Four people, four different ghosts! Mine is the tall one on the right! It was the first time any of us felted!
Felted Ghosts!
Tag Archives: Ceisel
Last minute mom brunch!
It had been waaay too long since we’d all been together so we went out for brunch!
My name is NOT mom!
Mom’s night out at Genesee Theater with some of our mom squad to see My Name is NOT mom! I was so happy to be healthy enough to make it!
We’re really up close and personal for some mom humor!
It was hilarious and definitely worth going if you get a chance!
Epic Paloozafest Blowout
Y’ALL, IT’S TIME TO PARTY!
We’ve all been cooped up with Covid and missed ALLLLLLLLLL the excuses to party…and you know we like to throw a house party…so we’re doing them all at once!
- Post-Covid Celebration
- Cascade Housewarming (7/2020)
- Tom’s USMC retirement (6/2021)
- BFF Anna-versary (8/2021)
- Our 20th Anniversary (8/2021)
- End-of-Summer/Back-to-School
Saturday morning and the Jello shots are here and ready thanks to Angela (she took the assignment when I ran out of time). But look at how well they fit in our garage fridge? It’s like it was meant to be.
About an hour before the party and I wasn’t even dressed yet. You think “Oh there’s only a little bit to do” but all the little things add up! Angela came over to help with a bunch of it and I’m eternally grateful. (Anna was picking up my kids from a class and getting the cupcakes.) It takes a village to throw a big party!!
Getting closer—getting the mixed drink dispensers ready! Peach Bellini, Rum Punch (empty), Vodka and lemonade, Beergarita, Bahama Mama.
David making his famous Trinidad rum punch! Yes that’s two full bottles of rum going in.
I forgot to take a pic of the food table but the dessert table was insane so I did takes a pic of that! We wouldn’t have needed to buy cupcakes at all! We had a few different kinds of cookies, two smoked cheesecakes, a German chocolate cake, a white cake, mini cupcakes, and Sam’s Club cupcakes!
Local-ish TiVo peeps!
We had to do at least one LipSense selfie!
The ribs were a hit. The pulled pork was amazing. And we have a ton of leftovers!
The only pics I snapped outside during the party!
The slide was a huge hit as expected. A few adults did go down towards the end of the night—butb it was actually cold by then so it didn’t last long.
David ended up making drinks for people at the bar…
And as we were saying goodbye to people, I discovered someone left a fern in our empty pot! (I had wanted to get succulents planted in it but never got to it with all the house stuff.) Turns out it was Ava, one of my gardener friends!
We just have great friends—from everyone who offered to help to the ones who loaned us things to the ones that jumped in to help before, during (putting away leftovers and doing the first round of kitchen clean up, and after (cleaning up the yard and house)… Thank you. We had a great time and I think everyone else did, too! Now to clean up some more and relax…
WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!
Tom’s youth baseball coaching career is off to a great start—the Phillies are the Gurnee Youth Baseball Mustang Champions! It took two days and 9 innings but they did it!
What made the win even more exciting is that they beat the undefeated Cubs to win! (And the Cubs had actually slaughtered us in a previous game—something like 17-2.)
It was a nail biter for sure—they caught up and we were tied 12-12 which then pushed us into an extra inning! And after no scoring, another inning! And then in the bottom of the ninth with two outs, we scored—which meant the game was immediately over!
A special sidenote: Anna and family showed up again to cheer the team on!
Dads Day fishing trip!
Some of the dads went on a fishing trip in Wisconsin!
Tom’s offering was Bloody Marys with huuuuge skewers of meat, cheese, veg, and pretzel bites!
Tom didn’t take many pics so these are from others!
Rally fingers!
Ladies Lunch
Since we’re all fully vaccinated, some of our mom’s group met for lunch out today! We had a great time! I love these ladies!
Guys out and in!
Last night some of the women got together… Tonight we invited everyone over for a fire but just the men came…so Anna and I hung out on the couch and just let the men do their thing. They rotated between the campfire and the bar depending if it was raining.
I told Anna this was my perfect life. Girls hanging out one night, guys hanging out another. Hanging out together. Everyone has a good time. She agreed with me.
Walking to a fire!
When your neighbor friends are having a small bonfire and joke that you should come over? Off we go, drinks in hand, to walk five houses away!
Legwork for Anna!
Anna is running for school board so asked for help passing out fliers. Angela and I did a few neighborhoods today—she drove and I delivered! I was surprised how tired I got!
This was our proof to her that we were actually doing it!
Challenge accepted!
So this morning a friend was having fun with the SeneLook app and I joked not to tempt me because I could do that look. So then another friend challenged me to make it a totally wearable daily look.
So here’s the look!
It isn’t perfect by any stretch—I need more blending, I need a liner and probably fake lashes, and the lips are too gold (I think I need to do an ombre)…but overall it’s not bad at all! 😂
Regardless, it was fun and really didn’t take that long!
Mom Squad Zoom Christmas
Kim Ho Ho Ho’ed everyone today with treats and a #momsquad wine glass for our Secret Santa exchange…
We had a great time but can’t wait to see each other in person again…
Pre-Thanksgiving Zoom with friends
When you’re on a cheese party zoom call in the kitchen you have to make do.
