First Grade Open House

Tonight was Anna's first grade open house. I can't believe my baby is in first grade! She loved her classroom and her teacher seems really nice, so she is excited to start school next week. We took her school supplies in and got to organize them in her desk - she thinks her big girl-first grade desk is the coolest.

What DO crayons taste like?

Well, I sure don't know, but Simon may be able to tell you as he decided to sample these cute little crayons today. And, yes I AM the mom who grabs the camera before cleaning up the mess or reprimanding the child :-)

Camping Extravaganza in Ludington

This past week was our scheduled, week-long, serious camping trip. And, we discovered that a week of camping with 2 kids makes for one VERY long and tiring week! Exhaustion aside, we did about every camping activity you can imagine - Ludington has SO much to do - and had a really good time!

A hiking we will go.....As always it took much longer than we anticipated - we hiked for about 3 hours. I wore Simon for the first half and Joel carried the backpack, then we switched half way through. I carefully thought out this arrangement - the backpack was heavier for the first half with all of our snacks and water, but by the second half, Simon was heavier with the snacks and the water IN him :-)

We thought this fallen tree looked like an alligator

Taking a break and eating a snack at a trail shelter Family Photo Op
How Anna felt after our hike
Such a silly boy!
Mmmmmm....S'mores!

You can take your rafts/boats/whatever to a launch area near the dam and float/paddle down the river to Lake Michigan. It would be a very nice, relaxing, hour long float....if you didn't have 2 energetic kiddos with you :-) This is us at the start of the float.

Really? I have to wear all this stuff just to float down a river? Beach Bum Yeah, she looks a little scary :-)

So, we decided to bike the sand dune, full-sun trail out to the Big Sable Light House to check it out. You can pay a small amount to climb to the top, which we thought would be really fun. When we got there, we found out that Simon could not go up - even if we carried him in the backpack carrier. So, we decided that I would go up with Anna and Joel would go to the beach area with Simon. Anna and I watched a short video about the lighthouse, then got the go-ahead to start climbing. At this point there was no turning back as Joel was long gone. Why would I want to turn back, you ask? There is a picture below of what the stairs were like. I was shaking when we finally got back down - next time is Joel's turn.
Cute kiddos before the light house incident - if only they always got along this well :-)
Trying the lighthouse lens on for size The view from the top - you can see a speck near the bottom right of the photo at the end of the boardwalk - that is Joel and Simon

THIS is what the stairs looked like - all 130 of them! Narrow spiraling staircase that you could see though ALL THE WAY DOWN! It took every ounce of my being to not puke.
Big Sable Light House

He took a few bites of his first real ice cream cone, then was just annoyed with the dripping, so we put it in a bowl for him Then, he took a few bites from the bowl before getting bored with sitting still
Anna's first cone with that hard chocolate shell stuff - she loved it
Hanging out in the camper - yup, small space with lots of stuff
Our campsite
This is the best of about, oh, I don't know, the 50 attempts we made at a self-timed family photo. Everyone is looking in the right direction and no one is crying, so we call that SUCCESS. Joel REALLY wanted to take the kids canoeing. Anna thought it was GREAT. Simon was just annoyed that I wouldn't let him bounce around the canoe or jump IN the water


Simon could trash the entire campsite in 30 seconds flat, but he had fun doing it :-)

Fun Places in Lansing

Today we headed to Lansing with some friends to check out some GREAT places to visit. We went to the Science Museum and the Michigan History Museum and had a ton of fun at both.

Shooting some hoops

The Science Museum had a great water area

Making slime - it's VERY serious work!

Simon was not so impressed with the whole trip - oh well...

Trying to lift her own weight with a pulley

This contraption spins you in circles when you pull the handles towards you

This horse buggy was at the History Museum - you sit there and can turn the wheel to make the buggy move.

Our little activist :-)

Yeah, this is more like her

Camping in Traverse City

We went for our second camping trip in our new camper this past weekend. Now, camping in Traverse City isn't so much about camping for us as it is about eating at all of our favorite places :-) So, not really an authentic camping trip, but lots of fun nonetheless.

Trying on Anna's flippers

Just hanging out on her bed

Silly boy!

Just peeking out

One of the places we like to eat is Sleders - an old tavern/bar type place with excellent Buffalo Burgers. They also have many, well..., animal heads and the like. This is Randolph - the mascot of the place, so to speak. People climb up a ladder to kiss the moose and then the bartenders ring a bell. Yup, pretty silly stuff, but we all have had our pics taken with Randolph at one point or another, so this year it was the kids' turn.

Grand Traverse Bay