Memorial Day weekend part 1

Hi family, I know I'm terribly behind in blogging.  :(  We've been so incredibly busy lately that I haven't had time to get the pics off my camera, much less blog about them!  I hope to post some pics in the coming days.  Here's a little taste of what we've been up to:

Jessica graduated from preschool this past Wednesday!  That means she's on summer vacation!  Megan and Katie are done with school on June 8th, so they only have 9 days of school left.  (not that they're counting)  Ballet for all three girls will end next weekend with a long rehearsal on Sat, and the recital on Sunday.  Soccer will end on the June 9/10 weekend.  Then we'll ALL be on summer break!

Yesterday we walked in the Susan G Komen Race for the Cure in downtown Detroit.  We woke up early, put on our cute Fiat 500 t-shirts (provided by Chrysler for the team), and made it to Comerica Park.  It's always amazing to see 30k people in one place for such a cool event!  Chris ran the 5k, then walked back to meet us.  The girls and I walked the 5k, and I didn't bring the stroller, so they walked the whole thing on their own!  I was so proud of them.  There were very few complaints about being tired.

After the race, we went to Belle Isle to see the preparations for the Grand Prix race next weekend.  We picked up lunch at Happy's (mmm) and had a picnic lunch on the island.  We went to the conservatory and the Great Lakes shipping museum.  Then we stopped by REI on the way home to pick up Jessi's new bike (a pull-behind).  We've been working this week to make sure everyone's bikes/helmets/etc are in good shape.  Jessi's too big for the seat behind my seat, so we got her her very own bike!

Last night, we went out just the two of us, to our friends' 40th birthday party.  Steve & Robin both turned 40 last week, and their parents orchestrated a surprise dinner party at their country club.  They were surprised, and we had a GREAT time with their family and friends.

Today we went on a long bike ride (12 miles) along the Paint Creek Trail to the cider mill for donut and ice cream treats.  On our ride back, we stopped at the Krazy Greek in downtown Rochester for some coneys and greek salads.  This afternoon, we went to Bordines to pick out our annuals and some tomatoes, peppers, and herbs.  Tonight, Chris grilled sockeye salmon, tons of veggies, and two heads of garlic.  Along with salads from our garden, we had a delicious feast!  We plan to walk to the park this evening, and then devour some watermelon for dessert.

So as you can see, we are having a great weekend.  Hopefully tomorrow we'll make it to the pool or beach if the weather cooperates.  And I have lots of flowers to plant!  I hope you're having a great weekend, too.  Please share what you've been up to!

April happenings

Random pics and events in April:

Sarah's daffodils and grape hyacinths were beautiful this spring!

Our annual family pic in front of our crabapple tree.  It bloomed about 3 weeks early due to the warm spring!

Megan was in the school talent show.  She and about ten friends from kindergarten sang and danced to "15 Animals" by the Philadelphia Chickens (based on a Sandra Boynton book).  They were so cute!  This is from the dress rehearsal.

Katie dutifully cleaned and twisted her starter earrings for six weeks, and then I took her to Justice so she could use her birthday gift card to buy fun earrings!  Now she wears a new pair every day!

Chris with the girls before the school's Daddy Daughter dance.  Notice Jessi and the welcome home signs in the front door...Chris got back from a trip to Italy just a few hours before the dance started.  What a guy!

Another shot of the cute people.  Chris took them out to dinner to Chili's (their request) before the dance.

Katie and her friend at the dance.

Crazy Megan with a beach ball at the dance.  They enjoyed a chocolate fountain, a portrait, a photo booth for funny pictures, and, of course, LOTS of dancing and running around the gym!

Jessica's preschool took a field trip to a nature center last week.  At first she was apprehensive about touching the snake, but then...

...she was brave enough to wear it as a a necklace!!  We enjoyed a very interesting presentation, followed by a great nature walk.  The Easter hat is her gardening hat, and she thought it would be a good idea to wear it to the nature center.  I agreed!  She was so cute!

