Category: Family news/Updates

Well we all survived the first week of school.  Noomi loves school and her teacher.  She’s making new friends (which always cracks me up given how small our town is) and talks nonstop about her day.  Ajax would never say that he loves school, but he surely tolerated it this week lol.  He said his teacher is very nice but was upset that in 4th grade they no longer get a morning recess.   He thinks that’s bogus (we recently watched Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, so now pretty much everything is “bogus”).

I had Friday off and took Ajax to a doctor’s appointment in Brighton with Miss. Noomi.  Afterwards we got home and Ajax had a friend, Forrest, over to play.  When Forrest’s mom came to pick him up she surprised me with cupcakes and a cake as it was my birthday (funny how those things slip your mind).  Dave took us all out for dinner when he got home and Noomi said she thought I was turning 26. Bless her heart.

On Saturday, I was out of commission with a nasty migraine, so I’m not sure what everyone else did.  I primarily slept lol.  We did have my sister’s dogs as her and Adrian were in the UP … and while on their trip, got engaged!

On Sunday, Dave and I worked outside moving a very large pile of dirt (where the shed will go), the kids played, and the dogs ran wild.

On Monday, I took the kids to Bishop lake for a few hours so that Dave could get some work done at home.  When we got home the kids played outside with some neighbor kids and then we all had an early dinner. After dinner we took Husker outside and let him get all his zoomies out before a wicked storm wiped through.

Overall, a lovely weekend.  I realize I didn’t take any pictures this weekend!

Well, not only did we roll into town at midnight, but everyone was up a little after 7 am for the first day of school!  Both kids actually did awesome and got up, showered and we were out the door!  We got to school a few minutes late and walked each kid to their classrooms.  Noomi was thrilled about first grade and could hardly pause to say goodbye to me as she was too busy telling her friend about our Chicago vacation.

After school Ajax bounded off the bus and ran straight to Husker, but no Noomi.  I rushed to the bus as it was by then pulling up to our driveway and there comes Noomi. She said she forgot to get off lol. I think she was pretty tired.

Oh and on a side note, Husker chewed up the molding around our back door. Every time I walk by I get ticked off all over again. Darn dog.

Well we decided on one last summer trip before the kids headed back to school.  Last week I took Thursday off from work to prep for our trip and get all our back to school ends wrapped up.  We also ended up having two of the kids friends over for the day, so with four kids in tow we did all our running around, packing, cleaning, and school paperwork. As I went onto start some freezer baking our oven quite working and I had to call the repairman out! Oh well, we still got a lot done.  Thursday night Dave took Ajax to his first soccer practice and Noomi and I took Husker to Emily’s house for the weekend.

On Friday morning we were up and out the door by 8 am.  We had the easiest drive into Chicago with hardly any traffic.  We met my parents, and their friend, Melissa, and her daughter, Christine, at the Shedd Aquarium.  The aquarium was awesome.  Ajax could’ve spent all day there, while Noomi took more of a “quick running tour” of the place.  Both kids loved touching the stingrays and we hit that up twice before leaving.   After that we walked to a nearby restaurant before leaving the city around 6/7 pm for Rockford.  When we got to Rockford we checked into our hotel and then chilled in bed watching TV before everyone passed out.

On Saturday morning, Ajax was up at 5:30 am.  He managed to still his little body till almost 7 am and then we were all up.  We had breakfast and then Dave and I headed out for Tough Mudder, while the rest of the crew hung by the pool for the day.  The Rockford course was pretty awesome with almost 10K people, it was huge!  When we got back, we all went for dinner and then back to the hotel, where we again laid in bed watching TV before zonking out.

On Sunday, we had breakfast and then took the kids swimming a bit more before checking out.  We then had lunch and headed over to Schaumburg where we found an awesome outside park with a neat play structure and little river that the kids could play in.  What we didn’t count on, however, was the near 100 degree weather.  So after playing outside for a bit we all ran for ice cream to cool off before heading to Medieval Times.  I remember going to Medieval Times when I was on a school trip to Toronto and I remember loving it.  Ajax has really been into swords and knights and I thought he’d be the perfect age for it.  He was.  Both kids had a great time (though it was a bit loud for Ajax).  The adults also had a good time.  After the show we loaded into the car and headed home.  Ajax fell asleep around 9 or so, but Noomi just kept talking and talk.  She was asking what would happen to us when the sun went out and why did the moon glow?  She talked till about 10:20 pm before I convinced her to just lay her head down and then – zap – she was out like a light.  We rolled into Williamston at about midnight and everyone stumbled into the house and right into bed!

