Showing posts with label aunt janet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label aunt janet. Show all posts

A Summer of Fun!

A few pictures that show all the little things that don't fit anywhere else!

In Poznan, I found these cute little bee hair ties, so I bought Juliet all the colors.  Her favorite is the blue!

Grace was really into tic tac before we left, so when I saw interesting tic tac sizes, I bought them for her.  She was quite excited and put them all in order.



I read that if you lay white towels out on the lawn, the peroxide released by the plants will help to whiten them.  While I was skeptical, and did not research the science behind it, I did take a before and after picture.  I attempted to take it at the same time of day as well, but didn't notice much in the way of improvement.  It actually kind of looked dirtier, which is not much of a surprise, since it had been outside for several days.  My personal conclusion: lawn bleaching is ineffective.



I've been to Leslie more in the past month than I have been since Billy and I were house hunting!  Emily's new friend Emma lives there, so I foresee many more trips!  I saw this cool historical flag in their downtown, and sent a picture to Billy because it reminded me of Fallout.


Grace cleaned her bed, and I thought this was a cool shot!

Have I already shared the single Haribo in the bag? Well, here it is again.  Billy found it on our camping trip.  He found it remarkable, because most of the packs had 4+ in them.  But not this one!

Grace and I went to the library to claim our prizes for summer reading, while Emily helped Avia with some cleaning.  She found this huge popper!


We walked down the center a few store fronts and found some egg plants, that actually looked like eggs!!!  We didn't get much, just a little cookie snack.


Scooby Doo day felt so forced this year.  I think I moved it three or four times, and finally had it, just to get it off the calendar, and get the box out of our house!  If next summer feels the same, our Scooby Doo celebrations might be at an end.

Kristy was selling these adorable honey packs at the girl scout yard sale, and the girls and I couldn't get over how adorable they were!  We finished the honey in just a couple of days. = )

We got to celebrate Avia a second time, in St. Louis and on her actual birthday this year!!!


Avia bought Aunt Janet a special shirt to wear on her birthday!  It says "Aunt of the Birthday Girl!" Perfect, right?

Grace loved having Aunt Janet here!  

On the Fourth of July, we were able to see some fireworks from our porch again this year!


Since I had a smore fail on our camping trip, I promised Grace backyard smores once all the camping stuff was cleaned and put away.  She was very patient, and the day did eventually come!


With Emily gone with Abby's family, I think William was the only other one who came to cook with us!

The sunset made the trees look like they were on fire!

Once day, I opened up the back of my car and found the car toy holder back there.  When I asked the kids about it, they casually said that they no longer needed the toys in the car and that I could get rid of it.  ::sniff:: ::sniff:: = (  I remember buying this, new, at a friend's Thirty-one party in Houston, just a couple of years ago.   So sad.  I hope someone new can use it and love it as much as we did!

We went to this ice cream shop so many times this summer, that I could have sworn that I'd already written about this (and maybe I have, I didn't actually go back and look.)  But, Grace won the ice cream creating contest from her school last year.  The ice cream shop will donate $1 for each one that they sell to the PTO of that child's school.  It took 4 trips, but we finally saw her creation in the window, and spent her gift card, all in one foul swoop.  There's no such thing as free ice cream!



The fireflies were extra this summer, for at least a few weeks!  Grace even 'caught' one.

We did our best to keep up on our Latin, but it was a busy summer, so we didn't fit much in.  However, this is one of our Latin days.  It totally makes me miss homeschooling!

Emily's end of Summer trip up North with Emma!

Emily's Fourth of July trip with Abby's family!  I told her that she needs to make some dedicated posts, because I wasn't there, but she's kind of busy to make that happen, I suppose.


I snagged this photo from Jennifer.  The girls class went out for ice cream at the local ice cream shop at the end of the year. I can't imagine what I was doing that day that I didn't go and take my own pictures, but here is a picture of Juliet, Kennedy, and Natalie!


It's day 2 of school for my dear ones, and I'm still not quite ready to let go of summer!  We have some fun plans for this weekend and Labor Day and most of September, so I guess I'll get over it soon.

later days

Cooking and Crafting Creations!

While it feels like this summer has flown by, and was chock full of events, we were home for enough time to create a few crafts and some tasty treats!

I attempted to use up the remainder of the fillo dough, that Emily had left over from the baclava she made for Avia.  I rolled up some Nutella, and baked it.  While it was pretty good hot, once it cooled it was crunchy and dry. = /

Kristy gifted me several containers of eggs, so I made some devilled eggs, which were enjoyed by everyone!

