Labor Day Weekend 2014

I was going to write this post and include every detail I could remember of the weekend, but I figured that would bore you, so I'm going to keep it to the highlights:

 

*Laughing at the fact that we were taking a snowmobile to a cabin...in August.  Then laughing again that the summer had been cool enough that maybe we really weren't getting the strange looks we imagined we were getting on the expressway.

 

*Rich's idea of taking the snowmobile to said cabin up north was that we'd do it on the way to the our destination.  'North' is not on the way to 'West'...and a typical 3 hour drive took ALL day!  I'll admit it was worth it seeing the friends at the cabin though and the ride wasn't too bad...

 

*Driving through downpours so heavy you can't see out the window is bad...especially when the truck is leaking on you the whole time...from what I understand anyway...Rich was driving.  Morgan and I helped though!  With some teamwork we stuffed napkins by the leak and it was dry driving from then on!

*Morgan is attached at the hip to her best friend every time they get together...until said friend hits Morgan in the face three times with her cast while sleeping...then Morgan decides that she can sleep in her own bed the next night.

*Being out on the water in a boat is amazing...enough said! 

*Loons are not at all like ducks.  Ducks go under water and come right back up.  A loon goes under water and you can watch for what seems like forever for it to reappear....come to find out that loons stay under water for like 15-20 minutes...we know better than to try to watch now...

*Blake learned he could trust his life vest beyond being able to touch his feet to the ground...and LOVED swimming!

I didn't ask for permission to post this picture on the blog...just know there is cuteness under the smiley face :-)

 

*Blake also learned that when he finds something cute, like a little baby turtle, while with 5 young girls, that the turtle is as good as gone.  He was informed by one of the dads that he might as well learn the lesson now... :-)

*SpongeBob Island is FUN!  Shallow waters, anchored pontoon, drinks, snacks, games, warmth, music, laughing...FUN! 

*Everyone loves fireworks...and they're more enjoyable from the boat, because as I said before being on the water in a boat is AMAZING....especially at night...because between fireworks, there is still an awesome view of a light show in the sky.

*Fireworks are also scary...the one who lights them says choice words and tries running through the water, and ducking, while still trying to hold the lighter above the water, each time one is lit.  Immense laughter comes from those still on land watching this all take place.

*Learning about leeches 'the hard way' is not fun!  Being the one who removes the leech from the little girl (who was probably WAY tougher than I would have been) is not fun!  The whole instance causes several of us to want to avoid the water for quite a while...

*Steak and sweet corn on the grill, mashed potatoes and watermelon makes an awesome last meal to celebrate the end of summer.  We have to remember that for next year!

This is only a bit of the fun we had.  It was such a great weekend!  Definitely feel blessed to have spent it with some wonderful friends. :-)

**Thank you Jen for the extra pictures! :-)

Blake's 7th Birthday

Blake's birthday kinda happened in three parts this year.  While his birthday is later in August, we actually started his birthday July 31st/August 1st with a trip to Alpena, MI!  My parents wanted to take Blake to a Dinosaur Garden/Prehistoric Zoo for his birthday, so the trip was a very enjoyable early birthday present.

The dinosaur that greeted us as we entered the woods.  The kids thought it was great that they could go inside!  I think this guy was the largest of the sculptures.  The man who created them made them between 1935 and 1967.  There are a few that have been made in the same way more recently.  There were at least 25 sculptures along the path.

 The kids being silly. :-)

 I found this to be quite creative!  The dinosaur had a tree fall on it, but the sign says "Freak Meteor Strike".

 After going through the whole path, we went out front so the kids could get a picture with the sculpture of Jesus.  The man who created the amazing sculptures was a Christian and there were little things that stood out to show his faith. :-)

 The trip to Alpena is about 4 hours.  We actually stopped at the Dino Gardens just before Alpena, but hadn't eaten the whole drive, nor at the gardens, and were pretty much starving by the time we got through all the sculptures.  A quick trip to McDonald's filled us up, then on to the NOAA Great Lakes Heritage Center.  We purchased tickets to take The Legends of Thunder Bay Shipwreck Tour through Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary.  (LOTS of words to say that we bought tickets to ride a glass bottom boat to see shipwrecks while we were at a shipwreck museum-LOL!)

