Where does the time go

My silly wonderful kids

Eliza made a beautiful rainbow cake for Aunt Jamie's birthday this summer. She designed and decorated it all herself with fruit and marshmallows. 

Eliza also made this stepping stone for Aunt Jamie. 

Alex and Mike have been getting into D&D and have been playing regularly with some friends from school. 

Uncle Geoff breakfast topped off with a ride in his jeep to a playground near by. Such a fun uncle!

Alex found a Greek cookbook at school and decided to bring it home to make something out of it. He decided on making a honey cookie. 

Yum!

Our good friends the Douglass's introduced us to a game called Garbage and for a good while that's all the kids would play. It's very simple but oh so much fun!

We took the kids to Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum that's only a mile away. There are so many cool things to look at and play. They had a great time. It's amazing how quickly $10 can go there. 

When I got change I noticed all the quarters were different. 

Evan's Fun Run at school. It was easy to spot him in his neon green sweatshirt. 

Eliza doing her first fun run.

Daddy got to come along to the fun run this year.

Mike talked me into going to Ren Fest this year..... we sat in traffic for over 2 hours just trying to get there.

First thing we did was get a giant pickle to share.

Lots of people enjoying the festival

No water to be bought, and the lines were so long for food, so we had a lovely dinner of popcorn and a single drink to share.

The kids were so exited to help decorate for Halloween on Oct. 1st. They did a great job.

My little people 

Alex's fun run at his school.

The Douglass Family was kind enough to invite us on a hay ride around Marshbank Park with their family. All the kids had a great time, and Eliza got to cuddle with the Douglasses to keep warm. Oh and the sunset was beautiful. 

The boys sharing a blanket to keep warm.

Our family photo shoot at Cranbrook. Stuffed cats needed to come with us as well because they are part of the family.

Mike and I looking our best.

Final carrot harvest of the season. Not bad for half a bed.

I was changing out the dirt in some of my raised beds and I was backing into the garden and my foot got caught and the wheelbarrow ran me over and pushed me into the fence backwards. I got this scrape and some bruising, but I'm glad I didn't break anything or bash my head. 

Clayton and Evan playing a duet. 

We sure are lucky to have a nice playroom for the kids. 

Eliza putting on a puppet show for her friend Logan that lives down the street. 

Some bold wild turkeys coming to visit us on our deck one day.

Alex not feeling so well one day. He was under a heated blanket and another blanket. Snuggled down little sicky. 

The boys got it in their head to make a leaf pile one day. So while I was showering they raked all the leaves into piles. 

Then we went across the street to rake a neighbor's yard for more leaves. We got the leaf blower out to help. Everyone got a turn but Eliza was too small to wear it so I had to carry it for her while she used it. 

Leaf pile complete!

More family photos. Had to share this one.

Our first bout with pink eye. It was so hard to get him meds. We went to 4 stores and no one had it, so we started calling places and finally we found one that had the meds he needed. 

Our rainbow princess unicorn.

Prince Evan

Zeus God of Thunder

We were lucky enough to have the wade family join us again this year for trick or treating.

A cold walk to the bus stop

They still all have smiles

I went to a event with my mom group and was lucky enough to have two of my friends join me in painting. Our happy trees turned out pretty good I think.

Evan shoveling Alex and me a path to the road one morning. What  a helpful guy.

I reintroduced marbles to the kids. After we played a bit I looked up the rules. Turns out we needed a way bigger circle. It's supposed to be 3 feet wide. They still had a great time.

Evan reading to Eliza from our family photobook one morning before school.

Alex did well at Lego League this year. His team didn't make it to the next round, but that was because they built a new robot the week of competition and the wheels kept slipping so they couldn't get the tasks done. He's looking forward to next year. 

Eliza made this almost life sized model of herself one day out of paper. She didn't get any help from anyone. I was pretty impressed. 

My goofy kids

Mike decided the week of Thanksgiving was a good week to completely reorganize our library. He finished putting the room back together at noon on Thanksgiving. 

If changing the whole library wasn't enough for Mike the week of Thanksgiving wasn't enough, he also installed a hot water dispenser for us. With the kids not able to reach the microwave but making tea all the time, we decided this would be a nice addition to the kitchen. It's been so nice. Eliza was afraid of it at first, that's why she's hiding in the pantry behind Evan. We have been going through so much tea now. 

Our Thanksgiving guests

Evan has been complaining about text being too small to read. So we took him to an eye doctor and sure enough he needed glasses for reading. So this is Evan's new look. He said it even helps him read his piano music.

We joined the Douglass family on a trip to the North Pole on the Polar Express.

