Katie's Birthday

It was a great visit! Sorry the weather was so wet, gray and rainy!

Thanks for coming up to visit us Grandma and Aunt Midge!

Great pic on the dress Yaya! It's so cute on her!

This is the pic after they finished bedazzling everything! (it was fun, but I can't even fathom doing a sleepover EVER!!!).

What a fun group of party girls, huh? They were so funny! What a change from the 6yr old boy party last month!

Sophie got her 1st hair cut last Thursday also! They just evened it up some! Such a little monkey! Good thing she's cute, because she's getting molars right now and always wants to be held, super whiny girl.

Check out the sweet owl cake I made out of cupcakes for Katie's party, the owlet wasn't as cute as I'd hoped so I only made one!

Check it out! My ring looked just like Princess Di's after decorating the cupcakes! Hahaha! I'd much rather have a diamond than a saffire though, so I washed it off!

Good job on the pet bunny for Julie the American Doll Mom! She loves it! You really are a fairy Godmother!(but not the Granny one on Disney's Cinderella)!

Katie loves these little lemon cakes that they sell at costco. It saved me from having to make her a birthday cake 2 days in a row, so I was a fan also!

The Thornapple! It magically shows up in your yard for 24hrs and then you send it off to somebody else. Pretty cute school fundraiser. Much better than selling whatever door to door (especially when the whole neighborhood goes to our elementary school).

Katie's birthday was a week ago. I really can't believe that she's 9! It seems like we JUST had her baptism! She woke up to 9 little lavender pancakes with a candle (we aren't gonna be able to carry that tradition much longer!). Then we had our family party that night she wanted waffels and bacon for dinner and lemon cakes for her cake. It was fun we got the Thornapple on her birthday, it's a school fundraiser where the apple comes and you have to pay to have it leave or you can pay to send it to somebody in particular (fun, huh? I only wish I knew exactly what we were raising the money for so I didn't feel so robbed).

We had a rockstar birthday party for Katie on Friday from 6-8pm. It was so fun to have her little friends come over and bedazzle play microphones, flip-flops and sunglasses, then we had Dance Party USA in the basement and also watched party of "Tangled".

About 10 minutes after the birthday party, Yaya and Papa came into town for a weekend visit. It was so fun to get to see them! Saturday morning Grandma Arends and Aunt Midge came for a visit also. We grilled some hamburgers and brats and had potato salad and watermelon, also lime chips and salsa. YUM! Too bad we were all out of nice weather by then!

Ahhhhhh.... Spring!(FIN-FREAKIN'-LY!)

After our lunch on Sunday we went over to Roselle Park and walked to the river and threw our old Easter eggs in (the hard boiled ones). I can't eat that much egg salad, and I REALLY love throwing food!! I love to watch the eggs explode against the trees. Also I have a friend who is and environmental Biologist and she said the birds eat the egg shells right now to replenish whatever it takes to make egg shell (protein, calcium??)since it's nesting season. It was so fun. We were all sad when the eggs had all been thrown in the river. Don't worry, we didn't leave a mess, we made sure that the park didn't look like it'd been egged (even though it had!).

Here's what our garden looked like yesterday. I planted 12 daylillies in amongst the tulips today. I'm so thrilled the tulips are blooming. The rabbits kept eating them so I was afraid I wouldn't get any this year!!

She didn't complain of the cold, but the wind was brutal!

Cool red lighthouse, huh? (I don't know what Taylor is doing, maybe swimming in the sand since I wouldn't let him swim in the water?).

Brrrrr....that's ICE WATER!

We found a patch of tulips, but this other family had the same idea. (Taylor is so cooperative right now.)

These are the High schoolers.

These are the Kinder Dancers. Taylor says they're in Kindergarten, but they're not, they're in probably 4th or 5th grade.

We had the most wonderful Mother's day weekend! The weather has finally gotten nice and I'm so thrilled! I feel like I have a whole new lease on life! On Saturday we went to a baptism at the church and then had a picnic lunch in the car and then headed to the Annual Tulip Festival in Holland. It was fun to get out and enjoy the sunshine and the tulips (it'll be better this weekend, it's been too cold so there weren't a ton open yet). We got to walk around the square in Holland and watch the dancers and eat Kettle corn and look at the art and funny things that people come up with to make and sell. Then we went to the beach. We checked out Holland State Park. A year ago was our first trip to the shore of Lake Michigan (well, this side of it, we had been in Chicago years ago). It was cold that weekend too. We had enjoyed great sunshine this year, but once we got to the beach it clouded over and the wind was frigid. Even Katie said she was cold! Craig forgot to bring a coat! We didn't hang out too long. I knew it would be early, but I'm READY for some sunshine and some great trips to the beach. It's amazing here in MI. Probably my favorite thing about living up here is the beaches along Lake Michigan.

After we left the beach we went and got pizza and stopped by the grocery store to pick up some steaks to BBQ on Mother's day. YUM! We had the best lunch on Mother's day. Steak, brussel Sprouts, sweet potato fries, and chocolate cream pie. Really fabulous! (I also got waffels with strawberries and cool whip for breakfast!).