More Jolli Lodge . . .

On Friday after dinner, the six of us headed back to Leland to show the kids Fishtown.  Up by the Cove, there are always fun cars.  On Friday night, there was an Amphicar.  If you look closely, you'll see some seaweed hanging from the port-side prop.

The old Janice Sue - some things never change . . .

The kids at the Fishtown candy store.

We drove back to the Jolli Lodge, and Peter shot some hoops.

I got credit for the assist on this shot.

Peter out-maneuvers NanaB and goes in for the score!

Niki led us all down to the beach to watch the sunset.

Mama bear watching the sunset.

Peter and Charlotte and NanaB.

Vacation sunset #2.

After the sunset, the kids crashed.  They were tired little puppies.

Up North at the Jolli Lodge

For the Fourth of July this year, we packed up the Big Red Van and headed up North to vacation at the Jolli Lodge in Leelanau County.

By mid-afternoon, we had dropped Connie off at a kennel, had lunch at the Red Mesa Grill in Traverse City, driven around the bay and up the Leelanau Peninsula to Jolli Lodge, were greeted by Erin, Katie, Aunt Martha, Uncle Doug, Granny, Grandpa, and June-the-Jolli-Lodge-Dog, and were on beach.  This sign is cheerful, but a little morbid, don't you think?

Charlotte and Peter had a blast playing in this little paddleboat.  Charlotte named it the "Wheeler."  They spent a lot of time riding the waves in it.

We played, stepped on a nail, went to an urgent care clinic all the way back down in Traverse City, enjoyed a wonderful grilled meal by the Pennsylvania/D.C. Taylors, and then settled down to watch our first sunset of the trip.  The kids yelled "Goodbye Sun!  See you tomorrow" as the sun dipped down behind North Manitou Island.

We spent the next morning catching up with the Pennsylvania/D.C. Taylors and Granny and Grandpa (and apparently didn't take any pictures), and then headed across the Leelanau Peninsula to Suttons Bay, where NanaB and GrandDad keep their boat in the village marina.

We had lunch in a park, then headed out onto Suttons Bay.  We motored all the way up to Omena, then came back and anchored for some swimming.

Peter took a nap, as he does on moving things (he took a nap in a kayak with me on Saturday . . . ) and Charlotte took the opportunity to dance around with the American lag . . . for a one-day-late Fourth of July picture.

Next thing you know, we were in the water.  It was cold.  VERY COLD.  Now, water in Northern Michigan is typically cold in June, but due to the very cold spring, it was like swimming in the Arctic.  Charlotte declared it was "colder than snow."

Charlotte stayed in the water for a while, though.  Ever since she visited Grandma Jo and Grandpa Spike in Dallas, she has been a little river otter.

Peter, who is rapidly becoming our "sensible child," dipped his toe in a while, egged me into diving underwater, and then finally jumped in . . . and jumped right back out.

Eventually, GrandDad took us for one more high-speed blast around the Bay . . .

 . . .  which the kids loved -- they squealed and giggled like maniacs as the boat's big 350 thrummed and the boat lunged over the waves.

Finally, we pulled into the Suttons Bay Village Marina, and then headed off to dinner at the Village Inn.

To be continued . . . .

SANDBOX!!!

At long last, the kids finally have a sandbox.  They are avid diggers, and we were tired of them digging in the mulch of the flower beds.  It was not nearly as cheap as we thought it would be (the sand alone cost about $130!), but it's made so solid that it should last until they have their own kids.  Corey did a great job designing and building it, while I did background support like feeding and bathing his "helpers".

It was nice to see Corey doing woodworking again, even if it was just a simple box.

It took about a day to get it all sealed and stained, but then we were ready to staple some landscaping cloth to the bottom and fill it with sand!

24 bags of sand later . . .

. . . and the kids were ready to rock.  Peter wanted to keep putting sand on his sunglasses.  I have no idea what goes through that little goofball's brain.  He also picked out his own outfit today, in case you were wondering.

Gotta put 800 toys in there at once, of course.  (The grass is due to be cut tomorrow, and it's really long and soggy because of all the rain we had last week.  That's why it looks all icky around the sandbox.)

Corey put seat on the corners in the vain hope that the kids might actually sit there instead of in the sand.  Silly Daddy.  Sitting in the sand is way more fun.

Modeling the seat, upon my request.  Notice Connie coming up from behind to take up her post close to wherever the kids are currently playing.

And this is the view from my kitchen window.  I love how Connie hangs out nearby to keep an eye on her puppies.

The kids played for over four hours straight (with only a brief break for lunch on the deck at their little picnic table) before I made them come inside to chill out for a while.  Now, Charlotte is bossing Peter around enlisting Peter's help in throwing a party for a group of stuffed animals, complete with decorative signs drawn on Post-It Notes and stuck up all over the house.  So much for resting.

Higgins Lake

This weekend, Niki, the kids, and NanaB, GrandDad, and I went camping at South Higgins Lake State Park . . .

