back to school

this year we all were starting back to school. andy started last thursday, with his second year in nursing school. he is scheduled to graduate in late april or early may with his rn degree! pam decided to go back to school full time also, being out of work at the time. jacob started seventh (yes seventh) grade yesterday. this is his second year in middle school. sam started preschool at daycare. he was very excited to see his friends and be with the "big kids" at school. ben went back into his same room at daycare with his buddies and had a great day.

everyone had great first days back to school. now let's just hope we all don't have too much homework! hope it's a great school year!

a few more pics here.

feeding ducks and park playing

this was one of those afternoons that Ben was not going to take a nap. and it was really nice outside, so we thought why not head to the park. we stopped and got a whole loaf of bread to feed the ducks with and headed to Rochester Park. the kids really like this park, lots of room to run and run and two play areas to play at! and of course lots of ducks to feed! Ben thought the ducks were cute at first, then there was just too many and he got a little scared of them. so we feed them standing on a park bench. after the park we stopped at one of Andy's favorite restaurants, Lapuma's for some hot dogs and fries. we took a nice walk around downtown Rochester and ended the evening with some ice cream from Dairy Queen. according to Sam, "this was the best day ever!" (he always says that when he has a really good day!)

more pictures here! and a video here!

big trucks and stuff

This evening at our local park they brought in a whole bunch of big trucks for the kids to check out and play on. There were fire engines, garbage trucks, tow trucks, UPS truck and even a huge army type truck. The kids loved jumping in and out of them and pretending to drive them and most importantly honking the LOUD horns! It was a great time and all three of the boys really enjoyed it.

More pictures here.

the beach!

Andy had seen a city Saugatuck on the west side of the state on the Today show one morning and has talked about it since then. We had thought about taking a drive out there, but it is a long drive, about 2.5 hours. But this morning we decided, why not, and drove. We got there at about noonish, so we walked around the quaint city and found a spot for lunch looking out at the water where the big boats dock. Next stop was the beach, which was our main reason for going. The kids of course had a great time playing at the beach. Being on Lake Michigan was almost like being at the ocean, minus the saltwater of course. There were big waves and tons and tons of sand to play in. We stayed for a few hours playing in the water and digging in the sand. After that we drove around for a little while and checked out the rest of the town. It was worth the drive and we all had a great day!

More pictures here!

a place to strech our legs.... WOW!

Since Traverse City wasn't too far from my parent's cottage and the Cherry Festival was going on, we thought we would take a day and go up there. We left later in the morning and got the Traverse City in a little over an hour. I had not been to the Cherry Festival in at least 20 years and didn't remember that there really isn't too much for a four year old and 20 month old to do there. We walked around a little bit, tasted some cherries, looked at some boats and went back to the car. I knew that the Sleeping Bear Dunes wasn't too far away and so we thought we would drive over that way. We drove and drove looking for the actual park and the dunes (we did see one dunes climb, but didn't think that Ben would make it up!). After awhile of going down the same road for what seemed like forever and after listening to two little ones complain in the backseat we turned around and looked desperately for some place we could get to the water. We saw a little road that had to go in the direction of the lake and thought why not. We even saw someone walking their dog and asked if we could get to the lake on this road, he gave us some directions (which made no sense two minutes later). We continued down this little road, which seemed to get smaller and smaller, then we saw signs that it was a seasonal road (probably for four wheelers). But we drove through the forest (as Sam said) and made it out. Found a dead end road and at the end of it was a set of steps. I got out and checked them out and there was the lake... finally.
















We couldn't believe how beautiful it was once we got down the steps... and the fact that we were the only ones there. We all kicked off our shoes and got our feet wet. Sam and Ben had a great time running up and down the beach and playing in the sand and getting into the water as much as they could without bathing suits. We spent an hour there... just running and walking and stretching our legs.

We got the boys cleaned up (thank goodness I had an extra change of clothes in the car) and had dinner at this tiny little town called Glen Arbor (it was just perfect). And ended with some ice cream for the kids.

I took over 100 pictures... it was just too perfect not too! You can see all of them out here.
Video below too.

fourth of july!

we had a pretty quiet fourth of july... having two little ones with early bedtimes sometimes does that! but we still had fun. we were up north for nine days surrounding the holiday and Sam and Ben were having a great time playing and just hanging out with Dad and Mom. The link to pictures below are of dinner, trying to get cute pictures of the boys, fire pops (this is what Sam calls fireworks) and some smores.

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!

Lots of Pictures Here!

keepin' cool

the summer heat is finally here in Michigan. it has been rainy and unseasonably cool the last few weeks, but we were blasted with a warm up yesterday! today when the kids got home from school they got out the water guns and hose and just soaked each other and Daddy! nice way for them to cool off and they had a ton of fun.

couple more pics here

sale, soccer and birthday parties

it rained last night... a LOT. and this morning it still raining on and off. i thought for sure soccer would be cancelled. i called at 7:30... no update, again at 8:00... all baseballs fields are closed until 11:30 games. the rain started to let up and I called again, yep soccer is on as scheduled. and the crazy bargain shopper I am also had to swing by Old Navy before soccer for their $2.00 tank top sale. got to Old Navy, stood in line for 30 minutes and got my five tanks! meet Andy up at soccer, he stayed with Sam and Jacob and I took Ben home. as soon as Sam got home we were off to his friend Parker's birthday party. Sam had a great time playing the sprinklers and slip and slide and making bubbles with his friends. the spongebob cake he had was so cool too! we said good-bye and hopped back in the car to pick up Jacob and Ben and went to my friend Erin's daughter Maya's birthday party. it was nice seeing some of Erin's family that I have not seen in a long time and the boys had a great time running around and playing. they really had a ton of fun with the water balloons! and the weather shaped up to be a beautiful day!
oh crazy weekends, but lots of fun! and it will only get crazier once there are more sports and Ben gets older and has friend he wants to be with too!

pictures from soccer and Parker's party are on Sam's Blog.

pictures from Maya's party are here!

the zoo!

this is one of the weeks that Jacob is with us for the summer, so I took a couple days off and took Sam and Ben out of school, so that they could spend the time together. and I figured why not visit the zoo! we also meet up with Sam's best friend Domenic and his mom and little sister. Sam loved seeing all the animals and hanging out with Domenic. Ben was just amazed at the animals (all of which he called "dogs"). Jacob had a good time too and was huge help pushing strollers and the wagon and just hanging out with his brothers. the funniest thing was Sam was super excited about seeing the dinosaur exhibit that we there for the summer. but right after I purchased tickets for it and we were about the enter the dinosaur path he wanted no part of it. I hand to carry him through almost the entire exhibit and he even asked one the guides, "how do we get out of here?!" it did rain some, so thankfully we saved most of the indoor exhibits for the end. all in all it was a good time!

more pictures here!

kid's corner picnic

this is our first summer at kid's corner daycare and so our first annual picnic. it was at our local park with hot dogs and yummy treats. the kids had an awesome time playing on the playground with their friends and just running around. there was even a magician, which Sam just loved and laughed and laughed. it was nice to meet some of the mom's and dad's of Sam and Ben's friends and talk to them about the kids. it was a great picnic and a lot of fun (and I didn't have to make and clean up dinner!).

more pictures here!