Category Archives: Playing
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!
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…
Campfire and fireworks!
Thanks to the magic of a little packet from the fireworks shop, this is how we do campfires on vacation… 🙂
Katie’s first sparkler. She was…intrigued. She didn’t love it and she didn’t hate it.
And then the fireworks! It was a wild crapshoot because we didn’t know what 90% of them were supposed to do…we just stood back and watched…and we had a few close calls with things whizzing by us and up and into the neighbors yard. EEK! But the kids loved it!
Well, they thought some of them were a little loud. 🙂
Of course we did the pooping dog again!
And we still have a bunch left that we hope to get to before we go home!
Len Christmas in July, Year 2
This year the party was at my mom’s house! Katie “helped” with the party prep!
Katie loved her Anna dress from Grauntie Rose!
The cousins being silly!
If there’s water, the kids will come.
Bubble wands at the ready!
The annual by-age lineup: Katie (3), Owen (6), Aubrey (7), Gracie (9), and Nick (11). You’ll see a direct Owen/Nick comparison tomorrow. 🙂
Everyone always complains but I think they secretly enjoy the family photo! 🙂
Our little Santas.
Owen was GIDDY with the bazooka Grauntie Rose got him! It’s almost like she knows him exactly like I do. :p
Katie LOVES her Frozen magic music wand from Grauntie Marilyn.
No snow? Grass angels!
Ice cream face!
Overall it was a great day—the kids all had a blast together, the food was abundant and delicious, and everyone had fun relaxing and playing games. I think it was the right decision to move our Christmas to the middle of summer!
A day with Grandma Marsha!
Swimming with the grandparents
Finally jumping into a pool that has a deep end! All the pools we frequent are a max of 5′ deep so he always hits bottom! This was a new experience for him and he loved it!
Showing Grannie Lin that he can really float now!
And this little stinker! Here she is jumping into the shallow end…BUT!…Earlier, she walked down to the deep end where Papa and Owen were, walked right to the edge, and jumped right in! Went completely under and everything—and came up smiling! SHE HAS NEVER DONE THIS BEFORE, even with prompting! It was so unexpected that I didn’t even have time to get a pic of it! She swam over to the ladder, got out, and DID IT AGAIN! I missed it again, too, because I had a brain fart on how to take a video with my real camera. ARGH! Of course, she refused to do it a third time!
She loves her brother!
Strangely enough, her in the pool doesn’t bother me…but her climbing up this ladder scares the crap out of me.
This is a horrible picture but I need to use it as an illustration. You can see I was a bit away from her and she had climbed up there. No biggie. Then she reached up and grabbed the first bar. Still no biggie. Then she leaned out and grabbed the second bar (as seen here) and right as I snapped the picture, she swung her legs off the bar so she was hanging there. I practically dropped the camera and rushed over there—knowing she couldn’t hang there very long on her own and not wanting her to come crashing down. EGADS. I grabbed her and she proceeded to work her way across the bars like no big deal. NO FEAR!
An awesome new playground!
Gramma Jean said there was a new playground by the house so on the way home from Kid Fest we stopped to check it out.
HOLY CRAP.
It’s bigger and nicer than the playground at Owen’s school!
Hopefully we’ll make it back at least once before we leave!
Kid Fest!
It’s Milltown week so we took the kids downtown to Kid Fest! They had a blast!
She LOVED the popcorn. The SnoCones…not so much.
Making bracelets and necklaces with Gramma.
Then Owen got to ride in a racing canoe!! Some of the racers were the back seat paddlers and took the kids up and down the river. It was his very first time in a canoe and he loved it!
If you notice, he’s watching what the pro does and copies him to steer the boat!
He said he was a little scared at first but then he was okay! We were SO proud of him!
Owen loved sitting in the big fire truck—and even got to turn on the lights and the siren! Katie wanted NOTHING to do with any of it. 🙂
Getting a ninja turtle mask!
And lastly, our crazy photo booth pictures!
Owen got a yahtzee!
Gramma Jean has been teaching Owen how to play Yahtzee!
Sunday morning swim lessons!
She wanted to play before class! (I’m guessing because it felt like 100° in there.)
And of course she immediately swam down to where Owen was playing (his class is after hers so he gets to play for a half hour).
