Wisconsin: Round One

The first major activity during our Wisconsin visit was Mary's bachelorette party.

Our morning began at a nail salon.  Pedicures all around!


Then we headed out to a winery and enjoyed a nice tour and some wine tasting!


From there, we checked into a hotel.


 

Mary opened some gifts and then we were off for dinner!




We all had a great time celebrating Mary's upcoming marriage!

MONDAY

My mom and I took the kids to the Kenosha Museum.

Curtis and Bella exploring the mammoth display.


There was a whole room dedicated to hands on learning.  The kids spent over an hour here.




Weaving.


Bird watching.


Star making.


Overlooking the lake area.


TUESDAY

Monkey Joes?  I think we did this on Tuesday.  No photos though.

Andy and Josh arrived that night.  Andy had church denomination meetings throughout that first week while the kids and I were in Wisconsin.  Josh flew out to New Jersey on Andy's last day of meetings.  The two of them road tripped out to WI the next day and arrived around 11pm.  Though these two have lived on literal opposite ends of the world, they have managed to maintain a strong friendship and that makes me so happy. 

WEDNESDAY

We went to the park and brought Ava with.


After this photo, my battery died. If it hadn't, I would have an adorable photo of the four kids laughing at the bottom of a slide. It was super cute. But I'll just have to remember it.

The kids did some roller blading later that evening while I went to Mary's house to work on some wedding stuff.




THURSDAY

Lunch at Auntie Jodi's house.


We went swimming at the Rec Plex after that. No photos. :(

Later that evening, we had an early birthday celebration for Curtis!


 

My mom had a game of Bingo and prizes for the kids.




My brother Jeff arrived in town!










My mom had some outdoor games planned as well!




Soon, the kids started throwing the bean bags into the air. . . 


. . . which resulted in a bean bag stuck in a tree.

Auntie Kristen to the rescue!


 



Time for singing 'Happy Birthday' and blowing out some candles.


All of the guys in the family.  (We were just missing a couple of boyfriends).


Sporting some new birthday gear.




FRIDAY

Bella and her cousin, Sydney. These girls are actually two and a half years apart, though you would never know by looking at them.


Grandma Debbie and Rose.


Cousins!




Andy took our kids, along with Scott, and Jeff's family to the splash pad.










The wedding rehearsal was that evening.  I didn't get too many photos from that.


Ring Security!  The boys' wedding gifts from Auntie Mary and Uncle Andy.  They were a hit!


SATURDAY

Wedding day!  This event will be getting its own post.  ;)

Bella's Last Day of School and off to Wisconsin!

OK, so this post is a little out of order since all of this stuff took place before Curtis's birthday.  But anyway. . .

Bella's last day of school was Wednesday, June 18.

The boys were ready to greet her with bubbles at the end of the school day.


Here comes the bus!


It sure feels good to get off of the bus on the last day of school with your whole summer ahead of you. 




We treated the kids to Rita's.




Later that evening, Andy dropped the kids and I off at the Trenton Airport.  This was the boys' first time on an airplane and they were super excited. 

I was so pleased with how well they all behaved.  The boys were thrilled to have TV screens in front of them, even though they had no sound and they only worked for about a half hour of the flight.

Bella took this photo on her iPod. I had no idea she took it until it showed up in my photo stream.


Our flight landed a bit later than scheduled and then we had to drive from Milwaukee to Kenosha. Graydon was completely out by the time we arrived.


This was only the beginning!