Weekend activities

The weather was amazing for the middle of November, sunny and not too cold. Our colds did not even keep us inside. We all spent most of the time outdoors.


Better late than never! The kids finally got to get their hands on the pumpkin, something they have both been wanting to do for weeks. With the move and everything we just haven't had the time. Don't they look cute! They had the fun job of getting goopey and pulling the seeds out. I washed and baked them. Every year I try something different. This year I sprinkled them with a little sea salt and Parmesan (not the good stuff in a block, the Kraft variety). It was a big hit, maybe the new fave. Our little picky eater, you know who I'm talking about, ate more than anyone else. He even asked me to make more! That's a huge compliment coming from Daniel.


Typical scene this weekend ride on toys abandoned for the next big adventure... Hey! do yo see the lights in the background? If you look really hard I promise they are there. I gave myself the project of lining the driveway, well one side of it, with Christmas lights.


Jesse joined in the festive fun and put out a few yard decorations and even strung lights around a few trees in candy cane fashion. I know you're probably thinking, whoa people it's not even Thanksgiving yet!!! Let me digest my turkey before you move on to Christmas. Seriously though with weather like this and the first snow coming who knows when, you better get decorating while you still can, comfortably, without freezing your tootsies off.


And these Daniel donned the "kingdom lights" as soon as he saw them. Ahh! Colds or no, it was still a fun weekend. I wonder how many more nice days we'll have before the frigid weather sets in?

Today's Birthday Girl

Our sweet crazy little Laney turned four today! She came home to us just last year a chubby little two and a half year old, and it is so hard to believe she is already four. She has such a hard time with being the "little sister", that she couldn't get enough of the fact that she and Daniel are both four years old, at least for the next four months anyway.

We celebrated with a Disney princess/Frog princess theme, all of Laney's choosing. She also chose dinner at Agave, which actually surprised me. I thought for sure she would have me make one of her favorites. It was a really fun day. Next month we will have a little party for her with friends- once we are a little more settled into the house and out of boxes. Lucky Laney she gets to stretch her birthday celebrating into next month :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LANEY!!!! We love you, Daniel, Daddy, and Mommy

Klackle's Orchard 2009

Last Sunday we met the La Mores at Klackes in Greenville. It was a super fun day! The kids rode the ponies, held bunnies, petted llamas, ran around being silly, and had a great time. We all picked apples, ventured through the corn maze. Laney and Jesse even took a little ride on Laura the elephant. Daniel didn't want to so we watched and took pics. We all went out for Mexican food afterward. It was great to take a day off from packing, choosing paint, fixtures, etc, and generally getting ready to move. This weekend we are back to work!

Renters No More!

We closed on this house today. I think it is only now as I type, beginning to sink in that we are home owners once more!

How did this happen? I know we have the two properties and our house plan that we spent hours perfecting to the minutest detail, and lets admit dreaming over. Then one evening, one walk with just Jesse and the kids, we did what we do---we threw that out the window--- we really did. Crazy I know, but better.

Jesse came in from the walk so excited about a house for sale on the very street where we live right now. When he told me which house, I sadly burst his bubble of excitement. I was like "Sorry dear, but no way can we have such and such people for neighbors." I know that is horrible sounding, but the thought foremost in my mind was our sweet kids. Fast forward to the very next day. Jesse is at work and I think to myself one house in this neighborhood that would be awesome would be such and such. The next thing you know I'm thinking what the heck why not just drive by and see, sure the odds are slim that it is for sale...

"Daniel, Laney, lets go for a quick drive..."

Fast forward later that evening-- "Jesse, lets go for a drive!"
shortly there after-- all of us in car parked in front of such and such house calling realtor for viewing. We walked through the house July 27 and today it is officially ours. We start moving boxes in Wednesday and the movers come October 24. We are having some work done before we move in so I will post some before and after pics when all is done. It feels so good to know that soon will will be renters no more!

Child of the Day

Daniel and Laney are off to a great start with preschool. Daniel was the child of the day yesterday in his preschool 4's class, and Laney was today in preschool 3's. They were so, excited that it was each of their days. They got to be the line leader for the day, give the class weather report, put the month day number on the class calendar, ring the clean up bell, have mommy and sibling visit during the whole class period, and bring snack for the whole class.

This year class snack is so hard! There are so many food allergies- so, no nuts, dairy, apples, and I am sure there are other things I am forgetting. Last year I had it down with a snack rotation- crackers with cheese and fresh fruit, or smoothies and yogurt. Now the cheese, smoothies, and yogurt are out. I couldn't even do fresh fruit these past two days. It's been plague of the fruit flies for weeks. Any preschool class healthy snack Ideas out there?

Oh, yes, so back to child of the day. Daniel is doing so amazingly well :) Last year he was so shy and wouldn't answer his teacher. This year he is so comfortable and he very animatedly gave the weather report and answered all his teachers questions. It was so wonderful to see him blossoming like this and so early in the school year.

