The Great Milwaukee Circus Parade

Only every few years the Great Milwaukee Circus Parade rolls into town. Finally on Sunday, July 12th the parade returned. After a few days of festivities at the lakefront, the grand finale was the parade. Melissa's parents, Daryl, Jenny, Madison & Melissa staked out a piece of the sidewalk with the other thousand's of spectators for the highly anticipated parade. It is always quite the spectacle as the parade becomes entirely horse drawn with 50 authentic circus wagons, 350 exquisite horses, 30 musical bands and novelties, exotic animals, 150 clowns and over 450 riding and walking performers dressed in lavish circus wardrobe. This year my niece, Lexi Prusow, was also walking in the parade to promote the Children's Italian Dance Group of Milwaukee and Festa Italiana. She was dressed as a fairy and did a fantastic job walking approximately two miles, despite her brief case of nerves.

Jenny, Daryl, Madison, Dad, Mom & Melissa

Lexi (blue fairy) walking in the parade

Tailgating fun

On Saturday, July 11th, Shawn & Melissa organized a fantastic tailgate with a few close friends. We were joined by Jason & Kristin Jourdan, Kevin & Bridget Pankonin, Justin Pankonin & girlfriend, Rachel. We arrived with plenty of time to set up our tailgate and eat, eat, eat. Starting off with bacon wrapped asparagus, carrots with dip, taco dip & chips, Italian sausages, brats & hamburgers and wrapping up with delicious chocolate peanut butter bars and chocolate chip cookie bars. Oh and lots of beer, water for Melissa. The game was very enjoyable despite Shawn dropping a full glass of beer on the patrons next to him. Nice...real nice. The Brewers beat the LA Dodgers with a final score of 6-3. We stayed in the parking lot for another 90 minutes to finish some beers and watched our drunken neighbors. Can't wait until we do it again next year!!!!

Tailgating with all the details

Bridget, Kristin & Melissa

Shawn, Kevin & Jason

Melissa & Shawn

4th of July

This year we spent a fabulous weekend in Door County for another 4th of July. Shawn, Melissa and the dogs got to the cabin on Thursday night early. It was so nice to relax prior to settling in for the night. On Friday morning, Shawn was kind of enough to go strawberry picking with Melissa. We picked a flat of strawberries and sure did enjoy them. We were treated by Grandpa to a delicious fish fry with the most of the family, around 22 people. Brewer really enjoyed swimming in the bay, while JoBu did an excellent job of trying not to drown as he did not like the water so much. Shawn really wanted to teach him how to swim so he carried JoBu into the bay and made him swim back. It was quite hilarious. Brewer had an amazing time swimming out to everybody on the floats and even tried to swim after Shawn & Uncle Fred on the boat. It proved to be another fantastic adventure on Saturday, the 4th of July. After a day of floating in the bay, we prepared for the annual wienie roast. Yummy! Uncle Mark brought out a new wienie roaster. Two hot dogs could go on either end and then rotated by the built-in-reel. Very humorous to watch! The fireworks display was absolutely amazing. Not only did we have the best show that I've seen in my years in the Bansemar family, but we were also blessed with the entire county's fireworks. Fireworks were seen up and down the point, including a display from a wedding down the road. They were fantastic. Dangerous, but fantastic.

Shawn & Melissa picking strawberries

Melissa, Shawn, Grandpa & Eric

JoBu & Brewer enjoying a cold one

Our impressive firework display

Uncle Mark & his weiners

Shawn & Uncle Fred go for a boat ride. Not seen: Brewer swimming after boat

Shawn swimming with his dogs

There she goes....

So picture this....Melissa is relaxing after a long weekend of cleaning out the basement by herself and 3 trips to Goodwill. (I can't believe the memories of my childhood. I consolidated 4 boxes of memories into 1 box!) It was just Melissa, Brewer & Gatsby (brother's dog) for the weekend while Shawn was in Door County with JoBu and some of Shawn's relatives. Shawn apparently did lots of yardwork and and cottage maintenance. So fast forward to 5pm on Sunday night, Shawn had a freshly opened a beer, the oven was preheated for some potatoes and we were about to put the chicken on the grill when we had some large gusts of wind come through our neighborhood. We were sitting at the kitchen table when we heard a sound similar to some chairs turning over. Well! Melissa looked out the front door window and saw leaves blowing around, which had not been there 5 minutes ago. Oh crap! Our front tree had gone down. The neighbors had seen its gradual fall as it had cracked in half. Thankfully, nobody had been walking by at that exact moment. We all know how the Bansemar's are in outside preparation...no long extension cords, no tree trimming equipment, no chainsaw...nothing! Our friendly neighbor, Tony, said he had a chainsaw, but it was electric with a loose chain and it was starting to drizzle. Typically, not a good combination! Our other friendly neighbors, Joellyn & daughter Kelly, came down barefoot to report that husband & father, Rob, was on his way back and very excited to help in the removal of our tree. Unfortunately, Melissa did not think to take any "before" pictures of the tree but once Rob brought out the rope for Shawn to aid in the direction of the tree falling and Rob was at the trunk of the tree, she knew that it needed to get scrapbooked/blogged! It took the 5 of us less than 45 minutes to completely remove the tree. Thank goodness for friendly neighbors! In the end, we had 12 piles of branches that line the entire front of the house. We are hopeful the City workers will pick them all up next Friday during brush pick up.