Playing some new online collaborative games. Quiplash is my favorite!
We got Boo’ed again!
But this time we know it was one of our neighborhood mom group… And this isn’t my basket but someone else’s because my kids tore into ours so fast I couldn’t get a picture. At least they handed me the wine.
You’ll never believe this.
My friend Angela told me she had something for me. Her husband found it while he was mowing the lawn…
My missing margarita earring!!! I mean really, what are the odds?! (Of course I’d already bought two replacement pair, but still.)
She thought it was so lucky that she bought me a scratch off, too…but unfortunately that wasn’t a winner.
I lost a margarita!!!
Tonight I called on the power of posting on Facebook to help me find my lost margarita earring. I had it at 8pm before I went to visit a neighbor for a driveway drink… (I checked my photos and I had happened to take a pic before I knew I was headed over.) I’ll look in the street tomorrow but I don’t have high hopes.
After three hours of visiting and walking the neighborhood with her…
I joke about margaritas but they really are my thing. Check out my workshop bio.
You know it’s a good night with the neighbors when…
this is the amount of limes in the sink.
The night started innocent enough. Lindsay said she was out relaxing in her back yard while the kids played and whoever wanted to come down was welcome. Tom was napping and the kids were out and about so I left a note and drove down. Shortly after u arrived, Angela and Ryan showed up (with their two littles) as they were out on a walk.
The margaritas were flowing and I texted Tom that he needed to come with the kids. It took some convincing because he was tired. But I assured him he really did need to show up because the dads were there and this was going to be a good opportunity to meet them all and just hang out and get to know them. So he came. Other neighbors and kids showed up and we ended up ordering pizza!
We even sent Owen home on his Segway to get some fruit from our fridge. He got to feel responsible and we got the fruit so it was win-win.
The littles even did sparklers before we left!
Moms night down the street!
So I’ve been chatting with the ladies I met from my “ad” for friends and tonight we had a meet and greet at a house down the street—so I walked there with my bag of margaritas! We all sat around the fire socially-distanced style and visited for hours! Everyone was great and I am totally excited about being friends with them! It went so well that I was there until almost 2am! (Yes I was the last one there but not by much!)
Red Hots win! Congrats to the GYB fall champs!
Owen’s team won the fall championship in a 19-17 nail biter today! They were up a few and then down by 10 (and we thought the game might get called by the slaughter rule), then we caught up, then they caught up, and then we were ahead by two and held them off!! Owen did his thing on 1st and caught the ball for the final out of the game! We are so proud of all the boys!!
Here’s a few pics from the game. Owen on second.
A typical sight: tying shoelaces.
Attempting to steal home. I can’t remember if he did or not.
Katie was being punished for earlier transgressions at home and had to sit by me the entire game, so I got these.
The game was stressful to watch because the score was so back-and-forth. But once we came back from being 10 runs down, the entire mood changed and it was a real game!! We were ahead by two going into the top of the seventh inning so we expected they’d score and we’d have to rally in the bottom of the seventh (and last) inning but the boys held them off!
I was taking pics of the last plays and got these. They aren’t great because the fence was in the way, but I love the progression of the excitement, then the boys coming in from the field, then throwing hats in the air! I wished I had gotten a shot of Owen actually catching the ball but it is what it is.
Award ceremony!
TEAM PHOTO!
Funny team photo!
Running the bases (Owen led the way)!
Friends. 💕
Coaches Tom, Ken, Jamie (Head Coach), Mark
Happy boy!
Happy daddy!
Fun with Coach Jamie!
And then it was off to Culver’s to celebrate!
No, white eyelashes are not my normal.
In my rush to get out of the house early this morning to take Owen to his Lego robotics class at school, my normal makeup routine was rushed. So if you see me within the next hour or so, I don’t have weird white eyelashes for any reason other than I only got primer on before it was time to leave and I forgot my mascara on the steps where I sat down to put my shoes on. 😂
P.S. It was another retail shopping day as I was meeting a friend in the Target parking lot to borrow her tent…and ended up going in with her.
Baseball Wrap Party
The whole team was invited to Richardson’s Adventure Farm to celebrate a great fall season of baseball. Not too many showed up, but we all had a great time! We rented a site with a fire pit and the kids enjoyed the Jumping Pillow, a 100′ slide, and the World’s Largest and Most Intricate Corn Maze (lots of cool details here). Lest you think I’m kidding about the maze, here it is:
We brought plain hot chocolate but Jess brought this… You can see why we’re friends.
Mom fun!
Yes I went down this!
It was actually really fun and not scary at all!
This place was huge!
I might have eaten something delicious.
Then once the moms were back at the fire, the dads took a group of kids through the corn maze.
And within five minutes of being in the car on the way home…
Baseball ready, mom style!
2nd Annual Back-to-school BBQ waterslide party!
We had so much fun last year we decided to do it again!!
The kids were very intrigued when Tom started using the blow torch on the ribs.
It took awhile but by the end of the night, some dads (and one mom—not me!) went down the slide. Which led us to wonder how on Earth these kids could do this non-stop… The adults got tired after just a few times. 😄
And then it was over…the cleanup aftermath. And we can’t wait until next year!!
