MI in June (Day 3)

After breakfast at the casino with the Buckley's, we drove back down to the lower peninsula to meet up with our dear friends, the Nemec's, before heading over to Mackinac Island. It was the first boat ride for our kids and they LOVED it. I haven't been on a boat in awhile and I loved it, too, but I could have done without the bugs! Not living by a lake anymore made me forget about those wonderful few days in June when the midges hatch...yuck!

We had a FUN time on the island, where we spent the majority of our time learning all about Fort Mackinac. The kids were absolutely fascinated and Sam almost peed himself when the "soldier" let him hold his rifle for a photo. He later told me that he made sure "not to get my hand too close to the trigger." :)

After a few hours on the island, we drove back to Onaway by way of Rogers City so we could visit with Grandma Edna and so the kids could stick their toes in Lake Huron (which was COLD!).

It was such a fun day! I've been wanting to take the kids to Mackinaw for awhile and this was a great year to do it...at 5 and 6, they really appreciated everything they learned that day at the Fort. And the visit with Grandma Edna and the quick toe dip in the lake were the perfect ending to the day.

What we've been up to {Part 1}

At the beginning of April, the kids and I roadtripped to Cleveland for their spring break. Surprisingly, the crowds weren't too bad there this year (it's normal to head north for spring break, right?). :) We spent 3 days cramming in as many visits with friends as we could. Thankfully, some of those friends were even willing to host us overnight! While we weren't able to see everyone, we loved every second of the visits we were able to have. From kids who decided they were "just like brothers" to experiencing the Children's Museum (including a giant room filled with sand!) to movie watching and playing to driving by our old house, a good time was had by all. :)

custom wedding invitations + a little organization

I'm the guest blogger over at the Kuzak's Closet blog today, as part of Wedding Week! Click here to go over and check out my post on custom wedding invitations.

In honor of being featured on the blog of my super-organized organizer friend, I decided to clean out the medicine cabinet in our kitchen this past weekend. Check out my before and afters below!

before / after

Mandy is going to be so proud of me! I used some tips I've picked up from her blog, as I was figuring out the best way to create a useful space out of the original unorganized mess. If you are in the San Francisco Bay area and in need of a little help weeding through your clutter, be sure to contact Kuzak's Closet.

cookie baking!

Baking and decorating with a group = more fun :)

I'm still amazed at home much my kids LOVE to do this...especially Grace...I need to bust out the cookie cutters more often!

good for the soul

Come next week, we will have lived in Kentucky for three years. I can hardly believe it! I was skeptical when we first moved and thought, by this time, we would for sure be back in Ohio. While we don't know if or when that will happen, at this point, I can honestly say that we are content in this city right now. We and the kids are happy with our church/school. The climate down here is amazing. We enjoy all that Lexington has to offer including restaurants, shopping, culture and special events. And we've made friends here.

I guess the only big drawback that still gets to me from time to time is the distance to family and friends back "home" ("home" meaning MI and OH). So, when we began making plans to attend the wedding of two friends I worked with in Cleveland at the end of October and I began making plans to get together with my college roomies for a girls' shopping weekend the very next weekend, I couldn't have been more excited.

First up was Jeanine and Kevin's wedding. Katie was available to spend the night with the kids that weekend, so we hit the road childless for the 5-hour trip to Cleveland. We were in town for less than 24 hours, but made sure to make the best of our short trip. The ceremony and reception was beautiful. The company, that I hadn't known I was missing so much, was amazingly fun. And the memories made might just be enough to tide me over until the next reunion.

The following weekend, I roadtripped by myself to Detroit to meet up with my roommates from my senior year in college. We all shared a house off campus and that year, we sealed friendships that had been building during our underclassman years and I realized that I had found lifelong friends. We try to get together once a year and additional meetups are bonuses with all of our busy job and family schedules. This shopping weekend north of Detroit was a first get-together in years where no one was pregnant or nursing! We enjoyed catching up, reliving college days, shopped till we dropped then enjoyed good food and wine. Love these girls so much and wish these we were able to do these weekends more often!

Two friend weekends in a row is rare but more than welcome, even if it did mean SEVERAL tanks of gas! Miss these people so much!

apple orchard field trip season!!

Over the past few weeks, I was lucky enough to get to chaperone on both kids' school field trips to local apple orchards. These events were exciting for the kids because they were getting to go to the orchards with their friends AND they didn't have to wear their uniforms! I never knew being out of uniform would be such a big deal for a kindergartner or a preschooler, but they are beyond excited for those rare days every few weeks.

