Another for the Wall of Fame

Yesterday we drove through rain, sleet and snow to meet this guy...

Frank Fritz from American Pickers, one of our favorite shows in this house.  He was doing an appearance at the World of Wheels Auto Show at the WI state fair grounds.  I was surprised at how many people were there considering the crappy weather we were having.  We had prepaid for tickets so we weren't about to lose out on that money.  Henry Winkler was also supposed to be making an appearance but he wasn't there, not sure why.

Now my daughter wants to start a "wall of fame" where we hang up any celebrity autographs we get.  Could be fun, we've got a few so far.

After meeting Frank we of course walked around and checked out some cool cars.  And hubby got some more ideas for his car, like he needs that!  He keeps changing his mind about what to do.

Monster Trucks

On Saturday we went to the 2011 Monster Jam in Milwaukee.  We heard about it the week prior and they were having a deal on tickets so we decided to do something different.  Hubby and I had gone to one before we were married but the kids had never been.  They weren't too thrilled or sure what to expect but they ended up enjoying it.

Before it started you were able to walk down on the floor and check out all the trucks up close and meet the drivers.  

Hanging out during the intermission.

The donut competition.  That was cool. 

They also had a portion of the show that featured Freestyles Quads, BMX, motocross and superbikes that was amazing to watch.  They turned the lights down for that part so I wasn't able to get any decent photos.

Brewer game

Saturday night we went to a Milwaukee Brewers game.  We haven't gone in years.  Mostly because we aren't sports fans.  And don't get me started on the cost of everything either!  EIGHTEEN friggin dollars for parking! 

Skowt's high school band was playing for the pre-game so we decided to head out also.

No home runs were hit so we didn't get to see Bernie go down the slide!

Like I said, not something we normally do but it was fun to go as a family, do something different and watch my daughter out on the field. 

We did get to see the woman who babysat my kids for about 6 years or Nana as they called her.  We knew she had worked at the ball park after she stopped sitting for us but didn't know if she was still there.  Well, we bumped into her on our way out (we left a tad early) so that was nice.  Tiger didn't remember her, she was too young and Skowt didn't get a chance to see her as she had to stay with the band for the entire game.

My little equestrienne

Yes, I had to look up the spelling of my post title!!  I didn't realize there was a feminine version of the word equestrian.  Anyhoo....


I think Tiger has finally found her "thing"! 

Riding horses!

She tried different sports, dancing, saxophone and clarinet.  But she never seemed to really get into any of them.  It's taken a while and much frustration from me because she always seemed to want to quit everything she signed up for but I think this is finally it.

All 3 of the people who helped out asked me if she had ever ridden or had a lesson before.  She's been on a horse twice before this and only on one of those trail rides in the Wisconsin Dells.  Where they just stick you on a horse and they just follow each other along a trail.  No formal training.  But they all could not believe how well she was doing for her first lesson.  Looks like she's a natural.

She's been bugging me for lessons for quite some time now but I was always hesitant given her past history and what I thought the lessons would cost.  But the place we found is pretty reasonable and they are flexible with how often she will be taking lessons. 

She hasn't stopped talking about it since her lesson ended at 1pm on Friday.  In fact she is in her bedroom right now teaching her older sister everything she learned!

Getting ready for Eclipse

Last night Skowt and her friends made tshirts to wear to the midnight showing of Eclipse.  I think she did a great job!

Even though she is Team Jacob!


There's about 20 of going, it should be fun!  Now Tiger is jealous and wants to make a shirt too

So random

New fall TV shows are starting to pop up! I love me some TV :) The new season of Ellen started yesterday and I made a list of all the other shows I watch and looked up the start dates for the new season. I need help. There is at least one new show that I was thinking of starting up this season but I already watch too many to keep up with sometimes that I'm thinking I should hold off. Except what usually happens is it turns out to be a big hit and I missed out and have to catch up later through Netflix which is what I'm doing with two shows already!

I went to Walgreens yesterday and found me some New Moon Candy! Way better than the Twilight candy cuz it's CHOCOLATE! In fact I think I'll grab me a piece right now.

Mmmm. Yumm. I'm back.....

I'm getting tickets to see Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood do their "Whose Line Is It Anyway" show in Milwaukee again in January! This will be our 3rd year in a row. Go ahead call me psycho but hubby and I love them! They are so hilarious! And the great part is since it's improv it's always different.

So today I was trying to catch up on reading some of the many blogs I follow. (Didn't get very far) I was reading some of the recent past posts on Angie's blog when I came across some where she mentioned Wreck This Journal by Keri-Smith. She's doing a weekly post showing what she did in her journal. I had to find a copy of this book. It looks like fun! So today while I was out I stopped at Barnes and Noble and got a copy......and talked my mom into it too! I hope to get started soon and join in on Wednesday's when she does her weekly post. I'm looking forward to it but on the other hand I'm so not a destroyer of books it may just crush me!

Balloon Rally

I love hot air balloons. Watching them, taking photos and I'd love to ride in one someday. So when I saw there was a rally coming up we made plans to go.

