus birthday cake and spending time talking about it.  No matter if your children believe in Santa or not, we hope the real reason for Christmas is made the focal point of the season.

Piano Guys

A friend posted links to these videos this summer and they are amazing. 

You may have seen them already, but I enjoy watching them again and again!

Happy Thanksgiving

Servanthood Sunday

The 4-5-6 graders at our church were part of a Servanthood Blitz a few weekends ago.  The kids rotated to four different areas of the building to do a project that helped one of our servanthood partners.

They made over 50 cards for the residents at Luther Manor that will be used to send them greetings throughout the year.

They popped bins of expired medications from their packs so they could be properly disposed.  Our church has a pill sorting project that organizes and donates medications (which have been donated to us from doctors and hospitals) to the Bread of Healing Free Clinic in Milwaukee.  The medications are antibiotics and high blood pressure drugs.

They tied quilts to give to the kids at Florist Avenue Church, so they will have a warm blanket at Christmas.

And they washed every toy and surface in the nursery.

Half way through we served pizza and ice cream at the end.  It was a great day and each kid got to experience what Jesus teaches us all - to be a blessing to others!!

Julia (bottom row, second from the left)  Caroline (last on the right).

Fall Parties

At the kids new school they don’t have a Halloween party, they have a fall festival instead. And more surprising they had it on the 24th and not the 31st.

For Julia’s class I was to bring in a sweet snack. Pinterest is a great website for ideas on just about anything. It can be addicting to look and gives you unique ideas. I found a few things I wanted to try.

For Caroline’s class I was to bring in a healthy snack. Again, from Pinterest.  Brian was the one in charge of making the pumpkin out of carrots and I think he did an excellent job!

 

Sarah's First Trip to the Hospital

We all knew it was going to happen sooner or later. I was really hoping for the later, but instead Sarah chose to be the youngest of the Weber clan to make a trip to Children’s emergency department.

Sunday the 21st we were invited over to friend’s house for carving pumpkins and dinner. We get together every few months and its fun for everyone. The family has four girls and we have three so the parents get to catch up and walk about the latest girl issues while the kids get to play together with toys they all enjoy.  Caroline had her last soccer game in the afternoon so she and Brian were arriving a little later than Julia, Sarah and I. While waiting for Caroline and Brian to arrive, the kids went to their basement to play. They have a balance beam for the kids to practice their gymnastic skills. It looks like a long piece of plastic (with a rough surface on top) set on the floor and only three inches high.

Caroline and Brian arrived and it was time to start carving the pumpkins. We called the kids upstairs and I hear Sarah crying. She wouldn’t even walk to the stairs. Julia carried her to the bottom of the stairs and said “Mom, Sarah needs you.” As I went down the stairs I asked what was wrong. Between sobs Sarah told me she hurt her toe. I took off her sock and it didn’t look too bad. I carried her upstairs and asked what happened. She said she fell and hurt her toe. Yep, that sounds like a four year olds description of what happened. Now, Sarah is a tough kid and usually you tell her it will be ok, give her a little ice and off she goes. This time she wouldn’t stop crying. I carried her outside to watch the others carve the pumpkins and asked our friend to look at her toe. Lucky for us, he is a pediatrician and was able to give is the bad news that we needed to take her in to get an x-ray.

Last Sunday was a sad day in Brookfield when we had a mass shooting at a salon. This caused the entire Milwaukee Regional Medical Center (which includes: Froedtert Hospital, Children’s Hospital, Medical College of Wisconsin, and Milwaukee Psych Complex) to be on lock down because the shooter wasn’t found at the time. I had our friend call to see if Children’s was still on lock-down and not accepting patients except for those with a police escort. It had just opened at 4:30, so we were in luck.

Sarah screamed that she didn't want to go to the hospital as I put her in the car to go.  She talked about them using "tools" on her toe.  I was puzzled, but didn't ask what she meant.  Later when we talked she said the kind of tools they used when I broke my ankle.  Ah, yes.  She was in the ED with us for the first hour after I broke my ankle.  And I don't remember what she did or did not see that could be tools in her mind.

