Blue

Today we had a very 'blue' day. Not in a sad way, we did lots of laughing!

We had a wonderful afternoon picking blueberries with friends at an organic field north of Holland. The kids were excellent pickers and we went home with about 8 lbs after less than an hour! A short time later we went to see our most anticipated movie of the summer, "SMURFS" I grew up watching Smurfs at 9:30 on Saturday morning. I own not one but two smurf vintage t-shirts (yes, the girls are wearing them today!). I own Season 1 of the cartoons on DVD. Hence, my kids also love Smurfs! We LOVED the movie about the darling little blue creatures. After the disappointment of removing Cars 2 from the summer list because of many horrible reviews, the kids were thrilled to head to the movies. We ended the day with a trip to the library for some new books for the kids, and then the grocery store for a bedtime snack (warm pretzels). The kids actually followed me around the store with their noses in their books. I had to tell them about 10 times to watch out for people! As we left the store I looked behind me to see a line of readers somehow silently following me. I laughed out loud, and then took their picture.

Lots of laughing on our blue day!

Summer Fun!!

We had a wonderful week with no camps, no sports, no activities! It was awesome! Here are some of our adventures:

Lazy breakfasts at 9:30am!
Making homemade granola with Noah

Still working!

Noah's homemade granola...all finished!
Putt-Putt golf!

Elephant ear at the fair!

Mommy and Sophie on the Scrambler!
Mommy and Abby on the Tilt-a-whirl

Dancing in the rain...check off the summer list!

Thank you Major Matt

Tonight we had the honor and privilege of having Tom's college buddy Matt over for dinner. He is in Holland for the wedding we attended last weekend. He is what our kids call a, 'Real, live hero'. Matt is a Major in the United States Air force. He has done several tours of the Middle East. He is currently stationed in Germany for the next few years. We try to teach our children to be respectful of our military 'heroes'. It was very special for them to share a meal with him. To laugh with him. To learn from him. The sign Abby made says it all, "Thank (or Theank) you Major Matt"

One More!

I forgot to post this one last night! The kids got a kick out of this sign posted outside of Cherry Republic in Glen Arbor. We told them we had to sneak in to get ice cream (seriously the best ice cream ever...cherry pie flavor!)

A Weekend Away

My favorite flowers picked by my amazing husband on the side of the road when we were almost home.

An AMAZING dune (Sleeping Bear) that we did not hike (not allowed in this spot due to erosion...whew!)

Sunset over Lake Michigan right down the street from our cabin in Glen Arbor.

A perfect spot for a pizza dinner in Glen Arbor.

Beautiful flowers at Tandem Ciders on Leelenau Pennsiula.

Our new favorite ciders!

The amazing site of our friend's wedding in Maple City. (Snow Moon Ranch-see Martha Stewart's pictures of a wedding there!)

My new yellow shoes on the drive to Glen Arbor Friday night.

Tom and I enjoyed an amazing weekend away in Glen Arbor this past weekend. We are thankful for our parents who played with the kids while we were gone. We celebrated a wedding of one of Tom's college friends on Saturday night and stayed in town until Monday to enjoy a little r and r. It was both beautiful and relaxing. Of course we were thrilled to get home to snuggle the kids! By the way, we forgot the new camera but I had fun with my i phone!

The girls!

Noah had his second slumber party on last Sunday so the girls enjoyed another 'special' day. They played in the sprinkler (I am still learning my new camera and deleted THE most amazing picture of Abby... :( ). That evening we decided daddy would take us out to a 'fancy' dinner at City Vu. I told the girls to get a dress on, and as you can see they selected their Easter dresses. :) As we sat the the restaurant looking out at the city we were in awe of their amazing manners and their sweetness. It was so special! They were thrilled to find out that Thursday night they would have their first sleepover at a friends house. They returned this morning a little tired (ok, a lot tired!), but having had an amazing time!

By the way, Noah had an awesome week too between the slumber party, his last baseball game (in which he hit a grand slam home run to end the season), and Pirate Science Camp at Hope!!

We love summer!

The Beach!

When I was a kid we had Snoopy sheets that said, "Happiness is....a warm puppy, a new raincoat, etc. I loved reading all of the sentiments as I drifted off to sleep. It's a similar concept to the "1000 Gifts" list that I started about 6 months ago. Today I say "happiness is....#604 sandy fingers and toes, #611 Mermaids in the sand and #607 watching the kids swim from under my beach umbrella."