Other Fun Activites

My usual hodgepodge post that has other fun things we've done that don't fit in with the other posts this round.

Avia came back for a little while!

Grace was patiently waiting for her to come over.

She treated us all to ice cream one afternoon, but Alice and I had to hustle away to get her to driving school.

And just like that, it was time for her to leave again. = (  (And despite how the tree in the picture might look, it's still summer here!)

One Saturday Emily, William, Grace and Juliet comprised a large percentage of the youth group trip to ZapZone.

While I was in Oklahoma, Billy dropped Alice off at Comicon to meet up with some of her friends.  She had an excellent time.  She spent hours sewing and crafting her dino mask upgrades!

Billy signed us up for new internet, because it was cheaper and faster than what we had, but it has been an annoying transition.  They installed the router on the opposite wall from our old one.  I had to install a shelf to get it off of Grace's computer cabinet, so that it wouldn't accidentally get knocked off.

My favorite upgrade is that we finally got to take down the ethernet cable for William's computer (3 years later), since we could now attach him with a shorter cable!

We found some Lincoln Logs at the rummage sale here in the village, and William and Grace really enjoyed creating with them!

At the robotics rummage sale, that I ended up at alone for some reason, I was so late in the sale that everything was free.  I spent a long time going through the miscellaneous toy box, and picked out as many calico critters from the set that I saw.  I also found lol doll pieces and a few other fun items that made me think of my children.

Grace combined the calico critters with the Lincoln logs for even more enjoyment! 

I sent Haley's crew (and Avia) a set of cool postcards that we got on our most recent Ann Arbor visit.  I took some pictures, just in case one of them failed to make it.  Since then, they have all arrived, though over a week apart!

The goslings were growing so fast, now they are totally indistinguishable from the other adults (at least to me, a layman.)

I bought what I though was a Germany eraser for Emily, but it turns out it was a Germany flag made from grease!  Emily and I tried it out, it was pretty cool!

Lola Rennt was rereleased for its 25th anniversary in limited theaters.  It just so happened that the theater closest to us was one of the participating theaters!  I invited Alice and Billy (I couldn't remember why it was rated R, so didn't want to bring William or the twins along) but they both declined.  

The only night we were available was a Sunday, so on a school night, we went and watched a 25 year old German movie.  I was excited that it was German audio with English subtitles.

I took only a single picture, and caught Emily with her eyes closed.  It's okay, we were pretending like it was the 1990s anyhow.

I saw a bunny from the window of the dentists' office!

Grace and Juliet wanted to use some of the color street appliques that we have squirrelled away in the bathroom, when I changed out my toenail design.  We all felt quite pretty.

Speaking of pretty, Juliet felt quite pretty in her new nightgown from Avia.

Emily and Grace picked out a popcorn maker at the rummage sale in here in the village. It makes excellent popcorn, but it's so big and is a bit difficult to clean.  I made a home for it, and as long as the girls take care of it we'll keep it.

We found a battery powered vehicle in a free pile, and Grace was super upset that I wouldn't let her take it home.  I told her that we could take a picture that makes it look like she's having a fabulous time, so that she can remember it fondly, without having to take it home.

The cloud formation looked a bit like North America!

Sarah brought back some boxes of office supplies from Grandma's house.  Among them were a few pages of copy paper.  Grace and Juliet thought it was pretty cool!

Also among the things from Grandma was the album that she had from the time she took me to German for graduation (my first trip to Germany.)   I found some pictures of me and Christin!!!

The kids created a tent city in the girls' room!

Our neighbors had such pretty flowers to look at on our walk to the bus stop for Emily and William's summer camp.

Juliet watching her tablet in a very unconventional resting position.

Juliet with her heart shaped m&ms!

The clouds were so pretty, but it was quickly blown away, my family barely had time to make it to the window to see it!

Grace made a playdoh 'Avia.'

We found a tiny frog while setting up for the murder mystery party!