She’s slowly getting less panicky when floating. The instructor can almost get through the ABCs before Katie sits up.
Katie’s funny. She doesn’t mind being in the water with the instructor but after each turn in the water she comes over to me and asks if she’s done. I tell her no, she whines a little, them she goes and sits back at the edge of the pool and waits her turn while playing with water toys. Every. Single. Time. 🙂
She also normally doesn’t want to play much afterwards because she gets cold but today she was all about it! She swam down to Owen again and he taught her how to swim over the lane dividers! So, she had great fun showing me her new skill!
While she was playing, I took a moment to go watch what Owen was doing.
Owen is getting really good at the backstroke!
Headed home!
Adoration all around.
Katie ADORES Maddie and Owen and Mason are best buds (and Mason has introduced Owen to Minecraft…).
Someone was excited!
We surprised the kids with a bouncy house and this was Katie’s reaction to seeing it for the first time. How can that not make you smile?! 🙂
Bubble Shrieking
Sibling Lego project!
Katie got a Frozen Lego set for her birthday, so of course Owen helped her put it together! (It was WAAAAY to old for her so I knew he’d have to help her!) We ended up having Katie pick out the pieces as we needed them and then Owen would build it. It worked pretty well.
It took two days (which drove Owen insane) and he eventually did the last part by himself…
Birthday party presents!
We waited until after the party to open presents. Everyone stuck to the Frozen theme and Katie loved everything!
The last gift from us:
Katie’s 3rd Birthday Party!
Daddy and Owen went to pick up the cupcake cake and the pizza before the party!
We surprised the kids with a bounce house borrowed from friends!
Owen testing out the Frozen stick-on earrings!
Everyone had a good time and the bounce house was a success!! I’m losing my mind, though—I didn’t take a picture of the decorated table OR the food table! 🙂
Kids in the pool!
Friends of ours came to spend the night on their way to their OBX vacation…so we took the kids to the pool. I only snapped a few pics because we were busy visiting!
This is what I walked out to see.
They has been playing loud and hard while I was cooking in the kitchen and when I finally walked out to check on them, this is what I saw.
She wasn’t really tied up, but probably only because he doesn’t know how to tie yet. 🙂 They were having a GRAND time.
Elsa vs. Robot
Edited to add: I posted this picture on Facebook and these were the great responses:
We found the bubble machine!
Of course she wants it now.
This baby mat has been packed up for quite some time, but I got it out to wash and potentially give away…and of course she started playing with it and doesn’t want me to get rid of it!
This is why I clean out toys and stuff while they’re gone or napping. 🙂
Charlie was very patient!
Katie kept putting the bunny ears on repeatedly for a good 5-10 minutes—Tom and I were AMAZED she just laid there! She did eventually run off, but she stayed far longer than we thought she would!
I think I need to get her in gymnastics.
Wet head surprise!
We were all out coloring when Katie disappeared from the table…to reappear at my side like this. 🙂
Owen became a knight today!
Owen went to a super cool birthday party today! This is how he came home:
That’s not how he left the house. 🙂
Turns out the kids all went on a quest! And the mom posted pictures of the whole thing later on Facebook (which I appreciated because we weren’t at the party—it was Owen’s first party alone!).
Waiting to joust and retrieve hanging rings!
Owen said they did catapults “but not real ones!” This is what he meant:
Retrieving their swords from the stone!
Hunting for treasure!
Slaying a dragon!
He had a great time and came home with a box of treasure—colorful necklaces, gold rings, and chocolate coins!—which Katie loved, too! It was an amazingly well-planned and executed party and I am so glad he got to go!
She was so excited to find this!
She was playing in the basement and came upstairs to show us her great find!
It’s never had batteries in it—and never will—but it’s still über annoying.
That’s not how that works.
Owen wanted to carry his own umbrella to the bus stop. Fine. So I opened it for him and off we went. Then he goes and plays with the other kids and I see someone else has the umbrella then I look back and see this.
I think we need to practice. 🙂
Coloring inside her house!
We recently learned that Katie has been coloring the inside of her cardboard house downstairs…which is completely fine, except we didn’t realize she had access to crayons down there! So, it was a bonus realizing she hadn’t colored on the walls while she had the chance! So today I went down there to play with her and we did some more coloring!
