Our Weekend

Presently, Wednesday night, Thursday and Friday during the day are what we consider our weekend, since those are Chad's off days. Our school week runs from Friday night through Wednesday morning. It seems we often try to squeeze every last little bit of the weekend out. This past "weekend" was filled to the brim with activities and appointments and family time. 

Wednesday night we went to visit Papaw and were able to spend time with him, Popaw, Aunt Kay, Aunt Traci, Aunt Cora, Uncle Jason, Jeff and Brent. Although we stayed a bit late and were all extra tired, we had a very nice night with family. We came home put the kids to bed and watched a TV show before we both zonked out.

Papaw and Hensley's first meeting! 

Thursday afternoon Tristin, Bella, Hudsyn, Greysen, Maezy and Easton had a dentist appointment. Taking 6 kids makes for a longer appointment but it's nice to have everyone done at one time! The appointment was great and no one has any cavities! Hooray! 

Easton playing while waiting to see the dentist. 

Thursday evening Chad, Hensley, Easton and I went on a date. We went to Texas Roadhouse and to Best Buy to shop a bit, then headed home to watch Sing for family movie night. 

Friday was Chad's 43rd birthday! We spent the afternoon at the zoo, soaking up some sunshine. It was so nice since this has been such a chilly March. 

Sadly, we came home early to go to Uncle Cliff's funeral. It was such a sad time but sweet memories of his presence in my life flooded my mimd. The kids went to play at Grandma Sue and Grandpa Steve's house with them, Kait, and Brad. Chad and I went to Famous Dave's for a late night birthday dinner date. 

It was a full but good weekend. It went by too fast for my liking. I'm always left wishing I could squeak out a few more hours with my sweet husband. 

2017 Summer Fun List

After a long pregnancy, a long winter and a 6 week adjustment period with our sweet baby Hensley, we are ready to bring back the FUN! Looking forward to summer, we created our summer fun list for 2017! We clearly wont get to each activity but it will serve as a guide for us to pick from!

Places to Go:
Drive in movies
Metro parks
Fireworks
Camping
Bowling
Strawberry/blueberry picking
Creation museum/ark
Zoo
Imagination station
Lego land
Matinee show
Put-put golfing
Find 10 new parks
Go to the donut shop for breakfast
Go to Calders
Petting zoo
Taylor botanical garden
Rouge factory tour
Greenfield village
Henry Ford museum
IMAX documentaries
Beach
Turtle cove
Go to a lighthouse
Go on nature walk
Visit a waterfall
Monroe county fair
Go to the ice cream shop
Batting cages
Play baseball at the park
Volleyball at the metro park
Kalamazoo air zoo
Maker Faire

Things to Do:
Backyard movie
Giant slip and slide
Dye a strip of hair a fun color
Sponge fight
Giant marshmallow fight
Catch fireflies
Silly string fight
Water balloon fight
Set off fireworks
Make forts
Summer reading challenge
Water gun fight
Living room slumber party
Wash bikes
Sidewalk chalk murals
Paint pet rocks
Stargaze
Teach the kids pig Latin
Have bonfires
Have a picnic
Jump on the trampoline in the rain
Play in rain
Make liquid rainbow sidewalk chalk
Science projects
Build/paint birdhouses
Play infected/freeze tag in the dark
Board game nights
Makeovers
Paint with pudding
Sidewalk chalk entire back porch
Pick flowers
Plant a flower garden
Fairy garden
Crafts
Ice sculpting
Wood burning
Plant a tree
Bird watching
Fishing
Movie marathon day (space chimps)

Things To Make:
Homemade ice cream
Banana splits
Ice cream bar
Root beer floats
Homemade lemonade
Mulberry muffins/cobbler
Make Popsicles
Snow cones
Make smoothies
Have a weekly treat making night

Joyful Learning

Our family is in a time of transition right now. We are moving, although it's not too far, it's a huge change for us. We have lived in our house for about three years now. We have a fairly decent rhythm that our days flow with. Which, on a good day goes something like this: breakfast, morning chores, school work (we do school year round), lunch, field trip or play time, dinner, nighttime chores, baths and then I either read the kids a bedtime chapter book or we watch an educational show. Most nights Kait needs to be taken to one of her activities, so add in quite of bit of driving time in our loose schedule. The last couple of weeks have been a little different for us. We have been packing our house and painting the new house. Chad has been working a ton of hours and we haven't seen him much. He has been going straight to the new house from work where and then begins painting. The kids and I meet him there and they play in the backyard. Once he's done, he comes home, showers and heads back to bed. The kids are used to spending a lot of time with him and having a mostly quiet morning at home and operating on our loose schedule. I was very worried about how they would handle all of this change and how we would get our learning time in. I have to say, I'm shocked at how well they are handling everything. All but one of my little ones are excited to move and even with just doing some online school work and math books, they are learning a ton.

Here are some pictures of our days right now.

Hudsyn being silly!

Making homemade jam with the kids. It turned out delicious!

I love Kait's way of getting around something! She is a witty!

Flag my Bella girl drew!

Kait chalking her name!

Tristin drawing all the road in a town. Love the parking spots!