It was a couple hours away so we made and afternoon of it because after all the website listed quite a few other activities to do while the balloons weren't active. We arrived around 3pm so we had about 3 hours until the launch at 6pm. Unfortunately that was way too early. The "midway" concessions and games, Inflatable jump house and carnival games that were listed were non existent. The arts and crafts consisted of 3 table of people selling jewelry. And the car show had about 15-20 older cars, a few of which were leaving as we arrived. Needless to say we were a tad disappointed that the website seemed to make it out to be a bigger deal than it was. We walked the grounds and saw the sights in about 15 minutes.

So now what? We decided to take a ride around town and see what was around. We came across the downtown square area which looked kinda cool and quite familiar.

Does this remind anyone else of "Back to the Future"?

We spent some time down there walking around and checking out a few shops and them drove around a bit more and found a Pizza Hut to have dinner at and headed back to the grounds in time for the launch. By then the place was packed. Obviously the locals know when it's time to come by!

We found a spot in the bleachers and listened to the emcee ramble on about something until it was time for them to head out. They started with a lead balloon who inflated and took off. That one set out first found a good place to land, set out a target and the rest competed to get as close to that target as possible. The rest could not start until the first was clear of the ground. It was neat to see them all start inflating at once.

Here's a couple pics. I plan to put some more up on my photoblog soon too.

Once the launch started in was fun. We will definitely know for next time that we don't need to arrive so early. And possibly then we might be willing to stay for the balloon glow later in the evening. We decided to skip that this time because by this time the kids had had enough and were ready to head home.

As we were getting on the freeway to head home we noticed a bunch of the balloons still in the air. As we drove we were able to see the spot where some of them were starting to land.

It started out a big rough but it turned into a great afternoon/evening as a family!

SITS Spring Fling Giveaway!

The SITS girls are having a Spring Fling party and everyone is invited.

They will be giving away prizes every hour throughout the day today!

And if that's not enough, there will be links to many of the Sitsta's blogs having giveaways of their own.

What's my giveaway you ask? Well, I'm a fan of both the Harry Potter series and The Twilight Saga. So I'm including a little of both.

The winner will get a copy of "The Tales of Beedle the Bard" along with 3 unopened packages of Twilight trading cards.

All you have to do is leave a comment! You have until Wednesday 3/11, Midnight central time to enter and I will post a winner Thursday morning.

My swap goodies have arrived!

My package of swap goodies arrived yesterday! My partner was Nicole from Taulman Times. She was great partner and sent some awesome stuff! Some of it very similar to what I sent her.

Here's a before picture. Everything all wrapped up nice before I tore into it.

She had a tag on each one numbering them 1 through 6 and included a note on top instructing me to open them in order and then read the explanation next to each number on her note. I also included notes explaining each of mine but they were inside each package.

So here's what was inside!

1. Scented tea light candles from Yankee Candle and a candle holder to burn them in. Yankee Candles rock! They are my favorite too. I've tried others but they just don't cut it.
2. Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers. In Nicole's words it "portrays the ultimate never-ending meaning of love". I look forward to reading it.
3. Scarf (is there another word for these? or am I losing it). Anyway, I am in love with the colors!
4. Coffee mug, green tea and a huge Hershey's dark chocolate bar! Check out what I sent her on her blog and you'll see we were totally on the same wave length with the chocolate bar thing!
5. Family Tree Record book. We are very similar on this one. She likes scrap booking and of course I love taking photos of my family and also looking at old photos of family members. There are spots for photos for me, hubby and both sides of the family. I hope I can find some of everyone to include!
6. Last but not least, fake (her words!) Chanel earrings. Hmm. Now to find a place to wear them. I'm usually in jeans or sweats carting the kids around!

Oh, and I'm also supposed to get the kids and hubby out of the house on a Sunday afternoon and take a nice nap. Sounds good to me!!

I'd like to say thanks Nicole for everything and for being such a great partner! I'd also like to thank Mamarazzi for organizing the swap. I'm sure it was a lot of work! I had fun with it!

Bloggy Fun

I just got done getting my package ready for Nicole. She's my partner in mamarazzi's favorite things swap. I will be mailing it later today before I pick up Skowt from school.

I had fun shopping and getting it all wrapped up. I hope she likes at least some of what I sent! lol I would like to apologize in advance for my wrapping job. I am sooooo not a wrapper of presents! :) The paper I was using was super thin so I had to wrap it around several times so you couldn't see through it. I look forward to seeing what she is sending!

Speaking of mamarazzi, this month she is starting something fun. She will be doing a monthly drawing out of all of her followers for a cool prize. So head on over and check her out. Make sure you leave a comment when you follow and tell her I sent ya!

I got a new toy!

I'm feeling a little better after my stressing post yesterday. I'm that much closer to having the shopping done. I've got the weekend off to finish and get the tree and cards done (I hope). And...........it also helps that before we shopped yesterday we stopped and got me this new toy!



I've been wanting a phone with a full keyboard for awhile now cuz it takes me forever to text 2 words to my kid! Now, no problem.

The best part? Now I have a cooler phone than Skowt. How do I know this? She told me so! She's jealous.

Got my number? Go ahead. Send me a text. I know you wanna!! Anyone else that I correspond with regularly shoot me an email if you wanna exchange numbers.