Katie’s pool and pizza birthday party.

Unfortunately, Gramma Jean was sick so she didn’t make it to the party—and we didn’t get a group picture—but Grandpa David, Grauntie Marge, Grandma Marsha, Uncle Rob, Grannie Lin, and Papa were all there! Even our dear friend Paul stopped by!

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He bonked his nose diving in the shallow water.

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Katie was having a blast splashing EVERYONE. We kept trying to redirect her to splash Owen but she kept coming back to us.

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Tom turned the water on and she stuck her foot right in!

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She has no fear—she jumped right into Tom’s arms!

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She loved daddy pushing her around the pool!

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Owen was not comfortable in the big pool and stuck to the steps and the side of the pool. He would NOT go out any farther, even though we showed him it wasn’t any deeper AND Grannie promised to hold him tight. Eventually, after maybe 30 minutes, he FINALLY let go…and of course had fun racing with daddy and Katie!

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And then it was time for the party! Grannie Lin and Papa bought all the plates/decorations, the cake and cupcakes, and the pizza—and brought Burger King crowns for both kids!

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Grandpa David would put a cheeze ball on Tom’s beer and Katie would eat it off. We did this a handful of times.

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Papa and Grannie had bought this scooter for Owen for his birthday but then they weren’t able to come visit…so they brought it now, but he’s just a bit over the recommended weight limit so it went to Katie instead. You can see she liked being pushed on it. 🙂

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But then we let Owen try it, just to see if he’d like it and would maybe want a bigger scooter for himself. He did like it, and Katie took to running in front of him saying “WATCH OUT! WATCH OUT!” to clear his path. 🙂

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Then it was back to the house where it wasn’t long before the kids were ready to crash. A good day!

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A Wet Day in Kalkaska

We took the kids to the Kalkaska Kaliseum for open swim. Owen was there last year (and I wasn’t) so this year we ALL went. 🙂 Grandma Marsha came to watch and Uncle Rob came with us in the afternoon (as did Papa and Grannie, who happened to be in Kalkaska meeting people for dinner).

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Katie had no fear of the water and kept wanting to go into the 3′ deep section (which is, of course, over her head). She’d hang on to the edge or bounce up and down to keep her head above water. Or Tom would hold her and she’d do this. 🙂

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Owen likes to float (he’s about two inches above the bottom here).

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Back to Grandma Marsha’s for lunch…and a nap before the next open swim time.

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Grannie and Papa were arriving and the kids were excited to see them!

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Len Christmas in July

The family decided to have Christmas in July this year and the Besons hosted. It was a GORGEOUS Michigan summer day on the river spent with our AMAZING family! Timmy supplied about 32 different types of brats (okay, maybe only about 12) and we stuffed ourselves silly on them plus all the other good food everyone brought. A good time was had by all and I think we may officially be moving our holiday celebration to the summer from now on!

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Owen was a bit shy at first, so he and Katie were both in Nick’s room playing by themselves.

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Katie loved the boat. LOVED. LOVED!! She would have sat out there all day if we let her and kept wanting to go back.

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Finally Owen wanted to play!

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Owen is six months younger than Aubrey. I know, right?

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Cousins Katie 2, Owen 5, Aubrey 6, Gracie 8, Nick 10, Alex 12, and Jess 15. We never actually got Owen back-to-back with Nick, but I think they were within a fraction of an inch of each other (with a five-year age difference). And Katie seems to be pretty close to Aubrey, who is four years older. I guess we really DO grow them big. 🙂

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Last year:

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Lisa B. made these AWESOME ladybug cupcakes for Katie’s birthday.

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And these for Greg’s birthday. (I missed a pic of the ones for Aubrey’s birthday, but they were Frozen-themed.)

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We did pretty good keeping track of Katie all day (when there’s so many people around, there’s always someone half watching) and then we failed right at the end. People were running around cleaning up and putting things away…and before I know it, Tom is carrying Katie back from the front yard. Apparently Katie was wandering down the driveway and Greg caught her and brought her back. Phew.

And before we knew it, it was time to head out. Katie didn’t make it to the end of the road before she fell asleep, and Owen lasted about 15 minutes.

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Pool and playset time at the hotel!l!

