Milestones

Kaylyn's 16th birthday is coming up at the end of the month. She has been bugging me to have a birthday party that weekend. We have always celebrated birthdays with family and so have never really done the birthday party with friends for any of our kids. Since it was her 16th I did desire to make it extra special for her but it is impossible to keep anything from Kaylyn. She is known for asking a million questions and badgering you like crazy for the answers.
So a couple of weeks ago I asked the mothers of her closest friends if their daughter's would be free Friday night to come to a SURPRISE birthday party/sleepover for Kaylyn. They were all available so I started my planning. I made plans for the rest of the family to be out of the house. Mark took Anna up north hunting and Libby went home with my sister when she picked up Emily from me. The nice thing is since we have never done birthday parties I knew there would be no grand expectations to live up to. That made it much easier. We kept it a secret from her girlfriends until after youth group this past Wednesday so that only gave them 2 days to keep the secret.

It was a TOTAL surprise to Kaylyn and she loved every minute of it.



Here is the house decorated waiting for her friend to bring her home after school. I had picked up the other friends so they were waiting inside and ran out the minute they pulled into the driveway.


Here they are opening gifts. The one she is opening in the picture was really neat. It was 16 things that stand for Kaylyn. Kendra also filled out a little book explaining the meaning of each item.

Her is Kaylyn wearing part of the gift. This gift was "because Kaylyn is always silly". She was told she had to wear the crown the entire time. She even wore it out to the restaurant. The waitress thought we might be having a bachelorette party! Yikes! No they are 16!

Here are the girls ready to head out to dinner.

Here are the girls getting in a little shopping after dinner.

Here they are back home making caramel apples and decorating cupcakes. Kaylyn had asked me a couple of weeks ago, when Mark brought home a bushel of apples, if we could make some. I stored that in my "good idea for the party" list.

And here is the birthday girl with her cupcake.

Saturday morning I made them a big breakfast including Kaylyn's favorite... bacon. Then I dropped them off at the mall (with some cash of course) for a couple hours while Mark, Libby, and I grabbed some lunch and watched the MSU vs. Michigan game. Then I picked up the girls and took them to Cold Stone Creamery before coming home and letting them hang out for a little while longer.

I think it was as much fun for me seeing how excited Kaylyn got as it was for her living it.
Great memories!

Wordless Wednesday - Not on my watch!

I'm glad she did this with her mother and not her Aunt Jen.
Note to self: don't take my eyes off Emily while I'm taking care of her.

See other Wordless Wednesday participants at 5 Minutes for Mom.

Tough and Pretty!

I can't believe it is another Senior Year in our house. My oldest daughter will be saying goodbye to HS and hello to college. I have had so much fun watching her grow and mature. She is one determined young lady and when she sets her sights on something she gives it all she's got.


She had a soccer game Saturday. Oh boy was it hot but that didn't keep her from giving it her all. Here she is getting ready to give the soccer ball a header.


Here she is helping to defend the goal from a corner kick.


Here she is... okay here she pretty much just looks confused but then again so does the referee.


And here she is all prettied up ready to head off to her last Homecoming dance. Doesn't she clean up well?

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.

{Top Ten Tuesday} Fall Favorites

In no particular order...

1.football

2.colors

3.school
*because I have a chance to regain control of my house*

4.apples
*however I have to be careful since I'm allergic to some*

5.pumpkin everything

6.chai

7.family night at church
*especially when Libby sings*

8.snuggling up and knitting

9.bible study

10.crock pot cooking

I think fall might be my favorite season. How about you? What do you enjoy most about fall?

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.

Oh Happy Day!

Last week Saturday I got to celebrate with my son a reward for all his hard work... he earned his letter jacket from MSU!

It was so fun to share that honor with him. They recognized all of the athletes that earned a letter jacket during the 2010-2011 academic year by calling them out on the field during halftime at the football game.


As big as he is you would think I could find him but in the sea of green I was having a hard time so I was glad when he looked back at me for a moment.


Here he is coming back off the field. His coach shared with me that Zack has the largest varsity jacket they have made and that is including football players. Zack had to point out that his jacket is one size bigger than his father's is also. Boys! Everything is a competition.


