Summer Manifesto 2012

My kids are out of school this Thursday, which got me to thinking...what should we do this summer? Evan will be going to a tournament & soccer camp. Emma will have driver's training, girl scout camp & cross country training. But what should we do together, as a family? I decided to follow Ali's lead and make a summer manifesto. Then I'm gonna put it all together in a scrapbook.

1. Go to the drive-in

2. pick strawberries

3. have a bonfire every week

4. go to the beach

5. walk. lots.

6. go to a Tigers game

7. make homemade pickles

8. go to the farmer's market every week

9. knit 5 pairs of socks

10. visit friends

11. water balloon fight

12. read 10 books

13. play with Evan

14. redecorate one room

15. do something unexpected

Some of the things I've already started (drive-in, bonfire, knitting, books) and others I haven't. But there is plenty of time. I've thought of a few other things too, but most are 'just me' things, so I didn't include them. Or I can choose to include them later.

Let summer begin!

Today is going to be Wicked awesome!

Happy Anniversary to my awesome hubs who got us tickets to see Wicked today at the Opera House! When the tickets first arrived 3 months ago, it seemed like a lifetime away. I'm so excited.

It's our 18th anniversary. All year I had been thinking it was our 19th, and next year would be the big two oh. Wrong. 2013 will be 20 years. Basic math skills, I has them.

18 years and two great kids is nothing to sneeze at though! I may complain and whine from time to time, but my life is pretty blessed :)

Novemblur

I have posted one time in November. That is an all time low for me!

I have taken even fewer photographs. I don't know why I don't think to take more. I have to get better at that again! I used to love to take pictures.

Anywho, here's a run down of what we've been doing this month:

• November is a big birthday month. Evan, my Mom, my Stepmom, and my Mother-in-law all have birthdays in November. We ate lots of cake.
• We hosted Thanksgiving. I cleaned house for 2 days and Bart did 99% of the cooking. It was a nice day. Food was delicious and everyone was happy.
• Evan played futsál every weekend.
• I continue to go to the chiropractor several times a week. My back is feeling pretty good...now if I can just get my neck to co-operate then I will be great!
• Leaves. Lots and lots of leaves. At our house. My dad's house. My mom's house.
• My etsy store has been busy! I have been knitting pretty constantly to have items in stock.

Add in all the other everyday stuff a mom does, and it's been busy around here, but not too crazy. I like November for it's pared down schedule.

Less than a month to Christmas. Holy Cow!

On my iPhone: end of summer

I currently have 472 photos on my iPhone. That's far more than I've taken with my camera in a very long time. Here are a few favorites from the end of summer 2011.

LMDO: Laughing my diaper off. Awesome.

Lola enjoying a corn on the cob. Be careful...she will bite you and she will try to steal the cob.

All packed and ready to go to Temagami.

Home from soccer camp. Someone was a little tired. I can't imagine why she chose this as her resting spot.

On the road again...

Cool fungi on Temagami

Beautiful sunset view from my kitchen.

Plunging into the icy cold lake in Temagami.

Bates hamburgers: an after Ortho tradition. Every appointment is followed by a trip to Bates. 2 burgers, a large fry, and a large chocolate shake, which we share. Next month she gets her braces off and we'll have to make up excuses to go to Bates.

Em & I in Temagami.

five good things : July 2011

It's time for another installment of five good things, where I name at least 5 things that happened in the last month that were pretty cool. On a day to day basis, sometimes this feels like an impossible task. It's been hot hot damn hot, and humid this month, making we want to crawl into a hole until October. So here goes!

1. Segwaying thru Chicago on the 4th of July. Chicago is awesome, and what could be more awesome than riding a Segway around the city for two hours? Nothing.Nothing is cooler. If you are ever visiting a city and they offer a Segway tour, take it. It's worth every penny. And it's fun. And your kids will love you.

2. Cousins that visit for 10 days.
3. Inappropriate pictures on your camera. Always good for a laugh.
4. Construction on the pergola is making progress! It's going slow, but some forward progress has been made. Hopefully by the end of summer it will be all done and we can enjoy some lovely shady afternoons in the back yard.
5 .Hello, lover. Completely out of the blue, Bart bought me a brand new MacBook Air. It is lovely. It took me a week to get all of my photos and files off my old one (which now belongs to Evan), and I am enjoying playing with this new beauty more each day. Bart Rocks!!
6. A ripe tomato in July! I haven't had one in a few years. It's small, but nothing beats a homegrown tomato for flavor.

