China Lights

We went to see the China Lights tonight. They sure were pretty. The botanical garden was covered with beautiful light. These are just a few of the lights that were there.

We also attended a show where there were dancers. I didn't take the opportunity to take photos, it was just too fun to watch. Besides, at night they weren't turning out so great.

Lance Sijan Plane Dedication

Jeff's Legion Rider group participated in the Sijan Plane dedication today. Lance Sijan was a great American hero to was killed in captivity in Vietnam.  He was honored today with the dedication of an F-14 fighter plane that was placed near the airport in his honor.

The family was escorted from Humboldt Park to the airport by a group of 103 riders.

There were dignitaries who spoke at the event and we took the opportunity to take photos of them and thank them for all they do for us.

It was a wonderful event and I am glad I had the opportunity to attend.

Breakfast with the Easter Bunny

The Legion post hosts a breakfast with the Easter bunny each year. All Legion families are welcome to attend. At the event we get a nice breakfast followed by a visit by the Easter Bunny.

There's an Easter egg hunt and there are always plenty of eggs for all the kids to find.

The kids all get to visit with the Easter bunny where they receive an Easter basket full of goodies.

There are even crafts that the kids can make and face tattoos are available too.

Member Appreciation Night at the Zoo

My daughter is a Racine Zoo member which has some really nice perks. Tonight there was a member appreciation event with free dinner and many activities for kids.

We did everything with the girls from face painting to games to making animal masks. Avery had to have a "Frozen" themed crown painted on while Chloe had a bunny painted on her cheek.

One of the best things about these member nights is that the girls have the opportunity to touch the zoo animals and learn all about them.

They also love the free train rides around the property. Since the zoo is situated right on Lake Michigan, the views are incredible. We were so happy that the weather was perfect for this event.

The Twins' Birthday Party

My niece's twins turn one this weekend so we drove up to Green Bay to attend their birthday party. It was the first time we got to meet the little sweethearts. They were the happiest babies I've seen in a long time. Not that I'm around many babies these days.

Their names are Morgan and Mallory and they seem content no matter who was holding them. And in a room filled with people, I was quite surprised. It all seemed a little overwhelming to me so their mom is pretty lucky that they have such nice dispositions.

Chloe was thrilled to get to go shopping and she personally picked out their birthday presents. She couldn't wait to be part of the gift opening process.

Since it was such a long drive and the end of the spring break week, we thought we would get a hotel room for the night right down the street from the party.

Chloe and Avery got to spend the evening swimming in the hotel pool and the following morning. They had a blast the entire weekend.

Chloe's Class Field Trip

I got the opportunity to chaperone one of Chloe's field trips - a trip to the Milwaukee County Zoo!

It was great fun. I was responsible for Chloe and one of her classmates and our only assignment was to go out and have fun.

The weather was perfect for a March day. It was in the high 50's and not raining. For March you couldn't ask for any better.

We walked the entire zoo and each of the kids picked out their favorite things at each stop.

I was so glad I got to go.

Chloe's Birthday

For Chloe's birthday we had a little party with just a few of us. She was happy to get her Jurassic World dinosaur collection that she had wished for for her birthday.

She had a pretty dress on, but dresses never last on her. She is definitely not the kind of girl who needs frilly things any more. I am glad she is her own person.

She has grown so much. Her permanent teeth are coming in and it doesn't seem that long ago that we didn't think about things like the tooth fairy.

Mom's Birthday

We celebrated my mother's 80th birthday yesterday and as always, it is impossible to get photos of her. She hates getting her picture taken and sometimes it's just not worth the fight to try to sneak them. So I must admit that I did not try very hard. However, I do have some photos of my granddaughters. They really like the pet bird, Oreo that resides at my mom's house. So Chloe tried hard to get Oreo to go on her shoulder while Avery hoped the bird would hop on the hat my sister gave her to play with.

Breakfast with Santa

Today was Breakfast with Santa at the Legion Post. This is a wonderful event for Legion members' families. The kids all get special attention since there are usually less than fifty kids in attendance. The day starts with the Legion Band playing Christmas music followed by pancakes, a magician, and cookie decorating before the main event. Once Santa shows up, everything else is secondary. Each child gets a gift that is based on their likes, as if Santa really does listen (ha-ha)!

Birthday Party

One of my son's friends had a fancy birthday party for his son. It was held at a local park pavilion with a balloon-animal making clown, a pumpkin carving station, face painting, an art station and a bobbing for apples contest. It's so rare to have such beautiful weather in October but it was a treat on such a nice occasion.

My granddaughters had a wonderful time. Between the art, balloon animals and the face painting, they were in heaven. Besides all that, there was a large flat-panel television in the pavilion with the Packer game on. And the food was amazing - all homemade. By the time I took photos though, one of my granddaughters was napping so I did happen to get an action photo of Chloe.

Fall Festival Parade

Chloe's new school is incredible. After her days at Red Apple in Racine, I didn't know what to expect from this school but they have exceed all my hopes for her. She needs speech therapy and in Racine she got help one day a week. At Honey Creek they work with her every day. Yes, every day. She is advancing better than we ever expected but all that we hoped.

