Jessica is FIVE!!

Jessica turned five on Friday, but we missed it because she was in Ohio.  I know she had a great day, but we wanted to have a small little party when she got home to make sure she knows she's a special girl!

Dinner with G&G - BBQ chicken, Ohio sweet corn, green beans, and salad.  The big flowers on the table were from Dad C, and the little vases were from our gardens.

Books from us - she LOVES books!

Barbie, Webkinz, and book from Katie and Megan

Hair thingy from Auntie Nancy and Uncle JoJo

Cute girls!  Katie and Megan were very helpful while she opened presents.  They helped her read the cards that were in cursive, since she can't read cursive, as she likes to point out.

Dress from G&G Kennedy

Tons of cute clothes from them!

Dress-up dolls

She was SOOO excited about these beads!  She loves them!

Thanks for all the fun stuff, Auntie Erin and Uncle Chad!

Singing to our big girl

She loves to smile!  (even with gross teeth)

Our beautiful birthday girl!

Basement project

Mom & Dad Christensen took the girls for few days for some summertime fun, and Chris and I stayed home to dive into a big project - cleaning and finishing the basement!

Before...and this is actually AFTER a really big cleaning in December!

Totally clean in just one day!!

Chris installed the carpet and pad himself, including 3 cutout areas.  It's so soft and warm!

AFTER!!!  We turned the workbench into a TV stand and toy organizer.  We moved two couches from our front room into the basement.  (THAT was a challenge).  And I brought down some of the toys from the front room, the kitchen and play food, the legos, etc.  We bought the TV from Sam's, and hooked up the Wii and a DVD player.  We have an extra cable line, so after we re-route it to the basement, we'll have cable down here, too!

We still have a lot of work to go.  To the left of the kitchen stuff is the pool table...which is covered in bins and boxes.  As soon as we go through those, we'll get to play pool and ping pong!  And behind Chris in this picture are a set of storage shelves.  They're decently organized, but could use a little more cleanup.  It will be the only storage area in the basement.  We also have quite a bit of carpet yet, and will run it to the stairs so that everyone's feet will stay warm!

New arrangement of our front room!  This view is from our front door.  The only furniture left over was a big chair, and a rocker/glider from Megan's room, so we angled them into a seating area til we can pick out something that matches.  But doesn't it look so much more open without the monstrous couches crammed in there?  I love that there's enough room to set up the beautiful glass table, too.



Another view of the front room, standing at the blue chair.  This is the new art and homework area.  Wish me luck in keeping everything to this corner!

 The girls screamed and squealed when they got home and saw all that we had done!  They thought we were going to work on their bedrooms and/or the gardens, so we really surprised them!  They played in the basement all tonight!

Chris and I didn't just work the whole time, we had some nice dates, too.  We went out for sushi, a bike ride, dinner at a new restaurant in downtown Rochester, and dinner at a fancy place in downtown Birmingham.  We did a ton of walking to and from dinner, too.  (it was soooo nice to walk without any whining!)  He had to work Thurs and Fri, so I got a lot of bug work done those days, and got some long awaited school/birthday/shower/grocery/card shopping done all by myself.

Thanks, Mom & Dad, for treating us ALL to a wonderful long weekend!!

Mackinac Island vacation

Last weekend, we went to Mackinac Island for a long weekend vacation.  I tried posting with the blogspot app on Chris' phone when we were there, but it didn't work.  Here are the iPhone pics of our trip.  (I haven't downloaded the ones from our camera yet, but they're similar)

We drove up on Thursday, and it was cool and rainy most of the day.  After dinner, though, the sun came out!  We walked through the downtown, tried lots of fudge samples, and walked to see the Big Mac.

We stayed at a hotel right in Mackinaw City right on Lake Huron.  The crazy girls wanted to go swimming even though it was freezing.  It wound up being mostly wading out to the sandbars.  Chris took this pic from our hotel balcony.  Nice view, huh?!

 On Friday, we got up early and took the ferry over to Mackinac Island.  We rented bikes right away so we could bike around the island.  We took several breaks for pictures and nature hikes!

One of our nature hikes

Silly girls by the beach, after making their own rock cairn

Girls in front of Arch Rock

 Then we walked through downtown, bought some fudge, and walked to the fort.

Family pic at Fort Michimilimackinac

 After lunch at our favorite restaurant, we decided to go on a long walk.  First stop: the Grand Hotel!

Then we walked across the island to Arch Rock, since it wasn't accessible from the lakeshore.  The view from the top was incredible!!

 The little girls took a nap in the stroller on the walk back into town.  We visited some historical buildings, watched a blacksmith at work, and enjoyed humongous ice cream cones before our ferry ride back to the mainland.  That night, we swam in the hotel pool (indoors, thankfully!)

On Saturday, we did lots in Mackinaw City and in the UP.

We climbed to the top of the lighthouse

We went to Colonial Michimilimackinac - very cool.  The re-enactors were great!  A woman in one of the houses let the girls help her prepare dinner by plucking the feathers off a pigeon!  They loved it!

 We had lunch at a great seafood shop in downtown Mackinaw City, then we crossed the Mackinac Bridge into the UP.  We stopped at the state park to play in the sand and rocks at the base of the bridge.  Then we headed to the Mystery Spot - a huge hit with the girls!  The Mystery Spot has a unique gravitational pull that causes water to run uphill, and lots of other impossible things to happen! (That, or it is a great optical illusion. Either way, it was fun!)



Megan looks like she's going to tip over backwards, but the gravitational pull to the right is keeping her up.