And Laney too loved being the child of the day. She marched right up to the front of the line this morning and relished all the extra attention all morning long. She cracked up her teachers when she was asked to introduce Daniel and I to the class. She very loudly, as is typical of Laney, said "That is my mommy over there, and this is my brother Daniel. Oh! And, I have a daddy too! He's at work right now!"

Below Daniel, Julia, and Laney. They all got in trouble more than once for cutting up during circle time. They are so used to all being together during playdates. I am so glad they are all so close. I was fun seeing the three of them together at preschool. They all pretty much did everything together.

preschool roundup!

Daniel went back on September 14. He had a great 1st day and is really enjoying preschool. He is so funny when I pick him up and ask him about his day, he tells me it's a secret, and he can't tell me until we get home. Then it won't be a secret anymore. Within less than 30 seconds he is telling me the "big news" of the day, which is almost always about somebody crying about something. As far as what he did at preschool, mums the word! I am a nosy curious mom and I wish he would tell me!

Laney also started preschool for the first time September 15. She is loving it! She is a ball of excitement and immediately, after getting in the car starts telling me about her day and all the things she did. She also starts pulling everything out of her bag and starts trying to show me from the back seat. I've got to remember to put her school bag upfront with me. One of these days I am going to miss an important note from her teacher.

It's so good seeing them both enjoying preschool so much. I hope it continues as such for the rest of the school year. The hardest part though (for me) is the realization that they are in fact old enough for preschool already and spending part of their day away from home. I don't even want to think about what it is going to be like when they have full days at school. For now though, I will enjoy the one on one time I have with each of them on alternate mornings and the times I have them both together.

Haircut

Jesse took Daniel to get his hair cut this weekend. It looked so cute! I didn't get a picture. The above is a result of what happens when I am on the computer uploading los to my gallery and not minding my kids!!!! UGH!!!! I guess it's time to step away from the computer for the day. Hope your day is off to a better start!

Red raspberry afternoon

What a lazy Sunday. I tell you we needed one. I had, and still do have, mountains of laundry to fold and put away. But when do I not have mountains of laundry to fold and put away. It could wait. We went raspberry picking on the peninsula, instead. We wound up going to 2 places, because the guy at the first place was really uptight about the kids not picking the under ripe ones. He had really good raspberries though, so we picked fast and went to a different place. One we'd been to before where the kids could pick whatever they wanted and eat as many as they wanted without a brooding watchful eye over them and us. YIKES! It was fun, even if we came home with a ridiculous amount of berries.

PHOTO TALK
I used todays outing to practice with my camera. I only focused on the "correct" settings in manual mode for a bright and sunny day. The photos have a lot of shadowing that I don't care for, but I'm not doing portraiture I'm trying to capture the moment. I let the kids do their thing and worked with the lighting and shadows as they were. I need to do a lot more reading on this, and macro photography which I haven't yet read a thing about.

**** All this photo talk reminds me- THANKS Melissa, for all the great tips from the photos I took with the kids the other day! I didn't know the trick with the white piece of cardboard/paper. I will surely try that when I am doing more posed shots with the kids. I admit I don't know what catch lights are so I will be looking that up. It was so great of you to take the time to help me :) Whenever you have the time please keep those tips coming!!!!!

I like this close up of the berries even though I focused on Jesse's hand by accident


Jesse really likes this one, but it looks flat to me.


D: "Ma! Look, I found a super, super, super, super, super..... real big one! Did you see it?"


Working with those shadows. It ain't easy!


More funky shadows, but I like this one.


I know this is all out of focus, but I still like it a lot. I like the mood of it.








D: "Did you guys know that raspberries make you toot? Not all the time. Sometimes they do. Sometimes they don't. Right now they don't, so I like them. Sometimes I don't like them. Can we go cherry picking now?"


Laney was too busy eating to talk. Each time we have gone picking raspberries her bucket remains pretty empty unless we help her fill it. This is one of the only times she doesn't talk constantly. She's too busy filling her cheeks with berries.





Jesse's favorite of Laney today

Practice will make perfect?

I have been taking a lot of really bad photos lately, so I decided it was time to get my 2 favorite photography books out and and do a little review. Friday was an overcast day. PERFECT! It's the easiest condition to take photos in for natural light without a flash. My goal was to stay in manual mode and not use the flash. The flash went off a few times, you can easily tell those photos apart from the rest. Anyhow below are 3 slideshows of what I got. I also pulled my favorites and posted those individually in no particular order. I'm really not looking for perfection- It's all relative anyhow. Right?

Today is sunny and Jesse wants to go pick raspberries again. Now to try my hand behind the camera on a bright day. We're off, so wish me luck!