So, while the others carved pumpkins, I took Sarah to have her toe examined. With the ED just being opened we were lucky in that there were only 5-6 patients ahead of us. We waited about 15 minutes and went back to a room. The fellow came in, talked with us, told us we needed x-rays and then would discuss what we needed to do. She explained that even if the x-ray doesn’t show a
fracture they need to treat it as if there is one because in a child because there are growth plates located in the foot. Three images later and watching more SpongeBob (the ED is the only place our kids get to watch that show) she came back to tell us there is a small fracture in the right big toe. She brought in this strange looking flat hard soled shoe. Sarah wasn’t sure about it, but did walk
with it a few steps so we could leave.

She wore the shoe to school on Monday and it went pretty well. Monday afternoon she has choir and after coming home she announced “I took off my white shoe ‘cause it doesn’t hurt anymore”. Both Brian and I jumped up and said no you need to have the shoe on!

I called the pediatrician again on Tuesday and they told me I could get her hard soled shoes and tape the big toe to the next with gauze between the toes to prevent pulling the large toe over too far. We went to Target and bought a pair of tennis shoes which are a size too large and had very hard soles. Ever since our kids were little we’ve always bought our kids expensive shoes. They only get
one pair, but we make sure they are flexible and comfortable to wear. The soles on these shoes are the exact opposite.

She’s done better wearing the tennis shoes at school, however I still need to remind her not to run. And getting her to take any type of pain medication has been a struggle. We are guessing she had a high tolerance for pain like her sister who thought breaking her arm didn’t hurt too much. I can say that breaking my ankle didn’t hurt as much as labor!

Yesterday I caught her starting to run and told her to slow down and walk to which she replied “I’m not running, I’m skipping”.

Rhinos

Another zoo class for Sarah Grace and Mom!!

 

Zoo Class

Sarah did a flamingo zoo class with Brian on a Saturday.  The Wednesday class was cancelled and this was a great opportunity for Sarah and Dad to have fun at a zoo class!!

Of couse she had to wear her flamingo shirt to class!  We have a few more classes scheduled for this fall.

Amazing Race

We had our Amazing Race 4-5-6 grade youth group activity at church last Sunday.  It was a blast!  The planning committee thought it would take the kids almost 2 hours, but we had smart and fast kids.  They were done in a little over 30 minutes.  Good thing we had prizes and ice cream treats for after the race. 

Brian with his assistant Sarah were in the art room.  The teams got a bandana that was wet and then frozen.  They were only able to use their exponsed skin to warm up the bandana enought that it would unthaw and cover a squared on their table.  Sarah had a blast!!  She thinks they should do this for young kids.

The winners of the race got gift cards to a frozen yogart store in town, but everyone was a winner!  Each kid got a Kit Kat bar with "We are all winners in the Amazing Race" wrapper.

And photos from the day.

We are all getting excited that a new season of the Amazing Race will be starting on TV!! 

Piano Tuner

My parents give us the piano I learned on as a child when we lived in our Grafton house.  Since then it has moved to two different houses, but was never tuned.

Both Caroline and Julia are now taking piano lessons and I thought it might be best to finally get it tuned.  I asked the music director at our church for a name of someone.  They have the church piano tuned three times a year and she does hers at home once a year.  She gave me the name of someone she trusted and said was good.

The piano tuner came on Wednesday when I was home with Sarah.  We had a great time watching as he took apart the piano and worked to make it sound good again!  I was able to ask some questions along the way.

How out of tune is the piano?  As much as it can me.  The most a piano can go out of tune is a 1/2 step and that's what your piano is.

How did you learn to tune pianos?  I did an apprenticeship and worked for the company for 10 years before starting my own business.

How many pianos do you tune in a day?  When I worked for the other company we did a school district and sometimes did 5 in a day.  That's hard on your body, hands and arms, as you are pounding on the keys while tightening the strings.

What's the oldest piano you've tuned?  It's a piano collector that lives in the area who has 30 some pianos in his house.  The oldest is from the "Gone With The Wind" movie set.  It's from the 1800's.   (He went on to tell me that the piano really should be kept as a showpiece more than anything because it was hard to get in tune and no matter how much he tried it just didn't sound the best.)

