Michigan visit

Although the circumstances weren't ideal, our recent trip to MI ended up being a really fantastic time spent with family. Family I haven't seen in years. And by years, I mean YEARS. Like 15. We visited, got reacquainted, reminisced, ate, drank and were generally all around merry.

Wade and his cousins practically lived outdoors. And by outdoors, I really mean in the apple trees. He and Gavin (and occasionally Lily) spent countless hours by, under, and in the apple trees. They collected apples, threw apples, knocked apples down, made piles of apples, etc., etc., etc. It was so nice to have such a large space for them to run around in and not worry about neighbors or cars nearby.

 

After a few busy days with family coming and going, things slowed down as everyone headed back to their respective homes. We were the last ones to leave, and spent a day back on the MSU campus visiting a few of Mark's favorite places and another day at Uncle John's Cider Mill. The cider mill is a place I have wanted to visit for years, but have never had the opportunity as we've not been back to MI in the fall. It ended up being a freezing cold day, but the kids had a blast and it was just like I remembered it.

Both the flights there and home went exceptionally well, better than expected. The kids were great (Wade was sooo excited to fly and Lily dutifully napped), everything was on time and everyone was so helpful- one flight was nearly empty and they gave us two rows to spread out, on another they had our seats mixed up, we were one per row instead of in a row together, and the other passengers moved around to let us all sit together.

There are actually a few more pictures that I'm hoping will arrive on a disk in a package from MI soon. Along with one shoe and a pacifier. Yup, just one shoe...

More summer fun

We think he's part monkey.

Wade's sidekick

 

Lily's figuring out the slide! She chants, "do it, do it" as she's climbing up :)

 

Those are two hot & sweaty kids!

Lily and mommy time!

With Wade at school for the majority of the day twice a week, Lily and I have had some time to ourselves. It's fun to be able to focus on just Lily and what she wants to do (she is so busy! we go from one thing to the next to the next!) and it's definitely easier to run errands with only one kid in tow :) Here is what we've been up to this first week:

Enjoying some smoothie and water table time. Yes she does wear a shirt. Occasionally.

Mr. Potatohead assembly. She loves to do this & I love her silly creations!

 

 

Little girl has mastered the slide!

Thinking these might be the cutest shoes ever

 

 

Such a stylish girl! Pink, leopard print, sparkly Maryjanes. In her pj's, of course!

"M" day

We've been trying to focus on a specific letter a day- usually just one per week, though :) We have done fire for F, grass-covered G and some jellyfish hand prints for the letter J. This time it as the letter M. As in "monster" and "marble" painting. We also did an M maze using both the upper and lowercase letter.

Marble painting was pretty fun, except the marbles kept "falling out." They seemed to be getting flung out, but Wade was pretty sure they were just falling out by themselves :)

The monster was awesome. Wade is usually not much of an art guy. However, this monster took on a life of it's own. Here's it's story, according to Wade: It's a girl (hence the bow). There was a heart under the green paint, but the germs (green paint) got into her heart and made her sick. It also got into her eyes (there are actually 2 of them hidden under paint). She has a mouth (small pom poms), and she also has sin (the brown paint), which makes her bad and she cannot go to school. There was much more, but I've forgotten the details. So fun!