The End of One Long Weekend

We have had a very long weekend.

First on Friday, Lizzy turned 17,

Then she had OAA League Finals for Swim,

After Meet Dinner at a local restaurant,

Bowling on Saturday and Nut Booths for Evie and Lizzy,

Bowling Tournament for Lizzy, Evie and Allard on Sunday,

In which Lizzy came in 5th place in the 12 to 19 age group of Girls.

Evie came in 11th in the 11 and under,

Allard came in 40th in the 12 to 19 Boys.

One Busy Weekend

Friday, Oct. 8th Fun Run

Here is Evie on her sixth lap. After, they all enjoyed Popsicles and pictures.

Homecoming Parade

Senior Year and the last parade she will attend. Seniors always ride in the boat.

Saturday, Oct. 10th Homecoming Dance

Dress, Hair and Nails=One Expensive Child

Of course when we went to have Lizzy's nails done, Evie had the same service as her big sister.
Oh and she used Dad's car to drive herself to the dance and home again.

First Last Days

First Last Day of High School

( Of course any self respecting senior can not be seen on the bus on the first day of school)

First Last Day of Middle School

(Mom you can not come with me to the bus stop for pictures)

First Last day of Elementary

(When did she have permission to grow up)

This has been a very busy week getting everyone off to their new year. Swim (Lizzy) has been going on since August, but football (Allard) also started this week. So Mom and Dad are back to being a taxi cab for the next two months. And this coming week Evie starts swim club.

It seems like only yesterday.....

This little one was opening her eyes for the first time.

And look at her now....

little miss 10 year old.

What do you do for this, but have a big party.

So you gather 12 of her friends and classmates...

(and she lets her older siblings attend)

And party until you are all tired out...

Signs of a good party?

The bigger the mess the more fun was had by all.

Happy July 4th

We spent our weekend at my brother's farm in Port Hope Michigan, which is just shy of the very tip of the thumb area. Every year they have a tractor pull, flea market, fireworks and craft show. I haven't been up in awhile, but decided to take the kids and make a weekend of it.

So, we packed up the car with all the camping gear and the big tent, 10 five week old baby chickens, 2 ducks, Evie, Allard, Lizzy and myself, and of we went. The weather was great during the day, and chilly over night. Friday night we set up camp, and visited with the neighboring farm that was having a memorial/family reunion. Saturday we shot the Beebe gun and went to the tractor pull. Evie and Allard both bought new hats, we had ice cream and got a little sun.

Today after we packed up the car, we went to the public beach in Harbor Beach, and sat by the Lake. We got home in time for dinner, baths, and a general vegetating state began.

Let the new week begin.

Cookie Celebration 2010

Here they are, my hard working Girl Scouts. Last night was the 2010 Cookie Celebration Dinner. Allard and I accompanied the girls for their very important moment as they received their plaque for selling over 1000 boxes of cookies each. This is the first time our Council has met their cookie selling goal and they sold over 385,843 boxes. Of course on a table right next to us Little Brownie Bakers had set up a display of next years incentives and patches. Evie looked at all of the things and when she spotted the 2011 patch, she pointed and stated "want it". If you don't hear from me during February and March, take heart for me. And if I don't surface by the end of March next year, you know that I have gone on to cookie heaven. HAHAHA

Off We Go..................

Off we go into the wild blue yonder. Ok, so not so blue, the forecast is calling for 90% chance of rain during our outing. So in go the warm clothes and out go the spring things. (HAHAHAHA) Since we will be gone for the weekend, I will not be able to blog. I will post photos after I come back. Lizzy has asked if she gets to drive to the campsite in Canada, and since we will only be traveling with our family in our car I told her why not. She is very excited, this will be a good three hour drive and mostly on highway, so she will get her learning in good.

Packing, Packing, .....Did I Forget Anything?

Friday, afternoon we are embarking on a very important endeaver. International Scout Camping. Lizzy, Allard and I are going to Dorchester Canada Camp. Lizzy has went in the past with her Girl Scout Troop, and Allard and I have gotten his Boy Scout Troop to go as well, so both kids will be with their Troops and I get to go as an adult scout. I will tent with the boys group and Lizzy will be about 20 yards with the girls. This is a very large event that is hosted every year in a large field. It's like a jamboree, but with 100's of activities for the scouts to do and there ther scout groups are co-ed. Since this is mothers day weekend, I will be spending most of the day the Lizzy and Allard, and get home in the late afternoon to be with Evie. I was going to take her, but because we need to cross with border cards or passports, it was easier just to pay for mine and Allards. Lizzy got her passport last year.