 

We had a BLAST at the museum!  The kids were able to see, hear and feel what it might have been like to be on a sinking ship.  That was probably their favorite thing.  Here they are steering the sinking ship.

 This is them standing in front of the sinking ship :-)

 Of course there was a lot more information on the ships that were at the bottom of the bay, plus several artifacts that had been retrieved.  Honestly, I think we all enjoyed the museum (that was free) more than the boat tour (that was $30 per adult and $10 per child.)  BUT, the boat ride was still neat!

 

 We boarded the boat at 4:00 and were on our way.

 We mostly saw a lot of boards/planks from boats, but we were able to see an anchor...hopefully you can make it out in the picture.

 And this was some sort of gear, I believe...they told us on the tour, but it's been a month... ;-)

 After the tour, we checked out the souvenir shop, where the kids got smashed pennies and my mom got Morgan a snorkel, and went one last round through the museum.  We then took a little stroll through Alpena, did some wine tasting, then had dinner before checking into the hotel.

 

This is what the kids were waiting for!  They obviously had a blast the whole day, but there is something about being able to hang out in a pool!

 Morgan even got to try out her new snorkel.

The kids spent as much time as we let them in the pool at night and again in the morning.  We finished up the trip by stopping at a few wine and pop (for the kids) tasting places on the way home.  It was a pretty awesome trip for a little guy's birthday.  I'm very thankful to my parents for giving Blake (and Morgan) the experience!

These are the pops the kids tasted at one of the wineries.  Rich wasn't able to go with us, so we bought one of each flavor so we can have a 'pop tasting' as a family.  I thought it was neat that each of the drinks is named after one of the sunken ships in Thunder Bay and there is a little bit of information about each on the label!

 

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Blake's birthday party came a few weeks later.  He wanted a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle theme, so that's what we did!  It was pretty fun coming up with a few things to give him the theme.

 

The kids and I made he cake decorations with Perler Beads.  (It's a chocolate zucchini cake.)

We also had pizza for the meal...had to be pizza if it was going to be a TMNT theme! ;-)

 

Morgan got him some TMNT gifts, but he also received a sling shot, Legos, Dinosaurs, a rocket and clothes.

Rich and I stuck to the TMNT theme with the wrapping paper and card.  Of course we grabbed some TMNT plates and napkins too.  (Okay, so I wasn't as creative as I thought...it was mostly the cake toppers-lol!)

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I always try to make the kids' actual birthday as special as possible, being that it's 'their' day.  It's tricky with Blake because as long as he has his toys, he's happy and doesn't care to do much else-LOL!

I like to decorate the white board for the kid's birthdays.  It's pretty much the first thing they see when they come from their room.

Blake's birthday panCAKEs.  Of course he chose green icing.  (His favorite characters are TMNT and Hulk...plus he LOVES dinosaurs, so it's only natural that green be his favorite color.)

We left home shortly after breakfast and went school supply shopping.  Then it was on to Barnes & Noble for Blake's Kid Club Birthday treat, followed by McDonald's to use his gift card he gets for his birthday each year from the bank.

We then went to the south end of town to catch the trolley.  We tried to catch it last year, but it took off on us just as we were getting out of the truck and it was the last tour of the day.  We went early this time and caught it with 3 minutes to spare!

The look of the trolley is super cool, but the history of the town was even neater!  I look forward to taking the trolley tour again next summer.  Can't beat the $.10 fare to ride either!

I thought these two might get bored, but they even thought it was cool.  Morgan loved that there is a house that has a world record for being the narrowest and Blake couldn't get over the train going to Canada goes through a tunnel under the river.  The little guy talked my ear off about it-LOL!

After that we stopped in the Maritime Center to watch some fish in the river.  (There is a camera in the water that's connected to a screen inside.)  Then took a short walk on the River Walk....

...and did some duck watching.  (See his bottom sticking up out of the water?)

