Hometown Heroes Night Coloring Champ

Just wanted to share one lucky little girl. She won a coloring contest through the Piggly Wiggly (all the first graders drew pictures of their heroes - she drew a picture of her daddy) and had to go to the Hometown Heroes Banquet to collect her prize on Tuesday night. Tom and I were already going as he is a volunteer fireman (all the local police, firefighters, first responders and veterans were invited).

I could not believe the size of the trophy - plus she got a basket full of goodies (cheesey puffs, candy, pop) and a $50 savings bond (well - it matures to $50 in about 12 years) We didn't even know about it until Monday night! They called her up in front of about 300 people and paraded her around giving her high-fives with her picture - she was in her element after she got over her shyness! She behaved so well in that room full of adults - it was a proud mommy moment. I really couldn't believe how she strided up to the front when they called out her name.

Sorry if this is a little over the top - I figured you'd get a good laugh out of the trophy if nothing else!
Love,
Kathy

Happy Birthday Helen!

Helen's Birthday Party was on Sunday at the Gym - she had 12 friends help her celebrate (all I can say is thank goodness it was at they Gym and not my house!) Katie and Stephanie did a great job of entertaining the girls and boys and everyone had a great time. So much for a small birthday party though! Well, you're only young once!

We all survived one very busy weekend. Dan was home and really didn't see too much of him, but was nice to see him since he warned me I won't see him again until Thanksgiving.

Tom was over at Goose Island camping and participating in "Islands on the Air" amateur radio contest with friend Jim. They had lots of visitors - just not Helen & I. We spent our visiting time with Sarah who was stuck in the hospital this weekend. Thankfully she is home now and hopefully to get some relief from her pain soon.

Helen celebrated her birthday on Saturday with a trip to Chuck-E-Cheese. Three of her friends that could not make her party on Sunday met us there and we celebrated a belated birthday for Clayton (since he got poorly and had to cancel his birthday party) and welcomed back the Veraguth Family from their trip to Ireland! Thankfully, Teresa, Debbie and I had breakfast together and had wonderful conversation on Friday morning - there wasn't much chance of it at the Chuckee Zoo!

Twice in one day!

This is a record for me - two posts to the same blog in one day! I also built another blog for our Daisy Girl Scout Troop to use as a central information center. So I have made good use of my sick day from work. I have shingles, not very pleasant and quite painful, but I kept busy to keep my mind off of it. 

Helen is home and homework is done. She is busy painting rocks - and anything else she can get her hands on at the moment....  

Tomorrow she has a birthday party after school and I really should get her birthday invites out for her birthday party at the gym on the 19th. She is going to have a good birthday - the weekend following we (Helen and I) are going to Milwaukee to see the ballet Sleeping Beauty. Tom is staying home, we are going with his sister Mary and staying with her Aunt Irene. Will be a fun weekend.

Again - I will try this thing!

Here we go again - I will try and be more diligent especially as this is such a fun way to share my life with my family across the world. As you can see a lot happened in the year I missed - Nikki got married to Andy and is expecting a baby in November. 

Dan is in his second year at Platteville and Helen is a sassy first grader!