Back From Africa

Today my mom came to visit. She just returned from her trip to South Africa on Friday so this was the first time we've seen her since she got back. Evan had talked to Grandma on the phone the other day and she told him that she had some presents for him. So of course this morning when I told Evan that Grandma was coming today he couldn't wait to get his present! When my mom arrived the kids saw the bags and were just itching to see what was inside. Of course I made them wait because mommy had to get the camera ready! Here are the kids opening their gifts Grandma got them from Africa!

Emmaline got a cute little backpack with a lion on it & a t-shirt with different animals.

Evan opened this cool orange t-shirt with a bunch of animals on it. It's perfect because he loves anything orange!

Then he started to open the second present and I could tell from the look on his face he knew what it was...

...an African drum! Evan was in his glory! He was hoping Grandma got him a drum. Good call Mom, he LOVES it!

Of course he had to start playing it right away! One happy boy right here!

My mom also brought Greg & I back a bowl and I got a bracelet as well. Thanks mom for all the gifts. We're sure to enjoy all of them! Here's all our wonderful goodies from Africa!


While my mom was here we spent most of the afternoon looking through her pictures, and I helped her get them all loaded on the computer and sent to Walgreens so she could get them printed up. (My mom is a little digital camera/computer challenged so that's why I had to help her. LOL!) She took over 200 pictures and I sorted through the bad one's, edited some of them, and finally got them all sent to Walgreens so she can pick them up tomorrow. The pictures were spectacular, the places she visited were absolutely beautiful, and the animals were amazing! Here's a few photos I thought I'd share!

Yes, readers those animals were that close to where my Mom was taking pictures. She went on a few Safari excursions and said the animals would be right next to the Jeep. Amazing! I can't even imagine it! Looks like it turned out to be a wonderful trip. Glad you and Margaret had a great time, Mom!

After my mom left this afternoon, Evan decided that he was going to have "African School Time." Yes, that's my Evan always using his imagination and coming up with such fun ideas! He already had his new shirt on, gathered his drum, his sister's backpack and headed off to "school." He used Em's little stroller to tote around some of the school items. Check him out here!

Evan off to "African school"

Here's all the school items he gathered. He went around collecting all his and Em's toys that would relate to Africa- giraffes, elephants, zebras, hippos, his African drum, and much more. Quite the imagination I'd say and he did an awesome job correlating the toys to Africa I thought!

I think I may have a future tourist on my hands who may be interested in visiting Africa. Anyone want to throw a free trip my way?

Another shout out today... this time to Em's friend Madeleine who also turns two today! Happy Birthday Madeleine! Hope you had a wonderful day!

A Crazy Trip To Meijer

After dinner tonight we finally got to go for a walk. It had been almost a week since we'd gone on a walk. With this crazy weather of storms and heat on top of some nights being gone, we haven't had the chance for our normal walks. Since the temp cooled down a little, better than yesterday, but still a little muggy, we thought it would be a good walking night. It felt good to get out and we got to catch up with our neighbors (the Ellis family) who had been gone for two weeks. Welcome back Ellis family, it's nice to see you back in the neighborhood! The walk was great, Evan got to ride his bike, and Em ventured out of the jogging stroller for part of the walk and ran the last part to home!

We got home and it was almost 8:30pm, and I had wanted to run to Meijer to check out their lamps because they're 20% off this week. (Remember readers about a month ago I told you I was on a lamp mission.) Since Meijer was having a sale I thought this would be a good time to check out their selection again. I was thinking it was too late to go, but the kids were wound up and Em was nowhere near ready to go to bed. We all loaded into the car and off we went. I got a couple pictures printed while there, grabbed a gallon of milk, and we found a lamp that we thought might work so we got one to try. I wanted to make sure I liked it before I bought two, and I didn't like any of the shades they had so figured best just to get one for now.

After our purchase and we get out to the car and the kids are buckled in, I notice that the switch on the lamp is broken off. Just my luck I swear! Here's where the crazy part of our Meijer trip comes in. I tell Greg I'm going to run back in and see if I can swap out the lamp for another one. So I start heading back in to the store. As I'm walking away from the car I realize the receipt is in the other bag in the car. I run back to the car, grab the receipt and head back in. I get half way through the parking lot look at my hand and realize I grabbed the coupon that prints with your receipt, not the receipt. Are you kidding me? Back to the car I go! Look in the bag and no receipt. Look in my purse and no receipt. I didn't have any pockets so I knew it couldn't be there. Good grief, it's only been like five minutes since we checked out and walked out of the store. I'm thinking did the damn receipt blow out of my hand? Didn't think it did, but can't find it. Greg tells me to just go see if I can swap it out without the receipt. In I go and the cashier remembered me and says it's fine to go get a different lamp.

