Jack’s last day of school

Jack finished preschool last week (well, his first year of preschool).  He had a wonderful year. He absolutely loved school.  He learned all about animals and nature and played outside and went on nature walks everyday.  He never once was even the tiniest bit reluctant to go, which I think says good thing about the school.  On the last day the put on a little program and then took us on a nature walk.  I wish I had a better video of the program…I can’t figure out how to turn it and the sound is bad.  But you can see him bouncing along to the music and singing every word.
On the nature walk we went down to the platform where they can look into the pond…they looked through the cracks a lot.




Annie has enough hair for a tiny little ponytail right on top of her head!  Finally!

Touch a truck day!

A few weeks ago there was a “touch a truck day” at the local fairgrounds.  I am SO glad we went!  They did such a great job with it.  There were probably 50-100 vehicles there.  There were fire trucks and garbage trucks and army trucks and backhoes and busses and police cars and race cares and snow plows and cranes… just about anything a little boy could want to see up close.  Our favorites were the high pressure sewer cleaning truck (gross, I know) where the gave them REAL (as in safety rated) hard hats, and the news van, that let them hold the microphone and then see each other and mom and dad on tv inside the truck.  They also had crafts and face painting and dancing. I took lots of pictures.  Here are a few.

We bought a house!

About a month and a half ago, Matt accepted a job back up in Midland, where he did residency.  If you’d have told me 7 years ago, when I was just planning to move to Hawaii for a year that I’d be living in Michigan, married, with 3 kids, I’d have laughed in your face.  But, here we are and staying in Michigan for at least the next few years.  Matt is getting to help start up a sports medicine clinic along with one of his former residency faculty.  He will also be doing some urgent care while the sports picks up business, but hopefully that will be short term. 

We went up house hunting one weekend and after seeing pretty much every possible house in our price range, ended up making an offer on the first one we had seen.  It had been on the market for quite awhile (had several offers where financing fell through) and we ended up getting a fantastic deal! (the pictures aren’t great, we are kicking ourselves for not taking our own).

Great kitchen—I am loving all that counter space!

The basement is partially finished, and they did it really nicely!

The boys are going to love the yard!  Especially since we haven’t had one at all in the last year.

It does need some minor updating, mostly paint and ripping down wallpaper.

I’m a little nervous that the master is on the main floor and the kids will all be upstairs, but I think once we get used to it, it will be fine.

We’re excited to get back to somewhere familiar, where we have great friends and a wonderful place for kids!

Annie’s Birthday

This girl had a birthday!  I know it’s cliché, but I really can’t believe she’s a year old already (and at the same time, that she’s only been around for a year)!  She’s already so pull of personality and is quite the drama queen.   She adores her brothers, no one can make her laugh like they can.  She is saying a few words (daddy, hi, uh-oh, mama (mostly while whining).  She loves books and anything that plays music or has buttons.  She has two little teeth (just like Jack did!) although others look like they’re coming soon. (as of today—at 13 months, she finally cut number 3).  She loves to eat frozen vegetables, especially peas and broccoli, and bananas make her gag.  We are sure happy to have her around and love her lots and lots!

The boys helped me pick her cake and choose the colors.

She thought the balloons were fabulous.  We love balloons so much around here though, that they cause major fights which inevitably result in tears and popped balloons.  We may not get balloons anymore.

She wasn’t so sure about the cake at first…

…but she came around.

Happy Birthday, Annie!

Easter

I’m trying to catch up, so these posts will be pretty much all pictures.  Here’s Easter!

I am long overdue for a few posts here.  My sister, Lindsey, and her boys came out to visit with my mom and dad in March.  Our boys had a fantastic time together. We made superhero capes that were (and still are) well loved. We went to the Air Zoo and brought home pinwheels, which the boys still think are wonderful (and worth scratching out each other’s eyes over). We went to the park and for walks and just generally had a fantastic time.  We are really excited to see them again in a couple weeks in Florida! 

Oh, and did I mention it was in the 80s for most of the week? In MARCH? In MICHIGAN? There was a shortage of summer clothes, but we managed.