Question of the Day

Am I the only one who gets annoyed with the fact that all our living room blankets and pillows tend to end up on the living room floor all the time?

Apparently yes.  Yes I am.

4th of July

 We always enjoy our 4th of July celebrations.  It's a day full of family, food, fireworks, and fun.  (I love a good alliteration, don't you?)  Although Staley was away at camp during the 4th of July this year, we were able to include Adelie's friend, Stella, and Christie and her girls in our 4th of July festivities.

Loved sharing our fun holiday traditions with friends!

We took our annual cousin photograph with the cousins who were in attendance.

We started off our fun with the 4th of July parade...

complete with lots of 4th of July parade candy!

We had yummy 4th of July lunch at Uma and Papa's followed by some fun yard games and visiting.

It was a hot day, so we took advantage of Mrs. Lind's invitation to spend a few hours swimming in her pool for the afternoon.

After swimming, we went back to our house to hang out, eat dinner, and enjoy some sparkler fun before the fireworks.

We finished off our 4th of July with a lot of bangs as we enjoyed another great Eureka fireworks show.  It was another great 4th of July!!

Pentwater

I feel like, anymore, a Pentwater post doesn't even really need words.  Just the yearly memories compiled into a series of photos.  But, of course, it's me so there will be words.

Despite the weather app preparing us for a week littered with rain, we had great beach weather every single day.

So much beach fun with cousins.  

Sand creations, dune adventures, reading, snacking, napping, and beach walks filled our days.

The water in Lake Michigan was unseasonably warm so all the kids spent lots of time in the lake...

even Briggs, who has historically not always been a big fan of swimming in the "big" lake.

We expanded our lodging a bit this year.  Evan's family and Ethan stayed in the main house, Erik's family (with Elliott's friend and Liam) stayed in the carriage house, and our family rented a new little house 2 doors down.  It was time for everyone to have a little more space, and that worked out great.

But we still had dinner together every night...

played games (Liam and Staley learned how to play euchre this year) and ran (all the cousins, even Lucy, ran at least once throughout the week except for Briggs)...

walked down to the beach for the sunset...

and carried on traditions like walking into town for ice cream, shopping, breakfast at the Old Hamlin, spaghetti night, and s'mores night.

Melissa took the 4 littles horseback riding one overcast morning while Evan and I did a little go-karting with Staley and Liam.

We also enjoyed our new tradition of the adults going out for dinner for Melissa's birthday while the kids had pizza and movie night at the house.

Although there were a few families that didn't make it this year, there were still 40 of us enjoying the sun and sand and family time.  Briggs was especially excited that Lorenzo and Valentina were there this year.

The time with cousins and "beach cousins" is something the kids look forward to all year.

It was another great and relaxing week of Pentwater family fun.

Staley was already speculating about if she and her future family would share a house with Adelie and Briggs' future families when they come to Pentwater as grown-ups.

I love thinking that the tradition will continue on past my generation as growing up going to Pentwater was a highlight of my summers just like it is for our kids.

Thank you, Pentwater, for another fun week of memories!

See you next year!

Ummmm....

This morning, the kids and I cleaned the house.  We got everything picked up and put away where it belongs.  We dusted, vacuumed, steam mopped, and got the bathrooms and kitchen cleaned.  It looked great, and it went fairly quickly with everyone pitching in and doing their part.  After the cleaning was done, the kids had friends over for the afternoon.  Staley, Adelie, and their friend just hung out in Staley's room and talked.  Briggs and his friend played in his room, the living room, the basement, the deck, the backyard, the driveway.  Toys, stuffed animals, laundry baskets, couch cushions, pillows, chairs, sprinklers, scooters, towels, spoons, and snack containers marked their course as I could literally track exactly where they had been by the disarray they left behind.

On the way home from dropping off Briggs' friend, I told Briggs, "When we get home, you need to clean up the mess you and Bryli made.  You need to clean up the driveway, back porch, living room, your room, and the basement."  In a huff, Briggs' replied, "Why do I have to do ALL the chores?"

Ummmm.... 

R.I.P. Streak

Staley's run streak has officially come to an end.  Staley started her run streak on April 1, 2023 to get ready for her first season of middle school cross country.  She ran every single day for at least a mile to keep her streak alive.  She ran on vacations.  She ran at camp.  She ran early in the morning.  She ran late at night.  She ran on treadmills or on stairs or in hallways when it was just too cold, icy, snowy, or late to run outside.  Her discipline was astounding as she made getting her run in a priority each and every day, whether she felt like it or not.  