The boys were very excited to go.

So were the adults! :)

The train ride was nice and we got hot cocoa and the lady that was in our car was so nice. The bathrooms were a little tricky to get to, but an adventure all on their own. 

We got to see Santa and give him our lists

Evan Mrs. Clause was there.

They rode a Ferris wheel. 

The kids were tired on the way home so they stretched out.

A friend of mine was moving to CO so he gave me this guitar that was owned by his brother before he passed away. His brother was my first crush, so the kids thought it was a super special guitar.  

Breakfast with Uncle Geoff at our house. He helped the boys put their snow men together. 

Birthday Dinner for Mike and his mom at Red Lobster. We haven't been there since pre-COVID. Mike was very happy to be back. We didn't have Jamie join us because she hurt her ankle the morning of. But after dinner we headed up to their house with Nana so she could see Jamie on her birthday.

Sick kid #1 

Sick kid #2 she slept the whole day

Evan has been losing teeth left and right. It's been hard for him to eat in the last few months because of this... you'll see what I mean later. 

Lessons and Carols at church. Both the boys read verses this year and did really well. 

Eliza and Evan all dressed up

Eliza was Mary, Alex was Joseph, and Evan was the angel Gabriel 

Game day with the Wade family

Ginger Bread House decorating

Sugar cookie decorating

Yum! Sprinkles! More Sprinkles!!

Hanging out in the snow one morning.

We got to visit with Auntie Em and Lila at my moms house to make cookies during the winter break. Lila is so cute! At first she was a little afraid of the kids, but she warmed up real fast. 

Good times.

Another tooth gone

Christmas with the Bakers

Eliza has a whole section of unicorn ornaments now on our Christmas tree. 

D&D at the library with friends. They are meeting monthly now for their fun adventures. 

My lettuce experiment is not going as well as I had hoped. Not sure if it's not warm enough or if I need to plant a different type of green, but it was worth a try. We did get one salad out of it, so that's something.

Evan made this awesome meal out of a new cookbook he got for Christmas. He's doing great at cooking and still enjoying it.

Yum!

Eliza lined up all her animals in a line through the playroom.

She was so proud to make this dangerous path through the room. 

For a bit the kids were playing Railroad Ink before school. Evan was dedicated to figuring out how to get the most points. 

Working together at dinner to color the coloring book.

Eliza doing a great job on her own coloring.

Alex and me hanging out before getting our food. We tried to go to Rainforest café but we didn't have a reservation so we had to go to another place. We decided to go to On the Border, however.... less than 12 hours later I was sick. Thankfully I was the only one. We also had a conversation about how nuclear energy works.

Alex is too big for his kid umbrella but seems too small for an adult one. Back to you Janet.... :)

Breakfast with Geoff. We printed a drawing my friend made for Uncle Geoff of Ludington. He was happy to get it and to see us. 

4 eyed friends

Game night with friends, always a good time.

I took Evan to Uncle Geoff's crochet group to sew together the finished squares.  

He did a great job and really enjoyed it. We didn't stay the whole time because Evan wanted to get home to go sledding with his siblings. 

Snow day at the Bakers! 

Mike taking care of the driveway. Snow blower to the rescue. 

Evan's racoon tail was frozen solid. The snow was so wet and heavy and it just kept falling.

Late night sledding after going to Red Robin. 

I put some bails of hay at the bottom of our neighbors' sledding hill to help the kids not go into the trees so much. 

She's grown so much in just 5 short years.

Another tooth out!! This was the last one to come out, but he said yesterday that he has another one loose. 

A morning snack on the way to the bus stop. Keeping hydrated. 

Eliza put little Legos on the hooves of all the Lego horses and called them hover hooves. She said they make them float.

Evan went on a field trip to the Henry Ford Museum. I met him there and he was happy have me along for the day. We got to see the Rosa Parks bus and he got to show his friends a bunch of other things while we were there. We got to be in the group with his teacher Ms. Ayers. She asked me at one point, "How many kids do you have?" and I said "three" after which she said "You're really good at keeping track of kids."  

The Douglass family invited us over to try ice skating on their frozen canal. The kids LOVED it! Not only was it super pretty they had a great time learning how to skate. 

My beautiful girl

Helping Eliza skate

The kids all reading our Action Bibles at church.

We got to be with Eliza for her Valentine's Day party at school.

She got to decorate a cookie... and eat it. She put more frosting on it than there was cookie, and oh the sprinkles!!

Eliza finished the 100 More books at the library. She got a free book and also is going to have her picture on the library Facebook page. 

Evan got a new marble run from Oma. Eliza and Evan have been playing with it non-stop.