Showing posts with label renae. Show all posts
Showing posts with label renae. Show all posts

Summer Sleepovers

 Looking back at these pictures, I'm realizing that summer sleepovers at our house might not be the most fun thing ever.

If Daddy goes to work, we do our summer schedule, which means that our friends have to read and do Latin and whatever activity the child is on that day: math? German? geography?  Sorry, we do our best to avoid summer slide in this house.




But, of course, they do get to play a little bit!


I don't think their friends complained much, and chores are always more fun with friends!  

The summer was so fast, I don't think we fit in nearly as many playdates and sleepovers as I thought we would!  We'll try to keep it going into the school year.

later days

All the Other stories

These pictures didn't really fit anywhere else, so I'm adding them here.

My mom and a I drove up to Owosso for a rummage sale.  It's only about an hour away, but far enough that we wanted to explore a little bit afterward.  We ended up in the most organized junk shop ever.  Things were piled together, but the aisles were tall and packed and layered with any number of items!  It wasn't dirty or smelly as these places can be, but there was a LOT to look at.  The gentlemen ran a sign store too, and so there were signs for every occasion!  Naturally, when I saw Hank Williams, I had to take a picture* to share with Billy! 


And I've officially read the CB Strike series too many times, because my first thought was, oh, would this be something he could use? lol. 

After a doctor's appointment in Charlotte, I had around 40 unplanned minutes before the thrift shops opened.  Thankfully, there was a Biggby nearby, and so I got some coffee to enjoy before going shopping! 

Billy and I went to Beerfest at the Ballpark last weekend.  It was a chilly day, but didn't rain on us like the last Beerfest we went to!

I do love the setup of this stadium (even though their purse policy drives me crazy**.)


These seats were different, and we don't know why, but the red part is chipping paint, so they were green to match the other seats once upon a time.  My guess is that they are for someone being honored there that game?  There was no placard, and I feel like I don't end up at many baseball games here, but plenty of events!


Two of the revelers had some fancy accessories!   There was a guy in a beer hat.


And a guy with beer stein socks!!  They were way cool.  But it was a chilly day, so he might have suffered in the name of fashion. 

The pizza was served in base shaped boxes!  So cute. = )


This 'modern' design totally makes me think of my childhood, when we had 70s leftovers.

Our Uber driver dropped us off right at the entrance, but we thought it might be a little tricker for them to find where to pick us up, so we walked the mile down to a bar called Leroy's that Billy has wanted to visit for forever!  

We crossed under 496, and between the roads, rivers, and bike lanes, the space underneath the interstate is totally broken up!


When we arrived, it turns out that even my mom has been here before us!  Despite sounding like a dive bar, it was actually more of a diner!  That wasn't a bad thing, but we were tired and not terribly hungry, so we ordered and took it to go.


And our Uber driver, Elvis, had no problem finding where to collect us.

***********

I'm retelling a story that my mom told me from last week, because I would like to laugh about it for years to come.

One day when my mom collected Emily from track, Emily was telling her that she was pulled out of class for a superlatives picture! She was voted "Most Likely to Save the World." My mom obviously thought that was pretty cool, but when she said as much to Emily, Emily responded, yeah, it would be, except that last year Alice was voted "Most Likely to Take Over the World."

***********

During a different week, for lunch Billy and I went to Dagwoods.  We didn't have any expectations, so they had a fighting chance, but it turns out that they are really good!  It is a total dive bar, and the decor makes it look like you are on the 'outside;' just like in Night at the Roxbury!  Though, the outside doesn't look like the inside.

Billy's olive burger didn't come with a tray or plate or anything, just wrapped in wax paper!  Apparently, Billy wasn't ready for me to take a picture. lol.

My Philly cheesesteak was the best I've had since moving up here!  Now I know where to go when I have a craving!

On the first day of walking Alice, Emily, William, Grace, and Juliet to either their bus stops or school, I stopped on the way home for an iced latte from our little shop here in town.  It totally hit the spot, and made a beautiful day even better!

Kristy was telling us about the price of common painkillers increasing with the tariffs going into effect.  While I'm not terribly concerned, it was a cheap enough purchase to keep and store, just in case.