Is tuning pianos a dying trade?  Well not really.  There are still thousands of pianos in the world and they need to be tuned.  I get new customers and then some fall off as their kids don't play anymore. (I asked a sales person at the music store in town-when I was picking up Julia's clarinet-about the pianos they had in the store.  He told me they were all digital and had a casing around them to make them look like a real piano.  He went on to say that they've come a long way in the touch and weight of the keys along with the sound.  However, he said that most performers will always want a real piano and not a keyboard.  The digital sound is still not there yet.)

How many pianos do you have?  Right now I have three.  If someone gives me a free piano I will tune it and fix anything wrong and sell it for just my labor.  There are 20 new postings every day on Craigslist for pianos so there really isn't money to be made on them.

How old is this piano?  Hmm...let me see.  I have a book here.  It's from 1956.

Overall he said the piano was in good condition and he was able to fix a key that has been broken since I was a child.  The sound is amazing!  I was shocked at the difference it made and have actually dusted off some of my old music to try and play.  I have a long way to go to get back to where I was in college, but the kids still were impressed with what I can play.

Wordless Wednesday

Caroline's Tooth

As my parents will tell you, my teeth required a lot of work to give me the smile I have today.  I was crossing my fingers the kids would get Brian's genes for having space for all the teeth and that the teeth would come in straight.  Julia starting her braces so early because of her lack of room for all her teeth squashed those dreams.

Julia's conversation with the dentist went like this:  "You don't have to be an orthodontist to know she is going to need some work.  Right there those teeth are together." Me:  "Yes, that looks great!"  Dentist: "No ma'am there is supposed to be room for another tooth to come in there."  Dang.  Strike one.

While Caroline seems to have enough room, she had a permanent molar that didn't erupt the entire way.  We had an orthodontist 2 years ago tell us that he was concerned it was stuck on the jaw bone.  A few years later and opinions from different dentists and orthodontists it was time to make a decision.  At her last ortho appointment Dr. Davies gave us his recommendation.  If it was his daughter he would have the molar removed and let the next one move over.  The hope is that then the wisdom tooth will erupt and it can take the place of the third molar.  Sounds confusing, I know.

So, number 19 was removed.  Number 18 will move over due to the large space that is now there.  Number 17 is a wisdom tooth and the hope is that it will erupt and not be impacted.  The likely hood is probably good of that happening with the amount of room she will have on that side.  It might not be straight, but that can be fixed with braces.  If it doesn't, then she can have a false tooth put in.  That will be years down the road, but we needed to make the decision now before number 18 started growing over number 19.

On Monday, we had the procedure done in an oral surgeons office.  Dr. Novak did the procedure and he was wonderful.   He talks directly to the child and tells them step by step everything he is doing.

They did give her some laughing gas to try and take the edge off.  It was much less than I had when I had all my different teeth removed.  She was a lot more conscious than I ever remember.  Side story:  I had 8 baby teeth molars removed and my 4 wisdom teeth.  Before I had the first set of 4 done my Dad was joking with me that he could just take a pliers to pull them out.  I get there and they put me in the twilight zone and started the procedure.  Somewhere in the middle of them taking the teeth out, I see the dentist coming at me with a red pipe wrench and start to wiggle and say "no".  I remember the dentist telling the assistant to give me more medication.  And that's all I remember.  So, no we didn't joke with Caroline about having Brian pull her tooth!

Caroline is able to handle most situations better than Julia.  This time, she was scared and didn't want me to leave.  She had her Taggie but was shaking, crying and clutching onto me telling me not to leave.  I stayed for probably 10 minutes but it wasn't going to help.  I told her to close her eyes and I would be right back.  Dr. Novak talked to me in the hall and told me that it is best if parents aren't in the room.  I said "and I don't want to be!"  I reassured him that I knew it was best for everyone for me to be in the waiting room with Brian.  The last thing a parent wants is to see their child in pain. 