Best Intentions

Here is Evie making a tornado.

Well, I missed a day of posting. And I was dong so well. On to the next posting I guess, and see what comes out. I have had a very busy time. The car wouldn't work and so we were down to one car again. We needed to be at two places at the same time, and then found out, oops, one of these place we needed to be had been cancelled for the day. So children were dropped off and left waiting (one hour) for someone to pick them back up.

Laid Back Sunday

Today is our first day in a very long time to be laid back and do nothing day. We need it after all tomorrow will be a hard day. Jeff's car is not working again. I am really mad, we just had it worked on in November and now it doesn't work. We had finally had some time with two cars and it was nice to not have to think about every trip we need to make during the week to make sure everyone got where they needed to be and home again. Example somehow Lizzy and Allard need to be at swim and Evie needs to be at Skating all at 6pm tomorrow.

Detroit Science Center

Today we went to the Detroit Science Center. We went to see the Accidental Mummies Exhibit, which was really good and a little weird too. The center came up with a really great exhibit to showcase this event, so much so that it is being used intact on its roadshow and will end its journey all around the world back in Mexico where they came from. If you get a chance to see this exhibit in your area you should go. They do warn that it is graphic for children under thirteen, however Evie and the other girls in her girl scout troop seemed to be OK with it once they understood the history of this exhibit. Part of the overall package at the center was that you also got to go into the planetarium and the IMAX. So we saw "What's up there" at the planetarium and the Alps at the IMAX.

Throughout my blogging days ahead I will of course post more pictures from the DIA and Detroit Science Center.

Finally Friday

More pictures from the DIA.

Well, Friday finally got here. And what a nice one it was. Of course the Sun was out and the temperature was in the high 70's. So what do you do on a day like this? YARD WORK, of course, HAHAHA. Allard was at festival this afternoon, so I had to work on the yard alone until Lizzy came home. She then helped out until it was time for swim practice. Then it's back home and off to bed to start again tomorrow. By the Way the weekend is calling for rain again, sometimes the Michigan weather can leave a lot to be desired.

DIA

This oil painting is by Georgia O'Keeffe, and it hangs at the DIA ( Detroit Institute of Arts), Which is where I spent the day today with Lizzy and her Spanish Class. she asked me two weeks ago if I would be interested in going on this field trip, because her teacher was worried that she would not have enough chaperone's. She also told me that she was unsure of asking me because she was worried that I would embarrass her. I, of course told her that was my job, after all it is in the mother's handbook that we get to embarrass our children as often as the opportunity may arise. (I was on my best behavior of course)

Wednesdays are Make Up Day

Wednesdays are normally my laid back day, because the kids have all their activities during the weeknights and most Saturdays, so I get to try and catch up on all of the things I miss doing on Monday and Tuesday, and get to plan for Thursday, Friday and Saturdays. So today I worked on getting the kids scout work done, scheduling meetings and then made dinner. Yes, unbelievable but I do get to cook once in a while. Jeff is on his cabbage soup diet again, so I took over for tonight.

Thats Entertainment

Today was the field trip to the movie theater with the fourth grade classes. As you can see we saw Oceans. This is the second in a Disney series. The kids went last year and saw Earth, so this is turning into a tradition. The kids had a nice time and the theater was huge and roomy. Of course the previews were also good to see. Next up in 2011 will be African Cats.

Sweetheart/Scout Dance

After I dropped off Allard at camp, I had to rush back in order to help Evie get ready for the Sweetheart/Scout dance that is held every year for our neighborhood scouts. The girls and dad's had a grand time with lots of snacks and an ice cream sundae bar. While Evie and her dad danced Lizzy and I worked in the background serving drinks and making sure the snack tables were full of fruits and veggies to balance out all the sweet toppings for the ice cream. As you can see daddy did get one or two dances for himself before getting ditched by Evie for her friends.

