Mom's Visit

Last week flew by. We started last Sunday with Vacation Bible School at Bethesda Christian Fellowship. The kids were excited to participate in Crocodile Dock. They sang, did crafts, and danced around. Our friend, Mimi, was also able to join them for VBS. Over 60 kids attended and seemed to have a great time!We anxiously await the arrival of grandma Aladodo on Thursday. We attended a play group on Thursday morning at the Vilas Zoo. The kids enjoyed seeing their friends from Eastside Lutheran School. We had lunch, looked at the animals, and took a ride on the carousel.

Justin came home early to take care of the kids while I drove into Milwaukee to pick up mom from the airport. Her flight was about 30 minutes early, but perfect timing once luggage was picked up. We had almost no traffic heading back to Madison and were able to make it to the Mallards baseball game. Justin's company was holding their Mallards game outing, which is always enjoyed. The kids were overjoyed to see Aladodo and tell her all about the Mallards. The kids enjoy watching the game, but have more fun playing in the kids area, eating cotton candy, and playing games.

Friday morning Aladodo and Cami went on a date while mom and kids went to a play group at the house of a friend in our Korean group. Cami and grandma went to the fabric store to find princess fabric, went to lunch at Red Robin, and then went to find nail polish and pretend makeup. They came home and painted their nails a beautiful Bright Pink color! After resting during the rest of the afternoon, we decided to order a fish fry for dinner.

Saturday started very chilly and unfortunately did not get much better. We had a party scheduled with relatives. My aunts, uncles, and cousins were all able to join us for a cookout. It has been quite some time since they have all seen each other, so it was nice that they were all able to come out to Madison on such a chilly day.

The boys enjoyed Sunday since it was their chance to have a date with Aladodo. Ian and grandma headed to Culvers after church to eat lunch. Ian LOVES fries and ice cream, and even managed to eat some chicken. Grandma enjoy a delicious Turtle sundae.

Ben decided for his date he wanted to go to see Ice Age 3D. It was a hard choice between that and a Mallards game. He also was able to go to Target and get a special GI Joe toy.

We spent the early evening at the park flying a kite that Aladodo brought with and playing at the park. It had been another fun filled day.

We had to leave early on Monday morning to take Aladodo to the airport in Milwaukee. We were going to drop her off and then head to the Milwaukee zoo, but the kids were very excited about the planes and wanted to hang out at the airport instead. We spent 2 hours watching planes,

running around, and eating lunch (originally packed for the zoo). They had a great time and were able to say good bye to Aladodo. We headed for home and made it to Eastside Lutheran for VBS soccer camp with a little time to spare. This is Cami's first year playing soccer. She wasn't too excited at first, but after yesterday, she is excited to head back there today.

The summer is flying by and in no time the kids will be headed back to school. We have several more weeks of fun ahead of us, including a trip to California (if flights are open for us to go stand by), a trip to Minnesota, and a trip to Illinois for a boating weekend with the Webers. After that, back to school and getting use to having a 1st grader and Kindergartener and meeting new people at the kids new school.

Fourth of July 2009

I have great ideas to write for our blog entries, however, somehow they don't get done in a timely fashion. I can't seem to find enough time to sit down and upload pictures and then write an entry. My days are filled with busyness with either just my 3 or my 3 with an additional 2.

Sometimes for fun we head out (me and all 5 little ones) and go to the park or a play date or to Target to pick up something that we need. The summer is flying by and in less than a month the kids will start school again. They are still both excited to attending a new school this fall. We are hopeful that Ben will still like it once he has to actually put on "handsome" clothes. He has

warmed to the idea that he will be wearing Docker style pants and polo shirts or dress shirts. He is a bigger fan of jeans and Tshirts, so it may take a while before he gets use to the idea.We

enjoyed our 4th of July weekend at Justin's parents house. We always enjoy the time away to the country. It is so peaceful. Ben had his first camping experience with grandpa. He was so excited to sleep in a tent outside. We thought that camping up north at grandma and grandpas house was the best place since there is a bathroom right inside the house and no worries about other campers being too loud.

