Where's my mom?

Surprise! Don and I decided to trim the hedge by our patio tonight. When we were done we walked around my flower gardens talking about the changes I want to make. He mentioned that two of the shrubs in the front yard had really taken a beating this past winter from all the snow. We decided to take a look at them. Then we noticed a couple of little mallard ducklings crossing the road coming right toward us. They weren't afraid of us at all - even wth Mellie staring at them! The two of them came right up to me. I knelt down and they waddles right underneath me! Mellie only tried to eat them once - she's such a good dog.

Don looked arojnd the neighborhood for the mother duck and/or their nest with no luck. He then called a couple of places trying to find out what to do with them. No luck so far . . .





Alyssa is in heaven, but very unhappy we can't keep them. The longer they stay the more attached she's becoming. We need a call fast!

Pyromania

A surprise invite to a bonfire, what could be better? Getting an invite to a really HUGE bonfire. Eric has once again outdone himself. This ones been a long time coming - like two years worth of wood! Eric named Alyssa the honorary pyromaniac. Starting a bonfire with a torch - what a blast!

The fire was not contained to the ring of boulders - that's right, boulders. Not your normal little rocks. Bigger is better, right?

You'll notice everyone is WAY back from the fire. The heat was amazing. I was wearing capris. Felt like shaving my legs wasn't necessary, the hair felt like it had been burned off!

Except for the major bug bites we had a blast. Thanks for the invite, bro!

Jill

Bonus!

An additional post! Not waiting for a game night to let you know what's been up for once.

Make you hungry for ice cream? We're very predictable. Lys had chocolate chip cookie dough. Don had mint chocolate chunk. I had Chicago dark chocolate.

Hulk Alyssa. I'm telling ya - she is very strong. She held up this tree as long as she could so it wouldn't fall. We were in Lakewood at Cathedral Pines for Alyssa's pic. I actually got a picture of one of the Great Blue Herons flying overhead building a nest. I've been there about 5 times and this was the first time I got the pic. Now you wish I would show you the picture, don't you? Too bad.

We went antiquing a little bit on Saturday. I think it's so fun to look for Pilsbury Dough Boy collectibles with Lys. We didn't even see any this trip, but Lys found a live bear she wanted to take home.

The dog's name is Bear. He was at this shop last year when we visited and the two hung out with each other like this then, too. Couldn't resist the pic. Bear cooperated, too.

AND, we saw a real bear! We were on Newton Lake Road and this cub trotted across the road in front of us. I went for my camera immediately, fully expecting to not even be able to see the bear by the time we got to where he crossed. However, when we got there he was leaning against a tree posing for the picture. We were high fiving each other that I actually got the picture. Awesome!

Fishing. Lys lives for it. She was the first to get a fish off the dock by Pop's Resort. She can do this for hours. I can't. I end up reading my Kindle.

Don also caught a fish. His was caught on Newton Lake.

Just needed to let you know my garden has now awakened. These anemone remind me of butterflies. Being white, they glow at night. Beautiful.

Summer has arrived finally. I really enjoy the warm weather. Bring it on!

And by the way, Eric has started his new job. He has filled me in on some scary driving going on at night. Come on people! My little brother is on the streets of the Green Bay area driving a truck that has no get up and go - you need to take it easy on him!

Jill

Easter, Mother's Day, Game Night, oh my!

Yep, been a while again. Well, here's the update. Once again we had the Easter celebration at the Erdmann household. My nephews had an absolute blast with the egg hunt. Even with adults helping, they missed one egg! I also think next year I'm going to have to have harder hiding spots. These guys are good. Don't you love their Easter outfits? So handsome.

Next holiday? Mother's Day. My sister graciously agreed to have it at her house. Here's Mom with Sara and me. I think I'm going to really like scrapbooking it.

And the next big event? Game night, May 21st. Michele's birthday is the 25th, so we also celebrated her birthday. Her dog, Bob, is very special to her, so I made little dog cupcake toppers that we decided were bob's girlfriend. I think she enjoyed us singing happy birthday to her the most! Oh, and by the way, Eric was the winner again. He wouldn't forgive me if I didn't mention that.