Melissa, Joellyn & Kelly are standing clear

It's a...BABY

On May 19th, we went in for the big anatomy ultrasound. We were very excited to see our little bean again. This time we were able to see things a little more clear thanks to the ultrasound machine's higher resolution. Everything is looking healthy and normal for the most part. We do have to go back for another ultrasound appointment beginning of July to check on a few things, but we do not mind at all. It's always so thrilling to see the new developments!

Baby's head. Check out that cute little nose!

Memorial Weekend 2009

Shawn & Melissa joined Grandpa Fred & Uncle Fred in Door County for Memorial Weekend. We were so pleased as we had perfect weather for it. It was not too windy or cold and did not rain! We could not have asked for a nicer weekend.

We began our weekend with stopping at A&W in Manitowoc. The dogs were given a special doggy cone with a dog treat topper! They loved it.

On Saturday, Uncle Fred & Melissa went into town for some groceries while Shawn & Grandpa Fred stayed behind to do a little yard work and cottage maintenance. Saturday night we cooked out for dinner and Melissa was a little of her card playing game and let Uncle Fred beat her by over 100 points. Ouch!

On Sunday, Shawn & Melissa went into town to do a little shopping but with little success. On the way back we stopped at the marina to check out the new Yacht Palmer Johnson was building. It was a 150 foot long yacht, the Blue Ice. They were still working on the finish carpentry but looked just gorgeous. Rumors indicated that the yacht'sfinal destination is somewhere in the Mediterranean.

After we got back to the cottage, we relaxed in the shade and enjoyed some wonderful conversation with Grandpa Fred, Uncle Fred & Uncle Mark. Brewer and JoBu really liked to watch people walk or drive by the cottage. In fact, Brewer made a game of it to get under Grandpa Fred's skin...he liked to charge out of the driveway after people. Well. Grandpa did not think this was amusing so he took care of the situation and tied him up! Party pooper! Once Brewer was tied up, JoBu did his best to free Brewer of his new restrictions and get back to their game! That wasn't as successful.

Baby B's first Brewer Game

On Sunday, May 3rd, Shawn & Melissa went to the Brewer's game against the Arizona Diamondbacks. It was a beautiful, warm spring day which was perfect for a tailgate. Shawn mentioned that it was Baby B's first tailgate, so of course it needed to get blogged. We enjoyed a few Hebrew National hot dogs and beer (water for Melissa and company). The game was very exciting that resulted in the Brewers winning 4-3. Enjoy a few pics from our day.

Baby B 16 week update

So last night Shawn & I had another appointment for a Baby B check up. Things are progressing wonderfully. Once again the doc was not able to find the heartbeat with the Doppler but we were a little more prepared for that this time around, so in came the big ultrasound machine. This is always exciting because we not only get to see our little one but I also get new pictures for the scrapbook! Unfortunately, those who are dying to know if Baby B will be a girl or boy will have to stay in suspense with us for a while longer. We were able to see Baby B kick and punch at me so vigorously but yet I couldn't feel anything. Very strange. I asked the doctor what the percentage was that I would be bringing my own baby home with me. Click here for my reason of concern...it is where I am delivering! While he chuckled, he reassured me of the procedures that are in place. Here are a few Baby B pictures. Enjoy!

Dinner with the Maio's

Guest Blogger: Matt Maio

Review of the Bansemar Dinner

It was a cold and wet Sunday night, but the welcome was warm when we showed up at the Bansemar household. We came with a semi-fresh loaf of bread, but the Bansemar's pretended to be happy with our selection. Always the sign of a good host.

To start the evening we listened to stories of yester-year from Shawn and Melissa. They also went into the latest baby details, which warmed our hearts with delight. The evening took a sour turn when the Brewers game ended with a loss. But fortunately dinner was right around the corner, and the empty void in our souls would be filled with comfort food prepared by Shawn and Melissa.

Service was a little slow to start off, we had to cut our own bread and make our own dipping oil. The timing of the service was a little off as well, Shawn had completely forgot he made beans and was shocked when it came time to serve all the food. The kitchen really seemed overwhelmed to try and serve all the dishes at once. But it was eventually it was served and we were ready to dig in.

The complex flavors of the pork in the lime cream sauce more than made up for the near disaster in the timing of service. In each bite you could taste the tender pork, and the acidity of the tomatoes complimented with the flavor of the lime juice, it was a party in my mouth. There was also a perfect amount of heat from the jalapeno peppers, most likely picked out fresh that morning by the chef at the local market. The perfect starch of rice pilaf complimented the whole dish. Slightly overcooked, but still it made the entire dish come together.

The bagged salad was a little bit underwhelming. Nothing to write home about, but then again what do you expect from a salad in a bag. Both kitchen chefs were arguing about forgetting the tomatoes for the ceasar salad. Although ceasar salad is not supposed to have tomatoes, one of the chefs said it was "too damn bad, that's the way I make it," and the chef that did the shopping should not have forgot them.

Dessert was a wonderfully light bite of angel food cakes, whipped cream and strawberries. I thought I would miss the traditional sugar on the strawberries, but to my delight the fresh strawberries provided just the right sweetness to the dish. A lovely cup of smooth roast folger's crystals with french vanilla cream topped off the experience. Several comments went around the table about how good the coffee was.

Overall the experience was great, the complex flavors of the pork dish really made my weekend. The dinner conversation was top notch as well. Shawn and Melissa know how to keep the conversation lively. I would recommend dining here anytime.