Sprecher Tour

Milwaukee is known as the beer capital of the world.  One of the popular breweries here is the Sprecher Brewery.  Sprecher's second best selling product behind their beer, is their root beer. Shawn and I both agree their root beer and cream soda are our favorite.  We took the kids on Friday night to the brewery for a tour and sample tasting.  We got to sample lots of different flavors of soda including ginger, orange, raspberry, grape, red ravin (cherry, cranberry), cherry cola, puma kola (cinnamon, honey, vanilla),  cream soda and their classic root beer.

  

Tae Kwon Do Video

Here is a fun video of the boys during the warm up for their belt testing.

Belt Testing

The boys had their Tae Kwon Do test this week.  They have been practicing really hard for  the past few months and are ready to advance to the Gold belt.  It was a long night, but they both passed and advanced to the next level.  

Here are the boys doing their defense moves and beating off an attacker.

Here the boys are breaking a board with their kicks.  I could not get Ethan's face in the shot, but that is his foot breaking the board.

Black and White Dinner

We had our annual Black and White dinner this past week.  It was a little more low key than the past years, but just as fun.

Menu:

Balsamic Roast

Roasted Brussel Sprouts (kids favorite, I'm serious)

Carrots

Mediterranean Cous Cous

Coconut Cherry Drinks

Samoa Bunt Cake

We set goals for this year.  The kids were all very insightful about what they wanted to work on.  All the kids set goals to do sit-ups and push-ups every night before bed.  They set school goals, church goals, home goals, and chose something they wanted to learn this year and somewhere they wanted to go.

Ethan wants to learn how to snowboard and drive a golf cart, Cole wants to learn how to play flag football, and Liv wants to learn to swim.  Ethan wants to so to San Diego, as does Cole, and Liv wants to see her cousins and go to the Dells. We worked on our good manners and talked about our upcoming move.

We always get new games for Christmas, so we spent the night playing.
This was our favorite of the night.

Hot Shots

Last night at gymnastics Liv's teacher wanted to meet with me before class.  She said that she was very impressed with Liv's ability and skills in gymnastics.  She wanted to have her evaluated by the team coach for their special class.  Liv was very excited and worked really hard during class.  At the end they invited her to come back next week and join the "Hot Shots" class.  This class is by invitation only for 5-6 year olds who demonstrate strong skills and are preparing for the team level.   

Liv is excited and we are so proud of her.

 

JOB

After a 13 year journey through college, medical school, internship, residency, fellowship and a gazillion moves we have finally reached the end and accepted a job offer.  It took lots of airplane trips, interviews, letters, emails, talking, researching, negotiating and praying, but this summer we will be making our final move and calling home.... 

PHOENIX, ARIZONA.

the last week of 2012

It started with Christmas morning.

The kids were good this year and Santa brought them EVERYTHING they wanted.  Ethan's big gift was a Go Pro Camera to record his bike rides, Cole got an iPod touch, and Liv got an American Girl doll.  

Next, we celebrated my birthday.  I had to work during the day, but was surprised by a fun lunch and cupcake by my co-workers.  Here is my snowman cupcake, he took a little dive and the frosting got messed up, but it was delicious.  

The kids and I went for a hike later that day so they could test out some of their new camping and hiking gear.

Shawn took the kids shopping and they all got me special gifts for my birthday.  Shawn knows I am more of an ice cream gal, as opposed to  cake, so when he suggested getting frozen yogurt after dinner I was a happy girl.

We finished off this last week going to an indoor wave soccer game and then hitting Sobleman's at Marquette (a popular burger joint).   

We rang the New Years in with a fun fondue party and some bubbly.

It was nice having the kids home from school for a while.  We stayed up late every night playing games and watching movies.  The kids finished their last night of Winter Break with a sleep over.

The last exciting news is that we are currently in the process of negotiating a job contract.  I'll tell you where soon :)