Are You Ready for 2015?

Are you ready for. 2015?  Our year in review. 

Twins turn 6! 

Twins turn 6!

Our big boy tries out basketball 

Sweetpea goes to her very first daddy daughter dance & gets her American Girl Doll who looks like her!

Our little butterfly dresses up and changes about 4 x each day.

Sweetpea takestae kwon do

Our little girl and her very best friend dress up together.

Easter egg hunt and then a much needed first haircut 😏

Enjoying our first ice cream of the season.

Our mini vacation to the indoor water park, the swimming was good but the food horrible!

Football gets underway, our guy loves it, when asked why?  "The snacks after football"

Look who lost a tooth!

Kindergarten graduation 😢😊

We love boating

Mackinaw in June with the Beaudoins, FUN!

We helped pull our neighborhood giant dog float on July 4th.

Our regular vacation spot up north!

Cedar point was fun but the big coasters, the twins gave a👎.

Butterfly is four!  Lipgloss was her favorite!

Our littlest turns two!!

We had fun put putting for the first time without cousins!

And apple picking with Uncle D and our cousins along with raspberry picking - yum!

We love the water park but it tires us out.

The girls give gymnastics a go.

First day of school first grade, What do you want to be when you grow up?"   both answer a police man 😳

Baby butterfly beginning hs preschool!  Wow.

Celebrating 15 wonderful years of marriage by hitting the shooting range and out to dinner

More firsts hockey, ice skating, wrestling oh my!!!!!

A wonderful visit with Santa, then Christmas two days later!  A wonderful year with a full brood we adore!

Winter Wonderland

The The annual ice festival in Plymouth is a blast!  Every January multiple ice sculptures are carved in the park downtown.  This year it was 10 degrees!  It was SO cold, even with snow pants, coats, hats, gloves.  We enjoyed carvings of FROZEN, especially Olaf.  Took in the movie Super Hero 6, Gabe's first movie ever.  He sat all but the last 10 minutes and enjoyed popcorn, root beer, & whoppers.  After the movie we hit the slopes..... All the little ones except the baby tried out cross country skiing and liked it😉

First Day Of School!

Kindergarten!  The first two are in school :-0.  The twins have been attending for the past six weeks!  Thought I would be excited the first day.... I was!  No tears on either end - mine or theirs!  

The added joy to this significant event is that Uncle Brooke was here to share it!!  He was in Detroit for work.  He spent a couple of nights with us enjoying the end of summer.  He fixed bikes- Liam's, Kate's, even the neighbor boys. He also helped them learn to ride, witnessing Liam's first successful go at riding with NO training wheels and Kate's first time riding a two wheel bike with training wheels!  All the kids were impressed with the tools he carried in the back of his truck.

We made the end of the day super special by baking my Aunt Loise's giant sugar cookies from scratch.  I have fond memories of enjoying her sugar cookies she sent to us in empty brad bags.  " they are as big as our heads" the kids exclaimed.  

The kids even got to ride the bus!  Well, they took a bus ride anyway, not on the first day of school but 5 days before!  Compliments of a friend who drives a school bus for a living, how cool is that?!!

Bring On The Bread!

Bring on the zucchini bread!!!

 One of the reasons I love to garden is the fresh vegetables and herbs available to us ALL summer.  Our garden was great this year, the abundant rained helped us out!
We had okra, greens, tomatoes, green beans, snap peas, radishes, & my fave- zucchini.

I love to make zucchini bread.  It is a pastime my mom and I would do together, bake!  That must be why I love to bake so much, that and I love to eat it ;)

It is SO EASY TO MAKE.  It is also an easy way to put a smile on someone's face.  I have given out lots of z bread this summer.  My sis and her family all love it!  Even her hubby who does not usually like baked goods and dessert!!
Enjoy your summer bounty, pumpkin bread is next!

Summers firsts

Well summer is officially over :(.
It is time to reminisce, we had so many FIRSTS this year that we ahve to share with you.
First time fishing with Grandpa Garrett and EVERYONE CAUGHT THEIR FIRST FISH!

First time golfing


First time attending a tigers baseball game


First time attending an airshow



First time kayaking

It was a FUN summer, we are sad to see it go but are looking forward to fall!

Butterflies 3rd Birthday

What do lip balm, horseback riding, & tutu's have in common?  Well, they all go together when you celebrate the third birthday of our little girl aka butterfly......

Our day started with the requested breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes.  Yep, she has my sweet tooth!
 Then came a few presents (Lots of lip balm of the princess and Barbie variety) . Applied on one happy set of lips as witnessed above!
 Off to the barn on a birthday adventure of  horseback riding with my neighbor. We helped brush and saddle "Flyer".
   Butterfly was a little nervous so she just sat on the horse.  Her siblings and I all went for a ride.
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We enjoyed feeding the dozen chickens, riding the bike horse & cart, swinging

And getting dirty!!

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After a two hour nap, we then got the party started! Chuckie Cheese with some friends.

A piñata, cake, & presents.....which of course you have to try on before hitting the sack!

The first day of being 3!!!!! Pretty FUN.

The First Lost tooth In Our Family

Do you remember how sore it was to wiggle your loose tooth when you were trying to get it out as a child?  The anticipation of what lay under your pillow the next morning after you placed your tooth there the night before?  We are reminded of those experiences, as Sweet Pea has lost her first tooth!!


It all started with her complaining of soreness behind her baby teeth.  We looked and found there was a ridge/ shelf present.  Strange, we'd never come across something like this.   A few days later a tooth popped through the ridge!  What, two rows of teeth now !

Uh oh, this is too early! Kids loose teeth when they are 6-7 not 5 yrs old!!  I called my sister Aka Ruby Red Slippers.... she explained she had the same experience as a child and the baby teeth had to be pulled.  Uuugh! Off to the dentist we went.

"Normal". Was the diagnosis, for girls that is.  Boys loose teeth a bit later, 5 is just fine for a girl.  Lo and behold that tooth in question started loosening just around the time of the dental visit.  Yay, no pulling required!  Just "wiggle, wiggle, wiggle that tooth" was the treatment.  

2 weeks later, after numerous applications of custom cotton candy flavored numbing medication provided by our dentist, the tooth was hanging by a thread.  Wednesday August 7th Sweet Pea awoke without a tooth!  She presented her toothless grin to Scarecrow wondering where her tooth was!  Did she swallow it during sleep?  Was it lost on the floor?  Turns out it was right in her bed!! 

 

We asked what she was hoping for from the tooth fairy..... "A dollar!!" was MUCH hoped for.  That next morning, two dollar bills were left under her pillow where her tooth had been.  She was ecstatic, you will know what I mean if you can just picture when I am excited and multiply that x 1000!  She carried the cash around all day until I suggested she put it her Hello Kitty wallet for safe keeping.  Now we just have to find the wallet ;)