Katie standing on the edge of a table, with her head way past her toes

Jessi on a steep slant

Included with our Mystery Spot tour was a round of mini-golf and a trip through a fun maze.  Then Chris saw the sign for ziplining and asked if anyone wanted to try it.  Look at these brave faces:

Megan's first time ziplining!  She loved it!

Jessica loved it, too!

Second round of ziplining on a shorter, but higher and faster line at the Mystery Spot.

 Saturday night we had dinner in St. Ignace, crossed the bridge back to the Lower Peninsula, and went to a waterpark after dinner.  We all slept well that night!

On Sunday, we went to Old Mill Park for a morning of fun.

We got to see a great demonstration of the water-powered sawmill

We went on a walk on a rope bridge through the trees

Katie got up her nerve to try ziplining - and did it twice!  This one went over water.

Megan ziplining.  Jessica didn't meet the height requirement at this place, so she stayed back with me or Chris while we took pictures.

The park also had rock climbing, and a huge tower lookout at the top of the trees where you could see the Mackinac Bridge.  We also went on a walk through the woods before heading to a yummy lunch of pasties.

It was an adventurous vacation for sure!

Little Fish

Jessica is our latest little fishy - she passed the swim test tonight by swimming a full lap by herself!  25 yards at age 4!  She gets a wristband that means she can go on the slides and in any of the pools by herself!  (don't worry, I'll still keep a close eye on her)

She was so cute, she has been planning on passing this test all summer long.  First she decided to take the test on her birthday, but then she got the idea to do it sooner, at age 4.  She practiced in the pool in Mackinaw City last weekend, and declared herself ready to pass the test.  And she was right! 

She swims best with her face in the water, and kicking her feet furiously.  She doggy-paddles when she needs to breathe.  It isn't pretty, but she can do it!

Doggy-paddling to catch a breath during the test

Getting her name entered in the log

Very proud of herself!

OF COURSE we went to DQ to celebrate!

Katie's injury

Katie got an awful burn today.  :(  This morning, the paper towel she was holding caught fire as she was taking her Eggo waffle out of the toaster oven.  She didn't know what to do, and was scared to drop it on the floor, so she held it in her hand for too long.  I wasn't in the kitchen, but I heard the scream, and my heart stopped.  She said her hand caught on fire, too.  :(

I had her put it under running water while I stomped out the tiny flame, and then it was a waiting game.  Nothing but pain at first.  Then the skin on the top of three of her fingers turned white, then gray.  While we were in the dr. office waiting room, it started to blister.  They confirmed it was a 2nd degree burn, and that there's nothing we can do to help it.  We scrapped our plans to go to the zoo today, and instead stayed home and chilled on the couch with cold water and trashy reality TV shows!  Poor baby is still in a lot of pain, as the blister has been steadily growing all day long.

Look at that blister.  Ewwwwww.

Early August fun

After our trip to Chicago trip, we stayed around home for almost a week, and we stayed busy, of course.  I took the girls to the gym, pool, and Chuck-E-Cheese before Chris got home from Italy.  After he got home, we went on lots of walks and trips to the gym/pool to get him the fresh air and exercise he needed to stay awake!

Last week, we stayed near home and had the best time just enjoying nature.  On Monday, I took the girls to the Rochester Municipal Park to practice rollerblading.  They took a detour to cool off in the Paint Creek and wound up playing in and around a small waterfall for several hours.  They couldn't have been happier!  On Tuesday, we walked to Bloomer Park for a picnic lunch.  After playing on the playgrounds for a while, they found cicada skins on some trees, and then found cicadas hatching out of their shells!  They wound up creating a cicada hatching habitat out of bark, and watched them hatch, puff out their wings, and change color from green to black.  So interesting!  That detour took several hours, as well!  On Wednesday, we met up with our friends who live on a canal of Lake Orion.  Our kids ran around the yard and played in the water finding clams together for - you guessed it - several hours!  It was the perfect summer week to spend outdoors!

Tuesday night, we took the girls to their first rock concert - Train - at Meadowbrook Music Theatre right by our house.  The opening acts were Andy Grammer and Matt Kearney (sp), and we knew a few of their songs.  The girls LOVED Train, the lights, special effects, songs, etc.  Jessica's favorite Train song is Drive By, followed closely by 50 Ways to Say Goodbye.  She was soooo happy to see them in person, and talked about it for several days!

My little entomologist and one of the Painted Lady butterflies she raised from a small caterpillar.

Last Thursday night, we drove to Ohio to visit Mom & Dad C.  We made a cake for Grandma, whose birthday was a few days earlier.

On Friday, we drove with Mom & Dad to Pennsylvania to G&G Hubicz's old house.  We spread his ashes on his parents' grave and Grandma's mom's grave, we saw lots of family, and we looked for treasures in his garage and basement.  I left my camera in my bag at the house, so I didn't get any pictures.  See mom's blog for pics and stories:  http://pchristensen77.blogspot.com/

Chris making eggplant parmesan from some of Uncle John's eggplants.  YUM!!

Our dinner last night!

Today was a rainy day, so I pulled out a Groupon I've been saving - for Glow Golf!!  I took the girls to Lakeside Mall for some indoor fun!

Glowing girls

Megan Jeanne  (see her toenails glowing?)

Jessica with glowing headband and toes

Katie golfing

Cool bridge on this hole.

Tomorrow we'll head to an indoor play center right here in downtown Rochester (I won a one month family membership there from the library summer reading program!!).  Katie's first soccer practice will be tomorrow night.  Wednesday we're going to the zoo with two friends.  Thursday morning we're heading to Mackinaw City and Mackinac Island for a long weekend!!