It was an awesome trip and everyone had so much fun!

Last weekend was so much fun!  On Saturday morning we got up early and headed to Brooklyn for the kids Mud Run.  Just over a mile with plenty of muddy, fun obstacles.   The kids did great!  They went over each obstacle and met each challenge with a smile. We were so proud!

After the run we met the grandparents, Aunt Emily, and Adrian at the lake.  I can’t remember the last time we were at the lake as a family. It was awesome. The kids swam and we went kayaking.  Ajax was a natural kayaker and was able to go around the lake in a kayak solo (with grandma following).  Noomi perfected her underwater handstand and we all had a great day.

Sunday we did a bunch of housework, Dave took a class, and I started moving some of the dirt from the cement pad we had put in last week.

This past week, we also got teacher assignments and on Wednesday we had the schools open house. Noomi has Ms. Proulx for first grade and Ajax has Mrs. Sileo for fourth grade.  We’re pretty excited to get our year going!  Ajax even had his first soccer practice tonight and tomorrow we head out to Chicago.

Another summer week gone!  Our week was typical, we had a sitter come two days, and then two days at the summer camp and then home with Dave on Friday.  Actually, Dave was supposed to have jury duty on Friday, but apparently someone took a plea.  The kids field trip was to the Red Cedar gymnastics and of course, Noomi now wants to take gymnastics.  This of course after I dropped a ton of money outfitting both kids for soccer! As our next few weekends are booked and we’ll be out of town right before school, I also took them school shopping and they’ve picked out all their folders and pencils, and notebooks.  Yea school!

This past weekend the kids had their last swim class. Both kids can swim freestyle and backstroke. Ajax was learning the butterfly and could float on his back.  Noomi was swimming underwater and perfecting her handstands.

After class we did a little running around and then I took them over to their friend’s house in Webberville for a sleepover. This was Noomi’s first sleepover and she was so excited.  Their friends have a pool and a hot tub, so they swam, ate pizza, watched a movie, walked into town for ice cream and stayed up way late talking.

While the kids were gone, Dave and I headed to St. Johns for the mint festival with my family.  We had an excellent time as well.

I picked up two very tired kiddos on Sunday.  They were of course swimming when I got there at 9 am, so I hung out for a bit while the kids played and then we headed home around 10.  Our Sunday was pretty quiet.  I did some shopping, the kids put away their laundry, and that was about it. Overall, pretty chill.

We also had my grandpa Gordy stop by on his motorcycle and we all got ice cream.

We also had National Night Out which is always so much fun in our town – bounce houses, face painting, a water hose from the fire department, and lots of food!

Just thought I’d share a few more pictures before wrapping up the vacation post.

Well our first official family vacation is in the books and it was awesome!  We lucked out with great weather, bright sunny days, and good moods all around.   Emily was kind enough to watch Husker and from the sounds of it, he had a most outstanding time as well, full of playdates and a new doggy daycare.

We headed out on Sunday morning and spent the day at Michigan’s Adventure.  This was the first time the kids had been to an amusement park and honestly I don’t even know the last time I’d been to an amusement park.  There were bumper cars, carousels, tilta-whirls, and every other carnival ride you could think of.  We took the kids on the pirate ship and their first wooden roller coaster.  Both kids said they liked it, but declined to go on any other such rides, lol.  We had car picnic lunch and then in the afternoon hit up the water park (another first for the kids). And they loved it so much. Their favorite was the wave pool. We basically had to drag them on the various slides.  One slide that both kids went down was a pitch black tunnel, I thought both kids would come out in tears, but they both loved it!

After a full day of playing in the sun we headed to our rental house in Spring Harbor (5 min from Grand Haven). We found the house, dumped our stuff, and then went out for some of the best pizza I’ve ever had.  We then walked around town a little before calling it a night at about 10 pm.

