Sorryyyy

Sorry I didn't post sooner. I've been so busy with specials like cheerleading and gymnastics. In gymnastics we are learning a bar routine, beam routine, and floor routine! In cheerleading we came in 3rd place for our dance.

Mrs. Clay (my teacher) is awesome! My favorite subjects are writing and art. Andria is so helpful,and funny.By the way I am soooooooo excited my Aunt,Uncle,Cousin,and Grandpa are coming over!!!!! I - CAN'T - WAIT - FOR - CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hope you enjoyed my post. I promise I will write soon!

Happy Birthday Sara!!

Today is Sara's birthday - Happy Birthday. We look forward to celebrating it with you next week. We love you!!

Halloween

The first few pictures are from Isabella's school party. She dressed as a vampire. They played a game during the party where you wrap your partner in toilet paper to create a mummy. She and her partner did a great job.

Finally it was time for trick or treating. Grace picked out this costume despite wanting other fairy or princess ones. All the others were not suitable for Michigan weather. When she saw this one she knew we couldn't refuse because it was a long skirt and long sleeves. Plus, when she tried it on in the store she was so pleased and just seemed to float in it. By the time she went trick or treating though she decided instead of it being a princess costume it was a "good witch". She also decided to accessorize it herself (crown, wings, wand and ribbon) so it had more color and wasn't so boring.Isabella's costume was good for Michigan weather as well. We painted her face and she wore fangs - very scary!

Jack-O-Lanterns

A first for us this year was visiting Van Hoosen farms pumpkin festival. In the evening they line up all the pumpkins carved during the day and light them. It is over 1,000 jack-o-lanterns. We had a great time seeing all of them both in the day and then once they were lit.

School Pictures

It is that time of the school year again - time for school pictures. Grace doesn't quite have a natural smile down so we practiced and you can see the result. Isabella looks too old! Both pics are great.

Last Warm Boating

We spent the night with friends at their boating club called Club Island. It was wonderful weather and we all had a great time. It felt like a true get away. Here are some pictures and a video of Isabella, Emily and Shannon tubing.

The big pile on - poor Emily on the bottom.

Grace loved the ice cream. Notice how big the scoop is.

First Day of School

I'm always sad when the kids go back to school. This year was especially sad as Grace will now go to pre-school every day (1/2 days). Grace was very excited to go to her new school, Brookfield Academy. We all went to new family orientation where she was able to see the school and meet her teacher, Mrs. Van Nest. She was very happy to learn they have a class pet - a guinea pig named S'more. I thought this was particularly appropriate given that she enjoyed s'mores this summer while camping with Grandma. Isabella had a great time visiting her old school and seeing the teachers. They were all amazed by how much she had grown. Grace was all set when the first day of school arrived there were no tears she bounced right in (literally).

Isabella was a bit nervous yet excited to go to school. She knows most of the kids in her class but wasn't sure about the teacher. We were sad to find out though that our favorite bus driver, Mrs. Candy is not her driver this year.

This is Grace waving goodbye to Isabella as the bus drove away. She was sad to see Isabella go and as she waved she said "Goodbye Bella, I'll miss you".

I could hardly wait for them both to return home to hear all about their days. When I went to pick Grace up she was on the playground having a ball. As we drove out she asked "Why aren't you supposed to talk in school?" I laughed picturing her talking and the teachers telling her she needed to be quiet and listen. She loves recess and was thrilled that S'more was able to come out of his cage and meet the class. When she arrived home she showed us how to roll and unroll a mat to do your work. She also showed us the proper way to walk around the mat and how you are not to step on it.

Isabella had a great day as well. She loves her teacher, Mrs. Clay. She spent time talking to the class about bullying and also played games so the class could get to know each other as well as their new teacher. Each person had to say something interesting they did on the summer break. Isabella's was that she visited 5 states (Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Georgia, Maryland) and 1 other country (Canada).

They are both off to a great start.

