Made it through the first day and loved it.

The girls had a great first day and are looking forward to a great year.

Dawn of a New School Year

Our Summer Vacation is Flying By...

We are really enjoying our summer vacation together! What is not to enjoy. The girls and I have been doing a little of everything from Vacation Bible School, visiting the library, swimming at the neighborhood pool, and visiting the local petting farm (Pinka even did that with us.) Daddy has joined us on a couple adventures including the big summer kick off of spending all day at the local fair on the first official day of our vacation together and as of this past weekend we went camping and we even caught a 10 inch bullfrog - we think he was bigger but he fought being measured. (yes we really measured him - we were trying to win the contest.)

Here are more details:

The official kickoff was the local fair - we arrived late morning and stayed ALL day and had a blast it was a perfect day and we rode all the rides we wanted time and time again as there were hardly any lines. The downfall - Lilly was about 1/2" too short for a few rides she wanted to go on - next time the pony tail will go right on top of her head. The favorite ride was by far a big water log ride. We went on it at least 6 or 7 times. Also, Katherine loved the Hymalain. She giggled the faster it went with the centrifical force pushing her into whomever she was riding with and could hardly wait to go again.

We kicked our summer off with Vacation Bible School with our church in Northville and had a reallly fun time. The theme was a country theme so the girls are always shouting Yee Haw about something these days.

Our local library has a reading link that you can track your minutes you have read and earn prizes from June 18-July 31. Katherine has more than 1400 minutes that she has read either on her own or someone has read to her - trust me most have been on her own - if she is being really quiet it is because she is reading to herself. Lillian has over 1200 as well. She is working on reading more on her own but still prefers being read to and Katherine often happily obliges.

Camping has been long anticipated - the girls have been bugging us all summer to be honest and we have been wanting to go as well but have had other things come up so we finally forced the issue and went. What a great time we had. We went pretty local - only about a 40 minute drive away. It was a really friendly campground. We rented boats for $5 for 2 hours and went out for a row boat ride -which is where we found or fabulous frog. Also, in the evening there was karaoke and both girls bravely participated and also there was a huge bonfire! We filled our jar with lightening bugs for a nighlight and had great fun all around. Oh and by the way the girls got to ride horses! We will definately return to this campground.

Skittles and Starburst

After helping Katherine do a load of laundry Skittles and Starburst
decided to stick around and check out the new washer. We think they got a
little sea sick watching all the water go in and really dizzy trying to
watch the clothes spin out. But, they really like being able to watch it.
Even Lilly's bunny Snowdrop hopped in and watched but she was too quick for a picture.

Tigee having fun at the Farm

The girls went to visit Pinka Farmer today when they took Grandma Dowler back to Uncle George's. Tigee (Katherine's latest Webkinz) decided she would like to stay at the farm and have some fun with Pinka.

Lilly & Nathan

It has been much too long since we last saw the Tinkhams... Jenny, Katie, and Nathan made the trek up from Indiana to visit and the kids got to play together. Katie is so grown up in her demeanor it will surprise you. Nathan seems to have matured quite a bit over the last several months.

The kids played at the local splash park and in the yard at Grandma and Pinka Trimmer's. After a pizza dinner from Mother's the kids and mothers went to the local township fair for an animal show, to ride rides and watch an outdoor movie.

What a day!

Katherine in the News

Last week Katherine's class had their first grade plant show. She and Jessica have been showing their green thumbs for the last several weeks trying to grow some small seedlings.

Katherine was pretty sad when she realized all she had were sprouts but it couldn't have been too bad since she made the school's web page!

Long awaited photos...

We recently visited Battle Creek and the kids went on the Gator with "Pinka Farmer" down to the woods mushroomin'. Unfortunately we were unsuccessfully but we did have tons of fun looking and the kids loved exploring the woods!

Lilly is forever picking up critters and while it is hard to see you can imagine my disbelief when she smiled up at me with her hands tightly closed and claimed she had an "itsy bitsy frog." It took a lot of begging for her to let me take a photo -she knew it would hop away, but after much convincing that it belonged in nature and now there would forever be a photo she agreed.






The left photo is of Hannah and I at the Mother's Day tea. She "cordially invited" me to be her guest. The kids sang songs and recited poetry as a group and then we went to their classes and had muffins (made by them) and lemonade. Each child also wrote poems for their parent. What lovely poems Hannah wrote for me... she is such a blessing and a joy.

On the right is Katherine and Natalie reading and Natalie was sure the book was over and wanted to be sure Katherine would be prepped to continue reading - no interruptions. My she is getting big.