Her new school does a lot of things we didn't expect. In these days of political correctness, many have cut out Halloween activities. At Honey Creek, they have something called a Fall Festival. They do it in early October. It includes a costume parade around the neighborhood. My daughter mentioned the event to me half-heartedly so I could attend if I had nothing to do that day. So I thought I would go. I had anticipated the little kindergarteners marching around the outside of the school in their little costumes and that's about it. Boy, was I wrong.

When I pulled up to the school the Milwaukee Police were just closing down the roads to through traffic. I was happy I parked in the nick of time. As I walked toward the school the junior high band from next door was practicing and getting ready to line up at the start of this parade. Then I saw the motorcycle police ride up in front of the band to lead the parade. As I got closer to the main doors of the school, the principal came outside to meet the Alderman and a few other dignitaries that I was not that familiar with (this is not my neighborhood). This was a bigger deal than I expected.

As the kids started coming out of the school, I noticed the neighbors getting out their lawn chairs and sitting down to watch the parade. The K4 kids came out then the K5 kids and I saw Chloe. Parents and family were invited to walk along in the parade. Chloe was pleasantly surprised to see me and thrilled that I was going to be walking with her all along the way. What a great time!

All the grades participated in the parade and it was a really big deal. Many parents came to walk with their kids. The weather was absolutely perfect on this fall day and we all had a great time. Chloe's mom is going to be disappointed that she took this event for granted but I an so glad I was there.

Member Monday at the Racine Zoo

We love the Racine Zoo. It is the most wonderful place. Compared to the Milwaukee County Zoo, it is very small but for us, that is part of the charm. The staff there is amazing and the grounds are easily walkable, even for people like me who struggle with a disability.

My daughter is a zoo member so there are special events for members only. We especially love those times. They provide special activities for the kids and offer food specials making the trip there affordable for all of us. Not to mention, the chicken tenders are very good there. The kids will get to ride the train around the grounds and we even ride with them.

Member Mondays also include a band and on a nice summer evening it is so very nice. The zoo usually has a theme for each member night and we get to meet one of the animals up close during the event. My granddaughters loved the armadillo and the snakes. Chloe even got to touch them which made her day. Avery is a little timid with animals so she tends to keep her distance. There is also a discount on everything in the gift shop and somehow we never leave without a new keepsake.

My granddaughters' favorite thing besides meeting the animals is the playground. They have a fantastic gym with so much to play on that the are never bored. We never leave the zoo without a stop there.

The New Meijer Store

My daughter got an IT job at our new Meijer store. When we found out the store was coming to the area, I wasn't that thrilled. Another big box store doesn't appeal to me for a few reasons. First of all it is next to Woodman's grocery which is my favorite local grocery store and another reason is that there is a Kohl's and Target a mile down the road. And I don't shop at either of those stores so I doubt that Meijer will appeal to me.

As an employer, the pay is crappy and the hours are horrible so it's not the greatest place to work but the employees are nice and the store is clean and fresh. It is a good place for our daughter to get some experience before getting a better job (we hope). We went to the family open house the day before the store opened to the public and they had quite a party. We all received samples of the foods, free marketing stuff like water bottles...blah, blah, blah. They even had a balloon making clown however, the line was so long it was shut down before they ever got to us. There was even a band playing in the produce department!

 Too bad they didn't give out free wine samples...the band was good enough that we would have headed to the lawn & garden area, got some lawn chairs and sat down to listen to the band.

Chloe's Birthday

We had Chloe's birthday party at my sister's house. Since my mom hasn't been out of the hospital for very long, it seemed like that would be the best thing for everybody. I baked a chocolate cake that was fantastic. I found the recipe on Pinterest so I was a little worried but it had chocolate frosting on it and as long as that was good, the birthday girl could care less.

The cake was better than good: it was fantastic. It was so good I had to share the recipe with everyone. The recipe I used can be found here. I am certain this recipe will be used more than this one time.

The birthday party was a nice, quiet one. Usually a 5-year old party includes many other 5-year olds but Chloe didn't seem all that interested so her mother let the day go by with the intimacy of close family. I think we all like that best. Even Chloe's little sister got some new bling today.

Oak Creek Lions Fest

Cotton Candy covered tongues!

Yesterday we took our granddaughters to the Oak Creek Lions Fest which is a carnival that has been held over the Labor Day weekend since I was a kid (probably even longer) over at the local legion post. During the 4-day event, Saturday between 11 am and 3:30 was designated for children's events so it was a perfect time to take them to their first carnival. When I checked the weather report, there was 0% precipitation between 11 am and 1 pm but after that the chance of rain went up to 75%. So we were going to get there at 11 and hope for the best.

As we headed to the car, it started rain hard. So while it poured, we debated whether we were going to grab some umbrellas or scrap the whole idea of going.  By the time we grabbed the umbrellas the rain stopped.  It was a short but hard rain that left very large puddles on the road.  Since the children's events were being held in a large dance hall, we weren't terribly worried about the weather, however, the girls' chances of going on the carnival rides were pretty slim.