Sam had a fun time on his field trip picking his pumpkin, going on a hayride, feeding the animals in the petting zoo, drinking cider and playing in the GIANT playground that gave his mother a near heart attack as I tried to keep track of the group I was in charge of while they ran like wild animals amongst the hundreds of school kids from various area schools that were at the orchard that day.

Grace missed out on the petting zoo on her trip since her school day is shorter so her classmates had to get back for preschool carline before lunch. She still had a great time on her hayride, drinking cider, eating doughnuts (which, at that particular orchard, were guaranteed nut-free, so we bought a couple of packages to bring home...Sam was thrilled!), picking her pumpkin and playing on the playground (which was much less frantic for mama at this orchard!).

I was happy to eat up two vacation days to go on the fall fieldtrips...LOVE time at the orchard and LOVE getting experience these trips with my kids. I figure I better take advantage of it now when they're happy I'm chaperoning instead of embarrassed that I'm there!

my gurrls!

In the midst of the school transition, I was granted a couple of days to drop mommy duties and head to Cleveland for work. And, of course, as soon as the trip was confirmed I quickly pulled together a dinner date with my OH friends. We don't have the best track record for coordinating schedules, so I was thrilled when five out of the nine were able to make it. We celebrated Halle's birthday while enjoying Latin food, conversation, laughs and mojitos. Awesome night...love and miss you all!

cupcakes!

Okay, have to post this so Erin will quit bugging me to vote...kidding! Our neighbor, Erin, makes yummy treats for us all the time. She entered one of her recipes in an online contest. Please click here to check out her recipe and vote for her delectable PB & J cupcakes. You don't have to register or anything...just click on "Vote Now". Then go try out her recipe because it is damn good. :)

Linking to:

Sister Sister Sunday

4th of July fun!

Since we road tripped to MI the weekend before the 4th this year, we were at our own house for the first time in years for Independence Day. It gave us a chance to check out how Lexington celebrates our nation's birthday.

I'll give them an A+ for the parade and street fair. Lots to see and do downtown during the day. Although, there were some pretty scary horror-film type characters in the parade that freaked the kids out a little, but, then again, Sam also hides behind us when Big Boy parades by, too, so I'm not sure I have the best grasp on what they think is scary or not... :)

We had met up with friends on Saturday for the parade then wandered around downtown for a little while before heading back to their house for an impromptu backyard party complete with cornhole, wine and pizza. Later in the evening, we caravanned back downtown for the fireworks.

Unfortunately, Lexington does not receive a high mark for their fireworks, though. I think if we had stayed downtown for the big free concert that was going on and gotten a good spot to sit early in the day, we would have had a better experience. But, arriving in the evening was pretty awful in terms of parking and crowds (we just dodged being caught in the middle of a gang fight!). It really wasn't worth the hassle. See how thrilled everyone looks?

We actually watched the fireworks with a catwalk blocking half of our view because our kids both had meltdowns from the chaos and the noise of the fireworks.

So, we decided to do a fireworks do-over on Sunday night and it totally made up for the bust the night before. We drove down to Richmond, where we work, and went to the house of a friend from work who lives in the neighborhood right before the lake where the city of Richmond was shooting it's fireworks show.

It was a great do-over...we were able to see the fireworks from their backyard and the kids were much more at ease being settled in and having fun with a small group long before the start of the fireworks.

And while we did miss our traditional 4th of July events like the parades in MI (Onaway/Port Hope/Port Austin) and the flea marketing and fireworks with family, we did enjoy not packing and traveling for the holiday and just spending time together.

Happy Birthday to our great nation and thank you to all those who have been part of keeping it the land of the free and the home of brave!

more time at the pool

Just wanted to share a few more pool pics from the past couple of weeks. I swear I won't post them EVERY time we go, but thought the fact that the kids and I appeared in a photo AT THE SAME TIME merited a post. Special thanks to our neighbor, Erin, who snapped these pics of us last week when she, Liz and teeny-tiny-water-baby Savanna joined us at the pool.

And since I know how hard it can be for a mama to actually appear in a photo with her baby, I grabbed one of Erin and Savanna on the occasion of Savanna's first outing to the pool!

At break time:

Sam going UNDER WATER! (That's the very top of his heading sticking out in the middle):
Grace swimming with teach:

Good times. This mama is thoroughly enjoying summer 2010 thus far...even if it has been as hot as the frickin' sun around here!