Open Houses!!

Can I get a HOORAY!?!? It's school time again!! Can you say schedule, schedule, schedule!??! :)

We've had a very exciting week so far with BOTH kids! Both kids had open houses at each of their schools. As you may remember, right now, they got to two different schools because we wanted Bradlee to have the same teachers Emma did.

Bradlee is in Pre-K at Holly Elementary. His Open House was Tuesday evening and he was SO excited! The preschool and pre-k classes moved from one building to their current building 2 years ago (this is their second year in the Holly Elementary building). They moved into basically the same room, with a divider to create two different rooms. Bradlee has been SO excited to go to school on the "other side of the wall"!! :) Mrs. Walters, his teacher, was very happy to see him, and happy to see what a beautiful young lade Emma has turned into! Bradlee gave Mrs. Walters a huge hug and said, "I remember you!!" I think it's going to be a great year! Mrs. Walters asked Bradlee if he would be willing to do the Mystery Box for the first day of school. This is where they have a little box that they put one item in and then the class has to guess what it is! Bradlee was quite excited and has already told us we are going to be doing some practice rounds at home before school starts! Here he is with the Mystery Box!



Miss Emma is, can you believe it, starting 2nd grade at Davisburg Elementary! She is going to do so well, I can already feel it! Her teacher is the former PE teacher, so Emma was VERY excited to hear he was moving back to teaching 2nd grade and even MORE excited to hear he was going to be her teacher! I could tell she was a bit nervous about starting school, which is totally normal, and it didn't make it better that her bestest buddy Allie was going to be in the other 2nd grade class...but once we went to the open house today, she was MUCH better! Two of her friends are in her class and it was all she needed...well, that, and to see her teacher!



I couldn't believe the difference between the 1st grade and 2nd grade classrooms...I don't know if it's also the difference between a male and female teacher, but, WOW! :) I am thrilled with the fact there are TABLES instead of a giant rug for the kids to sit on. Last year we had some issues with a girl in Emma's class writing on other people with the dry erase markers...something that does NOT come out of clothes!

Basically, I'm just really excited for both kids to take the next step in their educational journey!! Hooray for school!!! :)

So proud!

A few weeks ago, my in-laws had a garage sale at their house. We were able to contribute some items to the garage sale and of course, we were there to help out as well!

We got Emma all set up for her lemonade stand...and she told everyone who came that their donation was for the Relay for Life! She really only did the lemonade stand one day, but was still able to make $26!! :)

Birthday Boy!

Last Sunday, the 29th, my baby boy turned 4 years old! He is B-I-G into pirates...so naturally, we had a pirate-themed birthday! Aunt Kat and Uncle Garrett gave Bradlee a card with a treasure map inside...the "X" marked the spot of his present! He was SHOCKED to really find a treasure chest with pirate gold and all kinds of pirate goodies in it! Lots of family and friends were able to celebrate with us....it was a great way to spend Bradlee's birthday!

We went to the doctor for his 4 year physical...he is 2 pounds short of being able to sit in a booster seat in the car! To rectify this, Bradlee has constantly been in the "good eaters" or "clean plate" club!! :)

Summer Fun with Strings!

For the last two weeks, Emma has been participating in a camp at the Flint School of Performing Arts. The camp was called "Summer Fun with Strings" and is about as old as me! In fact, I remember helping with registration and such when I worked at the FSPA in high school! ;)

Last Monday, the first day, Emma went to camp and tried each of the stringed instruments: violin, viola, cello and bass. After trying each of them, she decided on the viola. I have to admit, though, that I sort of put the idea in her head ahead of time...but she knew she could pick whatever she wanted!

Last Friday, before going up north, I was able to pick Emma up from camp. She took out her viola and played "Mary Had a Little Lamb" for me! After only 5 days! Needless to say, I was impressed and very proud!

Today was the last day of camp...they had a little recital for the different age groups/classes to perform what they've learned. Knowing that these kids have never touched an instrument before 10 days ago, and seeing them play songs today...WOW. :)

My great grandfather played violin in Russia....I play clarinet...maybe Emma will continue in our footsteps??? My only hope is that she at least has an appreciation for music! I think we've got that covered!

Up North!!

What a fabulous weekend we had! The four if us went up to Beulah on Platte Lake and stayed with our friends, Justin and Sara, at their family cabin. We went kayaking, canoeing and had a great time!!! Emma and Bradlee loved being out on the water, as did Tony and I! On Sunday, before we headed home, we took a side trip over to Sleeping Bear Dunes. We had read the book, "The Legend of Sleeping Bear" to them before we left and they were quite excited to climb up "Mama Bear"!! Both kids made it to the top!! It was a great family weekend...

Power Outage 2012

We made it through the storm! Last Wednesday, as most of you probably know, we had a massive storm that came through! I was awakened around 4:15am to the sound of wind, only to discover that one of my bedroom windows was open. When I got up to close the window (since we had the AC on), I noticed how windy it was. Fifteen minutes later, the power went out. I waited....waited...waited.....nothing. So I went downstairs to get my cell phone to set the alarm! Glad that window was open!

We did not recover power until the next day, about noon.....which left our fridge and freezers off for 32 hours total. We lost about 75% of our food! :( Here are pictures of our nicely stuffed freezer and our not-so-stuffed freezer....

We are able to make a claim with our insurance company to get some money for the food we lost...so that's good! I'm just glad we were all okay and our power went on much sooner than some people's!!!

Washington DC!

<p>What a week! Tony, Emma and I spent a week in Washington, DC with 16 of Tony's students and a colleague and her husband. It was a great week! </p>
<p>We flew in on Sunday and visited the monuments. Monday we went to Arlington Cemetery. Tuesday was Capitol Hill, Wednesday Emma and I went to the American Girl Store! Thursday was Ford Theatre and Smithsonians and National Zoo. Friday was the White House, Air and Space Museum and headed home! Enjoy the pictures!!!