Catching Up!

Check out the post below entitled "May & June." I finally got caught up on my blogging!

July 4th

I know we've fallen a bit behind on our blogging . . . one loyal reader asked if Jamie and Katie were still at camp! I hope to catch up on some past activities and photos, but for now I will start with the 4th of July. Thursday night we headed up to Lake Michigan to visit Jamie's aunt and uncle (Johnny and Suzie), their kids and grandkids and Jamie's mom. As always, it was a great weekend. You can see that Katie was enjoying herself!





The girls loved playing in the water- especially the little creek- and had a blast playing with their second cousins.

This is one of my favorite pictures of the weekend. All the kids had their gear and were ready to go to the beach! All that was missing was a grown-up ready to go with them!

Here Caroline enjoys a few slices of watermelon after a long day at the beach. If you're counting, she had already finished four slices and went on to eat the last two!

Saturday morning we took the four girls to the farmer's market and the playground (while the boys -except for Jamie- went do do fishing stuff).

The kids always enjoy this playground. Love the delight on Caroline's face here.

Katie and Kate were excited to discover that they had the same swimsuit. Take note of how Katie is standing so that she is "almost as tall as Kate."

After a fun day at the beach we enjoyed a great dinner and Caroline was happy to get her dessert! The night before when there were 14 of us, the kids ate first and the grown-ups ate later. Caroline kept coming up from playing with the other kids in the basement to ask when dessert would be served . . . I think she came up at least 6 times!

After dinner, Jamie's cousin Sara surprised the kids with sparklers and poppers. They had a great time with it (even though we didn't wait for the sun to go down!)

It took Jamie a few tries to get the sparklers going!

Sunday morning the girls painted their toenails after breakfast,

Caroline did a little fishing with second cousin Robbie,

and we enjoyed another great afternoon at the beach. Here Jamie and the girls pose with Jamma before we hit the road for our long drive home. The highlight of the 6-hour jaunt was hitting Dayton just as the fireworks shows were beginning throughout the area. We got to see a lot of fireworks during the last 30 minutes, which was good because no one slept in the car and everyone was pretty tired, so it was a welcome distraction!

We came back from Michigan Sunday night so Katie could be in a parade on Monday morning with her Daisy Scout troop. Parents had the option of walking with the kids, so I asked Katie if she wanted me to (guessing that she did not). Her response was no because: "I am going to be a rock star one day and I need to be able to handle the crowds on my own." Alrighty . . .

It was a hectic morning to get Lily from the kennel, pick up the necessary Tim Bits (donut holes from Tim Hortons) for parade watching and get Katie to her spot by 9:30 with all of the main roads closed! It's hard to tell with the hats, but Katie is third from the left in this picture.

It was a super hot day and we had to do quite a bit of walking to get where we needed to be, but Caroline handled it well. And definitely enjoyed the Tim Bits!

Here's Katie walking by!

She gave Caroline a ton of candy and then had to run and catch up to her group.

After being so hot, we had an All-American lunch with hot dogs and watermelon, took a rest and then went to the pool to cool off.

Later that evening (as we had time to kill waiting for fireworks) we took the girls to the driving range. Caroline was delighted to take her set of clubs along with us and it was pretty cute to see her strolling along with them.

Caroline loved collecting the balls ( we called it an "easter egg hunt") and Katie enjoyed practicing with Jamie.

Once it was late enough we went to see the fireworks (which didn't start until 10 on Monday night). We took the girls in their jammies and they watched from the back of the car. We all enjoyed the show and thankfully we were able to get home quickly and everyone went right to bed.

Happy 4th, everyone . Thanks for a great visit, Johnny and Suzie!

May & June

In an effort to fill the long gap between posts in May and June, I've gone back to find some of our best photos from that time period.

We spent a lot of time at the soccer field this spring and even though Jamie was the official coach, I ended up filling in for him on many occassions as work, travel and golf interfered with his coaching. Katie really improved this year and showed good skills in goal.



One of the weekends Jamie was away with college friends in Vegas, so we had a fun girls weekend. Two highlights were our stop at the ice cream shop and a visit to a new park. All went well until Caroline fell and Katie did the monkey bars so many times that she got blisters and popped them . . .

Just before the end of school the kindergartners had a Growing Ceremony which was really cute. The kids did a great job singing and they ended the program by giving the parents a plant they had planted. The teachers closed by reading "Let Me Hold You Longer" which was a real tear-jerker for the kindergarten moms . . . I'll know to pack kleenex for Caroline's!

Here is Katie with her teacher Mrs. Patch.

On Friday of that week we drove up to Michigan for Lindsay's wedding. It was a great time and we enjoyed seeing everyone!

Somehow our girls migrated back to sit with Uncle Buddy!

Jen and Hannah

Jamie and Billy planning some sort of chicken fight with the girls. Looks like Caroline is a fan of the idea!

Here's Caroline being very sweet with Emma.

Love the train!

The next day we enjoyed some time at Uncle Neil and Aunt Karen's house. Katie was happy to have her hair braided by Aunt Linda . . . while Caroline was delighted to sit on Neil's lawnmower, which entertained her for quite a while.

When we returned from our Memorial Day weekend in Michigan, it was Katie's last week of school, which was very busy.

On Tuesday her class had a field trip to the bowling alley with their 4th grade buddies. I volunteered for the trip and had fun watching Katie with her friends.

Here she is with her buddy.

With her "BFF" Annie

Katie, Annie and her other BFF Kate.

Wednesday was field day and I volunteered for that as well. I got to escort Katie and a group of her classmates from one station to the next.

I love this picture because of the look on Katie's face. We had three boys and three girls in our group, so when they had to pair up by twos, she and her friend Tommy had to be the mixed-gender pairing. Even though she likes Tommy she was definitely facing an inner struggle over whether she could actually be his partner for the wheelbarrow race!

After field day the kids had a picnic lunch outside.

That afternoon, the Girl Scouts had an ice cream social at the playground/water park behind the school.

Grandma and Poppy arrived that night for a visit.

Here, Katie was showing them her yearbook.

The purpose of the visit was for Dad to play in a golf event with Jamie. On Thursday before the golf started G & P got to visit Katie's school and have lunch with her.

Friday was a day of lasts. It was Caroline's last day at her preschool (we switched to a new preschool) so we had to say goodbye to our beloved Ms. Julie. And, it was Katie's last day of kindergarten. Here she is getting off the bus.

That weekend while all the golfing was happening, we spent a lot of time with the kids at the pool.

On Monday, Caroline started at her new preschool, and has really been enjoying it.

In June, soccer season continued on. Since Jamie was around, I was able to take more photos for this particular game!

Katie attended a golf clinic during her first week of summer break. The highlights for her were that a girl from her kindergarten class was also in the group, they got candy after each session and she won the putting contest) sinking a 15-foot putt.

That weekend Jamie and I enjoyed a fun night out at the Art Ball event.

And then we spent Sunday at the pool, where the girls made their debut on the diving board. After taking a minute or two to get her courage up, Caroline jumped in and then proceeded to jump off the board for the next two hours straight.

We celebrated Father's Day with an outing to a nearby pizza place.

By late June it was finally time to wrap up the soccer season. Here's Caroline receiving her trophy. You can see by the look on her face that she was very pleased with it!

Thanks for checking back in with us!