Now I've got my new lamp and head out of the store thinking, "What the hell happened to that receipt? I just had it!" Greg was parked up by the door (This is the door at the other end of the store. Not the same one we came out the first time.) and I hop in the car telling him I hope we don't have to return this because I have no idea where that receipt went to. I told him I had looked around the parking lot where I was walking and didn't see a receipt anywhere. So he pulls away from the door and we're driving through the parking lot and get stopped at the other door (the door we came out the first time) at the crosswalk because there were a lot of people coming out of Meijer. While we're sitting there waiting patiently for the pedestrians, I look to the left out Greg's window and I see a piece of paper on the ground by the handicap spot. I say to Greg, "Look, that looks like a receipt. I'm going to go check." Surely it wouldn't be, but I would've always been wondering had I not checked. So I hop out of the car while he's waiting for people to cross in front of the car and go look at the paper on the ground. Guess what readers? It WAS my damn receipt! I'm so serious. I could not believe it. What are the odds that in that time I went back to the car twice, into the store, out of the store, and back in the car that I would find my receipt as we're driving away? It had blown out of my hand obviously and blew from where we parked (about half way down the aisle) up to the handicap spot in that time. Totally crazy! Greg told me I should buy a lotto ticket! So I've got my lamp AND my receipt! I do like the lamp, but we need to find a shade to go with it. We tried our old shades, but they're not in very good condition so they don't look good on the new lamp. Now I need to see if I can find a shade somewhere else and go back before the sale is over to get another lamp. Wish me luck on my shade mission now!

A little shout out to Em's friend Elizabeth who turns 2 today! Happy Birthday Elizabeth! Hope you had a special day!

The Conclusion To Our Weekend

Today we ventured out in this heat wave that came upon us and headed downtown E.L. again to the Great Lakes Folk Festival and Farmer's Market. It was hot, but since we didn't have anything else going on we thought we'd take in some more of the bands playing, check out the children's activities (those weren't open on Friday), and use up our last coupon at the Farmer's Market. It wasn't quite as busy as I thought it would be, but after all it was 90+ degrees. We stopped at one of the children's tents and the kids got to do a craft where they made sun visors! They did make those back in May when we went to the Art Fair, but this time the visors were all glittery and sparkly. The kids enjoyed making the visors, and Em showed her visor off for the camera!


We then stopped at Maria's Taco tent for a couple tacos for lunch and sat and listened to some music. From there we headed over to the Farmer's Market and tasted some cheesecake and made our whopping big purchase of sweet corn and zucchini (to go with that squash from my friend Marie). We were deciding between the green beans and sweet corn and Evan chose the sweet corn. He loves sweet corn and come to think of it, I haven't made it at all this summer yet. What is my problem? I can't believe it! A few times I was going to buy it at Meijer, and it didn't look very good. Then I never thought to pick any up any other time. Looks like we'll have to make up and get our fill of sweet corn this month! The kids hung in there as we walked around in the heat and were real troopers. It was very hot out there folks! You didn't even have to move and the sweat started dripping! Gross, I know! The crowd had definitely picked up by the time we left so apparently the heat wasn't keeping people away.

On our way home we made a special stop to cool the kids off. What do you think of when you see this?

That's right readers... Slurpees! Evan has had a Slurpee maybe once or twice, but Emmaline has never tried one so I figured today was a great day to introduce her to them. I remember having Slurpees all the time when I was a kid! I hadn't had one in a really long time either so it hit the spot on this HOT HOT day! Greg and I shared an orange creme, Evan had an orange cream as well, and Emmaline had the apple mango. The orange creme was the best, and the apple mango was pretty good, but it reminded me of an apple jolly rancher so after a few sips it got to be a little much. Emmaline however, enjoyed it and drank quite a bit! Here's the kids on the way home with their Slurpees.


I'm thinking they're going to want to go back again since Evan drank every last drop and was already asking for more! The rest of our day is being spent relaxing inside where it's nice and cool. I'm off to do some of my prep work for Uppercase Living, Em is napping, Evan is playing with puzzles, and Greg is getting hungry watching the Food Network.

E.L. Folk Festival Weekend

Yesterday started the Great Lakes Folk Festival here in East Lansing. The festival runs from Friday evening through Sunday evening. It started at 6pm on Friday and it was looking iffy with the weather and rain was on it's way. Our ol' trusty meteorologist, Andy Provenzano here in Lansing was broadcasting from the festival and said the rain would hold off until late in the night. We debated about going, but with that in mind we decided to give it a shot. Em & I were planning to meet Greg and Evan downtown E.L. because Evan went to work with Greg Friday afternoon. It's been awhile since Ev had been to work and we've been working on Ev staying in his bed all night with a sticker reward chart. So once he earned ten stickers he could choose something special to do. His choice after the first ten stickers was go to work with Daddy. So yesterday was the day to redeem the reward. Evan was surely in his glory and loved being at work with his Dad! Here's my worker Evan at one of the fountains downtown.