Just before leaving for Oklahoma, Billy and I went on a last minute date to Mitchel's seafood restaurant in East Lansing.  I ordered the lobster, which was okay, but I loved the butter set up.  So much so, that I have two pictures of it, and none of Billy or the lobster or even the fountain! lol.

One of Sarah's neighbors had a trash bag full of cell phone covers on their curb!  While waiting for Alice to finish up band camp on Thursday, I opened and sorted the cases into clean/needs to be washed piles.

 It must have been close to 50 cases!  I'm so excited.

Hopefully in the future, I'll get to enjoy these stories again, since I'm sure many will be forgotten (at least by me.)

later days

A Mix of Other Days

We went through a very humid period at the start of school.  When Emily took her hair down at the end of the day, she looked like she had a Victorian era hair style!

One Thursday night, we had some hurricane strength winds come through.  They lasted only about 5 minutes, but knocked power out to the entire area, and took down our personal cable (read: internet) lines!

We lost a tree = (,  it looked like a lightening strike.  Billy and I both felt the shake, but it was far too dark outside to see anything until the morning. By some miracle, it barely damaged the chain link fence that we share with our neighbors!  They did come over and use their chainsaw to cut up the pieces for us.

We ended up hiring our laws service to move all of the limbs to the curb in front of our house, since a company was coming through to collect storm debris.

Another exciting moment was finding a bat in the fan!  We have no idea how he got in there, no one saw anything.  One theory is that he came in when we were going in and out after the power went out during the storm?  But none of us saw him for 3 days?  Really, no clue.

The twins used the pile of branches to refill the bird feeder!

On one of our walks, I saw a butterfly hanging out on a tree.  Upon closer inspection, I found that it was just a leaf, that looked quite a bit like a butterfly!

Within two days of the 'fake' monarch, we spotted a tree filled with real ones!  They look like they are stocking up before their yearly migration!

Emily is the third generation to wear Avia's Latin shirt from high school.  She was standing with one foot up, and I knew I had to take a picture to send Avia, since that was also her preferred way to stand, back when she was wearing the shirt new. = )

On September 2nd (we didn't' have time the first) we set up Billy's Halloween village!  It was fun for everyone to see all of his gifts from the past year on display!

One day, I was feeling particularly guilty about throwing out the leftover rice, so I decided to try my hand at rice flour!

The rice dried out much easier than the squash!

The coffee bean grinder, which I bought for just such a purpose, ground up the rice pretty nicely, but it was not flour powdery.   When I searched up manual flour mills, I suffered sticker shock, so it is now on my list to find used. 

In the meantime, I found a recipe that would use bot the rice and leftover coconut milk: Bibingka.

Warm, they were amazing.  Cooled, they were edible, but they are no ones new favorite.

I was able to alter a 4x dress, that I nabbed at a rummage sale, for Alice.  I took of the straps, cut several inches from both sides, and reattached the straps.  She said she got 3 compliments the first day she wore it!  But the only picture I have of her in it, she decided to pout at me.  And since we were at the bus stop, there was no time for a retake. 

Maybe next year, more of these ingredients can come from our garden!

On Labor Day Monday, the internet technician came out to fix out internet.  Between leaving the wires in the flower beds and wrapping the cable around the tree, and not even saying bye, we were unimpressed.  Worst of all: we still had no internet!

After another phone call to the internet provider, we had a new date for Wednesday.  This experience couldn't have been more different. First off, he called before coming, then was shocked at what the contractor had done (he had a WOW truck, where the first tech did not.)  He cleaned up all the wires, restrung the cable.  And best of all, when he left, we had internet! 

The twins were the only ones home, so I had them come out to say thank you!  Juliet was so overcome with happiness; she gave him a hug!  I think he was surpised. lol.

Look at those beautiful, solid, lights!!

Earlier this week, the twins walked to school, and it was just drizzly enough to justify an umbrella.  On my way home, the precipitation picked up and I was super thankful for the umbrella!

I added two more baskets to my collection this past week!  A flower collecting basket, and wine carrying basket!

 I don't have any plans to buy more, but if I find a really special one, I have space for two more! = )

later days