Weekend with the La Mores

It's so far been a busy and fun summer. Les and Amanda left Friday night and the La Mores came Saturday. The weather continued to be perfect! The kids played outside a lot. We went down to the cherry festival again and saw a parade. It was Laney's first and she loved it, so excited with each new appearance. We also got in more cherry picking and even raspberries. Saturday night we all headed down to the beach for the cherry festival finale fireworks show over the lake. It was beautiful. We had a great time with the La Mores as we always do. We've made plans to get together in the fall at Klackles Orchard- something fun to look forward to. Looking forward to seeing you then La Mores!

*** The slideshow below contains only pictures of the La More family from behind- They don't usually post photos online so,I wanted to respect that.

Family Fun time!

We arrived home from Laney's Citizenship appointment in Detroit after midnight Monday night. The following day Les, Amanda, and the boys arrived for a visit while Zeinab was still here. It was so nice having everyone together. It was loud and crazy and fun. The house got messier, and messier with nine people underfoot. The kids played, and played, and played, and surprisingly between four kids there was hardly ever an argument. It is crazy to think how much fun stuff we crammed into a few short days. Lets see, we roasted marshmallows, went down to the cherry festival, ate ridiculous amounts of pie, went cherry picking, went out to eat a few times, made homemade Lebanese cuisine (grape leaves and lime hummus), had a wonderful meal made by Les (bacon wrapped stuffed shrimp and chicken Kabobs, Les's famous mashed potatoes,and the yummiest fresh tomatoes and feta in chipotle vinaigrette--YUMMY!), Chatted up a storm, went to the Old Mission point Lighthouse, took all the kids out for some fun while Les and Amanda visited a few wineries, went to Moomers of course, and took hundreds of pictures! That being said the three following slideshows are made up primarily of Amanda's photos. She took the best ones, so I used mostly hers, and not as many of my own. Some of the ones that are mine I plan to add to my photo a day whenever I get back to doing that. ~ Thanks Amanda for all the great pics!

I am sure that I am forgetting tons of stuff. The days flew by and we all had so much fun.

CITIZENSHIP!

Laney's big day! July 6, 2009

Today we had an appointment with Officer Dupuis, at the Immigration and HomeLand Security building in Detroit. We took Laney that morning to have her hair braided. It took 3 hours to do and she did great. She even fell asleep for about an hour of it. Everything went well and we should be getting notification in the coming weeks of her US Citizenship. It's such a big thing. I wish there was a ceremony or something, but there isn't.

Congratulations sweetpea!
Love,
Mommy and Daddy, and Daniel

Detroit

In the eight years we have lived in Michigan I never went Detroit until Laney's citizenship appointment. Jesse commented while we were there, how it felt like time had stopped there in the 1970's. You do strongly get that sense as you drive around. With the exception of few of the high rise buildings from the auto industry and others, the architecture looks like it hasn't progressed since the 70's. Many of the old buildings are are now dilapidated, vandalized, and vacant, but you still get such a feeling of how nice Detroit was in it's heyday. A lot of the buildings have quite lovely architectural detailing.

It was something else spending time in Detroit. A way of life I am just not accustomed to. It made me feel like I've always taken for granted the way things are in the many places I've lived. We had made an appointment to have Laney's hair braided for her citizen ship appointment. In the hair salon we were in lock down for 3 hours while her hair was braided. Why? Because that's how they operate there. Their means of safety from robbery at gun point. I can't even imagine living like that day in and day out. Whenever we drove the streets, drivers made their own rules and no one flinched, no one yelled out their car window, or shot the offending car the bird. It was like no rule was rule and you didn't mess with the anarchy of it all. I couldn't help, but reflect how good one real strong industry can bless and prosper peoples lives, and shatter them too, when that industry sends those jobs away for lower wages and bigger profits for the few. And, yeah I know it's not all the auto industry. I know that Detroit was devastated more than once due to rioting, and it's never recovered. I don't relish seeing the poverty and pain of it all. I just wish we here in Michigan would learn the importance of employment diversity, for now and for the future, and get over the 100 unhealthy years of dependancy on the auto industry. I think we are finally starting to get it with some of the farming industries, wineries, tourism, and renewable energy industries. I hope so anyhow. The visit to Detroit makes me curious about the long term effect the auto industry has had on saginaw and Flint. Another road trip for another day...

Niagara Falls Canada and Ubly windmills

ROAD TRIP #2- Destination Niagara Falls!

On our way to Niagara Falls we detoured through Ubly Michigan. They have a 46 windmill operation. Daniel has been into windmills for the past 2 years, so we thought he would really enjoy the detour. We made it there just before dark. I admit it was pretty cool. Daniel found them kinda scary. they are huge up close. I'm glad we did that for him, and Laney enjoyed it too.

