Gracie at her first wedding......that she remembers

The photo of her at our house is how she went to Green Bay. She wanted to wear that to the wedding....we brought her dress with us!

She did well
during the 1 hour ceremony but really got excited when she saw the dessert table. Then, all that sugar was beneficial for her 1.5 hour dancing marathon. She met Mallory who danced with he all night. They even planned to play together "in 3 days".

What's been going on?

Gracie did very well at her first dance recital. There were only 4 girls that participated in it so it was a very small "show". The did ballet, tap and gymnastics routines.

We went camping this past weekend in Bancroft, WI. It is about 20 minutes South and a wee bit East of Stevens Point. We camped at a place called Vista Royalle Campground. It is a very fun place, especially for kids. A man-made lake with lots of sandy beach area, a jumping pillow, playground, etc. We chose this palce due to all of the children's activities but also because it was so claose to the Midwest Renewable Energy Fair in Custer, WI. OMG....it was an amazingly large fair with more exhibitors and educational events than we could ever visit in one day. Next year we will make a long weekend out of it. We got to hear Tom Pease again. He is a great performer for kids and adults, alike. He knew EVERYONE and now I understand why. He lives about 5 minutes from the location of the energy fair.

Yesterday we were swimming at the Cross Plains pool. It is a nice small community pool with a playground near it. Not very busy!

Here Sue. Here is an update(-:

So no, I haven't written in a while. All of my free computer time has been devoted to finishing up my final class of the semester. I'd say about two hours left and I'm done until Fall.

This weekend we spend a day with our friends Alan, Erin and their 3 girls. Gracie admires older girls so much. She was walking holding Samantha's hand looking up at her with such admiration. Quite cute. I could just imagine what she was thinking.

Then we had a graduation party to attend on Sunday. Congrats Hollie!! Tom decided the day before that he would bike from Middleton to North Freedom. Nope, not the motorized kind either. It took him just under 5 hours but he made it to Baraboo.

Grace has here 1st ever dance recital next Thursday. She's really excited that her family gets to come and watch her in the dance classroom. She had a great practice today(-:

Swim is going great, too. About 5 seconds under water today. She loves her teacher and that makes all the difference for her. She is doing the back float on her own for about 10 seconds, too.

Both classes end next week so we'll be registering for the summer sessions soon.

Thanks to Aunt April, Gracie has a new do! Okay, not new, just a bit of a trim. Her hair is no longer hanging in her eyes! We appreciate it! Well, I do at least. On the way home she saw herself in the rear view mirror and said, "I don't look like Gracie anymore!". Poor girl.


-- Post From My iTouch

Gracie's first great piece of art

CrazyLegs 2009

COLD, RAINY CRAZYLEGS 2009! Of course, Gracie was all warm and dry in her chariot. We could have sold that spot for $100 many time over that day. All-in-all, it was a lot of fun and we would have done it over again had we the chance.

Gracie got a new princess shirt from her good friend Debbie! She likes it, don't you think?

ICF visit

Another visit to ICF today. This meeting was about setting up a facebook and YouTube page. Also discussed using other tool, such as Twitter, blogs and wikis for the PR department. I'm giving a talk on the 14th that will give those interested a bit more information about wikis, blogs, podcasts, social bookmarking, RSS feeds and a web app called Drop.io. I am really excited about this talk. I hope to excite a few others as well.


-- Post From My iTouch

Hello from Fitchburg

Wordle.net....just for fun

Easter Eggs and Deer Valley Lodge Waterpark

So we went to the Deer Valley Lodge Waterpark today with Emily and April. Emily and Gracie went swimming and playing all by themselves. We were there for about 2.5 hours and even after all of that time, they could have gone for more. Gracie is now fast asleep in her stroller. it took about 10 minutes and she was out!

Then, yesterday, we went to Baraboo to Grandma Rita's house to color Easter eggs. We colored the eggs and the kitchen table. Oh, yes, and fingers. The dye was just terrible and colored anything it touched.

A lot going on this week...

Gracie is going to Grandma's in Baraboo today to color her Easter eggs with her Aunt April and cousin, Emily. Then we have swimming to get in sometime this week. AND....Gracie has her first 3 hour camp with "no mommies" on Thursday. This will be a great time for me to have a few hours to work on my Principle of Integration class. It's going to take a bit more work than the past class. Maybe not less work, just more time needed to understand it all.

Grandma got a new puppy!!

Madeline "Maddy" is a 12 week old golden retriever. So cute and such a playmate for Libby....well, Libby actually thinks she's the momma! Here is a terrible Skype video snapshot!

