♪ They Were 16 Going On 17... ♫

Now they are 17!

They have been since December 3rd.

I keep hearing, "Have you done our birthday post?"

We saw the new Chronicles of Narnia movie (LOVE it) in the afternoon on the 10th and then had a sleepover. We had two decks of Dutch Blitz going so the boys could play too.

Dutch Blitz with eight people is fast and furious! I teamed up with Caboose part of the time to help him out.

We kept things small since Hubby is still recovering. We had a variety of ages over between 13 and 19. I love that about our kids and their friends. Age doesn't really matter, and they didn't have to become grown-ups to realize that. These girls all have strong Christian values and have great attitudes. They enjoy being together and playing games and not gossiping or talking about boys.

The first group of three girls went to sleep at 2:00 a.m. and the second group of three went to sleep just after 4:00 a.m. They decided they should get a little sleep.

The other night when we went out to eat, the waitress asked if we needed two kids menus. She was thinking of Caboose and Sparky. Hubby said pretty soon people are going to think they are twins! Sparky didn't think that was very funny.

By the way, they don't drive yet. We are going to enroll in driver's ed in the spring/summer when the roads aren't snowy and icy. You know, I wonder if they even do driver's ed in Michigan in the winter? Well, I just know Hubby and I do not have the constitution (especially me) to teach them to drive.

We'll warn you once they are on the road! :)

Fabulous Fall Fun

It's not your ordinary fall fun. No leaf raking. No jumping in leaves. No driving through the countryside looking at trees changing colors.

Of course up here in Michigan the trees have already changed colors and all the leaves have pretty much fallen off the trees, so a drive would net you nothing.

Our fall fun consisted of Missionary Christmas at our church and a house-full of house-guests (this was a different home than came last year).

There was a lot of chase going on up and down our stairs this weekend! Pinball, air hockey, legos, and board games just added to the fun.

Monday night we went to a hockey game with some of our favorite people in the whole world. We got there early because traffic wasn't bad and we picked up our tickets in a snap from the Stub Hub location.

Since they only open the doors an hour before game time, and since I will just reiterate that we live in Michigan, thus cold weather, we were chilly and had time to spare. So we did what any normal people would do. We spent 50 cents a person and jumped on the People Mover, which goes in a circle around downtown, above ground, and takes roughly 10 minutes or so. The People Mover is like any metro or subway that is above ground on the rails.

The kids all thought it was great, and we added entertainment value for some of the other riders.

And since Hubby's sister thought that he needed a picture to make him look younger on the sidebar, we took one outside the Joe and I've added it over on the sidebar too. I still left up his scruffy-faced picture though, because I like it.


The surgery date is next Monday, so no more hockey for a while except on tv. Sorry, Hubby.

*4th Fun*

We had one of our favorite families over for the 4th of July. Of course, we'd all been to church in the morning and had a fellowship lunch there together already, so other than them going home to change, we were together pretty much all day.

It's been hot here. Last summer was unseasonably cool. This summer is unseasonably hot. I feel like I live on the peninsula of Virginia in the heat and humidity again.

That means the kids were able to play outside in the water and not get chilled. We hooked up a flippy sprinkler gadget to the hose that they brought, the kids made some water balloons, and they played with water guns.



Lori loves orioles, and we've been feeding them with oranges out in the back, so we (as in the grown-ups) sat in the relative cool of the house and watched them. (It's hard to get a picture with my camera, and I have no idea how to upload the pictures so you can enlarge them. The female is on the left orange.)

We had Basil Grilled Chicken, hot dogs, Cheesy Potato Casserole, Baked Beans, watermelon, cucumbers, and cupcakes for dinner.

Then because we didn't think we were stuffed enough, we had s'mores. On our new firepit. Hubby gave everyone specific directions first.


I took this picture for the messy s'more eating fingers, then I saw the fingernails when I copied it over here. Eek!

Before we did the fireworks, which has to be after 10 p.m. since it doesn't get dark here until very late (we live in the western part of the Eastern time zone), we opted for some family games. They involved water and plastic cups and Cheetos and plastic spoons. We came up with the games on our own.