The kids enjoy tons of space to run and play, going fishing by the creek, feeding the rabbits, and playing with grandma and grandpa.Each of the kids caught 3 fish while fishing with grandma and grandpa at the creek near their house. Ian was overjoyed and dance with delight when he caught his fish.

It was a fun and relaxing 4th!

The kids leaving the park by Keri and Joe's house

Ian is too cool in his shades!

Father's Day 2009

picture taken by Ben

The summer seems to be chugging right along. I can't believe that the kids have been out of school for about a month already. This week was filled with fun as Cami spent time with her friend, Ianna, on a play date, Ben attending VBS at Lake City, Justin's parents and Keri, Joe, and Natalie coming down, a graduation party, and St. Paul's Family Fun Days.

Cami spent Tuesday morning with her friend, Ianna, from school. She loves playing with Ianna and has missed her since they finished up preschool. We can't wait to have Ianna come over and play at our house soon.

We spent Wednesday making Father's Day presents for daddy. Ben made a paper tie (sorry no picture) while Cami and Ian fingerpainted wood picture frames.

Ian's frame for daddy

After the picture frames were completed, they continued their fun of fingerpainting. This is a fun project, however, the clean up is something I like to take on only once

in a while.

Cami working on her picture for daddy

Ian fingerpainting

Ben attended Lake City Church's Vacation Bible School on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. They have a 3 day VBS, where the kids get a choice of learning and playing basketball, soccer, or doing crafts. Ben was able to attend with his friend, Christian. Ben was sad that it ended as he was really enjoying learning how to play basketball. His coach stated that he was very impressed at Ben's coordination and skills since he has never played before. We hope to get him involved in Door Creek Church's Upward Basketball team this fall.

The last 2 weekends we were able to celebrate graduations. Last weekend our friend, Ethan, graduated from Milwaukee Lutheran. Dana is starting to feel old as she use to babysit for Ethan and his 2 siblings when he was younger. We had a great time reconnecting with many friends.

Saturday we started out the day going strawberry picking at Berry Hill Farms. The kids enjoyed a breakfast of strawberries. Ben and Ian did a great job helping pick the berries, while Cami enjoyed picking flowers off the grass. We love that she is such a girly girl!

Cami with her bucket of flowers

Ian is so proud of his strawberry

In the afternoon, we celebrated Justin's cousin, Josh, graduation from Oregon High School. We were able to spend time with Justin's aunts, uncles, and cousins. We even found out that his cousin, Katrina, recently became engaged to her boyfriend Chris. They are planning an August 2010 wedding. Justin's parents, Keri, Joe, and Natalie were able to spend Saturday night with us. It is always nice to spend time with them.

Aunt Keri pushing Ian and Natalie on the swings at Josh's graduation party

We all went to St. Paul on Sunday morning. After the service, the church held their annual Family Fun Days. Dana helped run the Kids tent, which was filled with games, prizes, crafts, a guy making balloon creations, and a bounce house for the kids. Food was abundant! The church provides this event for the community for no cost.

Ben's shark hat from the balloon man

Ian enjoying a piece of corn at Family Fun Days

Rollercoaster

It has been a rollercoaster of a week. Last week Wednesday, I celebrated my 33rd birthday. I thought it was pretty cool to turn 33 on the 3rd (6/3/09). I was surprised by an amazing email telling me that our party won the Clairol Hair Color national contest. What a gift! The trip is for me and 6 of the people that attended the Clairol Hair Color party that I had as a part of houseparty.com. We all received hair color coupons to pick out our own color to use at the party. We also each received a gift bag full of products. It was a fun party and we were excited to enter the contest they were holding with totalbeauty.com. Because my friend, Erin, received the most votes, I became the winner (they awarded the host the prize). Our group of 7 will be headed to L.A. this coming January for the People's Choice Awards. We get airfare, 3 nights in a 5 star hotel, limo service to the show, we get to walk the red carpet where the celebs walk, see the People's Choice Awards, and attend an after party. I can't wait. We hope that Midwest will stay in business so that Justin and the kids can fly out with us and stay in my hotel room. We plan on visting Mike and Allison while we are there and possibly even going to Disney! Here is the video we made... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2fzv2O_2t4

