3 of Us Were Happy This Morning

Alternately titled:: This Better Never Happen Again.  Only In Michigan.  I Hate Snow.  He Wasn't Joking.  ...You get the picture...

Eric brought Adelyn back to her bed in the middle of the night.  He crawled back in our bed and said "There is snow all over the ground.  Like actual accumulation."  I said "Your lying.  I don't want to talk about it."  and I went back to sleep.  When I woke up at 5:30 for Hot Yoga I discovered he was correct.  Sick.  Disgusting.  Yuck.

The SECOND the kids woke up they were asking to go play in it.  I had every excuse in the book.  It's wet.  It's cold.  It's wet.  Your snow stuff is in the basement.  I need to take a shower.  I have to do the dishes.  In the end, when they were running around the house in their hats and gloves, I caved.  Out we went.  Sad.  Then they requested that we build a snowman.  Let me remind you, I had on a fleece, my knee length yoga pants and a pair of boots with a huge hole in them.  And greasy hair.  I was a hot mess.  The snow was perfect snowman snow, so I couldn't object.  AND they have 3 snowmen on their winter bucket list.  1 down, 2 to go.

Adelyn actually rolled the middle all by herself, Joelle worked on the top and Brecken "assisted" with the bottom.  I am STILL protesting winter and used sea shells for the eyes, mouth and buttons and straw for hair.

The girls holding "Rachel's" hands.

Meanwhile this is how Brecken felt about snowman building.  Might have something to do with the fact that he kept taking his gloves off.  "Me cold.  Me tired.  Waaaaaaaaaaahhhhh"

After supper tonight, Joelle and I went out for dessert at Peachwave and Eric took Adelyn and Brecken to Meijer for a free cookie (and groceries!)  This little cutie was pretty excited and it was nice to spend a minute with her that DIDN'T have the ER, the doctor or the urologist involved.

Then we walked out to this.  "Yucky snow."  Per Joelle.  Amen sister.

BUT it IS supposed to be 55 next week.  I'll survive.  Meanwhile, I don't EVER want to make another snowman in October AGAIN.  Thank you.

New Sunglasses

Eric asked me about a week ago "If we had some extra money in the bank."  My response "Sure."  You can't take it with you anyways.  I was in the middle of a lot of things so I didn't think a whole lot of it.  He asked me if I was going to ask why when he got home.  Then he told me it was a surprise for me.  Oh ok.  Glad I said there was ;)  I got these snazzy new sunglasses in the mail today.  They aren't foakleys...and, yes, he got a deal.

Someday…

...soon Emma will be old enough to watch the kids and the parents can all go out to eat by themselves!  We went over to our friends, Adam and Lindsey's, last night and our kids just love playing with their kids.   What a bunch of cuties:)

fdasfdas

Monster Mash

John Ball Zoo had there Member's Only Monster Mash tonight.  We had to pay for tickets and then it was supposed to rain.  I tried to cancel the tickets but they were non-refundable.  It ended up raining all day and stopping just in time for Monster Mash.  So we went.  This is our crew this year.  2 nurses (doctors, Red Cross-per other people) and a Marine (pilot, army, air force-per other people).  I've stopped correcting.  I just nod my head and smile.  Close enough.  Clearly they got the point ;)  We found Brecken's outfit when we were in NC and I made the girls with pillow cases.  They have some work that still needs to be done but I'd say I was pretty successful.

Obligatory John Ball picture.

Waiting in line outside the Ape House to do Trick or Treating.  I am so impressed with the lack of candy the zoo gave.  We got precisely 3 pieces.  They got some plastic rings, a rubber ducky, stickers, pencils and the biggest hit was a gigantic plastic snake.

Show me your crazy face.

Going through the hay maze.

Coming out the maze.  You can get a good look at the plastic snake.

They had a clown juggling and doing tricks in the aquarium.  He wasn't entirely clownish.  Just a nose and the shoes.  He was doing mime things too.  Brecken was TERRIFIED of him.  "I don't like that big man.  Scary man.  I don't like him.  Let's go."  He talks about him to this day.

We had a lot of fun and we were super glad the weather cleared up so we didn't waste our $28.

Last Beach Day

We went to the beach today.  I was driving that way because Brecken and Joelle had fallen asleep in the car.  I totally forgot they were working on the dune that week.  So, of course, when I stopped they woke up.  It was actually pretty nice out so we all got out and watched the bulldozers.  I was mighty impressed that they just moved the sand over to the beach instead of dumping it elsewhere.

