Catch-Up

We've been busy the past few days...there's lots to catch up on!

Last Saturday 6/19 we picked up Katie from her sleepover, we took the girls to "the beach" (a small lake in a city park just south of our church), we went to Sam's for shopping and a late lunch, and we walked to DQ for a healthy dinner of ice cream.

Sunday we went to church, went to a farm to pick strawberries, took Chris to an Indian restaurant for a yummy Father's Day buffet, took naps, went to the pool, and walked downtown for a river-side picnic dinner.

(love this one of Jessi dancing in the field, while holding up her dress for some strange reason. Nice underwear, kid!)

Monday started Vacation Bible School (VBS) at our church. Katie and Megan attend each morning this week, and I get to spend some nice one-on-one time with Jessica for a few hours! Katie & Megan are each in a small group with their respective best friends, so they are loving VBS more than usual. After I picked them up, we went back to "the beach" for a picnic lunch and a long afternoon of playing in the sand and sun.

Tuesday was VBS in the morning, and a doctor appt for Katie after lunch. The girls put on their bathing suits to help wash the van and Intrepid, and they squirted each other thoroughly. After dinner they helped us make 4 batches of strawberry freezer jam! Yum!

Today (Wed) the girls had VBS in the morning, and we went to the pool in the late afternoon. Around lunchtime there was some excitement - an earthquake! I felt it at home, and Chris felt it at work. It was so weird! We have been dodging thunderstorms and tornadoes this evening.

So as you can see, we've crammed a summer's worth of activities into the past few days. It's been a blast! Hope you like the update and the pics!

Last Day of School!!

Today was Katie's last day of school! There was an all-school mass, with lots of beautiful singing, and a step-up ceremony at the end of the mass. Now she's a 3rd grader!! Here she is with her teacher, Mrs. Sabo:

Then Katie & Megan went to their friends' house for the afternoon for a playdate. Later in the afternoon I met them and their friends at the movie theater to watch Toy Story 3 together. It's a good movie, and we had a great time together.

Katie's staying the night at her friend Molly's house tonight - her first friend sleepover! There's a huge line of thunderstorms coming...we'll see if she makes it through the night, hee hee!

Garden Walk

Thursday 6/17 was a busy day! We went to Katie's school three times yesterday, first for a music program, then for a picnic lunch with her class, and finally to pick her up because there were no buses. Here's a pic of her class singing at the music program:


Before the picnic lunch, I took Meg & Jess to pick up our tickets and start our stroll on the Rochester Hills Garden walk! Here we are at the first garden, a children's garden at our city's museum. See the troll and the billy goats?



Here are Jess & Meg on a butterfly bench:


Then Megan got a hold of my camera for most of the rest of the day, snapping artistic pics at each of the seven gardens. She took over 200 pics! This one is cute, you can see her reflection:

Here was a gorgeous mansion, the pool was our favorite part! It had a hot tub and a floating fire pit on the other end of the pool. The house wasn't too shabby, either.

Each of the gardens had a plein air artist (what does that mean, Justin?). Megan LOVED to snap them while they painted, but I always had her ask the artist for permission first. She shyly asked this guy, and he jokingly asked her back, "do I have to smile?", and she said YES! I love this pic!

This house had a wonderful pond with 2 waterfalls. For scale, the statue on the top of the waterfall is a little taller than Jessica. We found a snake back there, and tons of frogs and cool bugs on the pond's edge. Megan asked if we could stay there all afternoon, she was having such fun playing by the pond! Jessi loved the music (there was a country/folk-ish guy singing and playing guitar) and danced throughout the 5 acre property.

We went to a 30-acre horse farm and Megan got this cute shot of Jessi by some allium.

We picked up Katie from school before we went to the last garden. Jessica passed out in the car ride there, so I schlepped her limp little body all around the garden. Katie took this pic of us.

A nice guy took this pic of all four of us garden lovers!

