Busy Weekend full of GRANDTOTS and Family Easter Gathering

We had a wonderful weekend full of grandtot hugs and visiting with Steve's family for our Pfundtner Easter Gathering.

Saturday started with our fourth grandtot, Mason, to have his birthday party.  He turned ONE year old!  Thoroughly enjoying his birthday cake, this little guy is really experiencing the celebration.

Oh my how the time has flown...  and the grandtots all grew like weeds since we had been gone for so long on vacation. Not seeing them for a while really had our arms ACHING for some Grandtot Hugs! Both Granmuddah and Granfaddah Pfun got their fill of the grandtots----

Silly Erin brought a present for Heather's birthday which included this "stasch" on a pen to continue a joke from back during their cousin Christopher and Lyndsay's wedding.  Well.... Heather looks like a natural, but also grandtots Clayton and Allegra had to try it out too!

The little guy ripped through his presents and all of them played with the wrapping paper, bows and tissue paper.   I think they enjoyed it more than the toys!   We had a fun picnic lunch of hot dogs and all the fixens for a great one year old birthday party.



On Sunday, we had to prepare for the Pfundtner Easter Gathering.  Steve and I headed out early to get the fire going... why?  Because we rented the pavilion at High Cliff State Park!   It's not normally heated unless someone rents it out ---- so we got in at 8am and lit a campfire in the big fireplace.

What a great place for a "camping family" to gather!   

This is one of the buildings that Steve maintains in High Cliff State Park where he works.  

Soon the fire was warming us up, and the room was heating to a comfortable level.  

When we first got there, it was so cold we could see our breaths as we spoke.  Brrrrrr

We added some spring decorations, and covered up the picnic tables with easter cloths. There are also outdoor tables overlooking the edge of the cliff...  but it was much too cold and snowy out there to enjoy any of that part of the pavilion grounds.  

The park is built on the Niagara Escarpment with a long cliff extending around the NE top corner of Lake Winnebago.  If you look close in the outdoor pic, you can see the frozen lake along the horizon.

We got the hams roasting up early to have them done in time for the meal at 1 pm.  

and I had along the large crockpot of calico beans to warm through too. 

They always taste better the second day

Everyone brought a dish to pass, brotherinlaw Pete brought us flowers, 

and daughter Erin and Mark brought us an Easter Lily.

We have so many March and April birthday's now that we had a cake made up for

 "HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO EVERYONE"  to celebrate.  

Also, it carries on the tradition that my mother-in-law Maryann Pfundtner 

would do each year for her sons, Steve and Mark.  

Family gathered together in prayer for the holiday meal, and we were laughing and eating and sharing stories with those around us. Food, Family and Festive Fun is a great combination.

Soon it was time for the Easter Egg Hunt!   

I took the kids outside for a trip around the building, 

looking for that elusive Easter Bunny....

they almost saw him, they even looked in the bathrooms!  

Nope, he managed to hide all the eggs and disappear! 

JAMESON                                          ALLEGRA

CHELSEA                                           MASON (and daddy Dan)

even littlest Clayton found eggs! 

CLAYTON

Once that was all done, now it was time for this Granfaddah and Granmuddah to hand out souvenirs!  Seeing as we had been to Texas, we figured our little grandtots would become COWBOYS & COWGIRLS!    (thanks to cousin Tim and Karen Hennum for pointing us to a good western wear shop near Dallas to get childs' size cowboy hats and bandanas)

What a bunch of buckaroos! 

Of course, the girls got pink hats, which they adored.  The boys were all the "bad guys" in black hats, mainly because I figured white would get dirty fast.  They all got matching bandanas to wear around their necks.  Little Mason kept taking his hat off, and little Clayton was having a hard time keeping his on.  The SMALL size ones were as small as we could get.... but we think the two 1 year olds will have to grow into theirs a bit.  LOL

Jameson wanted to a "Cowboy Robber" with his bandana over his face

and little Clayton just kept trying to keep his hat on and play with his easter toys.  

We brought the daughters and daughterinlaws all a tiny cactus from the desert, which can be stuck way high up out of the way of the children.  Each little clay pot had a magnet to stick it up on the fridge out of the way.  Then each of them got a big colorful pottery bowl from SJ pottery in Bethel Mo.   Then for our son and each son-in-law we brought 6 packs of Budweiser grilling sauces and bbq sauces from when we toured the brewery in St. Louis. 

After everyone pitched in the clean up, we carvanned down to our house in Chilton.  Many of the family had not seen our new-to-us house so we gave the Nickel Tours to anyone who wanted to come and see it.  The house was filled with the joyous shouts of the grandtots as they pulled out the toy box from the Munchkin Closet!  I just love to fill the house with the noise of the grandtots and the family coming to visit.  The giggling girls found the telephones that used to hang on the walls here.  How natural! 

 The grandsons found lots of fun toys, and Clayton discovered Grandfaddah's cell phone!

We cracked open a bottle of wine for us grown up gals to enjoy.  Some gathered out on the front porch, as it was finally warm enough to set out there a bit.  We are going to enjoy this porch more and more as winter goes away.  It's so light and bright facing the east with windows all around.  The kids ran around  in and out of the porch.  Up and down both staircases, around and around through the rooms.... We were very happy to have a home to have them come and visit.

After everyone left, just Pete and his girlfriend Cindy stayed for a longer visit.  We cracked open another bottle of wine to finish off the day. Things were now peaceful, but strangely quiet without all of the little ones bounding about.  We let up the dogs from the basement so they could run around and look for crumbs dropped by the kids.

After Pete and Cindy left, we still had to unload all the boxes, roaster, crock pot, and food from the car.    After sorting, condensing, and packed into containers into the fridge....

we finally collapsed into bed.... 

ahhhhhh  Another Pfundtner Easter Gathering under our belts.