On Monday, we spent the entire day at the beach (Grand Haven State Park).  The kids played in the sand, rode the waves, and overall had a great time.  We also walked out on the pier and watched the large Coast Guard ships come in for the festival. After our day at the beach, we got cleaned up, grabbed dinner, and then went on a few tours of the CG ships. The kids loved it.

On Tuesday, we headed to a different park and did a bit of hiking through the woods and dunes.  After our hike we hit up another beach and played most of the day.  We then headed back to the house for a late lunch.  Unfortunately, Dave had a migraine so he laid down for a bit and I took the kids for a walk up to a local park.  Afterwards, he was feeling a bit better so we headed back into town and played a round of put put golf (both kids did very well, but I was shocked at how good Noomi was for her first time) and then dinner and then a easy night at the house. I had wanted to take the kids to a drive in movie, but by time we got home, around 8 pm, both kids were beat and just wanted to stay home, watch a movie and eat junk food. So that’s what we did.

On Wednesday, we got up early and got everything packed and loaded into the car and hit the beach by 9:30 am.  It was bit windy and the water was choppy, but we rented a stand up paddle board.  It was awesome.  I was able to take both kids out at one time, while kneeling, and could take Noomi out while standing. Both kids had a blast trying to stand on their own and Dave had fun as well, though he kept falling over, lol.  At about 1 we left and grabbed lunch on our way out of town.  We were home by about 3:30 pm after an easy drive across the state.  What an excellent family vacation!

Here are some of our awesome pictures! More to come later, right now I’m too tired to wait for them to upload LOL.

Had to take both kids with me to a work-related meeting in Grand Rapids (Michigan Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights). Both kids did exceptionally well through the 3 hour meeting. Although I was worried that they would phase out and be bored, both have recently told neighbors and family members that it was the coolest thing they’ve done this summer. A highlight for them was the fact that they each got 2 donuts. So either they are really interested in immigration and advocacy, or they really love donuts. Either way, they found it to be a pretty cool experience.  Ajax, however, now keeps saying that he objects to everything even though I keep telling him we weren’t in court.

Well Noomi is now 6 years old!  This was her big party year and we gave her the option of having a small group of friends at home or rent out the local movie theater and invite her whole class.  After much thought and discussion Noomi opted for a home party and invited a small group of friends.  We rented an inflatable obstacle course, ordered sandwiches from Subway, set up an ice cream sundae bar, and had an incredible time.

At Noomi’s 6 year old annual check up the Doctor declared she was healthy as could be. She was in the 90th percentile for height and 75th for weight.

Overall, both kids are having an excellent summer.  They love having someone come to the house 2 days a week and then going to summer camp 2 days a week.  Also as a parent it helps break up my week and it’s awesome having someone come to the house so that I don’t have to worry about getting the kiddos up and moving in the morning.

Well we took the kids to their first circus.  One came to town during the Red Cedar Jubilee.  It wasn’t terribly big, but it did manage to have lions and tigers, a trapeze artist, and a semi-funny clown.   The kids loved and it and were thoroughly entertained.

We also wrapped up our big outside project.  It took several weekends but it’s finally done.  We ripped out everything in the front of our house, leveled it off, laid a small brick retaining wall, had more dirt and mulch brought in, put in plants, spread dirt everywhere, put down grass seed, and watered. Oh we also painted a bench and made a planter.  So much work in very very hot weather.

We worked in the yard on the 4th of July and then went over to a BBQ at Beth and Mike’s house.  We actually didn’t make it to any fireworks this year since both kids had meltdowns around 8 pm.  They did sparklers at home and were happy.

I also took the kids to Bishop Lake in Brighton and we had a great day swimming in the lake. Dave had to work, so it actually gave him some quiet time during the day lol.

Oh we also spent one Saturday morning heading out to Grand Rapids for a rally to end family separation at the border (after having pancakes with Ms. Becki and her mom) and then we zipped down to Allegan for Ms. Vivian’s 3rd birthday party at the pool.  The kids did great at their first rally, but it was hovering at 100 degrees so at a certain point in the sun both kids melted down.  Luckily at the rally spot there was also an interactive fountain for kids to play in. Win-win.