The ride to the legion post is about 5 minutes. It's about 4 miles away. When we got there, we pulled right up into one of the available disabled parking spaces. We were a little surprised that there weren't many people there but we decided they must have stayed away because of the rain.  We ordered some beverages and the server told us it never rained! So the rides are going and no one will get wet. Yay!

The first thing we saw were horses.  There were two and the girls were tickled to go and pet them. That is until they saw all the trailers selling popcorn and cotton candy and games with all the stuffed animals to win.  It was toddler eye candy. We gently guided them into the dance hall where all the activities were going on.  Chloe instantly wanted to get a balloon animal made for her.  As we waited in line, I also took a number for her to get her face painted.  Avery is too little to care about these things so her mother took her over to a 'fish pond' (a kiddie pool full of water) that had about 50 little rubber ducks floating in it.  Each one had a prize value on it and each kid could pull some out of the water for a prize.

Avery had fun with this while she waited for her sister.  The balloon wielding clown was making Chloe a Twilight Sparkle balloon animal fashioned after her favorite My Little Pony character.  It took him a very long time.  After making the purple pony, he added pink wings and a dark purple mane to complete the look. It was impressive. He even took a photo of it for his portfolio.

After that was completed Chloe headed over to the 'fish pond' by her sister. There she proceeded to win her choice of not one, but two of the top prizes available.  She took home a giant stuffed Care Bear and a stuffed Husky dog and a blow-up sword and some other little trinkets. It was the mother lode!

Chloe's number was called and we went over to the face painting table and when she sat down, all of a sudden she changed her mind.  That was surprising because she loves having her face painted.  The artist-clown doing the face painting talked her into a arm tattoo with the characters from Frozen. She was thrilled by the time it was done.

We ordered the girls some chicken tenders and french fries so they could eat before we headed outside to the rides.  They ate while attending a puppet show. The puppet show had a penguin character so Avery chose a penguin  for her balloon animal. So the very talented clown made here a penguin balloon animal that was incredible.

By then it was 1 pm and surprisingly, it wasn't raining. It looked absolutely sunny so our risk was paying off, no rain! We took the girls on the merry-go-round first. They loved it. So we took them on the little cars next, they were faster than the merry-go-round and they still loved it.  So we headed to the little roller coaster shaped like an alligator. Chloe was so excited, she couldn't wait.  I don't think Avery knew what she was getting into, she was just happy to follow her sister. So off they went, Chloe was grinning ear to ear, Avery didn't look so excited. I don't think it helped that Avery was getting tired.  Once the ride was over, Avery was done with them, she didn't want to go on any more. Chloe didn't care. She was going again without her sister, she liked it that much.

After that, I took Chloe on the ferris wheel. I figured it was something I could do without injuring myself and Chloe would get the thrill of being way up high.  When we got to the top I put my arms up in the air and yelled 'weeeee'! Chloe asked me to hang on to her, she was a little nervous.  After the first time around she relaxed and said I could let go of her. She commented on how pretty the view was. Of course she was repeating what I had said on our last time around. By the fourth time around Chloe was holding up her arms yelling 'weeeee'!  That's my girl!

Chloe just loved the rides and I was glad for that. It was her first time and it was wonderful.  After the rides we sat and listened to a band called SuperFly.  Jeff's co-worker, Carlos is in the band and Carlos was thrilled to see him.  We stayed until the girls fell asleep then we left.  By then it was after 5. Here we thought we would be at the carnival for just an hour or two and get out before the rain came. Some of the best days are the ones that surprise you.

Taste of Egypt

There's a beautiful church two blocks from our house and when we drive by it my granddaughter, Chloe calls it the big green castle. Yes, it has a green roof and it is large enough for a child to think that it really is a castle.  We would always correct her and tell her no, it's a church. But she continued to call it a castle.  Sometimes she would say "Let's go there." And we would again tell her, no, it's not a castle, it's a church.  In fact it is called St, Mary & St, Antonious Coptic Orthodox Church.

With the church's celebration, the Taste of Egypt coming up we decided it was the perfect opportunity to get a tour of the beautiful building and show Chloe that it really wasn't a castle, just a church.  Little did we know how much we would learn. According to the scripture, the only country Jesus traveled to was Egypt. The journey was chronicled in books and the Egyptians celebrate Jesus' time in country throughout their church. It is a beautiful account of history.

After our tour of the building, we experienced the food. Jeff had something called schwarma which had lamb and beef with a relish-like condiment on it that he said was so delicious. He wants to come back tomorrow for more! It is that good. The people running the event were so very friendly and inviting that it wouldn't surprise me if he did come back tomorrow.

Of course the girls saw the tents full of the children's activities and Chloe instantly wanted her face painted.  So we did that right away. They had a bouncy house set up and the girls spent the afternoon jumping while we watched.

It was a beautiful day to sit and relax and meet new people.