And last but not least, Alyssa had her last concert of the school year tonight. Here she is with three of her friends to her right. Furtherest to closest to her - Stephanie, Kendra, and Katie.

Here's the whole chorus on stage.

Well, you're up to date. I hope to have pictures of Memorial Day weekend and my gardens in the next post. Will summer ever get here?

What can salsa be used for?

For the most part I like salsa. Not the type that is fire alarm hot and spicy. This past summer I even used some of the tomatoes from my garden to make my own salsa. When I think of salsa, I think of eating it with tortilla chips. Some people put salsa on their baked potatoes. You can even use it for a marinade if that so strikes you as appetizing. However, Eric has come up with another use for it. Mind you, I'm not recommending it, just making you aware someone has come up with another use. Eric is like me, salsa on the very mild side is a good way to enjoy it. However, I think his mild might be even less spicy than mine. Once again we had game night at our house last night. My cousin Ann and her husband, Gary, were good enough to bring tortillas and salsa. She canned it herself - one quart mild, one quart hot. She asked me which I thought she should open. Of course, the mild. So after supper we started our fun and games. Shortly after that we started in on the snacks. I had made puppy chow (warning: can be very addictive). I also had chocolate chocolate chip cookies and peanut M&M's. Eric went for the tortilla chips and salsa. It started off pretty quiet and then escalated from there. Apparently Ann's version of mild is no where near what Eric's is. We had tears and a lot of accusations from Eric saying he was lied to, it was really the HOT salsa sauce according to him. Shortly after that Eric tried using it for eye wash - this is where I'm introducing you to another use for salsa. The only person I'm aware of that has ever tried it is Eric and because of his reaction I don't recommend it. Not sure how he got the salsa in his eye, just all of a sudden we had complaints of a burning eye. Eric, if it burns the inside of your mouth, chances are good it will also burn when you put it in your eye. Just saying. The players in the salsa fiasco are pictured below.

Despite all of Eric's set backs during the evening, he and Michele ended up the big winners of the night. After last month's big loss for Eric, he really seemed to need a win. We played two games of Outburst, which ended in a tie. To break the tie we played the always popular Apples to Apples. Michele was on fire the first game (not in the salsa sense), and then Eric pulled in out in the next round.

And today we celebrated my godson's birthday. It was really last Wednesday, but hopefully he still enjoyed celebrating it again today. Here he is with his brother making sure there is absolutely nothing else left in the bag.

Here's hoping the deep freeze we're in again moves out of the area SOON! Next on the agenda? Planning Easter dinner and the annual Easter egg hunt. Have a good one!
Jill

Sing a Song; Fun & Games

Lys had a chorus concert this past week. She seems to have been very excited about it. The theme was about rock music which is right up her alley. All three grades were in the concert. Guys seem to have a growth spurt during these years. You can see quite the range of heights with the guys. To start out the concert - everyone was on stage. This post has the colors all out of whack. They were in black t-shirts, not all dressed in white.

Here's those guys I was telling you about singing "Pretty Woman". Some of them were a little more into singing than others. Definitely got a lot of laughs, though.

Here's some of Alyssa's friends playing the super heros "The Powder Puff Girls". Katie, Stephanie, and Kendra.

And the star of the show (at least in our minds - and her's), Lys! She did an excellent job and we're very proud she has the guts to get up in front of the audience and belt it out.

Yesterday we hosted another game night. Believe it our not, we actually didn't play Apples to Apples. This time it was Pictionary. I'm apparently an awesome player. So much so that I was accused of cheating by another player that will remain nameless - Eric. He even told me how I did it. I thanked him for that in case I every did want to cheat. Oviously the knowledge will go unused! Any way, in Eric's qirky mind, the accusation was a compliment - of the highest order. So thank you, Eric! Dave and Jody were two of our guests and they brought their daughter's easel for us to draw the pictures on. Michele is here displaying her awesome artistic skills and probably breaking ANOTHER pieces of chalk!

Here are said guests Dave and Jody competing for the much covetted Game Night winner status.

Dave was distracted by Mellie begging for that mini candy bar.

