Showing posts with label library. Show all posts
Showing posts with label library. Show all posts

Other Fun Activities

Most of what we've been doing lately can be wrapped up in other posts, but these are just a few moments that didn't fit anywhere else.

Emily and Grace were playing Minecraft together.  Last night, apparently, Grace pushed a button in Emily's game marked "do not push" and ended up trapped in a container of some sort. lol.


When we collected coupons from the library, William ended up with a bonus one from McDonald's.  Not even Grace and Emily, who were the first to claim their prizes, received one! The coupon was set to expire at the end of September, so I really wanted to use it up!  When we looked up how much an ice cream cost, it was only $1.29, so I agreed to buy each of the girls one.  But when we arrived, they were over $2 each!  So, each of the girls requested to pick out something that was the same price or less.  William was the only one who ended up with ice cream.  It was a slow morning for them, because we had 30+ minutes when we arrived, and were almost late to the love clothing center for Alice and William, and all we got were treats!

Avia came with us to the final meetup an eatup at the South Lansing library the week before the kids went back to school.  It was nice that Alice and William were working the love clothing center on Wednesdays, because that was the meetup and eatup day!  We ended up going three or four times this summer.  

Since William and Alice missed the meetup and eatup, we went to taco bell to redeem their coupons.  I don't know why I find it so hard to use the coupons once school starts, but we try to use them all up before school starts!  

Each coupon came with a taco and bag of cinnamon twists.  The kids enjoyed the taco, but the twists were enjoyed by none.

Last week at the Cornishes' the twins found a shark blanket, and couldn't wait to show us the twin shark!

Somehow, the kids talked Avia into buying them McDonald's!  I thought they were just getting treats, but she bought them a full meal! Spoiled children!

Grace and Juliet shared a seat in the most twin way possible at their dentist appointment.  They both wanted the same seat, pushed their hips together, and sat down, without any discussion or argument!  It was wild to watch.

Billy and I went on a date to the wine shop on Friday night, and tried out her new cheese tray! We ordered the dill option and it was quite tasty!


It's been a busy, but lovely August, and September holds the promise for just as much fun!

later days

A Quick 'Other Fun' Post

This handful of pictures represent the total of 'outstanding' photos for the month, so I thought I would start August with a clean slate and get down a few final thoughts from July.

On Wednesday, whilst Emily was at band camp, Alice and William were earning some community service hours by working at the Love Clothing Center.  Once we dropped them off, we took the recycling, and other deliveries, to Sarah's house.  My mom had just returned in the wee hours of the morning, so I wasn't sure whether or not she would want to come, but she tagged along while we did our chores.

The first stop was Meijer, to return the cans and bottles.  Juliet helped me, while Grace went inside to help my mom and grab a few things from our list too.

Juliet was quite excited when we got $"6.7"0 in refunds.  

We had to go into the main store to cash them out, and Juliet got a cute little construction hat, since the building is under construction.  Grace had one too, but they only wore them a short while.


Our next stop was Panda Express, where they each redeemed one of their summer reading prizes! My mom and I shared some crab rangoons.

Grace ordered Beef and Broccoli with noodles.  She understood the assignment when I said, "hey eat some noodles for a picture!"


Juliet ordered teriyaki chicken with noodles, and did not understand the assignment, so took a bite of chicken, instead of the long stringy noodles. lol.


Alice and William messaged me at the very end of lunch that they were done early for the day, so we packed back up and went to collect them.  After collecting Alice and William, we swung by the library so that William could enjoy lunch at the Meet-up and Eat-up, and Alice could collect her coupon pack.

When we went to drop off Avia, Sarah offered everyone some fried chicken, and Scrappy was at attention!


Our day was a little shorter than planned, but we went back to Panda Express so that Alice could redeem her prize, then to the post office, and then dropped off the Ingham County Fair coupon with Kennedy since they plan to go.

Today had a few loose ends.  After dropping Emily at band camp, I took der Uebungswagen in to get a new wheel on the right front.  It had been losing air at an unsafe rate, and needed to be done.  I had made an appointment, and they were able to get me in before my time, since I was running early!

It was cold in the lobby, so I opted to walk around the backside and catch some Pokémon.  As I approached my final corner, I noticed the outdoor dining on the Speedway, and thought a cold coffee sounded awfully tasty!



While messaging Christin I noticed that the sun umbrella also had holes!  It made for a cool picture.

So, I enjoyed my breakfast al fresco, and before I even finished the drink, they called to let me know that my car was ready!

Now I can calmly say: Welcome August!

later days

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

Crafts, Repairs, and Cooking

I knocked out some small repair jobs on holey pants, but finally broke down and bought a set of 5 new black pants for the twins.  I think 4/5 of their pairs had holes, and they were all pretty small.  But we gave away the repaired ones for the 'free box' at the love clothing center.  Hopefully they will be good laundry day, or outside pants for some little girls!



William's pants needed a second round of repairs.  So, over the break I went through his closet in search of pants that had hung there for a while.


Alice wanted to help coat the fried chicken one night.  It took a lot of time, but everyone really liked dinner that night!

At Grace and Juliet's school, students could bring in a cardboard 'setting' from a book that they enjoyed.  Grace decided to make the log cabin from Little House on the Prairie using the dishwasher box.

It was tall enough for her to stand in, almost.

My favorite jeans were wearing where my purse rubs against them, so I needed some jean material for a large patch job.  Just after my mom found some pre-cut jeans in a free box, I had time at my mom's meeting to make a good start on it!   That was the boost I needed, so I was able to finish it a few days later.  Sadly, they are currently back out of commission, as they ripped on the knee, in between two previous repair jobs!


I was able to make some sweet and sour meatballs (turkey) to bring to a friend and her family, while she recovered from eye surgery!  I included some fresh rice and delivered it hot.  I also froze a beef stew for a later dinner.

Today Alice called me from school, because her sandals (that she got for Christmas) broke!  = (  I brought her some shoes, and repaired the broken one as best I could.  We're going to let it sit overnight to cure.


In addition to delivering shoes to Alice, I brought a water bottle to Grace, and a Saxophone, straight from the repair shop, to Emily!  So, I visited all the schools today! = 0

Hoping for a less exciting day tomorrow!

later days