In the past few weeks, Google has been letting me know that my storage is full, and offering to improve my life by 'allowing' me to purchase more storage. The root problem is, of course, that I needed to download months' worth of pictures of fun activities!
First up was when Emily, Grace, and Juliet came with me to drop William off at Jacob's, and we decided to explore some of the parks in DeWitt!
It was still early in the spring, so we felt lucky to have such a 'warm' day, but the trees weren't fully back in business yet.
We found a good supply of walking sticks!
We found a plant that matched Juliet's outfit!
One of the ladies who was out walking her dog was telling us that there was a sign explaining that the hills used to be a railroad bridge, but when we went to read it, the sign had seen better days.
We soaked up every bit of being outside: part nature walk, part playground time, part photo shoot!
After we left DeWitt, we weren't quite ready to go home, so after buying some water and sunscreen at the dollar tree, we went to another park in Delta Township.
It was finally time to head home, because I had to make dinner, but it was a beautiful day to be out! And despite the fact that there aren't many people in my pictures, other than my children, there were tons of people out enjoying the pretty day!
A less fun time this spring has been car trouble! My car finally gave up the ghost, and we are having to replace the motor. Billy isn't as at peace with replacing the motor vs replacing the car, but as Henry Blake said, "better the devil you know." Sadly, this has been a long wait, because our local mechanic takes it down to a specialist, he doesn't handle it on site. So not only will it be $8,000, but it has been a long, long wait!
Der Uebungswagen then became my primary mode of transportation, but one day when Alice was driving, the check engine light came on. Seriously! So, we took it in too, and not even kidding, when Billy was coming to get us, his check engine light came on. Talk about a moment of defeat.
His self-resolved, and after consulting AI we believe that it was an electrical glitch, because he hadn't ever replaced the battery with a Northern one, so it still had the Southern battery that his parents had in it. It hasn't had any lights since the battery replacement, which is good news.
Back to the UW, it was just a fluke, and they cleared out the codes and gave it back to us. But, unsurprisingly, the following day the light came back on. So, we took it back in, and they found a faulty sensor in the radiator. At this point, my mom was in Texas and allowed us to use her vehicle. Once it was ready, we picked it back up, and wouldn't you know the light came back on!!!! We took it back in a third time, but this time it was because the electronic hub they replaced was not properly mounted and had fallen down.
It's been reliable since we got it back, if you except the flat tire that I got on Friday! Thankfully, the tire was still under warranty (we got 10 years for all the tires when it was still Billy's car.) So we only had to pay to get a warranty ($38) on the new tire! But, we were down to one car one more time, and I'd already promised Emily a sleepover away, and Juliet for Kennedy to come over.
Now that it's done, we have der UW back, and it seems happy, and certainly we'll get der Bus back soon, better than before!
Grace and Juliet bought a fort kit, and played with it for a few weeks. They really enjoyed it, but it went into the rummage sale this past weekend.
As an Easter treat, Bill and Brenda sent us money to take the kids to the ice cream shop! The store has recently changed hands, and I'm pretty sure this was the last time we went under the previous management.
South Lansing got a Chick-fil-a, and despite thinking it would be a year before I went, I've been three times, thanks to early morning field trips to the movies with my children!
I don't remember what Billy was showing them, but it must have been interesting!
One of my rummage sale hauls this year! I really wanted to take pictures each time, but there has just not been time!
Emily earned her H award from first semester of her freshman year! We sure are proud!
In the fall, the band went to Cedar Point. Emily, being the disciplined child that she is, did not spend her money on an expensive hoodie, but did have some anti-buyer's remorse about it, since her friends all had hoodies. I added it to my thrift store list, and last month finally had some luck, just as the weather was turning! She was one happy child!
Toasting Steve's promotion to the big boss at his law firm!
I also found some ranch soda for Grace to try, and we all had a little bit. It was mostly sugar.
Found a blast from the past at a rummage sale, and added it to der UW, since it's the only car with an appropriate antenna.