Because the guys can't stay focused and because of my awesome Pictionary skills, the girls won. Winners received the goodie bags . . . .

and the losers were VERY unhappy!

Better luck next time, guys!

Packers take it home!

Yes, it's true. I'm still in love with cupcakes. Doesn't look like the addiction is going away any time soon, either. A certain special someone is feeding my addiction, too. See below. L-O-V-E them!


My sweet Mellie is not known for being the most energenic, even at a Super Bowl party where the Packers are winning. She was plumb tuckered out after the third quarter.

However, Don's family wasn't losing any energy. Here's the look of a touchdown!

There were even some distinguished guests in our presence. Here's Aaron Rodgers being in two places at once, in my mother-in-law's living room and at the super bowl.

I recently went to my very first Gambler's hockey game. It was as violent as it's made out to be. However, it was a lot of fun. My six year old nephew was explaining the fine points of the game to me. My four year old nephew was accusing me of eating all of his Skittles and making him walk from a really bad parking spot. What could be more perfect?

Said six year old nephew is also an awesome basketball player. I took him to his practice and was mighty impressed. They had the boys twirling the ball around their waists. They dribble the ball in figure eights between their legs and many other amazing feats. First graders doing things I've never been able to do. Truely amazing.

Well, I've had some great experinces in the last couple of weeks. You are officially up to date.
Jill

January is cold . . . .

Had another game night last night. It was also a very secret surprise party for my sister Sara. Ok, so it wasn't so secretive. She was very aware of it being two days after her birthday and I happened to mention my ideas for her birthday cupcakes a couple of times. I'm sure she was still very surprised - not.

This January has been particularly cold, in my opinion anyway. I've been thinking about my garden a lot. Since I can't take a liesurely stroll through it anytime soon, I decided to set he table for game night in a garden type of way. My Mom got me started on the Pfaltgraf pattern Naturewood. I LOVE it. I now have several pieces. I also have napkin rings that look like old flower pots. How perfect is that? I'm sure nobody caught on to the fact that it was single digits outside and my place settings were meant for weather temperatures above 65. Either way, I was very happy with it. I also had a liitle Valentine's day put in for good measure.
Just can't see that in the picture.



Here's Sara with her birthday cupcakes that she knew nothing about (nudge, nudge, wink, wink).



Here's a close-up of the cupcake stand. I got the idea for the dice on the cupcakes off the web somewhere. The colors came from the Mickey Mouse dishes I got from Sara for Christmas that I used for snacks during the games. She got them from a Walt Disney World gift shop. When I saw them I really wanted to get them, but I was supposed to be getting gifts for other people, not me. She was awesome and picked them up. I knew I was getting them and couldn't wait the month and a half till Christmas! I should have taken a picture of them to show you, put you can see the colors on the cupcakes.



Here's the cupcakes close-up. Taking orders now!



And finally, here's everybody at game night last night. Winners of game night were Mike, Sara's husband, and Michele. Eric was happy because Michele gave Eric the prize. That's SO Eric-like.



Did I happen to mention that it's been a really cold January. It inspired me to make the decorations for my front door.



Well, stay warm! Time to plan next month's game night!
Jill

Been a while since I posted again. Christmas has been busy. Below is our annual Christmas dinner pic I take every year at my Mom's house. I love that you can see the snow outside - makes it more of a Norman Rockwell painting feeling.

Below are some of my favorite ornaments on my tree this year. The reason for the postcard ornament below is obvious.

November's trip to Disney World was my third. The other two I didn't get to see the Hall of Presidents with the wax figures. This time I really wanted to, and I figured I would be able to because it was just my sister and I, no kids. Well, I got go and this ornament is a reminder.

My Mom knows I really love blown glass ornaments. For the last several years she's been getting me them for Christmas. She also knows I have a thing for cupcakes. With the below ornament she captured both!

Alyssa had no idea she was getting an Staples Easy Button for Christmas. Every time she saw the commercial on TV she would say she wanted one. I would always say, "You know, it doesn't really work." When she opened it up, she actually gave me a hug. I wonder if she realizes it doesn't really work.

Hope everyone's Christmas was merry and New Year's is happy.