June Recap

June was so busy, I barely had a spare moment to blog!

Vivi had her dance recital, which she was so nervous about, and spent the entire time on stage crying, but when I went back to pick her up, she was so proud of herself for doing it! It was such a hard decision making her go, but I really wanted her to know that she could, and we've seen a streak of bravery since that day, she has been more likely to try new things and is very proud to tell people about it. She'll even tell Jeb and Journey "It's ok if you're nervous, you can just do it anyway!"

We spent a day at Greenfield Village and I tried to get some nice-ish pictures of the kids. Journey wouldn't stop posing with her hands on her hips, I don't know where she learned that!




Learning some new tricks at the park


Father's Day

We visited my mom at Camp Lael

We are finally able to announce that we are expecting a little girl from Hong Kong and are anxiously awaiting our court date (that is the line we were given and the only personal information we're allowed to share on the internet-I added the anxiously part :)


My sister and I planned a very successful surprise party for our parents' 30th wedding anniversary, they were so surprised!

We drove across the state to see my Florida cousin perform in a color guard competition, but it got rained out. We were soaking wet, but got to see my cousin, so it was still a good day.


We went sour cherry picking in my aunt's yard. We picked tons and tons of cherries, the kids even ate some right off the tree, I thought they were too sour!

And we ended the month with my birthday. Eric asked the kids what my favorite foods are to get for breakfast, and they thought I would love donuts and french fries :) I thought the camera was in the van, but it wasn't, so I don't have pictures of our day at Eastern Market in Detroit, exploring some of the other shops in Detroit, and wandering around the Detroit Institute of Arts. The kid's favorite memory of the day is probably a little shop that had an old fashioned elevator with no doors, so they could see as we went up each floor. After all of that we went to my favorite sushi/Asian food buffet, where the kids ate their weight in the variety of sushi and crablegs. We definitely get our money's worth there since the kids cost so little to eat and they have such adventurous taste. They also tried frog legs and a lot of the sushi had different kinds of roe (fish eggs) on it. Only Journey liked the frog legs, but Jeb loved the roe and kept going back for more sushi with roe on it. We ended the night at home with ice cream sundaes and a few rounds of Go Fish. The perfect birthday!

Sesame Place Day 3

Our last day of Sesame Place was mostly spent re-riding our favorite rides, then moving over to the water rides.

The girls love Grover's World Twirl

This waterslide was one Jeb could do himself, and he probably did it 8 or 9 times.

Even the girls liked this one. You may have noticed that it is Eric on the roller coasters and waterslides-they are so not my thing. I'm the happy photographer :)



The obligatory cookie in front of the Cookie Monster topiary. The cookies were actually really good, nice and thick and soft, yum!

One more ride on the tea cups before heading out for the day.

This time we did end up splurging on the Elmo plates of chicken nuggets and fries, but the kids shared 2 orders (I'm not paying $25 for 9 chicken nuggets and a handful of fries!) and Eric and I split a $9 salad. The park closed at 6 because it was Sunday, so we attempted to drive to a Subway for sandwiches, but they were already closed, so we ended up at a Target with a grocery store and bought a loaf of bread, a package of nitrate free (Journey friendly) lunch meat, sliced cheese, and grabbed a couple of ketchup and mustard packets from the cafe for under $10.

After eating dinner, we stopped at a gas station to fill up before heading out, and something happened...and the car started beeping again. So, we spent the 9 hour drive home tuning out the beeping, again. We ended up driving straight through since the kids were sleeping so well and Eric and I were doing alright awake. We got home at 7am, put the kids in bed, and napped until 10am. We had bought a new dvd to watch at Sesame Place, and their travel excitement kept them up until almost 11pm, so they still had some sleep left in them, which was great for us!

We had a GREAT time at Sesame Place and I think we're going to go back again next year!

Sesame Place Day 2

Woops, forgot to hit post!

The next morning we woke up early at the hotel and caught the first shuttle to Sesame Place for our character breakfast. It was so much fun, and I definitely recommend doing the character breakfast before actually beginning your trip there, because after we had seen so many favorite characters, we didn't need to wait in line to see them later in the day. We saw Elmo, Cookie, Grover, The Count (Journey yelled "ah ah ah" at him as he walked by and he stopped and clapped for her :), and Abby Cadabby.

Journey was nervous at first but warmed up to everyone, and Jeb was darting around giving all of them hugs as they moved around the room :)

When we were done eating and meeting the characters, it was time to go out and find some rides! The first one they all wanted to go on was the roller coaster! All 3 kids did it, and they all loved it!

The carousel was another favorite. Jeb was tall enough to ride by himself (without an adult next to him) on most of the rides, which was great because the girls were not tall enough for most rides, so for some rides, one of us would go on with one kid, then we'd switch with another. We also did a lot osf splitting up, usually Jeb and Eric would go do the more wild rides like the roller coaster and big water slides, while the girls and I stuck to rides like the teacups.



We got lucky and stumbled upon Bert and Ernie right as they came out, so we didn't have to wait in line to see them

Journey is quite the little thrill seeker, she loved the wild rides!

And when she crashed, she crashed hard. Don't worry, sling-obsessed people, we fixed her head right after this ;)

During the hottest part of the day (it was 90's all weekend), we went into the air conditioned theater to see Elmo's World Live, and got to play on the set after.



We left the park tired, but rather than pay outrageous prices for mediocre food at the park, we took the shuttle back to the hotel and went to a restaurant instead. The kid's meals are $9, and the adult meals are even more! We ended up eating at the cheapest place for lunch, Big Bird's Backyard BBQ, which was a buffet of burgers, hot dogs, baked beans, corn, chips, and pop. The food was only ok, but we got to sit under a pavillion with a nice breeze. We went to TGI Fridays for dinner, where the 5 of us split 2 yummy entrees with vegetables and an appetizer assortment and were stuffed for the same price it would have cost us for a bunch of Elmo plates with chicken nuggets and fries.

