Being at home

Being a stay at home mom has given Daniel and I the ability to just "hang" recently.

Daniel is enjoying his freedom to have the house and the mom all to himself!

A few weeks ago, he asked to watch a movie in the dining room. I came out less than 10 minutes later to find him snoozing on the floor lol

Everybody Disco!

I went to a great party that a friend threw in honor of his wifes 50th birthday. Everybody had a groovy time!

I had my powder blue shadow and my frosted pink lipstick

Classic 70's party food, fondue!

Our host, Pete

The Chip n' Dale dancers, straight from Vegas!

The Village People showed up as well

Sonny and Cher made an apperance

After a few hours and a few more drinks....

and to end the night, beer pong lol

Michigan Apple Festival

The coming of fall means another Michigan Apple Festival at The Country Mill!

Alexis loves the goats, Daniel wasn't too thrilled

We sampled quite a few different kinds of apples! Poor Alexis has two more loose teeth and had to have help biting every apple

Every year I get a picture of Alexis and Daniel walking in the orchard to see how they've grown and changed

2006

2007

2008

On the way home, I spied a man on a motorcyle with a Pomeranian strapped on his chest. Unfortunatly, this is the best pic I could get!

Me, through the ages

Since my camera is currently broken (Thanks Daniel) I decided to have some fun with pictures I already have. I found a site called Yearbookyourself.com :)

1950


1960


1962


1966


1968


1978


Now, where's my disco whistle?

Daniel!

Tonight, as I was watching Scrubs, I heard Daniel's door creek open. I froze, wondering why he was awake. I heard him patter down the hall and realized he was getting up to GO TO THE BATHROOM! A few moments later, he pattered back into his room and closed the door.
This is the first week we have gone diaper free and Daniel was the one who initiated it even. I'm so excited!
I have spent over $5000.00 on diapers just for Daniel alone in the past 3 years.

If I continue to pay myself for the next three years the money I've spent in the past 3 years on diapers, the kids and I could go here. Exciting!

The First Day of First Grade!

Alexis started first grade this week!

After a yummy breakfast,


We went to wait for the bus

The bus never showed up lol
so I drove her, and dropped her a block away so she could "walk" to school


Daniel and I walked to the end of the road in the afternoon to meet her, she was exhausted!


Daniel is having a grand old time being home alone! He sure is glad to see his sister when she gets off that bus though! It's a very dramatic scene:

Alexis gets off the bus, we are usually playing near by.

Alexis: DANIEL!!
Daniel: SISTER!!

They run, arms stretched wide till they collide in a huge hug!

Fun Weekend at the Cottage

We had a long weekend at the cottage with my brother, Dave, and his girls Erica and Victoria, and my mom!

Mom and I left the house about 6:30 and didn't make it up till after 9 with all the kid stops lol

I managed to get Daniel into bed before Dave and the girls showed up, but Alexis was up till after 11, playing Barbies with Erica

The next morning we got right down to playing, with the kids in the lake by 9am. Bernie, gracious neighbor as always, allowed the kids to play on his boat.

Erica supervising Alexis sweeping the docks

Daniel and I headed for home after dinner for the night since I had to be at church Sunday for our first week with no worship leader! We received VERY favorable feedback and had a good time. It felt strange to not have Eric and Susie there. I really do miss seeing them already!

Sunday afternoon Daniel and I headed back up.

David had been sailing most of the day and ended up clunking the mast or something sailing related on his head, causing him and the girls to stay an extra night but they were off and running Monday morning.

Every little kid gets a sink bath at the cottage!

Monday was wonderfully lazy. We built a fire in the outside pit and cooked our dogs out there. I went on a search for S'mores supplies and we did it up right!

I also had the for site to rent a couple of movies. Mom and I watched "The Fountain" that night. Let me just say that no movie has ever sucked as this movie sucked. I hadn't even heard of it, but I figured with Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz it was a safe bet. Not even close.

Fortunately, I also rented 'Bee Movie' for the morning and all was well.

Alexis patiently waiting in the car

We packed up and were home by 5, just enough time for me to wash up and get to worship team practice!

Just for fun I added a pic of the monstrosity they built next door.