Katie and Jessica sang in the church's choir concert last Friday night.  It was a CRAZY night - with two ballet practices, a talent show, AND a choir concert.  We made it to every event, believe it or not, though we had to split up a few times.

I'm almost caught up...but Easter pics will come another night...I'm off to bed!

Megan is 7!!

Last Saturday was Megan's 7th Birthday!  We had a day jam-packed with fun for her!

We started with gymnastics class.

 Then she had a soccer game (no pics) where she scored FIVE GOALS!!  She was a superstar - she was on fire!  She was on a mission to score, and she kept stealing the ball and taking it alllll the way down the field and firing shots.  It was amazing!  We brought pink cupcakes for the after-game snack, and the team sang to her.  Then it was home for presents:

American Girl goodies from Katie

A gnome from me and Chris

The movie Hop, too!

A beautiful butterfly garden ornament from Jessica.

I love this pic - Megan is seven!

Shrinky dinks from Auntie Erin & Uncle Chad

Thanks for the card-making kit, too!

Origami set and beer labels from the C-C family

Uncle Joe's card cracked her up!!

 After presents, I took her to JC Penneys for birthday portraits.  She was GORGEOUS and it was really hard to pick a favorite pose!  Then home for birthday dinner:



Megan wanted to make homemade pizzas, so we let her roll out the dough, and helped her cut out a number seven.  Pesto pizza is her favorite!  She did all of the "decorating"

Birthday girl with her dinner

After dinner, we sang to her again.  Happy birthday to my sweet little Megan!

After dessert, we started up the movie Hop, and of course I made popcorn.  What a special day for a special girl!

Megan's party

The girls had a day off school on Friday, so we decided to hold Megan's birthday party during the day for something fun to do!  Thirteen of her 14 girl classmates were able to make it! 

Party decor.

 The party was mostly outside in the front yard.  Katie & Megan set up ladder ball, bean bag toss, hula hoops, jump ropes, sidewalk chalk, soccer, baseball, & more all around the yard.  The girls had a blast trying everything out.  Then we came inside to decorate (and eat) cupcakes!

Cupcake decorating in progress.



The birthday girl in mid-bite.

Then we shooed the girls back outside to eat their ice cream bars and play some more.

Everyone came back in to play a game of Freeze Dance to "Tonight's Gonna Be a Good Night", and then Megan opened presents.

All of Megan's friends!  What a fun party!  (Katie's friend came to help out with crowd control)

And of course some of the kids wound up in the back yard, catching frogs and toads.  We have a LOT of big ones this year!

It was a great party, but between the cleaning/decorating/setup, the party itself, and two ballet practices that night, we were pooped.  We were all in bed VERY early last night!

Today

Tonight I'm going to do a little updating - I'm a month behind!  Oops!  Life has been a whirlwind this past month!

For example - today.  It was crazy, and we didn't even have any soccer games!  We went to the opening day of the Farmer's Market, and the girls potted up pansies and got a free lettuce seedling.  We did a huge yard cleanup, including mowing, weed whacking, edging, fertilizing, pulling weeds, etc.  Our veggie garden is doing great; the lettuce, spinach, peas, and onions are thriving!  We went on a nice walk on the Clinton River trail, and saw dozens of monarchs desperately looking for milkweeds to lay their eggs.  Then Chris cooked up a yummy Cinco de Mayo dinner - fajitas with carne asada, chicken, & grilled veggies, rice & beans, and corn on the cob.  After dinner he finished up his packing and headed back to the airport for yet another trip to Turin for a week.  The girls played outside while I did bug work in the garage, then we all came in for showers and a grapefruit for dessert.  Katie is having a sleepover in Megan's room tonight - so sweet!

Tomorrow the girls sing together in the children's choir at church, AND they each have a soccer game.  No rest for us!

This is how I found Megan when I came upstairs after showers.  What a monkey!

Oh, and I found a cool video from one of the girls' favorite songs that we all enjoyed watching tonight -- http://youtu.be/AKuBMihmVHQ

More posts to come!!