About 10 minutes later they came to get us that the procedure was done.  She was being given oxygen and relaxing.  We went into see her and she looked pretty good.  Dr. Novak told us it went well after I left and she was a great patient.  To get the tooth out they used a drill to separate it and they were able to get it out in three pieces.

We went home, she had a chocolate shake from McDonalds (something I remember getting too) and relaxed.  She and I started watching the Amazing Race season 19 on YouTube through our Bluray player.  Another side note:  our church is doing an Amazing Race around the church and the kids didn't know about the show.  So we started watching them and they love it.  After awhile we made cookies and relaxed some more.

The anesthesia wore off around 4:00 and she was able to eat some soft foods.  It started to hurt but we had given her medication through out the afternoon so it was manageable.  She went to bed, slept through the night and was back at school the next day!

I can't wait to see what Sarah's teeth issues will be...

Wordless Wednesday

First Volleyball Game

Caroline had her first volleyball game on Sunday.  She needs to work on some of the moves, but had a great time.  Aunt Mara will need to spend a few hours with her. :)

 

First Soccer Game

Caroline decided to go back to recreational soccer this year and not be on the academy team.  It really came down to she wasn't having as much fun with all the practices and games.  Being on the rec team also means that Brian can be one of her coaches again.  And now she is able to add volleyball into our already crazy fall schedule!

Saturday was her first game and her team (Eclipse) won.  There is quite a difference in the level of play going from academy to recreational!!  She had a great time.  We were lucky that it was nice fall weather.

 

Dance Class for Sarah

On Wednesday night Sarah had her first dance class.  She is in the Tippy Toes class at Brookfield Dance Academy - the same place Julia goes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First Day of School

 

Wordless Wednesday

Museum of Science and Industry

 

 

It was a long, but very fun day.  The kids can't wait until we go back!

Fun at the zoo

On Friday we took the kids to the zoo.  We have the zoo pass, but with how hot the summer was we didn't get to use it that much.  And unfortunately it was 90 degrees when we went, but it was fun and the kids enjoyed seeing the animals. 

And of course you have to do the train ride.

Everyone was hot and tired by the time we left.

And tomorrow (Sunday September 2nd) we are taking them to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. 

Meet and Greet

On Wednesday Caroline and Julia had "Meet and Greet" at their new school.  Both girls are very excited to start another year.  Hard for us to believe that we have a 4th and 5th grader!

One of the cool things about Brookfield Elementary is the kids get lockers.  I can't tell you how exciting this is for the girls.  The school asked each kid to make a poster for their locker.  Because two schools are merging the theme was "Together We Are Family" and the pictures/words were to display what the kids enjoy doing with their family.

Only a few more days until school starts!!

 

Slip N' Slide

Some neighborhood friends got a huge slip n' slide this year.  Everyone had a blast!

 This video of Sarah is pretty funny!

 

Wordless Wednesday

It's a video so you won't be able to watch it on an iPhone, iPod or iPad.  Sorry...

 

Photo Scavenger Hunt

Ah, the long days of August are upon us.  The end of summer is the time boredom sets in at our house.  Tuesday was one of those loonngg days at our house and I knew I had to find something before they were locked in their rooms all day.  Scavenger Hunt to the rescue!

A few years ago I was desperate to get them out of my hair for at least 15 minutes.  I thought a scavenger hunt would be fun.  Because everything on the list wasn't something I wanted or could be brought into our house making it a photo scavenger hunt was the perfect solution!  Fun for them and not another mess for me to clean up.  Win, win! (Sometimes it's the small things...)

The kids used their own V-Tech kid cameras so I didn't have to worry about ours being dropped.  The search area was limited to our yard and there was no time limit!

I make a new list every time (which really is from lack of organization because I don't know where the lists are from previous games).  The lists aren't fancy but fun for them.

Here's the list from Tuesday:

And the pictures they take are always the best!!

 

Summer Trip to Green Bay

To celebrate the end of summer we thought it would be fun to take the kids on a mini-vacation.  Nothing with a long drive and only a few days away.  We decided on Green Bay for no other reason than we could go to Bay Beach (people have told us about it for years), they had a hotel with a water park and we could tour the stadium. 

