The Bribe!

A little bribery never hurts! After taking the family pictures, we (or should I say the kids, and the dads) went swimming! We all enjoyed watching them splash, and play together!

Picture Perfect

We also tried to get a good cousin pic this week. This is always an adventure, but they did a great job this year.

The 3 girly girls
The 3 muscle "men" :)

Cousin Camp!

The Wisconsin cousins are in town this week! The girls have enjoyed spending time with everyone this week! On Wednesday we went to the Kalamazoo Valley Museum. They have a castle exhibit there this summer, which was pretty cool. The Royal Feast! :)
Maddie and Uncle Jason!

Fruits...or Veggies..of our labor

Last week we picked our first veggies of the season. Emma was excited to try the squash and zucchini! Maddie on the other hand... well her face says it all! :)

Since this picture, we have picked at least one zucchini every day, and a few cucumbers! We're pretty proud of our selves! :)

Humming Birds...Up close!!!!

Last week we went to a really cool restaurant with my family. I'm awful...I can't remember the name of it, or what city it was in (somewhere near Mendon???), but it was a lot of fun! Each window had at least two Humming Bird feeders at it, and they were constantly full of Humming Birds. It was the neatest thing!!! We have a feeder in our backyard, but the birds don't hang around long enough to get a good look! Here we were able to eat and see them up close. The girls thought this was so cool, and so did I! :)

Unusually BIG Humming birds...

We offered to give Rob $5 to do this at one of the feeders at the window, but he wanted double or nothing...so we backed out! But it would have been hilarious! :) Our humming birds...

The grounds around the restaurant were amazing, full of flowers and paths to walk (or in Maddie's case, run!)
"Sisters"

5th of July :)

We packed our weekend full of fun! :) On Saturday we spent the day at my parents swimming, playing Rock Band, and eating!

Maddie is becoming quite the little fish!

Stick um up!
The girls helped cut/clean the fruit, and decorate the flag cake this year.Bampaworks!!!

(The girls call my dad Bampa...and these were his fireworks...so you have Bampaworks!)

Fun on the Fourth

We had a nice 4th of July. We met friends and family in the morning for the Schoolcraft parade, and then had a picnic at our house. We headed back to Schoolcraft for their fireworks at night. The girls enjoyed cotton candy, sparklers, and spending time with dad.

The sky was awesome, as it got later! Maddie could have done this all night, but Phil was getting dizzy! :)

We hope everyone enjoyed their weekend as much as we did!!!

Kilian Wildlife Preserve

A few weeks ago Emma and I started reading books in the back room, and ended up watching the critters in our backyard instead!

First, we had the bunny, which we're sure is one of "ours" Then we suddenly had not only a bunny, but TWO Wood Chucks emerge from a pile of metal fencing in the back. Yuck!!! I'm so glad we were not outside!!
Just grazing on our newly planted hosta's ....no big deal! :)
I took a picture of all three animals in the yard together, but it didn't come out very clear. But they were all back there just hanging out for the afternoon.
P.S. There is currently a live trap back there now!!! But, basically the bunnies just hop in and out of it for fun! :)