 And then it was time to go home.  We made the new TMNT Mac & Cheese for Blake for dinner.  (Plus a Zucchini bake for Rich and I.)  Then he opened a few more gifts, including a Bug Catcher, a Boy Craft book and the movie Meet the Robinsons...we hadn't seen it yet and it had a Dino in it!  Plus it was free through Disney Movie Rewards, so I couldn't beat the price. ;-)

We then had a movie night with the new movie and enjoyed some popcorn along with it.  It was a pretty awesome day! :-)

 

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As much as I don't like seeing Blake grow up, I'm loving the memories we're making along the way.  And I think this birthday was pretty memorable!  :-)

 



First Day of School 2014

Another school year has started.  I'll admit that I dread this day each year.  After having them home with me all summer, I always want to try homeschooling, but I know it'll never happen.  I know it's just me having a hard time letting go...the first few days (or weeks) without them feels kinda lonely.  They actually really enjoy school and seeing their friends each day and that makes it all easier.



 The kiddos annual pictures or 'mug shots' as I started calling them this year. ;-)

 The nerves were still there this year even after spreading 'Jitter Glitter' on their heads last night.  Morgan wouldn't let go of my hand as we entered the school... but it may have been because it was so hectic there too.  When we got into the classroom, she seemed better.

 Blake actually seemed a little more nervous this year than ever before.  The nerves only seemed to hit when we got into the classroom though...he was leaving me to go say 'Hi' to friends when we were standing outside the school. :-)

 So, I decided to take a look back through the years at the kids' first days of school....not sure why, because it started the waterworks flowing.  My kiddos are just so gosh darn cute!  ;-)

Life of Crime Giveaway! (9/7)

*Disclosure:  The following was provided to me to share with my readers in promotion of Life of Crime.  I was not compensated in any way.

 

About Life of Crime:



When a pair of low-level criminals kidnap the wife of a corrupt real-estate developer, they get both more and less than they bargained for in Life of Crime, a dark caper comedy based on legendary author Elmore Leonard’s novel The Switch. Starring Jennifer Aniston, John Hawkes, yasiin bey, Mark Boone Junior, Isla Fisher, Will Forte and Tim Robbins, Life of Crime is packed with the outrageously eccentric characters, black comedy and unexpected twists that earned Leonard a reputation as one of America’s sharpest and funniest crime writers.

Mickey Dawson (Jennifer Aniston), the wife of crooked real-estate developer Frank Dawson (Tim Robbins), is kidnapped by two common criminals (yasiin bey and Jon Hawkes), who intend to hold her for a $1 million ransom and extort her husband with inside information about his illegal business dealings. But Frank, who is holed up in the Bahamas with his mistress, decides he’d rather not get his wife back, setting off a sequence of double-crosses and plot twists that could only come from the mind of master storyteller Elmore Leonard.

See it in theaters August 29th!

GIVEAWAY!:One lucky reader will win a $15 Fandango Gift Card!!

Congratulations to comment #4, Debby! :-)

To enter to win watch the trailer and tell me what you think about the movie. Please be sure to leave your e-mail address with the comment, so I can contact you if you're the winner.

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Open to U.S. residents 18 years and older. Giveaway will end Sunday, September 7th, 2014 at 11:59 EST. Winner will be chosen shortly after and contacted via e-mail. The winner will have 48 hours to respond otherwise I will have to choose a new winner.

The Joys of Having Children...and Chickens...

Background info:  We have free-range chickens, which means our chickens roam our yard.  With 19 hens and 3 roosters, we basically can't go outside without one of us stepping in a chicken 'land mine'.

The story:
On the eve of Blake's 7th birthday, I was in house thinking about what I'd say about Blake at this point in his life.  The word that came to mind to describe him was 'compassionate'.  As I'm thinking about all the ways Blake shows compassion, Morgan comes in from outside, very upset, and this is what followed:

Me: "What's wrong Morgan?"
Morgan: "Blake is MEAN. He stepped in chicken poo and tried to wipe it off on me."
Me: Grinning to myself at how ironic it was that my thoughts just totally contradicted Blake's current actions, I respond: "That is mean, Morgan...and gross!"

*Blake then makes his way into the house and sits on a step between the kitchen and the landing.  Morgan makes the same accusation again at his appearance...

Blake: Clearly upset that Morgan called him out. "I did not!  I was just wiping the chicken poop off my shoe!"
Morgan: Annoyed "On ME!"
Blake: No response, but I catch a grin just before he hides his face.


Blake is still my sweet, compassionate, 7 year-old little boy.  But he is also a little brother to a big sister and, at times, the sweetness has to go out the window for a good laugh. ;-)