When Katie heard that we saw horses, she asked if we could go back there so she could see them, too. So of course we drove back! There were wonderful horse owners all around, willing to let the girls pet, sit on, and ride their horses. They were so patient with the girls. It was a dream come true for Katie and Megan!

Here are Katie (above) and Megan (below) with Hunter the Arabian.

Here's Jessi petting Mooney the palomino. Mooney is descended from Trigger (Roy Rogers fame)!

Mooney's owner offered to let the girls sit on him. Can you see the HUGE smiles on the girls' faces?!

Katie & Megan got to go on a short walk, here's Megan: (I forgot to take a pic of Katie on the ride)

After all that excitement, we grabbed a cookie and some lemonade and plopped down on the back porch of the farmhouse to enjoy the live music. Jessi danced the whole time, and everyone there was thoroughly entertained with her dancing!

What a fun, fun day! The gardens were beautiful, the weather was perfect, and the music and art capped off a perfect day. I wish I could have spent more time at each place!

Katie's field day

Today was Katie's field day, and it was a perfect day - 80 and beautiful! First the second graders went to the dance tent and danced to a lot of new and old songs. (Jessi was singing YMCA all day/night long!)





Then the second graders went down to "the valley" to play games like tug of war:

...golf ball in spoon race...

...water in spoon race...

...and water-in-cup-on-top-of-hat race!


Then the second graders came up to the blacktop for free time and enjoyed free ice cream and cotton candy. Siblings got to partake, as well. Here are the girls with Megan's BFF Abby (Abby is Molly's little sister, Molly is Katie's BFF).

After the treats, they got lots of time to play on inflatable bouncy houses and an obstacle course:

And tattoos!

After all of the activities, the kids went around to the parking lot on the other side of the school to watch a cool BMX bike show. It was awesome!

The finale was doing jumps over a car!

All of the kids swarmed the bikers after the show, and I got a shot of Katie with Adam, one of the best bikers. (during the exhibition the kids kept chanting Adam, Adam, Adam to see him do cool tricks)

It was a fun afternoon! I got to take Katie out of school a little early, so we stopped at 7-11 for a big old slurpee. Then she had her weekly allergy shots, then dinner at home, then we walked to DQ and back. (Apparently we can't get enough fresh air or frozen treats in a day!!) :P The bathtub was extra grimy tonight, and the girls are all sound asleep. What a great day!

Megan's tap recital

Here are a boatload of pictures from Megan's tap dance recital on Saturday 6/12. Here she is, posing in front of the house:


Could you BE any cheesier, Megan?



Showing off her cute little ruffle butt costume:


Closeup before the show...doesn't she look so grown up?!

She did a great job during her performance, and really loved being backstage with her friends. After the show we got pics with G&G Christensen: (bless their hearts for driving back up here this weekend to watch yet another long dance recital!)

Here's our whole fam:

Amy, Megan, and Chris:

This part was kind of funny...Megan reallllly wanted us to get her flowers after her dance. But we knew Katie wouldn't handle that well, since we didn't get her flowers for her dance last week. So we finangled this idea to her: Katie, do YOU want to get flowers for Megan? Yes! Well, it still didn't go well. Katie attempted to steal, bend, and break the precious carnations before finally, regretfully, giving them to Megan. This pic captures emotions of both the girls:

After the show (it was a matinee), we went out to Chili's, at Megan's request. We all ordered a big lunch, and quite a few beers, margaritas, and mango lemonades. After all the excitement, Mom & Dad C. drove back to Ohio, and we all took long naps at home. Jessica enjoyed the longest nap of all - she slept from 4:30pm til 9:00 AM THE NEXT DAY!! Yep, she went down for the night at 4:30pm, and we didn't hear a peep out of her til late the next morning! Poor thing was sooo tired.

Can't wait til next year, when we have all 3 girls in dance! Maybe we'll be lucky for once, and not have to attend separate recitals for each of them. But we'll have fun no matter what. Jessica has already decided that she will be a pink ballerina for her recital next year. (She's probably right!)