Looks soooo different without that dune there..

Then we went for a walk down the shore.  Everybody had to pick up pieces of sticks to throw in the lake.

And we got to watch the dump truck drive by

Dumping..

So crazy..

Adelyn was pretending she was reading a map and leading the way ;)

Then we found a bunch of lady bugs and everybody loved holding them.  Adelyn thought it was hilarious that it was crawling all over her.  It's right on the middle seam of her shirt, kinda by her arm pit.

This little dude walks every where with his hood up.  Gansta nation..  And he was also hiding his stick under his shirt because I wouldn't let him take it with.  Yes, the family behind him is SWIMMING.  My kids were insanely jealous.

So glad we got to go one last time while the weather was nice.  I meant to take them one night, the last nice week but that never happened.  Then they could have dipped their toes in.  Oh well, the bulldozers and dump trucks were pretty cool too.

Pizza at Helder

Eric was a little bummed once his golf league at church was done.  He had these brand new clubs for a week and barely got to use them.  So I encouraged him to go golfing and out to eat one night with friends.  We went to Helder Park and ate pizza.  Adelyn was off playing with some random friends ;)

Good Finds

I was just telling Eric last night that Adelyn needed new shoes in a bad way.  Garage sale shoes, for older kids, can be tricky to find.  I had said to him, we just need to cough it up and buy her some nice ones.  I was planning on going to a garage sale in our neighborhood the following morning but I was NOT planning on finding this batch of goodies.

11 pairs of shoes, 2 pairs of pajamas, 1 pair of shorts and 1 SUPER nice Lands End coat for Adelyn.  8 shirts, 4 swimming trunks and 4 pairs of shoes for Brecken.  1 pair of shoes for Joelle.  Some toy dinosaurs, a doll stroller and grocery cart all for $46.

I was 15 minutes late for a playdate but I was NOT skipping out on those garage sales ;)

Simba

We went to the zoo the other day for a quick visit.  I texted this picture to Eric and said "Simba kicked the bucket."  He totally thought I was serious.  Alas, I was not.  Or I don't think I was anyways..  He was (hopefully) just sunning himself.

Joelle wasn't quite sure what to make of him just laying there...

We are going to miss our outings to the zoo...we go quite a bit in the spring, summer and fall.  Hooray for staying indoors.

Good Eats

I made these yummy pork chops with blueberry sauce and acorn squash.  They were both super yummy!

 I made this yummy cake for my mom's birthday.  She wanted some thing chocolatey and with berries.  I thought, for sure, that the berries where going to run all over the place while we were at church but they didn't!  It was soooo good!

Raspberry Picking

I took these cuties raspberry picking a while back.  I had been wanting to go for the longest time.  Just never made it happen.  We pulled up and found out they were closed that day.  Epic fail.  Then she said that we could pick anyways.  Phew.  I was about to have WW3 on my hands.

It's kinda nice to have the field to yourself ;)  And, yes, Brecken picked in a button down and tie.

Pretty sure the berries you see in her bucket are absolute mush.  I had to discretely dump them in the bush.  She had raspberries ev.ery.where.  Yum.

Adelyn picked quite a few berries.  She is quite the little helper monkey.

Naturally, no one wants to look.

The other fun part of DeLanges?  The animals.  They have quite a few to look at.  B and J are watching some chickens in this one.

Around back, they had a couple friendly horses that just LOVED being fed.  Adelyn and Joelle (and myself!) had a ball.  Brecken just stood back and watched.  An animal lover he is not.  He LOVES the mini-horses at our CSA pick up.  But if anything is slightly intimidating looking, he is out.

Both girls have had their fingers nibbled by the mini-horses.  They have been told time and time again to hold their hands flat.  They are slowly getting it ;)  Adelyn also likes to hold onto the last teeny tiny part of something and just give it the horses that way.

I have loved these "picking" activities with the kids this summer.  They are so much fun to be around :)

Last Warm Zoo Day

We had a super warm day available so we took advantage and headed to our favorite place:: the zoo.

Adelyn likes to pose and asks me to take pictures.  I oblige;)

Brecke uses his teeth for lots of things.  Namely biting/grabbing onto things to pull himself up.

Three little monkies.  This is also one of our favorite playgrounds.

Adelyn is quite the little playground queen.  Then Brecken sees her doing it and thinks his little T-rex arms can reach too.  Not so, my son, not so.  He's going to end up with a broken limb one of these days...