All the Other Fun Bits!

This post is where I stick all of the other fun, interesting, or miscellaneous photos from the past few months, to offer more of a complete picture of our life!

Zoe got to come over for a while just before school started!  Lots of all my kids' parties involve playing together online, while sitting side by side!

Juliet got a cute little box card from Avia!

Grace got an LOL popup room from Avia in the same letter!

Our dishwasher was out of commission for a few weeks.  Thankfully we have the extended warranty, but we are somehow already two years into it!!!?!

I requested a replacement sharps container for the syringes, they ended up sending me 8!!! We will get through them over time, but they are bulky for sure.

We've had a run of bad weather this year, ended up in the basement, again.  = (

Grace was impressed by her ramen noodle length!

At the palliative care thrift store, we attempted to go to the Christmas store, but missed the Christmas in July sale and it's too early for their regular hours.  So, while Alice ran back in to get something she'd passed on, Emily and I visited their garden!  It was really pretty.  We might have to come back here for her senior pictures!!!

Leading up to her birthday, Alice came with us to all the thrift stores and yard sales.  We found lots of goodies at the rummage sale. = )

Grace found a twin to one of Juliet's stuffies at a thrift store.  We didn't buy it, but she wanted a picture to show Juliet. = )

During this shopping trip, Alice talked me in to Chick-fil-a, using some of the free points we earned from her birthday party.  It was a hard sale, let me tell you. ; )

I think this was supposed to be a seahorse, but am not 100% sure.

Emily came home with some fun algebra homework!  Each letter is worth it's position in dollars and you have to come up with $100 words.  I shared it with my mom and sisters, and Haley's family enjoyed it so much they sent us some words too!  We worked on it several days before she had to turn it in. = )

When the new Hello Kitty happy meals came out, Avia sent money to spoil the grandchildren, so they got dinner there one night.  I don't know what I ate, but tomatoes from my garden were probably involved! = )

My children have gotten so good about replacing the milk carton in the upstairs fridge, that one day while I was at Aldi, I had no clue how many we had in the basement!  It was an amazing feeling, but luckily Billy was home to give me an idea of how much I needed to buy.  After bragging about it, I found that one of them also place the empty roll of toilet paper underneath the extras, instead of recycling and refilling it.  oh, children.  

I took a picture of some rocks so that the kids could compare.

To the milk chocolate candy rocks that I bought at Horrock's.  All of them thought they wer pretty cool, and enjoyed pranking their friends, by eating 'rocks' at lunch.

Juliet had what looked like a gash on her leg, luckily it was just a piece of wet leaf!

However, Grace did have a small injury in the same spot!  Thankfully, hers was already bandaged.

The girls "hanging" around one afternoon.

A cute 'five minute' hairstyle that came across my feed. ponytail -> divide into thirds -> braid one third -> braid with other two thirds -> loosen plaits!  Next time I'll start with one of the other sides, since the braid didn't show up until the fourth twis!

 Today was another fun hairstyle: pumpkin! I personally liked the better the first way.

But grace really wanted some fabric on it, so we found an orange sock!  

I can't wait to see how well it stayed (or didn't) when she gets home today!

later days

Alice is in Driver's Ed!!!

Alice's driver's ed schedule was so rigorous, I'm still recovering from it a month later (I mean I'm still tired, but it's not just from that.... lol)

The schedule started the week after her school ended, but the school at which she attended was still in session.  So, it was from 3-5pm the first week.  She had a bit of homework, which we contentiously completed each day.

During the first week, Avia was still in town, and took EGJ somewhere fun.  Since it was a long chunk of time, William had to come with me.  He got to pick something fun after we finished our 'chores.' His selection was the newly opened (moved and improved) ZapZone.  We had a $10 gift card, and he got $10 to spend, for a total of $20!

After perusing his options (he really wanted to do the wreck room, but you have to be 13) he chose the trampolines!  The thirty minutes flew by, and that was the only activity we had time for.  Surprisingly, I ran into Natalie and Steve there, on their anniversary date!!! = )  We were on our way out, but it reinforced just how small of a town Lansing is!