Now back to the festival. We all met up right about 6pm and the place where we happened to meet was where the news was broadcasting with ol' Andy P. Meteorologists are always right, right folks? NOT! Right when we got there, it started to rain! There were some sprinkles here and there, and since it was early it wasn't too crowded yet so that was good and we were able to dodge under a few tents here and there. Thankfully though the rain didn't turn into anything significant and held off for the remainder of the time we were there. We walked all throughout the festival checking out the bands and food! We debated back and forth what to eat for dinner and then we walked by Harper's (where I went to the bachelorette party) and saw the 1/2 off sign. So our decision was made and we parked it outside Harper's (they had tables set up out front so you could listen to the festival music) and enjoyed our half off dinner. I also was able to enjoy a half off Spartan Wheat beer again too! While we waited for our meal we listened to music and people watched. Well, to our surprise we saw a horse coming down the street! O.k., it wasn't really a horse, but might as well have been. Check out this Great Dane! It was huge! The kids were totally in awe over it, as were we! I don't think I've ever seen a dog this big. If it stood on it's back legs, it would be taller than it's owner here in the black t-shirt!

After our dinner at Harper's we stopped by a couple of the stages and listened to some of the music. The two bands playing at the time were Shotgun Party, a Western Swing band out of Austin, TX and Los Bandits de Michigan, a Tex-Mex band from Kalamazoo. We didn't care for the Shotgun Party as it was obviously all country. The Tex-Mex band wasn't too bad. Surprisingly it was too loud for Evan (The kid who is always making loud noise with his drum and guitar!) at that tent so we didn't stay long.

Shotgun Party

Los Bandits de Michigan

We were going to try to head back today, but as we all know in E. Lansing, it poured for a good part of the day! Seriously readers, it hasn't rained that hard for that long in a very long time! It did clear up later on, but we already had plans to go to dinner with Greg's mom for her birthday. Her birthday is actually tomorrow, (Happy Birthday!) but we celebrated today and went to BD's Mogolian Barbeque. It was really yummy, and they have a bunch of new items. A few of them being ravioli, meatballs, and alfredo sauce. I put them all together and they were absolutely deilcious! Who'd a thunk, putting ravioli on the grill? Not me that's for sure, but I'd definitely get it again it was so good. Take a look!


After dinner we all headed to the Tasty Twist again for dessert. While sitting at the picnic table there my poor little Emmers fell off and hit the back of her head on the cement. She's got a little bump, but thankfully not too bad. That little girl must have a really hard head because she always seems to be bumping it! We had our neighbor Rich check it out when we got home, he's a nurse, and thought it didn't look too bad and to just ice it for awhile. We tried the best we could, but keeping a two year old still with an icepack isn't the easiest task! Just a little FYI about my Emme, August 8th was actually my due date with her two years ago so I always think on this day now that it could've been her birthday! I'll be back tomorrow to share the rest of our weekend. I think we're going to try tomorrow to head back to the festival and hit up the E.L. Farmer's Market again. That is if we can survive the super hot day we're supposed to have.... going into the 90's with a heat index of 105!

My Helper Is Gone

This week went by too fast and my helper had to leave and go home today. Last night we hit up the Tasty Twist for some ice cream since it was Kaite's last night here. I thought I'd take her for a little treat for all her help! She likes the Tasty Twist here so it was a good treat! Since it turned out to be such a nice day, ice cream hit the spot! Here are the cousins eating their ice cream.


Check out Em's outfit! Monday when I cleaned the basement I found a tub of clothes that were Kaite's that my sister gave me a long time ago should I ever have a girl. This was one of the items I pulled out. Kaite & I were cracking up over it because she was like, "Did I wear that when I was little?" Sure enough she had. It's not horrible, but a little dated. It's good enough to wear for ice cream and get all stained up right? Actually it's from Gymboree so it must of been in style back in 1998!

Then today I had to meet my sister in Kzoo after she got out of work to drop Kaite off. It's about half way for both of us so it worked out good. On our way we stopped by my friend Marie's to have a mini playdate with the kids. I don't think I've told you, but Marie and her husband Jim are Evan and Emmaline's Godparents. So it's always nice to be able to visit them. We hadn't made it to Bellevue this summer to her house so it was nice to break up the drive today and let the kids play and Marie and I could catch up! Here's some pics of our time at the Toburen's.

Em thought she'd pretend to nap. (After all, our visit was in the middle of her nap time. However, this lasted long enough for me to snap a pic.)

We went outside for a little bit and here Evan, Kyra, & Connor were setting up the horseshoes.