When we had some sleepovers, I didn't want to break up the fun, so the kids had a grazing tray for whenever they got hungry.

Juliet made a colorful paper airplane from scraps!

My skirt kept getting holes where the repair thread would pull on the original material.  So, I quilted on some large pieces of cotton underneath, and, so far, new holes have stayed away!

Grace loved having Aunt Janet here, and made her a scrapbook page to take home.


Billy bought me 3lbs of adorable beeswax at the farmer's market, so that I could repair my wax covers.  Turns out, I didn't need much, and barely used any to refresh them.  

So, I thought I'd try my hand at making some from scratch!  The plaid covers worked really well.

I think the Baylor material must have some sort of synthetic material in it, because despite several applications of wax, to the point where it was pooling on the parchment paper, it never felt 'sticky' when I folded it against itself.  I told my mom that she could get rid of them if they didn't work properly. 

While Billy and I were in Poland, Grace walked with my mom each morning and collected shells from the river to create a very elaborate frame to give to Enisi!

For one of our trips to the Cornishes' I made a banana pudding.  The single night of settling was perfect to make the cookies all mushy!


My mom had left some whipping cream at our house, and since I don't use it in my coffee any longer, I made my own whipped topping!  


Sam's club changed their pancake mix bag size, so now one bag no longer fits completely into my container.  So, I spent yesterday morning cooking up the remaining mix into pancakes to freeze!  We have pancakes for days and days.  And this morning, only the twins ate some. So, 4 down, a couple hundred to go!


This feels like a sparse crafting post, but it was squeezed into a bustling summer.

later days

edit 8-21-25: added content

78 Michigan Parks: Yankee Springs #Fail

We left Kal Haven, heading for Yankee Springs, as it was on my map!  The rain caught us up, and it was another downpour, thankfully this time, we were on backroads, not the interstate, and I was able to slow it down a little more.

The rain tapered off by the time we found a sign, but it wasn't the Yankee Springs sign. Emily, Grace, and I were all getting rained on for this picture!  The informational sign talked about Devils Soup Bowl, which sounded fun, so we headed that direction.



Avia and Emily hopped out, in the rain, to clear the dirt road, which was part stream, so that we could head up the hill.


Well, we could have walked it, as the rain had tapered off, but we were hours from home, and decided to head home.


We spotted the backside of a brown sign, but it turned out to be just a bulletin board, so we redeemed it with a picture.


The sunset sure was pretty!


And I worked a little bit on my homework from Haley.  Michigan's smaller roads don't include the state name like Indiana and Illinois do!  But I like the black diamond, so I'm okay with it.


On our drive home, the rain came and went, but darkness fell for the final hour of our trip.  We spotted deer, bunnies, squirrels, and even some frogs crossing the road in between rain clouds.

Avia and Aunt Janet were wonderful travel buddies, and the girls are always up for an adventure, especially when swimming was involved! = )

My mom tracked down a picture of the Yankee Springs sign online, so we will make a detour back to get a legitimate sign picture, and do a little more exploration, though I don't know whether or not we'll make the trip to the Devil's Soup Bowl or not.

later days

edit 8-17-25: backdated for continuity.

If you want to see all the state parks we've visited so far, here are the links to those posts:

Tahquamenon Falls #15
Keith J Charters #33
Algonac #60
Saugatuck Dunes State Park #68Warren Dunes State Park #75a
Warren Woods State Park #75b

78 Michigan Parks: Kal-Haven Trail State Park #Bonus 2

 Each year, when we would go to South Haven Jellystone for our camping trip, we would pass signs indicating various points of this 33.5 mile trail!  However, my mom was able to track down the State Park sign, giving us our second bonus state park of the summer!

Because the land was bought from the railroad companies, the park has a train car front and center.  We decided that E. J. & E. could stand for Emily, Juliet, & Emily. lol.



The trail was shaded and paved, so Aunt Janet was able to enjoy it with us for a little while!



Compared to the other parks, I didn't feel that we did more that stretch our legs, but it was an awfully pretty place to do it!


They had a public bike repair station!

And a tire pump, which the girls totally used as intended.

A few timelines for those interested in the history of the trail.



I don't remember this park being wet, but we were losing daylight, and the storm was catching up to us again!  Maybe one day we can set out to walk it in its entirety!

later days

edit 8-17-25: backdated for continuity.

If you want to see all the state parks we've visited so far, here are the links to those posts:

Tahquamenon Falls #15
Keith J Charters #33
Algonac #60
Saugatuck Dunes State Park #68Warren Dunes State Park #75a
Warren Woods State Park #75b