Day 5: Vacation Days

Mark took a vacation day today and we took Libby out of school so we could check out ArtPrize7. We learned after the first year of ArtPrize that it is much more laid back on weekdays versus the weekend with all of the out of town visitors. 

She put her hand print on this piece of art.

Libby got this picture of Mark. He is always so willing to lend a helping hand.

Libby and I called this Grand Rapid's take on Chicago's "Bean".

Our only "usie" of the day.

 

My angel. 

I'm so thankful that Mark enjoys using one of his vacation days to see ArtPrize every year. ~ Happy Monday!

Busy weekend

The weekend started with our MS youth group participating in a 30 hr Famine. If you are not familiar with that the kids get pledges to go 30 hours without eating and the monies raised get sent to World Vision to help feed hungry kids. We plan a lot of fun activities to keep the kids busy while they aren't eating. The picture below is of broom ball at a local ice rink that we went to Friday night.


On Saturday we split the kids up and went through the local neighborhoods on a can/food drive for a local organization named Love INC. That cares for people right here in our community.

Mark called Saturday afternoon to let me know he had shot a deer. He had been up north hunting from Friday until Sunday morning. Yeah for success!

Sunday after church we celebrated Kaylyn's birthday with my family.


My parents requested a picture of Emily to go with the other school pictures of their grand kids so my sister had asked me if I could take one for them. So after a lot of pictures like the one below from an unwilling Emily...


We did finally get one that I believe is frame worthy.

After the birthday party we had hurry off to a soccer game for Anna. She played great! The game ended in a 1-1 tie. She is #39.


Funny story... Mark was sleep deprived from hunting and I was from the 30 hour famine so we were both really tired Sunday. Anna has to be to the soccer field 30 minutes early. When we got there we got a parking spot right in front of the field. We decided to just wait in the car. Well we both FELL ASLEEP in the car and woke up with the game 10 minutes into it. Opps!

Perspective

My daughter's and I tried our hand at square foot gardening this year. We had much success in some things and it was a learning year in others. One thing that we had been told and then forgot when we planted was to not have melons near squash/cucumbers/zucchini. Yesterday we harvested the only two watermelons that we got.


They look pretty don't they? Well the next picture will give you a little "perspective" on how they really looked...


Oh yes we were laughing. But Libby still cut them open and ate the larger one and said it tasted really good. But the smaller one smelled peculiar almost like... cucumbers. I told the girls next year we will have to work a little harder on placement and giving the gardens a little more consistent TLC.

Youth Hunt

The other weekend our youngest 2 girls got to participate in the youth hunt. This was the first time that Libby got to hunt and she was successful!

Here is Libby and Kaylyn with Libby's 6-point.

Here is Libby with Mark.
And here is Libby back at home showing Mom her kill. She was one happy girl!

ArtPrize 2011

We are so blessed to live right next to Grand Rapids, MI and all that it has to offer. Today we went and checked out some of ArtPrize. What a beautiful day to walk downtown and look at art!

One thing that became obvious real fast is that we would never be able to see as much as we would like to in one trip so we are hoping to get back next week and see more. I especially want to get to a local artist, Lisa Lehmann. She makes beautiful silver jewelry and has taken her amazing talent and branched out into art displays.


We started at the Gerald R Ford Museum to see "Grizzlies on the Ford" and they did not disappoint.


Anna thought I just had to have a picture with this running girl "Yellow Streak" since I ran a 10k this morning before we headed out. I never go fast enough though to make my hair fly out behind me. Wink!


My baby is getting so old. I couldn't resist taking a picture of her. Isn't she beautiful?


A lady offered to take our picture while I was getting a picture of the girls. I'm so glad she offered. I love family pictures even if we are missing the big kid. Opening day of bow season was more attractive.

I know it is supposed to be about the art but I love taking every opportunity to get pictures of my kids because they aren't always so willing.

"Metal Monkey Mania" on the Blue Bridge is getting a lot of publicity around here. I love how whimsical they are.

Hopefully the weather this next week will behave and allow us to get back one evening to see some more of ArtPrize without the crazy amount of tourists in the area.

MSU Homecoming Weekend

Can you see him? Can you tell who he is? We (we being my 16 year old daughter) were so hoping to get a little closer to him. As in so close we (16 year old daughter) could get a picture WITH him not just OF him. If you are still wondering who "he" is... It is Gerard Butler from the movie "300" or for those of us (me) who don't watch that kind of movie (super gory) you might know him from "PS:I love you". He has a line in the movie "300" where he is playing King Leonidas and he shouts out "SPARTANS, WHAT IS YOUR PROFESSION?" and the army of Spartans yell back "HA-OOH! HA-OOH! HA-OOH!" It has become an MSU tradition when it is 3rd down for the opposing team they play that clip from the movie on the "big board".

This weekend was Homecoming and for those of you not following MSU football (is there anyone who doesn't?) they went into the weekend 6-0. Head Coach Mark Dantonio got Gerard Butler to come to East Lansing for the weekend to get the players pumped up for the game. He also opened the game with yelling into the crowd the chant from "300".


Note the lady in front of us fist bumping too soon... she couldn't handle the excitement either.


