Christmas 2015

The boys had a great time visiting with their family on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Gifts were exchanged and goodies were eaten in large quantities. Christmas morning was spent building Lego sets. Max received his first big Lego set.

Sam's 9th Birthday

Sam turned 9 this year. He and a few friends went to see the newest Star Wars movie in the theater and went for pizza afterwards. They dressed as characters from the Star Wars movie. He also celebrated with his family a couple days before.

Christmas Programs 2015

Church Program
The boys performed We Three Spies a Christmas show where they were "Christmas Intelligence Kids". Later in the show they changed into a wise man and sheep. They were quite the performers!

School Program
This was Max's first Christmas program at Kohler School. Sam was an old pro.

The Polar Express

We took the kids to the Polar Express at the beginning of December. The experience included a reading/reenactment of the story, hot chocolate served by dancing waiters, and a trip on the Polar Express (a train that took a few trips around the Green Bay Railroad Museum) where everyone got their tickets punched. The whole thing ended with a visit with Santa, where each child got a silver bell. It was so much fun!

Halloween 2015

Star Wars was the theme this year. The boys carved their own pumpkins this year too. My hands say, "thank you".

Brick Fest (it's all about the Legos)

We all went to Brick Fest in Milwaukee. They had a bunch of activities to do. Building a Lego mosaic, they had a Lego wall that you could build whatever you wanted to on it. They had a spot where you could build a car and race it against other builders and a huge sand box that was filled with red Lego bricks, by the time we left, their were a ton of really cool creations stacked on the surrounding tables. Their was even a tiny mini golf course and a bunch of TVs and video games with Lego games that the kids could play for a while.

After the activities, the highlight for the boys was to look through what all the vendors had to offer. Their were many different types of vendors selling discontinued Lego sets, hard to find mini figures and plain old pound bags of random bricks. Their were a few vendors also letting kids build their own mini figures, which they could then purchase.

Back to School

Everyone is back in the groove. Sam is the old pro in 3rd grade and Max is starting his first year.

Summer 2015 Wrap-up

As summer winds down, we thought we'd share a few photos of some summer highlights including a video of Max riding his two-wheeler without training wheels.

 MVPs

 Sam's second summer playing baseball

 Sam took second place in two swimming events at the Kohler summer swim meet.

 Max driving the Magic School Bus at Bookworm Gardens.

 The boys sharing a quiet moment in the Japanese tea house at Bookworm Gardens.

Max riding the horses at Elkhart Lake.

The boys tackling the rock climbing wall. Sam made it all the way to the top (even in flips flops).

A fun day riding go-karts and playing in the waterpark

Click on the photo of Max to watch the video

Becky's 20th Reunion Trip

I (Becky) celebrated my 20th high school reunion with friends in San Francisco and Napa Valley. Our first evening we spent exploring Chinatown and the waterfront. We got our first glimpse of Alcatraz on an eerie, foggy evening. Of course, we also rode on a trolley car. We spent one day touring vineyards in Napa Valley and rode a ferry back into the city. Another day we toured the city on a double-decker bus. We saw all the sights and made stops at Lombard Street (the crazy crooked one), Ghirardelli Square, and the Golden Gate bridge. We got off the bus and walked across the Golden Gate bridge on a beautifully clear day. Our last night we went out and celebrated like rock stars. It was an awesome trip with some of my dearest and oldest friends.

Great America 2015

The boys had their first trip to Great America.