Sunday, December 05, 2010

Service with a Smile


Today was the fifth day of a new tradition for us (meaning, we're trying it this year and then we'll see if it becomes a tradition). For FHE on Monday night, we each made our own jar with 24 personalized service ideas inside of it. Each day, starting December 1st, we pull out one of the ideas out of our jar and do that act of service. So far, it has been lots of fun for us. The first day...Ashley made Bethany's bed, Bethany cleaned the closet mirrors in the master bathroom, I invited Ashley out of Quiet Time to play her favorite game with me, and Jared opened the door for someone at work. Ashley's favorite has been helping Dad with the dishes and organizing the bookshelf. Bethany organized the front of the fridge and loved leaving a nice note under someone's pillow. I'm hoping it gets us all in the spirit of giving more than getting during this Christmas season...and so far it is working!

Thursday, December 02, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving!

For Thanksgiving we went to Germantown, Wisconsin! We had a blast! Katie taught us how to perfectly brine a turkey, and boy was it delicious! We had a nice Thanksgiving day including football for the boys in the backyard and a Thanksgiving craft for the girls inside.
Other kids' toys are always so fun! Bethany loved this blow dryer in Eliza's beauty salon set.
We also had fun decorating Thanksgiving cookies. Ok, a note about Bethany. Somehow she got into Mommy's lipstick and used it to color her eyebrows instead. And this wasn't any lipstick...this was the Infallible Never Fail lipstick...you know, the kind that stays on for 24 hours. Although...I noticed that Bethany's stayed on for a lot longer, even after many sessions of scrubbing. ;)
Isn't that just the cutest little 2-year old Thanksgiving feast plate?
We had placecards and gumdrop turkeys by each plate. And even the kids got to use the crystal and fine china. Wow!
On Friday we ventured out to the Milwaukee Natural History Museum. It was amazing! We stayed the entire day and only visited one of the many floors. The girls and I loved the butterfly garden. Not only were the butterflies BEAUTIFUL, but it was fun to have them land on you as you walk around.
Abby wore her flower shirt on purpose, in hopes of attracting butterflies. Looks like it worked!
More fun at the museum!

On Saturday we took a drive to Lake Michigan. It was a bit chilly...and I voted against returning to do the Polar Bear Dip on New Year's day. But, it was amazing to see the lake.
Daniel took us on a tour of the Kohl's Corporate Office. Wow! Pretty cool stuff! It was amazing to see how different it was from the WM home office. Ha!
Katie shared in her family tradition of breaking out the Christmas puzzle after Thanksgiving. It became quite addictive and we found ourselves having to pry people (adults) away from the table so we wouldn't stay up all night trying to finish it.

What a great trip...thanks Daniel and Katie!!