Catching Up With The Kelnhofers-145 (and Lake Geneva guide)

In this month’s edition of Catching Up With The Kelnhofers we’re sharing a Lake Geneva, WI Guide and a bunch of fun moments – like Ben losing his first tooth, Sam is walking (!!) and lots of great brinner meal ideas!

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Fun moments this month

• Ben lost his first tooth and the tooth fairy came!!

• I found my absolute favorite drink – Chai SuperLatte

• We celebrated my birthday! Nick and I drove down to Chicago and had dinner with 2 of my 3 sisters, the kids gave me flowers (Ben made me a gorgeous lego orchid) and there was of course cake!

• Ben and Freddie got haircuts and look so much older.

• We got lots of snow!

• The kids are such fans of Universal Yums, a monthly snack box, snacks are from a different country each month, it’s so well done and the kids eat stuff from the snack box that they would never ever have tried otherwise!

• Ben had a school dance – our kids of course just wanted to eat pizza (it was after we had had dinner, lol) and I saw Nick with Sam giving him popcorn. I said babies are not supposed to eat popcorn. Nick laughed and said “well, he just ate a whole bag, he’s not a baby anymore, lol. We thought it was a disaster but on the way home we asked how the kids liked it and they all said they loved it and wanted to go another one, lol.

Quick trip to Lake Geneva and Lake Geneva Guide

I shared this in the newsletter, but wanted it to have a permanent spot on the blog! When I was younger we used to go to Lake Geneva but I hadn’t been back except passing through, so I asked Bridget (on the SweetPhi team) – who happens to live there!! She gave me the inside scoop with this lovely list, a mini Lake Geneva, WI guide:

• The Tristan Crist Magic show is awesome
• Oakfire Pizza – delicious woodfired pizza (they give the kids dough to play with instead of coloring pages at the table)
• Bigger, rather generic, but totally easy with the kids is Lake City Social.
• Coffee – local spot – Avant (also a bike shop); great owners.
• Dust Bunny Books – cute bookstore (kid-focused). Allison Wonderland toy store
• Simple for breakfast – this is my in-laws restaurant and don’t miss the bakery next door!
• Geneva Lake Museum is fun – very limited hours so check on that.   Our kids love the school room and the train demo.
• Dancing Horses is a super entertaining show just a few minutes outside of town
• If you need a quick beer break, there is a fun brewery in an old church – Topsy Turvy. They are family-friendly with games, coloring pages etc.
• Pro-Tip: you have to pay to park in the main downtown area, but there is a free parking lot near City Hall and it’s a very short walk into town
• And if you get any adult time to sneak away, check out Candle Mercantile, Hill Valley Dairy cheese shop and wine bar

What we’ve been cooking this month

• A lot of evenings we were short on time this month, which in our house, means brinner (breakfast for dinner). We made applesauce oatmeal pancakes, scrambled eggs, peanut butter energy bites (no bake, so easy!) and some easy Trader Joe’s meals (like meatballs, bbq sauce, mashed potatoes and peas, all from the freezer and super easy for meal prep) and last but not least, the most amazing meatball Caesar pizza.

• I also started using Hungryroot meal delivery this moth (review of it here) and it’s because such a time saver, easy healthy meals (that are actually easy to make and taste good).