Heading into high school cross country, Staley started talking about breaking her streak so that she could have actual rest days.  She no longer needed her streak to motivate her to run.  She was getting a little tired of the inconvenience of making sure she got in her run every day and never having a day off.  So when her surgeon told her she couldn't run for 48-72 hours after her oral surgery, she felt like it was a good time to break her streak.

Staley's streak ended after 2 years, 2 months, and 4 days of consistent and dedicated running.  

April 1, 2023-June 4, 2025

796 days

R.I.P Streak.  

It was a good run!

Good-bye, June!

We returned from our trip and kicked off our summer schedule.  We jumped full swing ahead into summer activities and fun.

Staley start her summer with a less-than-fun oral surgery where she had all 4 wisdom teeth removed as well as a bracket and chain attached to one adult tooth that needs a little help to come up.  She was pretty swollen and miserable for a few days, but was glad to get it done.

Adelie did a summer book talk at the library (just like last summer) about her second self-published book, "Joy's Magic."

A bunch of her friends came for her talk, and then some of them came over to our house afterwards to hang out together.

Summer is always a busy time with lots of opportunities for the girls to perform around the community with their Rising Stars/Singapella/Kickline groups, so they've filled some of their free time with performing with their NTA friends.

Adelie performed her solo, "It's Possible" from Seussical at one of their performances.

The biggest performance for the girls so far this summer was performing at Six Flags in St. Louis.

The performance was fun, but the best part was spending the rest of the day with NTA friends at Six Flags.

The girls had a great time hanging out with their friends, riding lots of roller coasters (and other rides), and making fun memories.

I had a fun time hanging out with some of the other NTA moms as well.  The day at Six Flags was definitely a highlight of June for the girls.

June also marked the beginning of cross country open runs with the middle school for Adelie (and I)...

and with the high school for Staley.

The girls and I took Uma to see Hadestown with the NTA Stage Teens.  Although Staley was still swollen and miserable from her surgery, she didn't want to miss the show so she went.  It was very well done, although I'm sure Staley would have enjoyed it a bit more if she'd been feeling better.

Briggs, Staley, and I also went to see their NTA friend, Emily, perform in her 'Dare to Dream' show.  (Or, as Briggs initially understood it, 'Dairy Dreams.')

It was a cute show, and we enjoyed watching Emily perform.

We always find time to fit in a little fun with friends at State Farm pool.

This is the first summer where I feel like I can send the kids off with their friends to swim while I just read by the pool.  It's very freeing!

The girls have more scheduled summer activities, but Briggs fills his time with play dates, outside time with friends, trips to the library, Legos, audiobooks, reading, playing, and video games.

He also used some of his saved money to buy this big Harry Potter Lego set.  It had over 2,000 pieces, was labeled for ages 18+, and was in a really big box.  I had hoped it would fill his time for a week or so.  He finished it in a day!

He got to help his friend, Bryli, celebrate her birthday as well.

Adelie spent a week at Miracle Camp with her friend Bristol and Stella.  Miracle Camp will have its own post, but one week of our June was sans Adelie.

The same week Adelie was at camp, Zach went on a week-long bike trip with Jonathan on the Eerie trail from Cincinnati to Cleveland, OH. (Maybe this will have its own post too, if Zach wants to do one??)  A week without Adelie AND Zach was eerily quiet and weird at home, but Staley, Briggs, and I enjoyed some quality time together.  I also enjoyed the decreased amount of cooking, cleaning, dishes, grocery shopping, and laundry that occurs when 2 people are subtracted from the weekly equation.

We enjoyed our annual week in Pentwater.  Don't worry!  Pentwater will have its own post too.

Our Pentwater trip was sandwiched between Miracle Camp.  We picked up Adelie from her week of camp on our way up to Pentwater, and then we got home in time for Staley to have a day at home to get unpacked from vacation and repacked for camp before she headed off for her week of high school camp.

So there you have it!  Our June was full, full, full with oral surgery and performances and running and friends and bike trips and camp and NTA classes and work...and then a week of vacation to recover from our busy June.  Sometimes life just makes us tired, but it's a good tired from all the fun.  Come on, July!  We're ready for you!!