We left on Thursday morning and our first stop was at Bay Beach in Green Bay.



All the girls riding the Merry Go Round

And Sarah on rides her size:

This looks fun...Mom don't leave me...hmm water...phew it's done!

While Bay Beach was fun we determined that our kids aren't really that keen on rides.  Sarah never got into the little kid rides and she was too small for the big kid ones.  Caroline and Julia enjoyed the tilt-a-whirl and the swings.  We all rode the train which was fun but short.  Going on a Thursday meant the lines weren't long which was nice.

After our afternoon at Bay Beach we went to the Tundra Lodge (our hotel).  The water park inside is on the smaller size which we've found out is the right size for our kids. There were two water slides, a lazy river, basketball area, ropes and a splash pond for the young kids. 

The older girls loved the ropes (or whatever they are called):

The lazy river was a hit, except with Sarah who only went on once while screaming the entire time!  Of course, it was her Mom that put her on her Dad's lap.  That wasn't repeated the rest of the trip.

 

So, instead Sarah spent a lot of the trip either in the splash pond or like this.

 

 

After swimming we needed to find somewhere for dinner.  We asked the hotel maintenance guy if he could give us a recommendation for a family friendly place to eat.  He asked if we wanted a chain or something local.   We said it didn't really matter, but would love to try something local as long as it was kid friendly.  After mentioning the hotel restaurant (even thought he hasn't eaten there) and one local place (which was good but a little pricey) he also told us there is an Old Country Buffet and Golden Corral in town.  We thanked him and decided to ask at the front desk for other suggestions. 

Because the front desk of a hotel should have a list of good places to try either local or chain.  Right?  Wrong.  After stumbling on his words the front desk person told Brian about the Golden Corral in town.  Wow.  While we aren't people who demand a lot from their restaurant experience we were hoping for a little better than OCB or the Golden Corral. 

We ended up at the "pricey" restaurant Krolls.  Brian thinks it should be on the Restaurant Impossible show on the Food Network, but I reminded him that show was for businesses who are going bankrupt and while Krolls decor was from the 50's they are far from going out of business.  I looked at their website to link it above and on there they state "Krolls is a family-owned restaurant that has prospered for over 70 years in the Green Bay area, and we are nestled in the perfect location across from Lambeau Field, home of the Green Bay Packers, it is itself a landmark, known both nationally and internationally."  Our meal was ok and by our big city standards wasn't expensive - $39 for all five of us.

The next morning we went to the water park and left around lunch time to go to Curly's Pub inside Lambeau Field and take a tour.  In sharp contract to the night before, Curly's had great food and was a fun atmosphere.

After lunch we went on the stadium tour.  It was awesome to go behind the scenes and learn more Packer history. 

Below is the tunnel the players walk through.  One cool thing they do is as you walk through the tunnel they have a recording of the crowd cheering and the announcer introducing the Green Bay Packers!

Other pictures from our tour:

And Julia had one of our camera's and here are the pictures she took:

The rest of the afternoon was spent at the water park.  And again we had to find somewhere for dinner.  A quick Google search on my phone for "Green Bay Restaurants Kid Friendly" brought up a whole bunch.  And wouldn't you know...Golden Corral wasn't even on the list. :)  We opted for Sammy's Pizza Restaurant.  Local, good food and what kid doesn't like pizza!

At dinner after a long day.  Sorry about cutting your head off Brian :)

The next morning we went to the water park one more time before we said good bye to Green Bay and our vacation. 

In the hall between our room and the water park was a huge stuffed bear.  Sarah was scared of the bear and would hold our hand while using the other hand to cover her eyes as we walked past.  It was super cute, but I never thought to get it on film.  On the last morning Brian took her down to meet the bear with the older kids.  (The bear was a complete fake.  Almost like a large stuffed animal, but I can see how it would be scary when you are only 4 years old and not very tall.)



Sisters being silly...meeting the bear with Daddy...still not so sure...

It was a successful trip and we all had a great time with many memories to share.