Here he is again (leather jacket and sunglasses). He watched the game from the sidelines, on the field, right in front of us, slightly distracting... for the 16 year old of course.


Another really fun part of this game is who was playing in it. #37 was Zack's roommate last year and is a fellow thrower for the MSU track team. He decided to go out for the football team as a walk on and he made it. This was the first game he was allowed to dress for. Very exciting!


I wish I had taken my camera along but it is big and bulky so we had Mark's and it doesn't take the greatest of pictures. If you are wondering why our other 2 daughters aren't in the picture, well they aren't such big sport fans but they do like to shop. Does that make any sense? Maybe this will help, it is $50 a ticket and we only get 2 free (Mark played for MSU) so we let the kids decide. Come with us or stay home, get fun snacks, rent a movie, and get $20. We come out way ahead on that deal. I wish they would come with us but not if they are going to keep asking "home much longer is this game?"


Saying goodbye to the "big guy". He stole some toilet paper out of the back of my suburban (what? don't you store extra toilet paper in your trunk? OK I confess I was lazy getting groceries and left it in there.) apparently the toilet paper that the dorm supplies isn't so soft, poor baby. He also stole a mint from his momma. That can cost you your life or at least a slapped hand. I take my mints seriously.

Oh wait I almost forgot.... MSU 36 Illinois 6!!!!!!!!!!
MSU is now 7-0.

Wordless Wednesday - Fall love

On a side note... does anyone have any tips for making the trampoline stop letting off black?

See other Wordless Wednesday participants at 5 Minutes for Mom.

Camping

Last weekend we went camping with my family. We have been doing this for quite a few years now and I really look forward to it. We also celebrated 3 birthday's while we were there that we hadn't been able to get everyone together for until then.

Mark and my sleeping arrangements.

Kaylyn and Libby's sleeping arrangements.
Anna slept in a different tent and Zack slept at home to care for the dogs but joined us during the day.

Everyone getting their birthday desserts and Mark looking for seconds. Wink!

Emily trying out the party favors.

Emily thanking Aunt Jodi for her birthday gift.

Wii is great!

I love how the Wii is something that EVERYONE can play together and how it levels the playing field. I took this picture last night with my phone while Mark and Kaylyn were playing Wii Play together.

If you are considering getting a Wii I would recommend getting 2 controllers right from the start. We got the Wii last Christmas and just got a 2nd controller this last week with Christmas money from my Uncle Jer to our entire family. It has been so much fun playing against each other.

Thanksgiving

Here is everyone relaxing before lunch. Expect for Mark who must want to eat soon because he is carving the bird.



We have outgrown my mom's table. I see that as a good thing. Wink! Mark and I offered to sit at the counter with Kaylyn and Libby so they didn't feel like the kids were being pushed to the curb... er, counter.



Ready for dessert. This is when it pays to sit at the counter. Maybe Mark had ulterior motives after all. We have mom's pumpkin pie and my raspberry cheesecake. Even though my mom makes the best pumpkin pie ever (in my opinion) she doesn't care that much for it so she asked me to bring something for her.


Emily LOVED grandma's pumpkin pie.



Lunch is all cleaned up now it is time to go over the sale flyers and give grandma ideas for Christmas.



That would be Mark opening a whole can of trouble...



That would be Zack teaching his daddy a little lesson.



That looks like me saying "boys stop that you are going to break something".



I hope you all had a wonderful time of food and fellowship with your families!

Skating with Melissa.

Here are a couple videos of the ice skating that Melissa mentioned in her post today. The group that went this time was Mark, Zack, Melissa, Anna, Dani (Anna's friend), Kaylyn, Sarah (Kaylyn's friend), and Libby.
Smiles!

A cheap afternoon of fun, almost...

Mark planned a little surprise for the family today. He took us all downtown Grand Rapids to Rosa Parks Circle to go ice skating. It is really cheap, fun entertainment. It is a $1 admission and skate rental is free. You can't beat that.

Here is Anna trying to help Libby. Libby wasn't to sure about the whole skating thing.


Zack took off the minute he hit the ice. He made it look like old hat. Very impressive.

Libby thought maybe it would be easier to use one of the things that looked like a walker but she kept forgetting that she couldn't push down on it. She needed to hold it down lower and push it forward.

Look at that concentration on Mark's face. This is only the third time ever that he has been on skates.

Zack had fun giving Mark a hard time about hanging on to the rail so much. Kaylyn looked like she'd been skating forever.

Anna and I finally talked Libby into holding our hands and going around the circle but Anna kept letting go of Libby's hand thinking that was all it took to get Libby to skate alone. If you look close at Libby's legs you can see a lot of snow from her going down so many times. But she was still a trooper about it.

It was a fun afternoon for all of us. We promised the kids we would go again. Mark was told that at night they turn lights on that are under the ice so he told the kids next time we will go at night.

Love parking downtown. Yep after paying only $6 for some family fun time we come back to our vehicle to find that our parking meter ran out and we had this pretty $12 ticket under the windshield wiper. Bummer! From what we can figure the money had been out for less than 5 min when we got the ticket. Live and learn. Next time we will park in a parking lot instead of on the street. It didn't put a damper on our fun.
Smiles!