Grace and Juliet had a last-minute sleepover with Charlotte and Renae!
Kristy invited us over to shoot some guns and drink some whiskey in their renovated rec room, but it was a cold day. She came to pick us up, since Grant was driving us home at the end.
It was a good time! I did better with the revolver than the other guns.
I liked this log on their property!
Grace and Juliet came with us, and had fun hanging out with Zoey!
I was super excited to gift them a whisky smoking kit! It looked really fancy!
We played in teams of couples, and they beat us, but it was the closest game of pool that I've ever played! We were down to just the 8 ball on both sides!
On a warm day, the twins swim-suited up and went to play with the water balloons that they got at their birthday party!
Grace also put together a puzzle with the tiniest pieces.
Around Billy's birthday, we bought tickets to the beer at the ballpark event. Fast forward to May, it was a pretty day, but still really cold.
Afterwards we walked down to Bowdies and had a couple of drinks and a shared a few small plates.
For Mother's Day, the twins brought me eggs and fresh squeezed orange juice in bed! It was a beautiful presentation.
And my cards from all five!
William made a rather complicated, but kind of fun, card game that he played and brought to school for like two weeks!
My mom and I drove down to Jackson for a rummage sale. Sadly, we did not hit another trifecta, but did get a home trombone and bike for William! We went to a few local garage sales, and then used a coupon from the book at the local candy shop! It was a super cute store, and we got a variety of items, but decided that the Lansing shop was a better price and quality.
Juliet wanted to go to Kennedy's choir concert, I did not. Luckily for me, the middle school and high school both perform the same night (since the teacher is the same.) Because of that, Emily also wanted to go, so I dropped them off and went home!
The Dimondale parade was as awesome as always, but I learned recently that it was usually put on by the Lion's club, which dissolved this month. So, I don't know what the parade will look like in the future.
Emily spun a flag one last time, since the promotions hadn't yet taken effect.
New to us this year, since they didn't have a Holt parade last year, was a trip to Holt to watch the parade there. I had my timeline wrong, and we were an entire hour early!
The second parade was a much hotter of a walk for the band!
And a photo for posterity: The price of gas on 5.28.26
This bag fooled all of us! Emily got it as a birthday bag, and I thought it just encompassed all holiday's, but the background is definitely a Christmas tree! Still, a super cute bag!
Emily spent two evenings before finals building large structures with Legos. First was a pirate ship, then she made an airplane the next night!
After a doctor's appointment, Grace and I went to get ice cream. It was warm enough that it melted all over her hand, and arm, and skirt before she could eat it!
Grace was invited camping by Renae's grandma again, and since she was going to be gone two nights, we invited Kennedy for those two nights! Luckily, she was able to come, and the two of them had a good time! They played Roblox.
And picked some wild strawberries.
And made some jelly from the strawberries.
Billy and I ran a test run of the projector for the Office Space party, we even put on mastermind, but the kids did not come join us, so we ended up watching Office Space to remind ourselves of some of the troupes to improve the party. Then we finished Mastermind, since neither of us had seen it in its entirety.
We finally made it to Summerland's Brewing, to waste an hour, so that Emily could make an appearance at one of her friends' siblings' open houses.
Juliet must have really enjoyed her time with Kennedy!
These final pictures are ones I've received from my children or from other's as they venture off into the world. So I don't have much to say about them, but I'm sure they were having a good time!
William & Jacob.
Middle School Dance.
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Emily rescuing a turtle.
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Emily with a group that went to a kite festival at Lake Michigan. Luckily, adults are still driving, for now.
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Emily and Alice both decorated doors for World Language week, but Alice ran out of blue tissue paper, and ended up using purple, which kind of made the Chilean flag look off. Emily made it into the final round though!
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Alice and Emily had one class together this year, second semester of German II!
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It is certainly a different season for my blog, hopefully my old format can support all these new endeavors!
later days
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