For reading night, Emily came with me, because I thought I was running a book sale in the library, and I wanted the twins to have someone they could quickly reach out to if they needed someone.  The sale ended up not happening, so I was able to attend with them after all!


The blacklight pens were so popular, they had to shut the room down before the event was over!


Comparing answers.  Don't we all wish we could have a twin!?

Grace playing a different game with Renae.


And Emily participated a bit, but in lieu of her peers spent time on phone.


My haul from the Mason Methodist Church and Mason Presbyterian Church sales!


One of my best rummage sale finds, so far, this season was a snap circuit kit! William played with it all evening, and included Grace when she was home.  This must have been on the Reading night!


I got a heart shaped chip!

I was nearby a restaurant that had 'famed' Dubai bar desserts.  I tried it, but was not super impressed.  I liked it enough to later buy one from Horrocks that was much better!  The inside was more of a nougat, vs the crunchy feel of the one pictured here.


Heleena had her birthday party, the weekend before the twins', at the Charlotte pool!  It was a really neat party, and her mom said that it wasn't very expensive!  Maybe our next party can be there!  Everyone in this picture was at the twins' party the following week, plus a few more. = )

Juliet and Kennedy spent the most time in the pool while I was there!

It's been a fun month, and May is looking just as enjoyable! = )

later days

*for $22 a picture was preferable to buying the sign which would essentially just be junk, as it has nowhere to go!

**only tiny purses, 4x6 maybe?, are allowed, or slightly larger clear ones.  That's fine, but men have cargo shorts that are literally larger than that!  I don't understand how my purse is more of a security issue than a man's pocket.  It always seems to be cold when we go, but sometime, I swear I'm going to wear men's cargo pants and hove my purse into one pocket and my skirt into another, just to see what happens.

Fun Moments to Remember

This is the collection of all the events that are too small to merit their own post, but are beloved memories none the less.

Juliet's bff, Kennedy, gave her a big bag of goodies for Christmas, but her favorite was the Flounder Squishmallow that is a perfect match for her Ariel Squishmallow!



Juliet recruited Grace, or maybe Grace volunteered to help her craft the gnome decorating kit, and once they finished the craft, they used the leftover as nail stick-ons and bracelets. <3


I found a more appropriately sized bin for our water bottles, and repurposed one of our food safe buckets to hold the chips!  It's a snug fit, but I was happy to use something that I already had.  Looking at this picture I realize how badly the inside of these cabinets need repainting, but I have a much more pressing list before we get to that!


Over the break we got to have Zoey over for a night.  I keep an ear out for trouble, but for the most part, I don't see much of my children when we have a guest over. = )


We went with Avia to the MSU surplus store and to the bargain basement at a consignment store!


On a different day, while out thrift shopping, we found some boots that made me think of Kristy, so she absolutely got a text!


We went out for a sushi(ish) lunch after shopping.




Grace and Juliet split a big bowl of Ramen!  Sadly, this is like the 90s over here, and this was the only picture that I took!  


Emily and I split a lunch bento box, and everything was delicious!


Update on my sandals, they came back with plenty of time to spare, and are beautiful!!!  Here's the before and after:


I'm waiting until it's time to wear them before resetting the straps, but I'm so happy to see how fresh they look!


One short Wednesday, we also got to bring Renae home with us for a few hours.  Grace was a happy little girl. = )


Last year, when my sister Sarah's insurance was rolling over, she had a lot of HSA money to spend, so she recruited us.  Amazon allows you to search for such items, and one of the items that I selected was a heating pad.  Let me tell you, it has been a favorite all winter!  In fact, I'm using while typing this up.  We'll put it away once the weather turns, but right now it's a favorite. = )


Not necessarily fun, but for the sake of posterity, I also filled out our yearly CSHCS paperwork.  Sadly, it's carbon copy paper, so I can't use my traditional cheat of filling out all of the common information and running copies. = (


Also not super fun, Billy has repaired this key at least twice, possibly three times with JB Weld, but this break was the final straw, and my mom came and picked me up from the dealership while they reset my key.  It took a couple of hours, and cost almost $200, but I do have a new key!