Overall, a very successful first day and we couldn't wait for day 2!

Sesame Place Trip, part 1: When nothing goes as planned

Eric was teaching the night we left, so I packed the van and let the kids stay up until it was time to go get him. Jeb must have told me 12 times, "Mom! We get to stay up while daddy teaches the college kids, and we do NOT have to go to bed!" I know, kid, it was my idea :) They were so excited and absolutely wild, talking nonstop and asking if it was time to leave every 30 seconds.

My mom rode up to the school with us so she could drive Eric's car home, and we were finally off! Almost 2 hours in, the kids were sound asleep and we stopped at a rest stop for a late night snack. Eric turned the car off, but everything else in the car running, including the air conditioner, and an extra long line at Burger King killed the battery. We called our insurance because they offer free roadside assistance, but because we were on the Ohio turnpike and only one tow company has permission to service the turnpike, we weren't covered. Luckily, a big pickup truck pulled up and offered to give us a jump. By this point the kids were up and asking a zillion questions. "Why are all those semi trucks over there?" "They SLEEP in there??" "Do we have to put our car battery into a charger?" "Can we help plug it in?" And around and around again. We did have a nice conversation about how God puts people in the right place at the right time, and we reflected on the prayer Eric said before we left.

We got the van started, thanked the man, and re-situated the kids. Then Eric put the car in gear, and...it started beeping. You know the noise it makes when the key is in the ignition and the driver's door is open? It made that noise. In the middle of the night. In the middle of nowhere. We didn't want to spend the night where we were because we'd only been driving a couple of hours and it would mess up the rest of the trip. We read the manual front to back and it wasn't helpful at all, so we decided to just keep driving. This is where having 3 small children comes in handy-we can tune out anything! We drove into the night, but our plan of driving half way and finding a hotel didn't work because there weren't any hotels halfway. So we kept driving until we found one (we needed a specific hotel because we had enough points for free stays at this hotel), but it was booked, and so was the next one. By that point it was almost 6am and it seemed silly to get a hotel for 4 hours, so we just pulled into a rest stop and napped for a couple of hours. I had been napping on and off all night so when I woke up, I switched seats with Eric and drove for a couple more hours. By that point the kids were waking up and we were low on gas, so we pulled off to fill up and I made peanut butter sandwiches for the kids. We got out to stretch and an employee at the gas station called the kids over to see this cool butterfly:



While we were there, we heard from Eric's aunt, who was going to be our next free overnight stay. Luckily she had taken the day off, even though we weren't supposed to be there until dinner time, so when we got there before lunch, she already had the inflatable pools blown up and filled. Don't they have a great view?



While the kids swam, Aunt Chris and Eric went to a local car shop to have them look at the beeping problem, then we went to her office so she could show us off, and then out to lunch. We came back for a nap and they called to say they had fixed the van, so Eric went back to get it. We decided to drive to the hotel at Sesame Place that night, rather than having to wake up and drive the hour and a half that morning. We all needed a solid night's sleep. Luckily they were not booked and could give us a room.

After dinner, we repacked the van while Jeb got to drive Uncle Howard's tractor. Then came the highlight of the day-going to the airport to play in Uncle Howard's plane!






After we said goodbye, we headed to the hotel. In our nice, non-beeping van.

Spring blooms

Some pretty plants around our yard

My front flower bed is in desperate need of weeding, but my tulips finally bloomed!

The giant lilac bush just started blooming, it must be decades old. I'll get another picture when it is all in bloom.

A big apple tree, I hope we get some apples this year!

Our little pear tree

Peach tree

I don't remember what this is but it is do pretty!

Rhododendron, my only surviving one :/

Vivi's 4th birthday!

Good morning, sunshine!

When she noticed the balloons all over her floor

Being bashful as we sang her first 'happy birthday' of the day




Vivi's favorite presents-princess dress, Hello Kitty backpack, and strawberry necklace that matches the one Journey got for her birthday.

For her birthday, Vivi asked if we could go to Jungle Java!


We surprised her by inviting her local cousins to come play too, she was so excited!

Another bashful picture-singing 'happy birthday' again





For her 'picks' she chose pancakes for breakfast, macaroni and cheese for lunch AND dinner-we used Annie's for lunch and I made crock pot mac 'n' cheese for dinner, and cinnamon rolls for dessert. She also picked Bolthouse Blue Goodness juice to drink, Better Made BBQ chips and brussels sprouts (her favorite veggie) to go with dinner, and Cascadian Farm chocolate o's for bedtime snack.

It was a very busy, very fun day!

Reading and writing

Jeb's favorite subject of 1st grade is still language arts. The first couple of days he much preferred reading over writing, but he is really catching on to writing and is even starting to sound out words and trying to write by himself.

Today he had his first spelling test from the words we have been working on all week. His reader has a short story for every day, and each week they are mostly made up of words with a similar ending. This week was -at words, with a couple of added sight words like the, and, is.

We are both really enjoying Sonlight's Core A, much more than the 4/5 curriculum. I love the way they tie the subjects together. When we read about Adam and Eve leaving the garden of Eden and having to work harder to support themselves, and the chores Cain and Abel did, we read in some history books about early civilization and how they learned to work the fields, find food in the wild, make clothing, etc. Jeb especially liked learning how people would hunt an animal, eat the meat, then use the skin to make clothes and the bones to make tools.

Here is his first spelling test, and his first short story about one of the characters in his reader.