The next day, Emily was able to stay home with the younger ones, and I went to check out a park that I had designs on bringing the twins to the following week.  

I snapped a picture of a branch that we "saw in Dimondale" a few hours earlier.  Technically I saw several go by, but this one might have been the one that we saw!

Lilly pads!

Duck!

The park has some cool musical installations!

And a really pretty view of the Watertower!

The next week, Alice's class was in a new location, and at a much earlier time.  She had class from 10-12 each morning, and we finally got her driving schedule.  This was, quite annoyingly, from 3-5 Tu,Th, F.  So, we were driving to Grand Ledge twice a day, for two hour blocks, 14 times those weeks!

When Billy worked from home, the twins could stay home, but between EW summer camp and Billy having to go into the office, the twins ended up in Grand Ledge many times with me!

One of our days was spent at the library.  We were early for their opening time, but luckily, they had an activity walk outside!

We brought kitty litter and pet food for the pet drive they had going.  The kitty litter was heavy, so we borrowed William's mini skateboard.

One of the activities was decorating a CD with your 'plans for summer.'  Grace and Juliet spent some quality time on their additions.

Their summer reading program was underway (they are not our local library, and while we might have been able to sign up for it, I felt overwhelmed and not willing to sign up for a second summer reading library program.)  But, my babies enjoyed the props for about 2 minutes, before it was time to actually find books!

Thanks to their awesome teacher, they were able to independently read for almost 45 minutes (which means I also got to read my book!!!)  

The next day we found a local "meet up and eat up" at a church.  They had VBS props set up, which was quite exciting for the twins, but I was unwilling to drive to Grand Ledge any more than I already was.

They were really cool props though!

Another fun excursion saw us visiting a local bakery to get a Hello Kitty cookie (that made it across my facebook feed since I was spending so.much.time. in Grand Ledge.)  They were really good cookies!

We returned to the park/splash pad that I scouted the week previously.  My babies were hands down the oldest and tallest visitors to the splash pad when we went!  It was a wonderfully hot and sunny day, and they enjoyed their time.

On a subsequent visit, we had a weather day, where my phone told me to seek shelter.  I had planned on spending the two hours in my car, listening to my boo, but ended up back at the library where I'd previously seen a tornado shelter sign.  Alice and her partner and teacher ended up taking shelter at the mall.  When they lifted the warning, they had time to make up.

As a repercussion of the storm the previous evening,  Billy's company ended up without power the following day.  So, he had to go in at regular time to pick up his computer, and I went with him so that we could have a breakfast date!  

Later in the day, Emily was positively impacted, since Billy was home, she could come with me on my afternoon errands while waiting on Alice.  We saw the BJs inventory robot!  (Since I almost exclusively use curbside pickup, this was the first time I'd seen it!)

We were collecting camping supplies, and since McDonalds was within walking distance of Meijer, she talked me into a slushie. = )

I think the final week saw me sitting at a park, with a view of the Grand River, listening to my book. It was chilly enough that I had to close my windows in the shade.

Later in the week, we met up with Grace's BFF Zoey at the splash pad again.  It was much colder, so they moved over to the playground pretty quickly.  This particular trip, they brought buckets and were no longer the oldest or tallest (including Zoey! = ))

When they were finished with the playground, we revisited the bakery and got some new treats to share!

On the day of Alice's final, we completed our final 'errand' which was to get new school shoes for Grace and Juliet.  They picked out tie shoes, and Juliet mastered shoe tying in five minutes. lol.

I think they tried on every pair of shoes they could, but ended up with matching shoes, so that they could twin, without their shoes giving them away. 

Even after her final, which she totally passed, Alice had two driving sessions left, but Friday, after her last drive, she was all smiles!

Sadly, the SOS is not open on Saturdays, so we had to wait until our return from Jellystone to go apply for her permit, but as of today (7/19/24) she has her official, laminated, permit!!!

Now, we have 50 hours of driving to complete, but haven't had much opportunity, since we are using only Billy's car for her practice.  We'll get there though!

later days

edit 7-19-24: backdated for continuity, to the date of Alice's final exam.