All the excitement quickly came to a halt when we got a phone call from my mom and Bruce on Thursday telling Justin and me that my mom's cancer had returned and they wanted to do surgery that following Tuesday. She had been in remission for 3 years and on her annual check up to the specialist, the tumor had been found. We thank God that the doctor suggested a CT otherwise the tumor would not have been found. I flew out on Sunday, since the surgery moved up to Monday. The surgery went well. We are hoping that she is able to go home today or tomorrow.

This past Monday, Justin bravely took on our 3 kids and our friends kids. He is a very patient guy, although he was exhausted by the end of the day!

We are enjoy the beautiful weather by playing outside. The light wind is keeping most of the bugs away, which makes it even more enjoyable. This weekend we will head to Milwaukee to celebrate the graduation of our friend, Ethan Wartick.

Fun Filled Weekend

Last Thursday was the end of the school year for Ben and Cami.  This fall, Cami will be entering Kindergarten and Ben will be in the first grade.  They will both be gone full days.  It is going to be a hard transition this fall losing both of them to the school system.  

Since Thursday was a half day for their last day of school, we headed up to Wisconsin Dells.  We met our friends, Becca and Bill and their kids Caleb, Abby, and Liam.  The kids had fun splashing around at the hotel pool and later walking around downtown Dells and looking at the boats.

On Friday, we spent the afternoon at the Wilderness waterparks.  They went down waterslides, played in the wave pool, climbed on all the play structures in the water, and later played in the dry area play area.  They had a fun filled and tiring day.  

On Saturday, our friends Kris and Jason and their kids Jared and Kelly, met us at the hotel.  The kids enjoyed more playmates.  They spent several hours in the hotel waterpark.   We checked out of the hotel and the kids quickly fell asleep on the ride back to Madison.  Kris and Jason met us back at our house.  The sitter arrived around 3pm to watch all 5 kids (very brave girl) so the 4 adults could head to an Adoption seminar in Stoughton.  The kids were happy to have the afternoon and evening to play together.

We feel very blessed to have had time together with good friends. We are thankful for beautiful weather and a great time and safe travel.  We are looking forward to spending the rest of the long weekend together as a family.  Below are a few pictures of the kids with their teachers from this year and pictures from our trip to the Dells.  Enjoy your weekend!

Contest

I am asking for your vote for the Clairol Hair Color Contest. The person with the most votes wins a trip to California. I would love the opportunity to fly out there to see my brother, sister in law, and the kids. You can vote one time per day until June 1 at http://www.totalbeauty.com/clairol/WI/241/dana

Please let your friends and family know.

Thank you again for your support.

UPDATE...

August 18, 2009

I found out June 3 (my birthday) that our group WON the contest. Out of 35,000 people, we won the grand prize. We will be heading to L.A. in January for The People's Choice Awards!

Airplane watching

We like to keep our days fun, so today we headed over to the Jet Room with another mom and her son for lunch after we picked up Cami from school.  The kids enjoyed watching the airplanes outside.  With the rainy and cloudy weather, it wasn't a great day for watching airplanes, but the kids were thrilled to see the few that they did see.  They were also excited to be able to wave to a pilot before he got on his Cessna aircraft.

After eating, the waitress gave each of the kids a plastic airplane to put together.  Ian flew his "Whee" (aka airplane) around the waiting area of the charter building.  

We have a little over a week left until school is out for the summer.  We are praying for decisions to be made on the call of a new kindergarten teacher.  We pray that the decision is made soon by the school and the person called to the teaching position.  

We look forward to a fun, yet relaxing summer.  This will be the first summer in many years that we don't have Dana's work schedule to work around.  We can't wait to spend time together as a family with all of you, our friends and family.