Families of Lake Country

This is a sponsored series.

Welcome to our Families of Lake Country Family Fun series! We will be featuring families from the greater Waukesha County area who are fans of Lake Country Family Fun. We hope you enjoy getting to know your neighbors and other families in your community!


This series is sponsored by Uptown Art in Sussex.

uptownart susses

Uptown Art in Sussex offers a social art experience. They combine the arts of painting as well as the art of music to create a unique experience for the amateur or skillful artist. Their studios provide hands-on art instruction, paint supplies, canvases, aprons, and everything you need to have a great time and create your masterpiece. They also offer classes for kids starting at age 5 and are a great place to book your child’s next birthday party. Check out their website for more details to plan your next creative social experience!


Our third family is the Szajna family from Oconomowoc.

kristen-szajna-family
Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville in Myrtle Beach

A little bit about the Szajna Family:

The Szajna family, Tim and Kristen, and their two children, Tenley (5) and Peyton (8), are originally from the Lake Country area. “Szajna” is pronounced like “shina”. They work opposite shifts to allow them to care for their children without daycare. Kristen works as a Pediatric ICU nurse at Children’s Hospital in Milwaukee and reports enjoying her job, even though she witnesses some difficult times. 

Kristen enjoys being very active in the community with her daughters.  Her friends tell her she is such a “fun mom”, because she is always on the go with her children.  They attend most of Oconomowoc’s many parades and community events. Other places that the Szajna family enjoys most are Imagination Station and the Milwaukee County Zoo. If her and her husband get a date night, they like to head to Brookfield to enjoy dinner at Carrabba’s Italian Grill or Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar. Usually, though, you can find them locally at the Crafty Cow or the Cornerstone Sports Pub and Eatery.

What they love about Lake Country Family Fun:

Kristen has been following Lake Country Family Fun for the past five years, pretty much since its beginning. She enjoys being very active in the community with her daughters and would run into Melissa Peterson, Lake Country Family Fun creator, at various events. 

When asked what she likes most about the site, Kristen reports that she enjoys, references, and shares the calendar with her friends. When her daughters were younger, she would frequent the library storytime and the calendar was a great way to remember which day the next storytime event was.

A fun fact about the Szajna Family:

They love to go camping. They camp on Franklin Lake, which is up in the Eagle River area. Kristen reports that she has been going camping at this location since she six years old. However, one time five years ago, there was a bear in their campsite for the first time ever! It was quite the excitement!

Another fun fact is that she and Tim will disagree about how their daughter Tenley was named. If asked, Kristen will say she is named after a contestant from the ABC show The Bachelor. Tim, on the other hand, will say Tenley is named after Jessica Biel’s character’s name in the movie, Summer Catch. Either way, what a beautiful name!

Kristen also wanted to share a fun parenting tip – crazy sand is not a good gift and should only be played with right before one vacuums 😉

Favorite Movie to watch together as a Family:

As a family, their go-to movie leading up to Christmas is Elf. Around Easter, you can find them watching Hop. Any other night of the week, you will be likely to find them all enjoying some fun competitive cooking shows together.

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Are you a fan of Lake Country Family Fun that would like to have your family featured in our series Families of Lake Country? Please send us an email at lakecountryfamilyfun (at) gmail (dot) com! 

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