While Em went down the slide!

We had a nice visit with everyone! Thanks for letting us drop by Toburen's and for giving us the squash, tomato, & green pepper from your garden! From there we headed on to Kzoo and since we got there a little before my sister we stopped into TJ Maxx. I love that store and Marshall's! Sometimes you can't find what you're looking for and other times it's like hitting the jackpot! Well today folks, I hit the jackpot! I found Emme this adorable little MSU cheerleader outfit that ususally sells in the bookstores for $30-$35 for only $10!


I've been wanting to get her one, but didn't want to pay those bookstore prices! I am super excited and can't wait to dress my little Emmaline in it come football season! GO GREEN! GO WHITE! Oh I can see her now cheering on the Spartans in it!

So now that Kaite is back home, I'm on my own during the day and am surely going to miss my extra set of hands. Thanks K for all your help this week and for watching the kids so I could get some things done. I really appreciate it and got some things done I've been wanting to do all summer! You're coming back Sunday, right? LOL!

Aquatic Center

Today the much talked about, but never make it to Aquatic Center became a reality. We didn't go yesterday since Em had her 2yr checkup and ended up having to have two shots. I didn't think she was getting any, but because there was a shortage of one shot the last time at 18 months she had to get it this time. Em weighed in somewhere around 32 lbs. and is around 34 1/4". I say somewhere around because she wanted nothing to do with getting on the scale or be measured. Actually, she wanted absolutely nothing to do with the doctor's office or the doctor. It must be a stage at this age because she acted the same way she did at the picture place. So by the time we got home from the doctor she was already asleep in the car before I pulled in the driveway. She ended up sleeping all afternoon so no Aquatic Center for us. I guess those shots knocked her out. Poor thing never even had lunch!

We decided that we would go to the Aquatic Center first thing this morning when they opened. This was our last day to get there with Kaite since she's leaving me tomorrow to go home. :( Of course though I wake up this morning and it's 50 degrees and chilly. Great, I'm thinking, we're never going to get there this summer. Well thankfully it started to warm up fast and while we didn't get there at 11am when they opened, we got there at 11:30am. It was already starting to get busy, but not too crowded so that was nice.

For those of you who are not from around here, the East Lansing Family Aquatic Center is a great outdoor family water facility that has probably been open for about six or seven years. It's right down the road from us... less than five minutes. It features a 190-foot tube water slide, 140-foot body water slide, drop slide, splash pad, diving boards, children's frog slide, water-play structures, wet/dry sand play area, sunbathing deck, zero-depth pool entry, and a concession area. It's a great place to take the family!

I must say I've been a little apprehensive about going this summer since little Miss Emmaline hasn't liked her baths lately or didn't want to get in the kiddie pool at home. I figured she'd be sitting in the chairs beside the pool the whole time. So we got the suits on and ready to go and Em thought we were just going outside to the side of the house to the blow up pool. She was getting mad at me when I wouldn't let her out the front door, and then when we got outside to get in the car she was looking for the pool. Silly girl! We got to the Aquatic Center and she and Evan were both very eager to get in the water. I was totally wrong... Em took to the water right away and she had a blast! Her and Evan had loads of fun and after the two hours we were there, they did not want to leave! I took a ton of pictures so I'll post some here for your enjoyment and the rest in an album.

Little Miss Emmaline ready for the pool

Ev all ready for to go swimming

Come on already mom, we want to swim!

Everyone splish splashin'
Playing in the fountains

Relaxing in the pool

This became a favorite thing of Em's to do... running in and out of the pool.

Such a cute fishy in the water

Emmaline loved splashing the water over and over and over!

Emmaline wanted to walk on her own into the deeper water so here she is at almost three feet

We had a great time and I'm thinking we'll have to go back at least one more time before the summer is over. Too much fun and Daddy missed out since he was working so he needs to go next time. Here's the rest of the photos. Aquatic Center Slideshow

Pictures from the MSU Gardens

I thought I'd share these photos from the MSU gardens I took on Sunday! It's such a beautiful place when the the flowers are all in bloom! Since some of you aren't nearby to experience them I thought you could through my photos! Enjoy!

Look at all these colors... so beautiful!

The fountain in the Horticulture Gardens

A beautiful sunflower in the Children's Gardens

The wedding we saw in the Horticulture Gardens

Here's a few of the kids too because I think they're oh so cute with the pretty flowers and having fun in the gardens! I love the bright orange in this photo.

Em kept calling the flowers "balls" because they were so round and wanted to grab one!

Here's Miss Emmaline actually looking at the camera, MIRACLE!

Evan posing for mommy!

Emmaline pushing Evan at the Merry-Go Round Fountains

Emmaline jammin' on the Dance Chimes

My niece Kaite at the fountains