Cheerleading

Isabella took on a new sport this year - cheerleading. This is new for all of us and I must say we are learning a lot. The first two weeks she had practice Monday through Friday from 5:15 - 8PM. Then they moved to 3 days a week. There are games every Saturday through the end of October and then she has a competition. We weren't sure how she would like this but, sure enough she loves it. She is really good too!

There are 4 squads within the league that are broken out by grade (K - 8). The cheer squads cheer for the football team that is the same age. There are 22 girls on her team. Here is a video of her at the second game.

More Boating

We have had a fun summer with the boat despite the lack of hot days. I think it only hit 90 a few times all summer. The picture below is of Isabella and her cousin Emily and friend Alexa. This is Grace and her friend Jack (Alexa's brother) in their jetski and airplane floaties. Dad's are standing by hoping this will occupy them for a while.

Boat trip to Canada

We took a trip on the boat across Lake Saint Clair to a Marina in Canda named Cove Marina. We had a fantastic time. There was a nice restaurant on site that had a patio where we had dinner and breakfast. The night we arrived we danced up a storm with the girls thanks to a live band that played in the restaurant. We also had a campfire that night boatside. Here is a picture of the boat in the slip where we kept it.The next day we took advantage of all the marina had to offer. We went swimming in the pool, played minature golf (Bella beat everyone) and played on the play ground. It was a fantastic trip and we are definately going back next year.

Summer Activities

This summer, since my last post, I have had a long busy schedule.

First I went to Mackinac Island. We ate fudge and it was delicious !!! No wonder Pa goes there all the time. Then we rode on a horse and buggy. The horses name was Bob, but Grace changed his name to "Rosy" and "Bob the girl". Grace says the most exciting thing was when Bob pooped right in front of us. We saw where Grandma and Pa were married and before we left I almost lost my rain jacket. The first thing I said was" My mother loved that rain jacket", we found it just before the last boat left. Mackinac Island was fun. We got to go there because when I got back from Santa Fe I heard the terrible news that Andria had broke her foot, and Grandma and Grandpa got to watch Grace and me.

Just yesterday Andria started watching us again. She was comfortable and I helped her a lot because she still has a cast on her foot. We feel real bad for her because she had to have 3 different casts on her foot so far. And she might have to have another one. Luckily it might be a walking cast.

I hope you enjoyed my blog. I will write again soon.

California Friends

Our friends Nolan and Caden visited us from California. We stayed overnight on our boat and hung out at home. Here is a picture and video of us.

A good picture us but bad of Grace

video of us

Bye Bye Poppy & Nonna

I had a great time in Maryland with Poppy and Nonna. I miss them so much! Thank you for everything. Here is me with Poppy and Nonna at the Detroit airport letting them go onto their next flight.

Out and About

A lot going on with me over the last couple of days. This is me visiting my great grandmother.
Me and Nonna are great puzzlers. We finished the puzzle. It was 100 pieces long.
The next day I drove the truck. Then came Monday, the first day of camp. I was a little excited but nervous. The first day we did faces made out of pinch pots and collected rocks and shells and treasure. I went back to the beach after lunch and collected some cool rocks and some beach glass. Then the teacher read a book about art and I was picked up by Gayle, Sara's grandmother.

The next day we went on a nature walk and collected flower and leaves to draw. We drew them and then painted them with water colors. Then I played with Sara. Then we ate dinner and watched the first Harry Potter movie.

Pure Fun

I drove the truck and then I ate dinner and went to bed.
The next morning I ate breakfast. I had hard boiled eggs for breakfast.

This is me washing an egg.

Then I made cookies with Nonna. They were chocolate chip cookies.

Here's me making cookies with Nonna

Then I went to an African dance with Nonna.

These are the African dancers.

After the dancing I went over to Sara's house to play. Her grandmother loves dogs and cats. She had four dogs and a couple of cats.Then me and Sara went to the fair together with Nonna and Poppy. When we got to the fair we ate dinner.

Us eating dinner

Then we saw the horses, cows, goats and chickens.

Here I am in the chicken farm

Then I climbed the Tiki Bar:

Here I am starting


Part way up

I touched the top from here

This is me core jumping:

Then I talked Sara into doing the greased pig chase.We had to grease our hands and then catch the pig by its back legs.

