Week 33

September 2 was Cabbage Harvesting Day!

Look at the proud smile on their faces! I love this picture!

The head of the cabbage was 16" inches wide!

The Mega Cabbage! Weighed in at 30 Pounds! It was a good growing year with lots of TLC from Grampa Lou!

 

This has been an exciting week! Kailee & Grampa Lou submitted their cabbage to Bonnie's 3rd Grade Cabbage Challenge that they grew all summer long. God bless Grampa Lou for all his hard work. xo

Over the weekend we went to Traverse City and did some school clothes shopping with Gramma Deb & Abby do! We spent the entire day looking at clothes and just being silly! It was a hoot to watch you all on the Merry Go Round with Gramma! You both picked out dresses for your first day! Kailee a purple dress with black stars and Gracie a black dress with silver hearts. Absolutely perfectly the most adorable outfits ever.

It was mommy's first day of her NEW JOB on Tuesday, September 3rd... Mommy took a job at Central Elementary working with 2 autistic boys. It wasn't really a school day but more of a "welcome to school day - here's what you're doing this year" day. I met my co-workers, learned my expectations and really tried hard to soak in all the knowledge I could.

I came home from work by 3:15'ish and then at 4:30 we went to Ottawa for YOUR "Ice Cream Social" where you both got to meet your teachers - my big second grader Grace has Mrs. Whitfield - Woot woot! And our fabulous forth grader Kailee has Mrs. Ance - Amen! It's going to be a great year - I can feel it!!

We came home from the icecream social and got our "First day outfits" ready to go for the morning! The first day is so nerve wracking but also exciting! So many firsts!

Please excuse the date... mommy had 2012 not 2013... SILLY ME!

Waiting for the bus... with daddy... mommy had to go to work.

Waving goodbye to daddy... while mommy was at work.

Getting off the bus at school... looking at daddy... mommy's at work. :(

My 4ith and 2nd graders. :) I wish I could have been there. My heartaches that I missed this.

So sweet!

So beautiful!

Your first days of school were really fabulous! You both came home so happy and excited to tell me about what you learned that day and who was in your class (Gg has Alynna, Lia & Grace E. and Kk has Ashlynn, Zia & Sophia)!

Week 32

Kailee's cabbage 8/23

You little hoolies went to Mackinaw Island with Grandpa Bob and Grandma Sandee again this year! You had so much fun.

And you couldn't decide if the horse & buggy ride or the butterfly house was your favorite!

We managed to fit in a day at the beach finally with our besties the Himebauch's! It was so nice to spend an entire day with our friends who we didn't see all summer! We sure have missed them!

These goof balls really missed each other!

It is FAIR WEEK! Guess what that means! Gramma Deb & Grampa Lou met us Friday night for some animal viewing, some ride taking and best of all some quality time!

We also had cousin Brittany's wedding to Eric this week! It was so beautiful and sweet!

River, Kailee & Gracie being silly together!

 

Poor Kk hurt her lip (she was bouncing around, splashing away in the pool and then hit her chin on the side of the pool - on the hard pipe- OUCH)... we though her tooth went through her lip but turns out she bit it. (Thank goodness!) We jumped in the car and ran down to the a special tooth doctor who managed to calm mommy and gave Kailee a neat icepack and off we went merrily on our way. (Thankfully!)

Summer Bucket List End of Summer Update

Well, it's not "officially" the end of summer but close enough! We have had a wonderful one in my opinion! We managed to check off - 33 of our "Summer Bucket List"! I think that's a pretty good end to our Summer! We had so much fun and managed to do more than what we had listed - which rocks! xoxo I love you my hoolies and I cannot wait until next years Summer Bucket List! 

*Have a PJ Day - check
*Build a Fort  - check
*Have a water balloon fight-check
*Feed the Ducks - check (we tried anyway)
*Go on a picnic - check
*Host a BBQ - check (kinda) we attended a few and had one at Camp with the Conklins!
*Go to the library - check
*Make sun sweetened ice tea
*Play board games - check
*Play UNO Attack - check
*Play Dominoes (couldn't find them?)
*Eat breakfast for dinner - check
*Go for a bike ride - triple check!
*Go to the fountain park in Charlevoix
*Fishing - check
*Go to the Fireworks - check
*Go to the movies - check (we seen Smurfs 2)
*Write a story - check
*Make your own pizza night - check
*Sidewalk Chalk - check
*Make  popsicles - check
*Go to the beach - check 
*Catch fireflies - check (we tried)
*Go to the 4th of July parade - check
*Have a friends sleepover
*Make Lemonade -check
*Eat on the deck - check
*Play at a park - check
*Go for a walk - check 
*Find little critters outside and see if we can identify them
*Make a summer reading list
*CAMPING! - check
*Paper airplane contest
*Get Summer Pictures of the Girlies - not really. :( BOO HOO
*Make a sand castle - check 
*Star Gazing - check
*Concerts in the Park - it wasn't warm enough or it rained about every Wednesday!
*Make sail boats out of soap
*Get Slurpies - check
*Swim in the pool - check
*Plan a Road Trip
* Say "yes" to everything for a day - check
*Go to a Bon Fire - check
*School clothes Shopping - check
*Go Tubing or Canoeing down a river

Week 31

Mr. Tony called us today and said we had to get down to the waterfront to see these helicopters.

They were in the area because a military person was doing a "cross country" certification. So we had the opportunity to see him fly over the water. It was pretty cool to watch. Not very often we have these type of helicopters around Petoskey!

Afterward we played at the park for a few hours with Jake and Ryan. You  played so well, it was adorable! I am so proud of you both for being friends with everyone!

Just a beautiful sunset that night!

 

It was a gigantically busy weekend -- On Friday you spent the night at Gramma Deb & Grampa Lou's, while Mommy worked at Camp Transition Zone with Miss Julie. She organizes this amazing camp for blind kids. It's incredible, I learned so much about what it means to be blessed, what it means to have senses... what it means to be understanding without having pity for others. There's a difference between understanding and having compassion and having pity for others who "seem" to have a special ability. It turns out their special abilities make them incredible people. They have such a wonderful outlook on life, an appreciation for what it means to be alive. I hope you both have that... I hope I can instill that in you! Though, I feel like it's something you have to learn because it's such a huge lesson that encompasses your entire life. Next year I think we might work out there helping Miss Julie. I hope I can figure out a way to get you both to be there with me. 

On Saturday we had Aunt Oralee's annual party... it was supposed to be for Grandma Ruthie this year but she was still in physical therapy rehab. She had to go there after staying at Grampa Lou & Gramma Deb's for 1 month. She wasn't doing well at home and now she is thriving doing Physical Therapy multiple times a day. She is in good spirits too. We went to Aunt Lee's and you got to ride a pony again! You played with your 4th cousins and just had a great time! It was an incredible day -- good food, interesting music, and it was REALLY HOT! Finally it's HOT AGAIN ... 

On Sunday we had Aunt Gina's Bridal Shower! You both were very helpful... and sweet with Makenna! You were happy to enjoy yummy food and eat CAKE!