4th of July...and the 3rd and 5th and 6th

What a busy past few days! This is one of my favorite holiday's of the year, next to Halloween of course. I like our simple tradition that consists of marching in the Wilson Park parade, the Ehrhardt 4th of July party, and of course fireworks! This year, we added a few random commitments, but all in all, it was a pretty good weekend. Unfortunately, the week started out with Winn getting the dreaded hand, foot and mouth disease, which simply is a nasty virus with a high fever and rash. Great, lots of fun there! Poor little boy, he did pretty good considering how he was feeling.
Thursday the 3rd, Jeff and I went out to dinner with Mary Jo and Scott at Ristorante Bartolotta in downtown Tosa. It was a nice night out without the kids. It was great to enjoy a delicious dinner and not have to eat food cold, or cut food up, or convince someone to eat playing silly games the entire time! Imagine! We had reservations at 5:30, Jeff's parents were watching all 4 kids while we sat and enjoyed a relaxing dinner (does that seem fair????). After dinner and a few drinks later, we decided that we should splurge and have dessert, which is usually skipped at these "nice dinners". Mary Jo and myself had tirimasu, while Jeff opted for the banana chocolate cake. Scott went a bit off the board and chose some grapefruit shaved ice...with some kind of liquor shot poured on top. In west allis terms, this is considered a Snow Cone, but in Tosa, we step it up a bit. After dinner, in our nice getup, we headed over to the Club Tap for a post dinner drink. Now, at dinner, Jeff was talking about Schlitz beer, re-brewing their old classic Schlitz recipe. Apparently, it is extremely hard to get your hands on cases of this product. Once and a while, I enjoy the taste of a cold beer (????) (once and a while???). Sometimes even the old school one's. We walk into Club Tap, and see signs posted all over for the new (old) Schlitz beer. So we decided to have 1, or 2, and they were great! Nothing like an ice cold brew on a hot summer night!
The next day, we woke early for the parade. We march in the Wilson Park parade every year, I joined in when I met Jeff, but he has been doing this since as long as he can remember! Now, this parade is like no other. You ask, why? Are there floats...no, are there marching bands...maybe, but a really small one, are there horses or other animals...definitely not. What there is at this parade is a lot of people marching with flags and decorated bikes, strollers, scooters, headed towards one common goal...ice cream. We march about 6 blocks or so up 20th and down 16th street to Wilson Park. I joke, but it really is pretty fun! It is a time where I get to catch up with some of the girls, have a beer from Mr G at 10:00am, and have a mini cup of ice cream at the end. Maddy really enjoyst he parade, but especially the ice cream after too. Winn got his first taste, and he thought that was pretty great. I will get some pictures in a slide show soon too!



After parade time, we seem to have out own little traditions. The boys go and get the keg of beer and ice (somehow we always end up with the perfect amount), and the girls run to Kohls for some clothes. I always seem to dress wrong. We plan to spend the entire day at the Ehrhardt's party, and I never seem to pack enough for temperature changes, etc. So every year, I am either buying pants or shorts because it got too cold or too hot. The party was lots of fun. The kids had a pretty good time, again, despite being a little under the weather. We watch the fireworks at 9:30or so down by the creek. We are a bit far from where they light them off, but its nice not to have to leave home to see them! I love fireworks! Maddy, once again, did not make it to the fireworks. She had quite a fever, and went to bed pretty early. Next year I hope!!!
Saturday was my friend Tara's wedding day! What a gorgeous day for a wedding, couldn't have been better. The ceremony was held at Elmbrook Church followed by a reception at Bristlecone Pines Country Club. Fancy schmancy place! A night of dancing, and friends. Cheers to Tara and Justin!



Sunday Jeff and I played in a poker play-in tournament. I was first knocked out (my goodness) and Jeff took 4th, no cash and no entrance to the Tournament of Champions. Maybe it wasn't meant to be, all weekends through mid August seemed to be booked up.
I am glad to get back to some sort of normalcy around here, if there is such thing.
Our holiday weekend was great, hectic, fun, and tiring, but I still love it!!