Crazy week...

Just seems like I haven't made it to update the site and I keep meaning to, I just never quite seem to get to it. So at least you know I haven't completely forgotten. I have lots of great photos - I will get to them this weekend. In the interim here are a few highlights since last time.

We spent last weekend at my parents in Battle Creek and all the grandkids had a fabulous time together - especially the big ones hunting mushrooms in the woods - what fun to explore. Also a slumber party that made for 5 out of 7 at Gma and Pinka's house.

Lilly put her top teeth - almost - not quite through her bottom lip and is recovering well. How, getting off the bed, not even goofing around but bumped her chin just so. She has an abrasion of teeth marks on the outside to complement the hole on the inside so it just shows how close she came to going through.

Tomorrow night is the Spring Fling at school - annual fundraiser with games, raffles and tons of fun.

Bed time for my angels - gotta tuck them in as Daddy is golfing... Photos will be added soon.

Pom Pon Fun

A fun Saturday...

We spent Saturday at Novi Field House learning Pom - Pon, the girls loved it. What a ton of fun that was. They all did a great job and bought really cute t-shirts too. Oh and Lilly was soliciting and managed to get us a new babysitter as well - go figure.

Champions on Ice

What an opportunity! Friday evening Katherine, Lillian and I were arriving home from the grocery store when the neighbor stopped over around 6:30 and told me he had two extra tickets to see Champions on Ice at Joe Louis Arena would we like them - would we ever! I was thrilled. Mark and Hannah had just gotten back from girl scouts and after a brief conversation with Mark we decided after Katherine's time as a skater it seemed only natural that she should be the one to go. We joined the neighbors and their kids and then 7 of us were off.

What a great time we had.

A little blurry - but I caught the jump in mid-air, pretty cool!

Our neighbors tickets were really good seats - however we ended up with GREAT seats. There were a number of empty seats up close so Katherine and I sat in the front two rows -she loved it, and we got better pictures too. Oh, how wonderful it was.

Busy Week

Getting back to business after a week of vacation has been a real challenge. We have all struggled to get back into the day to day schedule of real life. It seems we all had a nice time on our vacations - Hannah enjoyed her trip to Florida and we enjoyed our trip to North Carolina. We were all glad to be back home though!

School isn't kind enough to ease us back in so it has been a full and busy week and we are all looking forward to the weekend. On Saturday the girls will be participating in a Pom Pon clinic sponsored by the High School so look forward to photos of that in the coming days!

An overview of our fun

Most of these photos are from the zoo - although the otters are from SciWorks - Molly and Ollie. They were one of our most favorite parts of the trip. The girls even purchased their own stuffed animals and named them after these cute little guys!

Easter Fun

What a wonderful Easter we had. Traditionally we have spent Easter in Michigan with Mom and Dad S. and this year we broke tradition and drove to N.C. to spend it with Gma Rice. What a good decision that was - the weather alone was worth the drive. I understand everyone else had cold yucky weather to deal with!! I have included some photos of the fun we had with Gma.

Almost Vacation!

Today was officially the girls last day of school before Spring Break and tomorrow is mine. I can hardly wait, it surely won't be here fast enough.

Dances

The Annual Girl Scout Dance was in April and the girls all picked out their own dresses. They also requested their own hairstyles to which I happily obliged.

The Daddy Daughter Dance was held in early February and the girls looked so beautiful in their dresses.

Welcome...

Everyone knows I am not too good at keeping up on these sites, gee could it be too many other things going on in life. Well, for now anyway I will pretend like I might just keep up on it at least for at least a few days.

Things are well here.

Hannah is doing well in school, she has adapted well to our family and fits in well. She has made a number of friends in school and seems to love it. She is looking forward to her visit with her Mom in Florida over Spring Break and she will get a chance to see her Dad then too.

Katherine really enjoys school still. She loves brownies and most especially looks forward to tap class once a week. She is always trying to find a way to add her own creative, artisitc flair to everything she does whether it be throught movement, song, writing, or drawing.

Lillian is talking up a storm - really. I think sometimes she might well create a tornado of words if we aren't careful! She loves to talk especially when someone else is having a conversation - she never wants to be out of the loop. She loves to sing and dance around the house and also loves to play with her babies. She too loves to be in brownies along with Katherine.

Mark, Katherine, Lillian and I are looking forward to our Spring Break as well all venture to see Gma Nice at her home in NC. We pray for a safe trip and nice weather while we are there, not to mention a little R&R, we all need it!