This is us with goo on our hands

Catching the pig was hard to do. Although we didn't win we still had fun. Here's a video of me and Sara chasing the pig. I'm in the blue shirt and Sara is in the yellow shirt.

After the greased pig run we got blue Hawaiian sluchies

and watched people ride the mechanized bull.
















After all the excitement we took Sara home and went home ourselves. Hope you liked this post. I'll write again soon.

PS I'm reading the Magic Tree House series and have finished books 1 through 6 already. I'm still interested and have the next 6 books in the series.

Just Today

I watched the osprey chick using a telescope. Here I am watching the osprey chick.
Then I went to lunch and had nachos and a root beer float. after lunch I went to the Dollar Store and got a package of everlasting gob stoppers. Then I came home, played on the computer and read. I made a little presentation. Unfortunately the battery died in the camera so it didn't come out. I just want you to know that I miss you guys and love you and watch my blog for more.

Friends

Today we got breakfast and went to see great grandma and had lunch at Skipjack. Then we picked up Sara from her horse riding camp and first we talked Poppy into doing us a treasure hunt.

Here we are reading the first clue.

Of course I knew all the spots and was always running ahead.
Next we played with the little animal toys.
Here we are creating funky animals.

After that we played bingo. We had a tie after 8 games. We ate dinner and then she had to leave. I enjoyed having her over.

To Bella From Grace

Grace really misses her sister and wanted to create this video for her.

The Great Outdoors

First we had breakfast (I had a blueberry bagel). Well first I woke up but that's too boring. Then I played store with the receipt typer that Poppy and Nonna have.


Then I worked on my trail. We raked it and snipped trees that were in the way.

Me and Nonna snipping trees

I decorated the deck with all trees around it. It was like a forest. It looked very beautiful.

Me and the decorations after they are all finished.













After creating a little foresty like porch, I collected two frogs. The first one's name is Freddy and the second one's name is Jump. Jump liked to jump a lot and Freddy looked really really happy. We had to force Freddy out he liked it so much. Once he was out he was still. Poppy had to give him a little head start. Here's a picture of me looking at Freddy. Unfortunately I don't have some of Jump.

Me and Freddy

For dinner I made Pizza. Sty tuned for my next post.

Water Boggie

Like the last ready set laugh post, every time I'm getting better and better. It was my first full day in Maryland. My first trip was visiting great grandma. The second trip was the most delicious of all, the ice cream store where I had superman ice cream. I don't like the name of it but it is good. Netflix came in the mail just in time so we had a movie night. We saw "Anne of Green Gables." She was very very talkative and Poppy was cracking up back there.

The next day (today) I went to the beach and played with my new best friend Sarah and had lunch with her. We had so much fun that I didn't want to leave. Here's us in the water.





I read a whole book on the way to the beach and back. It was called "Dinosaurs Before Dawn." Later in the day I went kayaking. Here's a picture of Nonna and me rafted up together.

Here I am paddling in action.

Ready, Set, Laugh

It's Poppy's birthday dinner. Mom and Aunt Sara are giving their speech about Poppy.

Here's what the table looked like before dinner.

The dinner was so delicious, especially the dessert. We had buffalo, soup, salad, and corn bread all home made - yum yum! Here are pictures of the me and the littles making dessert and what one looked like at the end.

After dinner we had a little surprise for Poppy. This is the part they gave me and made everyone laugh.

Grace breakdancing!

The littles and me dancing - Hey Poppy!

Here is a short video of all the grandkids dancing with Poppy.

The next day, on Friday, we went to an American Indian Pueblo also known as a village. It had all kinds of caves up in the mountains. We actually got to go up in them.

Here I am in a house in a mountain in a Pueblo.

Here I'm climbing back down.

The next day was sad. We were leaving. When in came that time there was sadness and I was sad. I know we'll have a great time next year. I took a plane to Maryland with Nonna and Poppy and we arrived safely after midnight. Mom if you're reqading this, don't worry, I slept in.