The weather was gorgeous for an afternoon football game and we had front row seats which made the day even more exciting.


This was before the game started. You can see how close we were and how beautiful of a day it was.

Here is Zack and his teammate Derrick. They are the only 2 guys on the track team that earned a jacket last season. Zack is on the throws team and Derrick is a pole vaulter. Way to go guys!

Wake up!

I can't believe it has been since February since I posted last. I need to figure out a way to "wake up" my blog. I enjoy going back through it and seeing things that I posted that I had forgotten about. So my fellow bloggers how do decide what you will blog about and when you will blog. It used to come so easy and now every time I look at the big blank box my mind is also blank.



I've shared that I started running last September. Well I am now running a lot. I am up to a couple 5k's a week on my own. It is so rewarding to me to see my hard work paying off. I was excited when my niece asked us to join them in the Race for the Cure last Saturday. We all walk/ran in honor of my mother-in-law Audrey Hill who passed away from breast cancer on Aug. 8, 2005.

She was a wonderful example of a godly, loving woman for all of us and she is dearly missed.

Big Ten Indoor Championships

We traveled to the University of Illinois this weekend to cheer on Zack at the Big Ten Championships. I am so glad we were able to watch him. It was an intense competition with the best of the best in the Big Ten fighting it out. Heading into the finals Zack was tied for 2nd place. After 2 throws he dropped down to 5th place and we were getting nervous! On his last throw he secured his 2nd place position back by breaking his PR (personal record/furthest throw) of 18.42m with a toss of 18.57m. My girls gave me a hard time because I started crying the minute I seen it hit. I knew it was a big throw and I was so excited for Zack! First place was a senior from Penn State with a throw of 19.84m.

Mark congratulating Zack on a great day.

Joe, first place, telling Zack that he's been watching him and thought "Cr--! I am going to have to throw against him this year!" Obviously Joe really wanted 1st place for his final year at the competition. He seems like a great kid.


The guys on the awards stand. Third place was Ohio State with a toss of 18.35m.

Still in shock!

I still can't believe it but I won the "Beauty for a Year" contest at my hair salon. To enter you had to pre-book your next hair appointment and keep it. When I walked in for my haircut earlier this month I was surprised with everyone hooping and hollering when I walked in the salon. I was the winner!
I was given 12 $100 gift certificates. One for each month for the next year. What an incredible blessing!

So now the question is... what color should I change my hair to? HA!

Snowmaggedon Fun

The girls got lucky. I don't usually have Emily on Thursdays but when my sister seen we had another snow day she called to see if we wanted Emily for the day. Usually Emily goes to a babysitter close to her home on Thursdays.

The girls loved being able to play with her in the snow.




Anna and Libby helped Mark clear out Anna's car Wednesday night. A four foot drift had buried it in the drive down to our pole barn.



We are lucky that when Kaylyn gets bored she bakes. These cookies were gone in no time. She makes really good cookies. She also made us spaghetti for lunch and even sauteed some fresh mushrooms to mix in it. Such a great treat for lunch on a cold day.

Snowmaggedon 2011

Here is a picture of our deck taken last night at 9pm by Libby.
Yes that is a deer cling on my window. Emily put it there. It looks nice don't you think?

Here is a picture taken at 9am this morning by me.
It's a good thing we don't have to let the dogs out this door. They go out through a slider under this deck so it is somewhat protected.

You can see we got a lot of snow last night. It took Mark an hour to snow blow our driveway. The accumulation isn't terrible it's the drifting that is making a mess. Mark said the drive down to our pole barn, where Anna's car is parked, has a four foot drift in it. Anna won't be driving today, Mark wasn't about to attempt that before leaving for work.

Needless to say... everything around here is closed including the salon where I had a 9am haircut scheduled so I will put on my baseball hat and hang out with the kids today. Stay warm!

Toss for Teri

This past Saturday an organization called "Toss for Teri" held a fundraiser for my sister and a little 4 year old boy who are both fighting cancer. My daughter is on the Varsity basketball team at her school and her team participated in the fundraiser. They had 25 minutes to shoot as many free throws as they could. It was neat to see all the girls get involved and to have their coaches supporting them in this.

Click on their names to read more about Jodi's and Oliver's stories.