They have six people. We have six people. Nice and even.

Except we didn't split up that way.

Somebody had the bright idea to line up tallest to shortest and count off 1-2-1-2... Guess who the only grown-up was that was not at the tall end of the line?

There was not one child between me and the other grown-ups. There were not two children between me and the other grown-ups. There were three. And by next year it will be four.

Poor Sparky. She had an 11-year-old taller than her (who was almost taller than me — the one who will be next year) and a 10-year-old who almost was. He and Caboose will probably be taller than her by next year.

Pretty soon it's just gonna be me and her.

Okay, then we did fireworks, and if you think the bird picture was bad, those are worse.

Just trust me that we did some, we watched some better ones farther away, and had a wonderful time.

When Sparky Was In Africa...

...and the last time we went over for a day to play at the Simpson's (as opposed to Memorial Day when it was nice and warm and we played in the water), this is what it looked like and what we did:

What a difference three months makes!

And every time Caboose went sledding, this is what his snow boots ended up looking like when he was finished:



Every single time.

F U N !

I think by Memorial Day on May 31st this year we had already had more days in the 80's than we did last year by the beginning of August. It's been that warm here.

Not that that has anything to do with fun, although I suppose indirectly it does because the kids can play outside in the water without freezing to death, or at least without thinking they are.

We also have to remember to wear sunscreen here because it's sunny but not as hot and we forget to wear it because it's not scorching where you absolutely can't forget. We're still acclimating.

Before it rained in the middle of the afternoon on Memorial Day (stormed to be exact), it was hot and sunny/cloudy and the kids got to play in the water and play ball and eat outside.





Four 10-year old boys:

When they weren't in the water, Sparky and Buddy alternated throwing the softball and baseball. They would throw their own ball hard and the other one's ball they would sort of lob most of the time.





Notice that opposed to all of the men in the first picture, all of the women are here with their backs to you working. :)


The littlest guy there, who was just the right age to enjoy feeding his pudding cup to himself.

It's a Small World

Please just ignore the fact that I'm in the picture with someone in a Michigan sweatshirt.

We host a small group in our home once a month. Four different families, not including our family, are a part of it.

Hubby had to go out of town again this week so he wasn't here for small group, and that's why he's not in the picture. But you might be wondering why I took a picture of only one couple (who also happens to have four children).

Well, when Sparky was in Africa we were at Keith and Lori's house for dinner, and this is what ended up transpiring:

Keith and Lori happened to mention where they both went to college,
Hubby remembered me mentioning that I'd emailed Betsy because of a post she did on her father-in-law and a college building he had named after him (I thought I knew what college and I was verifying because we are considering it for our girls),
Hubby mentioned this to Keith and Lori because it was where they went to college,
they knew the building,
they knew the last name,
I had to kind of explain the whole blog thing (which is hard to people who don't blog),
Lori asked me Betsy's name,
Lori said she thought she knew who she was and asked Keith if that was his sister Karen's friend,
she called Karen and Keith's sister Karen was in Betsy's wedding,
and they still live in the same town and are friends.

So Betsy, this picture is sort of for you.

It truly is a small world, and believe it or not, it got microscopic a few days later. Think Africa.

Young at Heart

Today I got to see one of my very dearest, very sweetest friends from Illinois. She was traveling with the church youth choir from our old church and they've been doing work in Ypsilanti, Michigan, about an hour from where we live north of Detroit. They had the day off before they sing at a church tonight and they were going to the Henry Ford Museum. We hadn't been there yet either, so Hubby took a day off and our entire family went to see the group. There were people all of us knew well, especially me, Hubby, and the girls.

Well, Stacey and I decided to let out our inner rock stars today. Believe it or not, we didn't even embarrass our kids.

Here we are in one of our finer, more reserved moments.

Stacey is one of my favorite people in the world and I was so happy to see her. I wish she was a Michigander like me. Then we could be Michigeese.

How was that, Reese?