Sleepover at Grandma's House

Another sleepover at Grandma's house last night. Tom was in Peoria and now in Davenport. He'll be back tomorrow morning. We...okay, I, left my wallet in the curb next to my mother's house today. Yes, the curb. It must have fallen out while I was getting my bags in the car. So, we will be either meeting mom in Sauk or driving to Baraboo again tomorrow! URGH!

Gracie is going to Aunt Nancy's tomorrow night so that Tom and I can visit with one of his best friends, Allen and Erin. Allen was Tom's old college roommate. Should be fun. I can't say that we ever went out with them childless before.

Today...

We called Gracie's Aunt April, who has been home a lot since her elbow reconstructive surgery, to ask her to go to Barnes & Nobel with us today. We just hung out for about an hour or so and looked around the store...well, actually we looked where Gracie "told" us to look. We got some more of the Brain Quest cards. We accidently got the the 5-6 year cards. I think we'll keep them and see how she does with them. The 3-4 year cards were pretty easy for her and the description of the 5-6 year ones seems to be pretty much at her level. We also picked up a phonics booklet.....her "school book" as she like to call them. She loves to play teacher and student. I hope that stays that way until she's 22(-:

That's about the only fun thing we did today...oh, except the fun of grocery shopping....NOT!

A-Z Farm visit today.

Well, Gracie went to A-Z Farm today with her best friend, Allison.
She was able to pet chicks, a rabbit, a pig and some lambs that were
just a few days old. SO cute!

This farm opens every Sunday in March and the goal is to catch a lamb
being born. They must have had close to 50 babes when we were there.
I tried hard not to think about where they would be in 5-6 months)-;
The farm also had ducks, turkeys, horses and baby pigs. It's located
just off of Hwy. 14 on Schuster Rd.

Last year, Allison wouldn't let her parents put her down, she wouldn't
pet anything and her nose was plugged the entire time. This year they
both had fun. Life's always better with a friend!

Tori

-Sent from my iTouch-

A Nice Sunday

So, yesterday we ate breakfast (pancakes) at the Riley Tavern in Verona. They serve breakfast on Sundays, maybe Saturdays, too. They have buttermilk, blueberry, cranberry and chocolate chip pancakes served with O.J. and sausage links. A favorite of Gracie's was the German shepherd, King!


After the Riley Tavern, we traveled to Mineral Point. I had passed by numerous times on my way to Kansas City but never went to the historic downtown area. It is beautiful. There are so many historic site and renovated buildings all located within just a few small blocks. We visited the Leepin' Lizzard toy store, the antique book store and Cafe 4 -

"Good food starts with good ingredients, pure and simple. At Cafe4 we care about what goes into our food. We prefer local, sustainable, all natural, and organic choices, not only because they are better for our health and our environment, but also because they absolutely taste better! Our focus is putting healthy delicious food on your table."

From there we somehow got on to the Stage Coach Trail which travels through Apple River, Warren, Lena and then down to Tom's parent's house in Freeport, IL.

For dinner we went to a great pizza joint called Manny's Pizza. I believe this started in Savanna, IL but now there are two restaurants in Freeport. It's really good, thin crust pizza!!

All-in-all, a great day!

Emily Did It!

Gracie's cousin Emily did a great job on Saturday. She is now a 1st degree black belt!! Way to go Emily. Here is a link to the video that my brother, Tom made and posted to YouTube.

Madtown Twisters today!!

Another day.....another gym! I hoped this trampoline didn't make her sick like the one yesterday did. We took it easy today. Only jumping for a few minutes instead of 20!!

Gracie's cousin, Emily, is going for her blackbelt on Saturday!!

Gracie's cousin, Emily, will be testing for her Black Belt from Karate America on Saturday night. She's only 10!!! I don't know exactly how long she has been working at this but I know it's been YEARS. She's put so much time into this. Emily, Gracie says Good Luck and we'll see you on Saturday night after you have your black belt tied to your waist!


Here is a video clip of Emily from channel 27 last night. She is at about the 50 second mark.

She's asleep and I am studying!

We went to Noodle's and now she's asleep. I get about 2 hours a day...when she naps...to study. It's really working, at least right now. I am registered for 2 classes this semester but my professor is the same for both and is allowing me to complete one (at a fast pace) before I start my new one. Really very cool of her.

Another favorite spot....

Gracie using chopsticks at Chin's.

Our first family blog....

Well, here we are. Our first family blog. We will be posting
something new and maybe not so exciting on a weekly basis.....at a
minimum. We'll try to keep this up. With everything else we have in
life to do it might be a bit hard but I guess all we can do is try.

We'll be using this blog for posting what we do in our daily
lives...exciting and boring stuff. You can make all the comments that
you wish to after we post our thoughts but remember, anyone can see
what you write(-:

Come join us on this adventure. I hope it will be enjoyable for us all.