Happy Birthday Ben!

The girls love helping plan their themed birthday parties. When we started talking about Ben's upcoming 32nd birthday, Lydia asked Ben, "What kind of birthday are you having?" Besides a happy one, that got us thinking of different themes we could play with...tool box, sports, trains, superheros? The family, especially Ben, is super excited about adopting a Goldendoodle this Spring/Summer. We ended up going with 'puppy.'

 We had hot DOGS, carrots (we learned carrots are a healthy table food), and puppy chow to eat. All our stuffed puppies were in party hats. We made guesses on when the puppies will be born (they are to be conceived yet in March). And the girls helped me carry out Ben's plans for this adorable puppy cake. We had to add a cupcake for a candle, because we couldn't let ourselves 'set the dog's face on fire!'

Happy Birthday, Ben! You are top dog in this house, a rare breed of wonderful, and we wish you a doggone good year ahead!

Downtown Racine

Lydia had no school Thursday and Friday for teacher in-service, so she got to come with me to drop off Abigail at preschool and help me with the Moppets. Then on Friday since her play date fell through, we ventured to downtown Racine to check out the ice sculptures from last weekend's Big Chill:

 The birds nest in the back behind Abigail won first prize.

28 degrees was a little chill for Abigail, but Lydia was cool with it. (Felt almost tropical to me compared to the recent 0!) Octopus seem to be popular in ice sculptures. 

We thought this one was funny looking!
Lydia's smile can brighten any cloudy day.

 Just a block away, we warmed up in the Racine Heritage Museum.  

They had a scavenger hunt just right for their ages that required them to find the x-ray from this mummy, a wagon, a baseball, a piano, and a space helmet. (It's a small museum, so I was impressed that they had a mummy there!) Abigail's checking helmet off her list.

 They had dress up with a trunk of prairie clothes upstairs.

 In the end, they turned in their completed scavenger hunt to get a stick candy. I let them take home a chalk board from the gift shop.

Cute, well-maintained museum and friendly staff...we had a good time and learned a few things about Racine's history while we were at it!

Frosty the Snowman Angel

I'm figuring out how to download and organize the pictures from my iphone, such as these:

 This snowman is named Frosty, and actually he's a snowman angel and those flags are his wings. Abigail loves him!

Ears Pierced!

 For her 6th birthday present, Lydia got to get her ears pierced. We took a mom-daughter trip to Claire's at Bayshore Mall. Lydia had fun looking at all the earrings they had in store, then decided on the piercing earrings.

 Nydia (yes, Lydia with an 'N") marked the spots. Lydia hugged the teddy bear and her lamb while both ears got pierced in 2 quick seconds. A mom and daughter in the store wanted to watch, and they clapped for Lydia.

She was eager to check out her new pierced ears in the the mirror. She's happy with her blue Make-a-Wish star earrings, and that's good because she has to keep those in for 6 weeks! Now my daughter has her ears pierced just like me, yikes! Naturally, it's been fun for her to show and tell grandmas and everyone about it!

Now a random play date picture with classmate Elizabeth: dressing up, sorting Shopkins, babies, and fashion queens.

Sledding

When we returned home from our tour of Christmases on Dec 31st, instead of clearing our driveway, we went sledding! Carpe diem!

 The snow was icy and slick-bad for driveway-great for sledding.

 *my favorite picture

 so cute to see her run up the hill pulling her sled!

The next day we decided to sled down the hill at Haas park, and that was also fun. This has been the most fun the kids have had sledding! To our surprise, Haas park also has an ice skating rink, just perfect for boot skating!

After a sing-song prayer of thanksgiving from each of the girls (the prayers are long these days) we had our NYE Chinese dinner,

went through our memory jar, took a bath, watched Berlin's countdown and fireworks show, and the kids were in bed by 8pm, with mom and dad not far behind.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

 "20-16"

John Deere & Bowling

 While we were in Moline, Il, we visited the John Deere Pavilion.

  The girls had a blast climbing up into the seats of the big machines.

Everyone climbed up into the big combine cab!

Abigail, Lydia & Will watching the automatic lawn mower.

The next day we had more indoor fun, going bowling!

Abigal, Lydia & Kinsey playing by the blower.

Yay for bowling with family! 

Lydia will get to go bowling at the end of January with her class after their balls and ramps studies.

Christmas 2015

 Christmas Eve meant we got to hug our elf, Magic, good bye,

and play with the complete playmobile advent set.

 Bolgert Christmas Eve was at Sarah & Matt's.

back row: Katie, Tom, Sam, Lydia, Cindy, Maddison, Ben, Brittany, Laura, Stacy, Violet, Ben, Matt

couch: Sam, Garry, Sue, Jordan, Mary Kay, Jim, Steven, Greg, Quincy

floor: Aaliyah, Sarah, Julie

 following footprints to the tree on Christmas morning, 6:30am

joy!

 a new dress for big baby! (and matching outfits for Lydia & Holly Dolly)

 Valpo shirts from Santa! (we also finally got iphones)

Elsa castle Legos for Lydia (and Cinderella duplex for Abigail)

 Gift for us from Abigail and her preschool :)

 most excited to get make up (and Hello Kitty body set)

(a book didn't go over as well, but Abigail loves her puzzle book!)

 and Abigail loves making bead necklaces
(10am church service had wonderful music)

The cousins had fun playing with each other at Grandma's house. 

They also got to play with extended cousins at Steve & Pat's open house.

 This is our naughty Christmas picture :P

 Emily, Jacob, Hailey, Kayla, Kinsey, Grandpa, Nathan, Lydia, Abigail, Grandma, Will, Kailyn.

All the Peterson grandchildren were together to celebrate Christmas (and Bruce's retirement!)

A Pulley Christmas was done at Dan & Kaitlyn's.