It's late on Sunday, so this will be a short post . . .  here are some pictures of the campers . . .

Wedding bells for Charlotte?

A couple of months ago, Charlotte came home from school with this:

She calmly told me that it was a marriage proposal from a boy named Brody.  She has long been a huge fan of Brody because, as she told me, he is funny and his name reminds her of brownies.  Fair enough.  I giggled about the paper, posted a picture of it on Facebook, and joked with her grandmothers that they had better start dress shopping.  For all I knew, Charlotte had made the creation herself and invented the whole story about the proposal.  I knew Brody from the times I volunteered in Charlotte's classroom, and I thought he was a nice enough little boy -- tall, very goofy, and in love with marine animals.

Fast forward to yesterday's preschool graduation ceremony, and Corey and I noticed in the ceremony program that Brody (who said he wanted to be a marine biologist when he grew up) was one of the few kids from Charlotte's class headed to kindergarten at Baldwin next fall.  Fun!  We had thought only one other girl from First Friends would be there with Charlotte.  I stopped Brody's mom on the way out of the graduation and said something like "so glad to hear Brody and Charlotte will both be going to Baldwin together this fall!"

She laughed and said she hadn't realized it either that they would be together until she saw the program.  She then told me the story about how Brody had recently asked her "is it against the law to marry someone from your class?"  She had answered no, and then asked him what girl he had in mind.  "Charlotte," Brody replied.

GOOD LORD.  Who knows where this marriage idea originated, but it appears they are both on board with the plan.  Should I book the Duke Chapel now, or wait until there is an actual ring on her finger?  She really likes ring pops, and you can buy one at any local gas station.

Time to start dress shopping.  Maybe I can upcycle one of Corey's old work shirts into a wedding dress?

Preschool graduation

Yes, it's kind of silly to have a preschool graduation ceremony.  It's probably even sillier to hold it at a church with a stage and a magic show afterward, but that's how Mrs. Mann rolls at First Friends.  We dutifully dressed up and enlisted a multi-generation group to watch the spectacle.  We got there about 10 minutes ahead of time, but I am still a rookie mommy and forgot that you need to show up about three days early to get a good seat at something as amazingly important as a preschool graduation ceremony.  Here is half of our group in the very last row:

This is Mrs. Mann's daughter, who had Barb as a preschool teacher many years ago!

Waiting for the spectacle to begin . . .  It's tough to smile while sucking on your finger.

Peter is one goofy little dude.  He looked quite snappy in his favorite polo shirt (he considers anything with an anchor on it to be a "pirate shirt", so it wasn't tough to get him dressed up today).

More paparazzi (with Charlotte's buddy Lauren's little sister photobombing in the background).

Let the show begin!  The kids walked in and I was too flustered to get a shot.  One of the first things mrs. Mann did was call up on stage all of the older siblings of the graduates who were graduates of First Friends themselves.  That will be Charlotte in two years when we are there for Peter's preschool graduation!

Mrs. Mann told the now familiar story about how Barb taught Mrs. Mann's youngest daughter in preschool and then encouraged Mrs. Mann to take Barb's place at the preschool when Barb left to become a children's librarian.  She called Barb up to give her a thank you present.

Luckily, there were no valedictorian speeches or inspirational messages from any special speakers.  Mrs. Mann said some nice things about childhood and growing up, and then she got down to business.

Each kid was announced, marched across the stage, and then said into the microphone what he or she wanted to be she he or she grew up.  Charlotte said she wanted to be a librarian like her NanaB and to work at the same library with NanaB.  Sorry Barb, looks like you're not retiring for another 20 years or so.  Other kids said such entertaining things as "Sonic the Hedgehog" or "a princess AND a scientist".  A whole slew of little copy cat girls wanted to be "horse back riders".  Charlotte's bestie, Shelby, was uncharacteristically stumped but eventually announced she wanted to be an architect.

After switching their tassels over to the "graduated" side, the kids got to go hug their families.  They were invited back up to the front to watch a magic show by Baffling Bill, but Charlotte chose to stay back by us.  Charlotte and Peter were MESMERIZED by the magic show and have been incessantly performing their own magic tricks ever since.

The graduated all wore one of their daddies' white work shirts with short sleeved.  It was ridiculously adorable.  I had to resist the urge to add a little ruffle along the bottom.

Charlotte still isn't quite sure what graduation means, or why she should go through all this rigamarole just to turn right around and start kindergarten.  But she dutifully posed for pictures and looked awfully cute in her little getup.

We told Petey to go and stand next to her, and he suddenly got all snuggly.

We told them to look up at the camera, and Mr. Sensitive Eyes struck his signature "the sun makes my eyes hurt" pose.

NanaB with her future coworker:

Happy preschool graduation, Charlie Jo.  Congratulations on finishing all those alphabet pages and making 4,986,253 art projects.  Next stop: kindergarten!