Category Archives: Kids
Charlie Love
Of course, 10 seconds after I snapped this, Katie did something to annoy Charlie and got swatted and there were tears and crying and drama.
Another birthday present down…
Swim Lesson Sunday
She’s not even posing. This is just a natural look. Hoo boy are we in for trouble… 🙂
Getting better at floating—lasting longer in the float position little by little.
Then guess who suddenly LOVED jumping in?
She loves wearing her goggles now! We think that’s why she liked jumping in this time!
And another natural look LOL. I missed the actual eye roll. 🙂
Little Lego Treasures
Getting right into things!
Owen wanted to open his presents as soon as we got home…and Katie really wanted to help. She had a hard time accepting that these were OWEN’S PRESENTS and there were none for her. But he’s a nice brother so he let her help on a few.
Then we took a little break so I could go walk on the treadmill and they could play on the bounce house…and also so Owen wouldn’t blow through all his gifts in the first day!
Afterwards, I noticed Owen was wearing a new Minion #selfie shirt and I asked if he knew what a selfie was. He said no, so we took this picture:
And then he grabbed my phone and took this:
Back to the gifts! 🙂
Owen’s half birthday pool party!
The wait was finally over—the day for Owen’s postponed birthday pool party! And the weather was perfect!! We had 19 kids and 14 adults!
The timing was perfect: at the end of every hour, the lifeguards take a 15-minute break and all kids must exit the pool. So we used this time to have our pizza lunch!
The second break was time for cake! Of course, I had completely forgot to put the balloon in the cake…
So it went in the leftovers so I could take a picture. 🙂
Two of the kids from his Kindergarten class (who are about his size so he looks normal!).
Everyone had a great time! The kids LOVED the water shooters and, while a few got broken, each kid was able to take one home. We guessed pretty good on the pizza—we ordered five and ate about four. There was enough cake to leave out a few pieces and freeze a nice chunk for a later date. The best part was after 10 minutes of cleaning up and packing the car, we were DONE. 🙂
She fights it, then this happens.Â
Unfortunately, I had to wake her up because we had to go pick up Owen from sports camp. I rubbed her arm and she moved…
…into the next position. Completely out.
I pulled the blankets away and rubber her back. Still out.
I finally had to really wake her up. At least I got cuddles. 🙂
Waiting patiently…then going crazy!
Today we stopped.Â
Every day after we drop Owen off at his sports camp and turn into our subdivision, Katie wants to go to the playground. It’s usually at least 85° and godawful humid by then, so I say no. But today was gorgeous so we stopped.
Painting in the bath!
Owen likes showers better these days, but I convinced him to take a bath with Katie this morning…by promising a new treat: fingerpaint soap (gotta love the dollar bins at Target!). They had a blast.
I had each one fill their hand with their respective colors (pink and blue) and then had them rub hands…to get a light purple! Owen knew about mixing colors but he still thought it was super cool. Katie was amazed! Some days it’s the little things. 🙂
“Look! We’re up there!”
She loves seeing us on the video monitor at Sam’s Club. 🙂
And then minutes later, a chocolate face from a sample granola bar.
She loves carrying this guitar around.
Daddy cuddle time
Cirque Italia (Water Circus)
We surprised the kids with tickets to a water circus. We were driving around beforehand running errands and they saw the big tents and they knew it was a circus!
Unfortunately, it wasn’t nearly as exciting as I thought it would be from being called a WATER circus…it was pretty much your basic circus acts with a few of them done inside a ring of falling water. I didn’t really even take any pictures. It was also REALLY warm inside the tent and we were there an hour early, so it was a loooong afternoon of sitting on uncomfortable seats in an unfriendly temperature. There were some neat acts and the kids enjoyed it, but it certainly didn’t compare to the Big Apple Circus we saw last year.
Sunday Swim Lessons
She’s getting better at floating!
Owen getting a lesson on the backstroke from a new instructor:
This is what happens when left to her own devices:
“I’ve got a tutu!”
She loves mama’s shoes.Â
July (and vacation) pictures are online!
>>> July pictures are now online at Shutterfly!
Guess who was the only one who slept?
Yes, the entire way home…Owen was the only kid who napped.
Watering plants with Gramma turns into this.Â
Glitter ballerinas with Grauntie Marge
Grauntie Marge got Katie these cool mess-free glitter ballerinas for her birthday. I didn’t believe any glitter could be mess-free, but these really truly were! Katie was only interested for about 10 minutes, so we’ll try again once we get home!
Riding bikes on the last day!
We had high hopes of having the kids practice riding their bikes on vacation since Gramma Jean and Grandpa David have a great driveway and live on the corner of two (basically) flat roads…but we were so busy that we didn’t get to it until our very last night. Uncle Rob was tasked to help out!
Tom said they actually did pretty good…but they still need LOTS of practice. At the rate we’re going, they might be able to ride without training wheels by high school.
Kisses from Grandma
Local Petoskey stones!
Why did we go all the way to Petoskey when we found all these in the front yard landscaping in the last 30 minutes?! 🙂 I swear we found them all last year.
The kids even found some rocks for their new collections (yes, they’re apparently starting rock collections now).
An Elsa braid!
Katie wanted Elsa hair so Gramma did the best he could since Katie doesn’t really have enough hair for a French braid. Katie was thrilled!
Kaliseum Daredevils
We took the kids to Kalkaska today for open swim…and boy did they have a blast! Owen was excited to go down the slide again (mom fail: I may have forgotten to mention he did it for the very first time when he was there earlier this vacation). I LOVE the faces he makes. 🙂
My favorite:
You see his harem standing by watching him, right? 🙂
Katie really wanted to go down the slide but she was too little…or so we thought. The lifeguard came up and told Tom she could go down as long as he was at the bottom to catch her. So Owen took her up:
There were other kids going up and they were getting too close to them on the stairs so Owen put his hand out to stop/block them and protect Katie. And then he guided her into the slide while he made sure to keep everyone back. Awwww, I know. 🙂
Here she comes!
Caught her!
Her reaction? She LOVED it and wanted to go again! (But she was done after the second time!)
I still can’t believe it—Owen was 6.5 when he finally went down the slide…and Katie was 3! You can tell who the family daredevil is!
Enjoying a cool Michigan morning.
And then Papa and Grannie came over to say goodbye…and brought nutty donuts!
Purple shirts!
Grannie bought Owen a purple shirt to match Papa’s. They weren’t exact but they were close enough for them. 🙂
And with the purple birthday girl!
More Sorry!
Katie’s last 3rd birthday party!
We celebrated Katie’s birthday at the Ramada again this year. She didn’t want to go in the pool, though—choosing the playground instead.
Of course Owen wanted to swim!
Caught mid-jump!
She finally decided she wanted to swim!
We FINALLY got her to jump in the pool again!
Owen also received a few gifts…Papa and Grannie gave him a roll of quarters to use in the hotel game room!
He shared his quarters with his sister!
A great time was had by all…