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!!