Fun Times At The Surprise Party

Another Sunday rolls around, and with this Sunday brings almost the end of the month. Yikes, summer is almost gone! We had a fun weekend for the most part, but then Greg had to work today so that wasn't too much fun. Since he had to work today he had Friday off. We headed out Friday morning to go down to my sister's. My Step-Mom turned 60 on Thursday I told you, and my Dad was throwing her a surprise birthday party Friday night. We made a couple stops along the way which broke up our trip a little bit. We first stopped at my friend Marie's for a short visit in Bellevue. I had a few things of Evan's to give her for Connor for the fall/winter. We hadn't made it to her house at all this summer and while our visit was short, it was still nice that the kids got to play for a little bit.

After we left there we made a stop in Kalamazoo. The kids love to go to the park and I thought it would be fun to take them to Milham Park in Kalamazoo which is a huge park that I used to go to when I was a kid growing up in Kalamazoo. It really brought back a lot of memories. It was just how I remembered it, and it was great to see my kids enjoy the park as much as I did when I was a kid. We didn't have a whole lot of time to spend, but I was glad we got to stop there for a little bit. I think next year we're going to try to go back and spend a day there because the kids wanted to explore more of the park that we didn't get to. Here's a few fun photos I snapped while we were at the park.

I remember this bridge when I was a kid. We would go across it to the little island it leads to and have a picnic lunch. The kids went across with daddy.

Emme climbed up on the rocks so I could snap a picture!

The kiddos going across one of the main bridges.

Of course they had to play on the playground equipment. Evan hung out up in the castle while Em went up and down the slides!

After we left K-zoo we headed to the party place to help my Dad, sister, & Kaite set up for the birthday party. They all got there before us so there wasn't too much we had to do. The kids had fun helping decorate though. The party didn't start until later on so we went back to my sister's for a little bit until it was time to go back to the party location. My Dad & Step-Mom love this entertainer named Pat Dailey. He plays in Put-In-Bay in Ohio and also in Key West at Sloppy Joe's. They've listened to him for years. My Dad surprised my Step-Mom with the party as well as with Pat Dailey performing at the birthday party. It was a great night listening to the music and hanging out. The kids got to go for a little bit of the party and then they went home with Kaite and she watched them for the rest of the night since Pat Dailey's music is more for adults. Although he does have a kids cd he made with Shel Silverstein which we got and the kids love. Anyway, thanks to Kaite for watching the kiddos while we were at the party. It was a great night and fun times had by all. I have a video I'll try to post tomorrow and slip in this post.

Saturday we went for what was probably our last boat ride of the summer. The kids loved being on the boat again. Then we had lunch and headed back. We came back to a mess out front on our street. Board of Water and Light has been putting in street lights for like almost three months. On Friday they were working across the street from us in our neighbors (the Marr's) yard digging where the street light is to go. Come to find out about an hour after we left they had hit a gas line and the neighborhood was evacuated. Everyone was without gas since they had to shut it off to fix the leak. We didn't know until this morning when I went to take a shower that our gas didn't get turned back on so we had no hot water. I had to call Consumer's to come out today to turn our gas back on. Thankfully with all this mess no one was hurt because they hit right where one of the main lines are and it could of been really bad. Hopefully all this mess will be cleaned up soon and they'll get this street light project done that's been going on forever. That wraps up our weekend pretty much. Looking forward to this week as we've got a few things planned which I'll be telling you about! I'll leave you with this picture which is the hole in Rich and Liana's yard that is huge where they hit the gas line.