friesenfam.net

I guess in some ways, I’m just like every other mom you know.

Right down to the first day of school pictures. It counts, even if its Preschool!

She looks so big! (Although her backpack still looks too big for her!)

Showing off our fancy backpack.

I think she’s pretty excited!

Yep…that looks pretty excited to me!

She’s only had two weeks of preschool, and she’s learned so much already! They have these wonderful literacy backpacks that get sent home with all kinds of activities in them. I was amazed by how many she could do.

Time flies…next year, Kindergarten!

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*