Niagara Falls was super fun! We thought it would be something like visiting the Grand Canyon, which is super cool also. It was a completely different experience. Niagara Falls has a Las Vegas carnival atmosphere that we didn't anticipate. That aside the falls were magnificent! It was fun just walking around taking in the sights and beauty, but you really don't get the magnitude of it all until you get up close. We took the white water walk which ended up being a lot shorter than we had thought it would be. It was cool though to learn about the rapids and see them up close. Next we rode the Maid of the Mist. A 1/2 hour boat ride that takes you up close to the falls. It was by far the most fun thing we experienced there, and kinda scary too! You get plashed from the fall of the water and the boat rocks scarily back and forth with everyone on board uncontrollably swaying into each other. We all laughed and laughed including the kids. You get the feeling that the boat is way too close to the falls. We enjoyed fireworks over the falls both Friday and Saturday night. Friday night we watched from our hotel balcony. We had a great view. On Saturday night we went to Queen Victoria Park to get a closer view of the fireworks. It was July Fourth and although we were staying in Canada we knew the fireworks would be amazing, and they were! Our last adventure was the journey behind the falls. We did that at night. It was quite creepy! You go in these underground tunnels to get up close to the falls. you can see the sheer force of the falls only about 20 feet away. Scary! Another fun road trip!

Mackinac Island

ROAD TRIP #1- destination Mackinac Island!

We knew we wanted to take Zeinab some places while she was here visiting, and why not, there are so many cool places relatively close by. We just had not decided where, by the time she had arrived. I was thinking Chicago. There is just so much to do and see there. Zeinab reminded me that Jesse and I had taken her and Stephanie when they were ten and eleven. Why I hadn't remembered that I don't know, but I sure do now. Well Jesse came home one evening from work with the idea we should all go to Mackinac Island for the weekend.

Great Idea! Zeinab and I took over from there and stayed up late a couple of nights planning the trip. Only problem was we were planning last minute for Father's day weekend, and on top of that there was a huge Yacht race for the same weekend. It was nearly impossible to find lodging. Zee and I wanted all of us to stay at the Lilac Tree Inn. Next time for sure. We stayed at the Inn at Mackinac Island. It was super cute, clean, and the beds were comfortable. Plus they give you yummy fresh baked cookies upon your arrival and fresh baked muffins upon your departure.

So, our time on the island. First it must be known that there are no motor vehicles allowed on the island. We rented bikes right away and a trailer for the kids. We biked all the way around the island the first day. It's only an 8 mile bike ride around the island, but sadly it kicked my butt! It was so much fun!!! We took our time stopping for the kids to, yes, pick weeds, and for the rest of us to take lots and lots of pictures. Before heading out we picked up some lunch for the kids to munch on the way. Not surprisingly Daniel didn't finish his. He wanted me to save his fries for him in my bike basket. "Sure little buddy." (wink-wink) I was sure they would be gross by the end of the bike ride. Problem solved! We stopped at a little stand some ways up the trail to take in the sights and a snack. We weren't the only ones with snacking on our minds. Before we knew it, it was like something out of the movie "The Birds". A swarm of seagulls came out of nowhere and went nuts fighting each other for those fries. It was total mayhem for about five minutes. We continued on our bike ride seeing more cool sights. This was our second time on the island and I must say riding bikes makes a huge difference. You experience the island in such a different and more personal way.

On the second day we rode our bikes some more and took the historical carriage ride up to one of the butterfly exhibits. The kids loved that. We walked around downtown, shopped and ate and of course bought some famous Mackinac fudge. We all agreed that Ryba's fudge was the best, so that's what we got. That was a full day and weekend. We took the ferry back and that was that!

Zeinab comes to visit

Zeinab came to visit for a whole month! It was great having her here. We all did tons of stuff! We went to the beach, the movies, out for Moomers ice cream (more than once!), out to eat A LOT, Cherry festival, lots of shopping and photo taking, two road trips, and a fun family get together with Les and his gang. Jesse and I are so used to little ones and we have such fond memories of taking care of Zeinab and Stephanie when they were little. Now that Zee is growing up it was fun too, having her as a teen in the house. Daniel and Laney though, lamented Snephanie (Stephanie)not coming too. To her credit she is doing a photography internship this summer. We missed her but are glad for the opportunity she has with that.

The details of Zeinab's visit to come in future posts!

Last week of preschool

We got home from vacation just in time for the last week of preschool. Daniel was the child of the day on the last day. That meant he got to bring the snack to share with his class, ring the bell for snack time, and be the head of the line for the day. He asked Jesse go with him. He had a great time having his daddy at preschool. The class did a practice fire drill where each child crawled out of the classroom window. They all got a huge kick out of that. All that fun and Daniel was still thrilled it was the last day before summer break. It's now mid July and he is already asking me to take him back to school. I don't think he gets the whole summer break thing.