A Florida Christmas

I didn't mean to go this long without blogging about our trip to Florida pre-Christmas...time just got away from me! (And I hadn't gone through iPhoto and deleted the photos I didn't need so I had no idea really what I had in there.)

Travelling during the holidays was really great. It forced me to be organized and get everything done before we stepped foot into the airport. Good. It did feel weird to not have any last minute shopping to do, and it was annoying that everyone else did! No strolling thru our favorite malls just for fun...they were crowded!

At the terminal super early. Like 90 minutes early. We expected long security lines but were through in less than 10 minutes. Instead we shopped and ate at a Coney Island. Lots of good stores in the new terminal. They even have a pet store!

The entire family and their electronic devices. Ahhh, technology!

We arrived at the apartment a little after midnight. Dad & Carol had decorated for us with a small tree and our stockings! It was a really great surprise. Made it feel Christmasy.

Sunsets are hard to catch from the apartment...this was our first night. The whole day had been crummy; cold, breezy, no sun at all.

We went out to dinner for our 17th anniversary on Saturday night. This night also began Evan's reign of terror for the remainder of the vacation. 11 year olds are not fit human company.

Think it was a little windy? Check out the waves!

The kids & Bart also took turns riding in my dad's ocean kayak. Evan got flipped coming back over the surf and the kayak crashed into his head and back. Needless to say he didn't ride it again. He also didn't come out of the apartment for 24 hours.

Emma & I went down to the beach several times a day. The water was cold but we still went in. The third day at low tide the pools started to form. I love when it does that. The shelling is great and the water trickling past looks like spun gold. Very cool.

We spent one evening driving around looking at Christmas displays, mostly in Las Olas. It's really hard to photograph them at night, in a moving car without them being totally blurry. These were a few of my favorites.

Sharing a big bowl of mussels at Southport Raw Bar. Emma won't touch them, but Evan can eat an entire order by himself.

The very first year we took both kids, I got a shot of them at this railing. We try to re-create it. but both would have nothing to do with it. I just love this age.

Hello fattie!

All in all, it was a very nice vacation. We had more sun than clouds. We ate good food. We relaxed. We swam. We body surfed. We got sand in unmentionable places. And then we got to come home and celebrate Christmas!

Leaving on a jet plane...

...but I will return on December 23rd.

So excited to just relax now that all of the Christmas shopping, wrapping, gathering, carding, & baking are done. For the next five days I plan to just enjoy the plentiful sunshine.

It's gonna be awesome!

celebrating eleven!

This kid turned 11 a few days ago. He's pretty much been doing this since.

His big gift from us this year: his own cell phone. Heaven help us. The kid loves to be on the phone. He loves to hold it in his hand. He loves to open and close it. He loves to text. We are very glad for unlimited texting.

We had the family over to celebrate last night after his first indoor game (they won!)

This cake might not look that impressive, but don't let my frosting skillz fool you. This is truly the best chocolate cake you'll ever eat. I've made it twice now, and it's received rave reviews both times. Gather ingedients and make it immediately. You won't be sorry.

I only had 10 candles, so we used this tall one in the center. It was blazing away right after I snapped this picture. I thought we were going to have cake flambe.

Lola was very into Max, especially when we pulled out this squeaky giraffe. She kept leaning forward and trying to take it from him, ever so gently.

Max was waaaay over tired so this was the best shot of the three I could get.

He started getting silly and laughing/hiccupping at his Grammy, which made us all laugh.

Evan had a good day, and got pretty much everything he asked for.

Here's to hoping 11 will be better than 10!

Happy Halloween! v.10

Happy Halloween!

Another fun year of trick or treating in the AP with Greg & Tracey...and little Max too!

Evan the bull rider. He dressed as a hippie at school on Friday, but I love this costume.

Angel and devil. Seriously, she ate 2 pairs of devil horns.

Max looking good in his skeleton suit :)

Max, Greg & Emma

Looking very angelic...

Max did not want to sit on the Great Pumpkin. Poor Binkster.

Bart came out of the house dressed to kill. Literally.

Time to re-fuel with a little True Blood!

Emma didn't trick or treat...she was all about walking around with Lola. They were going to dress the same, but Lola really did eat 2 pair of devil horns, so at the last minute Em pulled together the angel costume. They were very cute. I still can't believe she didn't get one piece of candy. I take that back...she ate from Aunt Tracey's bucket but didn't get any of her own. Brat. That means I don't get to raid her stash.

Good thing Evan had a large bag.