However, if had needed to wait in the lobby, it wouldn't have been too bad of a wait!  They had a very fancy coffee machine.



And popcorn, with toppings!  But it was way more fun to go thrift shopping with my mom.



Emily and William had a "conversation heart" theme during their spirit week, so I got Emily some special socks for the occasion!


Billy's been eating a lot of Broccoli lately, in the form of meals from Factor.  His first order, however, he over ordered, and a couple of the meals were going to go bad, so the kids and I ate them.  This one was pretty good, though I personally would have preferred a chicken protein instead of tofu.


I wrapped up a birthday gift for Kristy, but then we ended up having to cancel our day out because of the weather.  Luckily, we were able to make it up last week, and she really liked her book of herbs and uses.  And she gave me back the paper and ribbon to use another time! = )


After the twins' field trip we went to a rummage sale.  They knew exactly what to do in front of the photo op!


In December, the latest CB Strike videos came out in the UK.  I thought maybe now that HBO, an American company, is involved, I wouldn't have to wait the extra month for release.  But I did.  It was sad, but a few weeks before Christmas I marked the release weekend (it released on a Thursday) on my calendar, so as not to have any conflicts.

During my rewatch, I was reading an article that said they were releasing one episode a week, for four weeks.  I was soooooo disappointed. I know it's silly, but I feel like I went through all of the stages of grief! = (  So, on my calendar, I struck out Strike.

In any case, this coming Thursday (today is a Tuesday) the final episode of the four drops, so Billy took off Friday, since we already had Saturday plans, and we are watching it Thursday night and Friday!  I do already know what happens, since I read the books, but I'm super excited again.  Only two more wakeups!


Avia picked out a Dimondale shirt for Emily, and she wears it weekly!  Also, I had been reading the numbers as the zip code, not the date established.  Ironically, it's only missing one number from the zip code (48821!)


One of my favorite songs, Texas, by Blake Shelton, was playing in the car when I went to get a rotisserie chicken from Carl's; who knew what a good luck charm it would be!


Grace and Juliet were making up some bracelets, and made one for me!


Grace stayed home sick from school yesterday, and so when Juliet got home, she was tending to her, and stayed close to her, closer than usual, the entire evening!  Grace was feeling better today though, and went to school


And I thought, I love old-timey pictures of when buildings are being built, so why not snap a picture of the new elementary school as it's going up?  I figure the cars will just help give it that je ne sais quoi when it's a hundred year's old!  When the weather is better, I might take another one outside of the car.


What a fun time to be alive!

And one more story from our day, with no picture to accompany it.

Billy and I went on a coffee date to our local ice cream store a few days ago.  I saw on the menu that they had boba, and knew Grace would be delighted!   She was not home at the time, and I forgot to tell her until last night.  So naturally, today on the way home, Juliet asked if we could stop, but they didn't have money on them.  When we got home Juliet was pouty, but I had dinner to make, and several other immediate tasks (like hand washing the dishes, since our dishwasher doesn't arrive until Monday.)  So, I struck up a bargain with Grace and Juliet, if they would make dinner, tacos, I would take them to the ice cream store.

So, we loaded back up, and I drove them over and sat in the car while they went in.  While I was waiting, I saw that I had a missed call from Emily.  Apparently, the activity bus at her school failed to run, again.  = (  Therefore, I needed to go pick her up.  So, as soon as the twins came out with their boba, which wasn't quite what they wanted, but it was good enough to drink apparently, I turned the car around to go grab Emily.

When Emily got in the car, she was surprised that the twins got boba, because she thought the ice cream store only carried bull boba (red bull with boba balls.)  Queue my panic!  I told the twins to stop drinking, and attempted to remain calm the entire way back to the village.  Once at the ice cream shop, I went in and asked if they had given boba to the small girls who were in just a few minutes before, and apparently they won't sell the red bull to the children.  whew. thank goodness! I had visions of off the wall twins at 3am.

Next time, the twins are going to bring a picture in, so that they know more of what they are expecting, and I might just go in to make sure that there is no red bull boba. 

later days