So We Begin

This view is from inside my car as I was leaving Allard at NYLT (National Youth Leadership Training) camp. There are two types of courses for this experience, two weekends in a month or a week long in summer. We chose the two weekends so he went the first weekend in April and then again this weekend, because we didn't want to worry that the week long course would take place during the same time as summer camp. And we can't miss summer camp.

Day One

Ok, so I was thinking about it and I spend a lot of time reading other people's blogs, but I really only write on mine a little. Usually I will write when I have a good picture to post or if the kids have a special event. Well I am going to try something new and write a post everyday. It may not be anything life threating, but if you think about it, we really have something happen everyday.

April Showers

April Shower Bring May Flowers.
That's what the old saying is right, well only if the flowers can survive the hale.

This is the size rocks we got for about 2 minutes this afternoon. Even the poor mailman had to park next to the house to try and get out of the way of this stuff.

Crazy Hair and Charity Ball

Today started Spirit Week at Evie's School and of course Monday is Crazy Hair/Hat Day. This always boggles my mind because I cannot do hair. Last year we just spray painted her hair different colors, but once again Mom put the extra bottles that I bought and didn't use away and they are not being found when you need them this year. So I went out looking for the hardest hair gel to try and spike her whole head. So the glue didn't work and the spray would only work after I had blowdried this piece. This took a half hour to get it to stay up, and was just starting to curl over at the end of the day. She said it was ok, so that was all that mattered. Now the other funny thing is that every year when I plan our Girl Scout meetings I just pick the dates and submit them to the school to reserve the room, but every year we end up having a meeting on Crazy Hair Day. When I went into school this afternoon there were very few people with crazy hair, the kids were either wearing hats or not doing their hair at all this year. I wish someone had told me this. (HAHAHAHA)

The weekend before last was the Charity Ball at Lizzy's School. So of course we had to go dress shopping. And again, I don't know why, but she wanted me to help her with her hair. Do they not get it, I am not good with hair. Nevertheless, here she is looking great in her dress and she had a great time at the pre-ball dinner. Now I can cross off one more dance on her dance card. I figure we only have two more for next year (homecoming and prom). This girl sure gets more expensive as the years go by. (HAHAHA)

Wax Museum

Fourth grade had their Wax Museum this week and as you can see it was Evie's turn to participate. Students were only allowed to pick their projects from a list of Michigan celebrities. Evie was Margaret Whiting, a 1940's-50's singer, who was the first singer to sign with Johnny Mercer's Capital Records.

Funny enough, she wrote and performed the song Baby it's Cold Outside. Hence the snow couple that Evie used as a prop. They are signing the song that took Margaret to the number 3 spot on the pop charts in 1949.

Unfortunately, because they restrict the subjects to only Michigan born performers there were two other Margaret Whitings that night. One in the cafeteria with Evie and one in the LGI Room. I, of course had to listen to all three to see how they all performed. Fabulously, none of them repeated the same info except that she was a singer in the 40's-50's. Each Margaret had a different approach to give you an idea of who Margaret was.

This performance was reschedule to this week after we had the big snowstorm last week that cancelled school on the day of the original performance. This meant that less people saw their kids perform, but even with the ones that did show up the rooms were full of people.

Here's What you get for a Pint of Blood

In January, Allard's school had a blood drive and I signed up to donate. Well it turns out they put all the names of the children that had someone donate blood in a raffle, and Allard won two tickets for a Pistons Basketball game.

I looked up online the seats that he was given and it was decided that Jeff would not be able to take him to the game (he couldn't climb the stairs that high), so off I went with my son for some bonding time.

The seats were almost at the top of the stadium, and after we sat down Allard said he didn't like being there. Oops, we forgot his fear of heights. I did mention that if he was afraid to sit up so high, then his career as a diver was going to end before it got started, because they are high up on some of those boards. But by half time he started to enjoy himself and when the game ended he had no trouble getting down the stairs. (He was worried he couldn't leave once he got up)

By the end he was happy to be there with mom, and he picked out a player that he decided was going to be his favorite and he wants to get a jersey with his name and number on it. Yeah for #33 Jereoko

Don't' mind the pictures too much it turns out I am not the greatest at turning the camera around for self portraits.