Papa and Grannie are staying at the Ramada so we took the kids over to play today!

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And then it was time for the playset! She has NO fear—she climbed right up! She was a little wobbly and didn’t make it all the way to the top before daddy rushed in. 🙂

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And someone was NOT tired and did NOT want to take a rest. We MADE him lay down…and this happened.

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Slip & Slide & Corn & Fish

We bought the kids a $6 Slip & Slide and finally got it out today. The water from the hose here is COLD so it took a bit for Owen to actually get into it and get wet. And Gramma was peeling corn for dinner and Katie wanted some so she was wandering around eating raw corn on the cob and LOVING it. 🙂

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Daddy cooked Owen’s fish and Owen even tried a bite! He was SO proud of his fish!!

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Fish hatchery and fishing!

We wanted to introduce Katie to the fish hatchery—and I wanted to see Owen enjoy it (since I didn’t go last year when Tom and Marsha took him)…so our big group came in and asked if we could all get in on the free family admission coupon my mom had…and the guy joked that we were a circus and I said YOU HAVE NO IDEA. 🙂 He let us all in for free, so we bought five bags of food and planned to take Owen fishing…

Katie was fascinated and REALLY wanted to go in the water—so someone had to keep a hand on her most of the time. Owen had fun, too, but couldn’t wait to go fishing!

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Owen loved fishing—but who wouldn’t, when it only takes a matter of seconds to catch one! We let him catch five (you pay by the inch) and he had fun with each one!

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Katie thought she wanted to see the fish…until she saw them and then that was it.

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Owen thought he wanted to hold one…until Tom held one out. 🙂

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The family—and Owen with his catch!

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Owen’s first fireworks!

We have been wanting to try some low-key fireworks with Owen for awhile now and just haven’t gotten around to it. I’ve had sparklers for a year now—planning on using them on July 4th or after a party or something—but again, we just never got around to it. Until now.

We went to the local fireworks outlet and asked for the kiddie section and they were having a B1G1 free sale so we ended up with a bunch of little stuff.

And Owen LOVED it. LOVED IT. And everyone loved watching him! We only used half of the stuff tonight so we have one more night’s worth coming up. (And when I say a night’s worth, I mean about 10-15 minutes max, which includes sparkler time.) We made sure Katie was in bed so we could concentrate fully on Owen and not have to worry about Katie… She’ll be out for the second night.

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The lady said the ones we got would go “telephone pole height” at most. She was right. 🙂

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And I found my pooping dog! I had seen it on Facebook and loved it—and thought the kids would, too. I was thrilled they had it at the store! (And yes, Owen LOVED it.)

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We helped save the Rialto!

We donated to the Restore the Rialto Kickstarter campaign and used our two free tickets today to take Owen to see How to Train Your Dragon 2.

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The first thing Owen said when he sat down is “Where do I set my drink?” Spoiled kid, used to newfangled seats with attached cup holders. 🙂

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Owen has a loose tooth!

Owen was eating an apple and watching a movie. Tom was unpacking the office and I was upstairs checking on a napping Katie when I heard Owen crying behind me. Of course I was confused why he came to me since Tom had been right there with him.

So I’m trying to get information out of him to figure out where Tom is and what’s wrong and he just looked and sounded so pathetic but all he was saying was something about his tooth. Yep, it turns out one of his lower front teeth is loose, and eating the apple obviously loosened it and he got freaked out. He eventually admitted he was scared.

So we had a talk about how it just meant he was growing up, he’s getting bigger and healthier adult teeth, etc. He knows all about it from school, including the whole tooth fairy thing. So I got excited and said “Let’s go downstairs and find daddy and tell him the good news!” He thought that was a good idea so off we went and as soon as I saw Tom he said “Did you see Owen’s tooth!”

Wait. What?

Yeah, turns out he WAS there when it happened, he told Owen every single thing [which I then repeated], and he was the one who sent Owen up to tell me the good news! Kids!

Owen was still sniffling a bit and didn’t want a loose tooth, etc., and was a bit grouchy.

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He did let Tom cut his apple into pieces, and by the time Katie got up from her nap about 15 minutes later, he was all excited: “Katie! Katie! I have a loose tooth and it’s going to come out!” 🙂