Crystal Mountain

After some geocaching in Franklin Village we said goodbye to to Grandma Paula and Grandpa Joe.

We headed to Stugis on Sunday for Grandma Alice's Birthday.

Then we headed north to Crystal Mountain Resort for a conference and vacation. Grandma & Grandpa took the girls and Mike watched Mikey during the day.
We did some hiking, geocaching, exploring and alot of swimming.



That's all for now. We are up in Traverse City at Grandma and Grandpa's house for the rest of the week.

Vacation Bible School

All this week is Vacation Bible School at St Gerald's in Farmington.

The theme is "Avalanche Ranch" A country & western theme with all sorts of neat activities for kids 3 to 13. It is very well done and the girls really like it.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all the Fathers out there especially our Priests and St Joseph! Mike took the girls to the Farmer's Market on Saturday morning for muffins and to try and find the elusive Penn Puzzler geocache. They could not find the cache but while they were playing and enjoying the fountain, an elderly man came up to Mike as he was walking away and said, "You're a very lucky man". Blessed indeed.

Maria and Carmen went to a bridal shower with Grandma Paula on Saturday and had a great time and a sleepover afterwards. They went in search of the Tigers in downtown Birmingham. A very nice mass on Sunday at the Shrine and hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa afterwards. At one point many months ago Mike had mentioned to the girls that he went to school at St Bede's in Southfield since we pass it on the way to and from Grandma house. Now, every time without fail, Isabel will wait in anticipation to yell out, "DADDY'S SCHOOL!!!!" when we pass it. It is so cute to watch her face before we get to it. No matter what she is doing she instinctively knows it's coming and looks up. One time she had fallen asleep on the ride and missed it and when she woke up she immediately looks around in a daze, "I missed daddy's school." I am sure we'll never forget but it is stories like this that inspired us to make the blog in the first place.

Mikey's Birthday To-Do List

We spent the morning before church getting ready for the big party. First order of business, make sure my hat fits. Check.

Second order of business, go with my sisters and mom and dad after Mass to hide a geocache. Check.
Third order of business, enjoy my new raft in the swimming pool. Check.

Fourth, listen to "Happy Birthday" voicemail messages. One from aunt Maeve. Check.
One from grandpa Bob. Check.

Finally we're getting to the good part. Taste birthday cake with pointer finger. Check.

Oh yeah. That's some good stuff.

Oops. Forgot my "First Birthday" bib. Got it now. Mmmmm....want some?

Okay. Now it's time for a nap. Ah, grandpa is in the hammock. That'll do. G'night! I had a great birthday!

School's out for Summer

Friday was the girls last day of school. No more getting up at 6 AM. It was getting tough to get the girls up in morning the past few weeks. In going over all their school work, it is amazing to see how much Carmen and Maria advanced over the past year. As far as plans for the summer, we have a few trips planned to Traverse City and Crystal Mountain along with Cedar Point. I am sure we will have plenty of things things to do locally too. For the first time the girls will all be going to Vacation Bible School at St Geralds in Farmington with the Ekblads. Not much else to report.

Isabel enjoying the lazy days of summer

Here is Babyzilla trying out his new duds from Tita Tina.

June Showers

It has been raining for several days now but Isabel wanted to go to the spray park. Mikey LOVES the water despite it being so cold it takes his breath away. It is funny to see everyone playing in the water but then run to their cars as soon as it starts to rain.


In other news, Tita Tina sent the girls some clothes she got from a photo shoot for Kenneth Cole where she works. They look so cute! Maria had a "dress down" day at school today so she wore the outfit.
Some more random thoughts; Isabel says, "Daddy, daddy, quick come here. I see a new bird out front. I think it might be a woodpecker." Sure enough it was a woodpecker. She is so smart.
Mikey has so many cute facial expressions now. He will squint his eyes just to be silly and he LOVES to say "hot". He had a fever last night and he kept saying, "hot, hot, hot"
We got a kick out of this. Carmen's teacher wrote in her weekly progress report that she was a delight and that she had a "mischievous streak and an advanced sense of humor" Boy, does she know Carmen!

summer lovin'

Everyone enjoyed the pool again today...phew...it was a scorcher...hot and humid...

Isabel in the stack of rings...

Carmen diving in!

Even daddy enjoys it!

Maria in the rings.

Mikey decided to stick with the play set today...he was not impressed with my baby raft purchase...I hope it goes over well later this summer...but for today the trampoline and slide and hose were fun enough...


Daddy's belated birthday gift - a new hammock.


Many thanks to the stay-at-home dad who has most recently been keeping up the blog. I am really enjoying my new job, it is rewarding to get to service students and parents and I really like all the people I work with, but it's hard to be gone all day...I miss all my "mom" duties...working lunches at school, staying for Mass in the mornings, driving the kids to and from school (now that I'm on 4 10-hr days I don't even get to drive them in since I have to be to work at 7:00am), doing dishes, running errands, having playdates, etc. Mike pretty much does it all. My one remaining household chore is folding laundry and putting it away and sometimes a pile goes several days staring at me as I get home late and fall asleep putting kids to bed. I've been reading the Little House books to the girls before bed when I can, it's been really enjoyable. Kind of puts all my modern convenience problems in perspective...I may not have as much time to do household things as I'd like to anymore, but at least I don't have to worry about building a house from the ground up or slaughtering calfs so I can use their stomachs for making cheese...eww!

I did get a little "me" time last night. My best friend Amy and I went to the school auction. Had a really good dinner at a lovely location and got to visit with lots of moms from school that I have missed lately too. Walked away with one silent auction win, two framed pictures of Jesus and Mary for $30. The auction was lovely and beautiful and raised a lot of money for a good cause. If you have never checked it out, the Sister's of Mary - truly we are blessed to have our girls at their school. Only one more week this year! Carmen will be in first grade with Mrs. Hayward next year and Maria in third grade with Mrs. Blausey. I'm sure the time will fly - hard to believe Mikey is almost one year old!!

Enough rambling for now...God Bless everyone reading this...enjoy what you have!

Open Swim

With school drawing to a close (just one week left) and the weather getting very warm we have officially open the pool. Thanks to Grandma Paula for purchasing the pool and helping Mike set it up. We bumped up to 15 feet 42 inches tall this year. Mikey could not wait to get in!

Memorial Day Weekend

We were able to spend 3 awesome days up north at Grandpa Bob and Grandma Rose's house with Grandma Alice, Aunt Maeve and Aunt Erin. It was alot of fun for sure and we did alot too. Maeve and Erin went on a 10k run/walk along the Old Mission Peninsula after a long plane ride and driving out to Sturgis to pick up Grandma Alice. We did alot of Geocaching and I think everyone enjoys it now since everyone got to find one. Mike got a Metal Detector for his birthday which we also used quite a bit. So far though, our most valuable find was a rosary buried in the grass at the park. We got to see many of the parks and preserves up there and we even saw Michigan's only venomous snake the Massasauga Rattlesnake although we did not even realize it at the time! We also got to see a low flying Bald Eagle with a fish in his talons as we sat in the backyard enjoying a bon fire as well as many other cool birds. We also got to see our old neighbors, Rachel and the kids came over to see us. On Memorial Day we took a very nice pontoon ride on Elk Lake but the girls favorite things were just playing in the basement/backyard with all their toys and over course, THE POOL! at the Grand Traverse Resort. Grandma and Grandpa are such nice hosts. As usual, Grandma Rose made treat bags for everyone for the ride home. It is so nice to spend time with the family like this and in such a beautiful area. Here are a few photos: