It seems that we can’t stay home lately…thats one reason these posts are so far behind…but we’ve been having a lot of fun, visiting friends we haven’t seen forever, finally meeting their kids, and having our children become fast friends. Its a beautiful thing.

When my friend Margo said at the beginning of the summer “you should come visit us..” I was like “of course, yes, lets”…and you know usually those conversations end there. Not this one! I searched the calendar, which was already nearing full, and found an open weekend, and thank goodness it worked for them too!

I met Margo and her hubby Jason at Bible camp in 2000, and think we figured out that we’d last seen each other sometime around 2002 or 2003. Meaning, I’d never met their kids…and they’d never met mine. What’s great is that our kids are almost exactly the same ages. Weeks separate the first two, and only 2 months separate the second two. When i was telling Ellie where we were going and explaining that there would be kids there her size and Evan’s size, and then there was a baby, she responded “but we don’t have  a baby”. My reply…”no, we don’t…and that’s just fine.” Sorry, mom, still holding to the thought that 2 is just right for us.

Once we got to Wisconsin, I was surprised how fast our kids became friends. Within minutes of arriving, they were playing downstairs in the playroom together. The best part though, was how everytime we’d go somewhere…and then return to their house, we had a greeter meet us at the van to give us hugs.

We took the kids to some great places…the Eau Claire Children’s Museum…fantastic place. The whole bottom level is this water exploration station. What kid doesn’t like to play in the water? They had a ball!

Margo and I…watching the kids play.

Yeah…fast friends…we’re sure they’re going to get married someday.

And then we went to Irvine park, right there in Chippewa Falls. Playground equipment, live animals, a petting zoo…a kids dream!

Love this picture!

but didn’t want to leave the little guy out.

So glad we went. So. Glad. We had the best time, and so did all of the kids. My Ellie keeps asking when we can go back…and i didn’t want to leave. Luckily, that just tells me it won’t be another 7 years before we see them again!

Like I said in part 1, we LOVE the state fair!

There have only been a handful of years we’ve missed…one when Ellie was 6 months, and one when Evan was 6 weeks. Thought it may be a little much for all of us those years…

The highlights of the fair for us…

Little Hands on the Farm

enjoying the fruits of her labor.

The butter sculptures. I don’t get much into the butter cow…but i did enjoy the tribute to Green Eggs and Ham. It was perfect! “You do not like them, so you say…try them, try them, and you may.”

The geeky hubby loved this! Well, I thought it was cool too…but I’ll use any excuse to share his geeky-ness.

and a visit with our friend Dan Wardell.

And of course, the food was awesome! My new favorite…fried pineapple on a stick. Because if its not on a stick, its not real fair food to me.  They take a wedge of fresh pineapple, dip it in funnel cake batter, deep fat fry it, and then pour frosting on it. Mmmm…tasty. I did also do a wide variety of sampling,…just to make sure i had the full fair experience. Think i covered it until next year. *smile*

We didn’t spend our entire vacation working…it was close, but we did manage to squeeze in a bit of fun.

Didn’t know they had a memorial day parade in Waverly until that morning, and we had nothing going on, so we decided to take it in…

patiently waiting…

waiting…and snacking…see the crumbs?

parade!

Also didn’t realize it was some veterans, a flag, a band, and some scouts, and that was it…but I guess it was the perfect length for the first parade of the season.

After the parade, we ditched lunch plans and headed out for a picnic…and a little swinging…

(McD’s for the kids…subway for the adults who didn’t want the McD’s hangover)

Oh…one other note…

Wet slide

=

Wet butt.

And then her brother did it. When Nathan and I finally stopped laughing and caught our breath, we got him some dry clothes. Ellie = no so lucky. She had to play in the wet pants…

But wet pants and all, it was a pretty good spontaneously fun day.

And now…back to work.

Another giveaway from one of my favorite blogs to visit…Allen designs.

I love her creativity, all the colors she uses, and how very unique her stuff is!

Hoping I win a bank for Nathan’s collection…then I may have to buy a new shelf to store it on…

Cruise on over and check out her site…http://www.allendesigns.typepad.com/

Ellie’s Great-Grandma Friesen gave her the Doug and Melissa set of beads for her birthday…
We finally busted them out on Monday, and had a beading ball!

I was impressed with El’s spelling and letter finding ability…my big girl is so BIG…

Evan couldn’t get his hands on them fast enough. Thank goodness my mom was here to help, otherwise beads would have been everywhere.

Everyone got necklaces…Grandma, Grandpa, Evan…even Mom.

El made mine for me as I was getting ready for work, so i could wear it there and according to her “show all my friends my beautiful necklace.” So, thats just what I did.
If you were in the library on Monday night and were wondering what was up with my jewelry…now you know.

I, for one, found it hard to take apart and put back into the jar for next time.