First campout

Gaetan and I have always talked about doing a family camping trip.  We both like to camp, but the logistics of having 3 small ones was something I just couldn't wrap my mind around... especially when one is an infant.  But the Schampers had invited us to a campout in their back yard... which sounded perfect!  This way we could test the waters to see if it was something that the kids were actually going to like all with the safety net of not being in the middle of nowhere!  We decided to up the offer and see if they wanted to come to my parents house and use their back yard.  This way it was a new place for their kids, and my parents have a firepit and lots of trees around.  Added bonus that they have a ton of extra rooms for Tomo (who is pregnant) and Sakura to sleep inside with Lucy, Norah and I.  The boys were going to rough it in a tent.  :)

Well, the plans changed last minute.  Michael got a promotion at work (yay!) but that meant his schedule changed and he now had to work Saturday's (boo!).  So, the plan was that Tomo and the kids were going to come over during the day and we were still going to 'camp' but then they were going to head home at night because Michael wasn't entirely sure that Kai was going to like being in the tent.  But, then, plans changed last minute, again.  Michael got out of work early so that meant he was able to come but they came later in the day than expected... which is all good because Norah went back to sleep in the morning and let me sleep in til I woke up on my own (which is very rare!).

Getting some wood for the fire!

Kiddos hanging out 

Lucy showing off the tent

This is the way we camp... roughing it with some Big B haha

Getting it started!

Biggest marshmallows I have ever seen!

Goose's first go with a S'more

Kai gives it a big thumbs up!

Dude was just eating the chocolate out of the middle

How we resorted to cooking the hot dogs because it was to hot to stand up

Lunch!

Sakura loved them

I know she's a big baby but this picture just isn't doing her chins any favors...

The weather was hot but not to unbearable.  The worst part was cooking the hot dogs over the fire because we couldn't find our cooking sticks so the boys had to get pretty close to the hot fire on a hot day already... it was pretty interesting!  Kai really wasn't about being outside.  My Dad helped set up their tent and the kids liked playing in that for a little while but it wasn't long before they wanted to go in and play with all the toys Grandma and Don have!  We had lunch indoors (to cool off for the men who did all the cookery) and then made our way back out to have some S'mores.  After a nice sticky treat the kids wanted to go back indoors.  This entire time Norah had been sleeping so it was really easy for me!  I kept having to go back in and check on her periodically but no big deal!

They were sliding down the stairs on their bellies

The kids played inside really well together for the rest of the day until their kids crashed.  Both of our kids hadn't had naps and it was a pretty big day, so when they crashed, they crashed hard.  It all worked out because then that gave us time to get Lucy in bed and their sleeping situation set up in the tent.  They found this cute little place in between trees so it made it look like it really was camping in the woods.  And the boys had a blast!  Dude had never experienced fireflies before so he was enthralled with them.  Apparently Hippo was getting firefly kisses too!  And he thought that it was super cool that he got to stay up until the sun went down.  :)

First experience with fire flies :)

They were giving him 'kisses'

Hippo too!

Sweet boy in the morning.  He LOVED it

That meant that Momma had an entire evening to herself... Norah went down fairly quickly after the boys went outside so I had all sorts of time to myself.  My parents were still gone so the house was quiet.  I ended up watching a movie and playing Candy Crush... haha.  The epitome of doing nothing.  It was nice though but even towards the end of the night I found myself wishing Norah/Lucy would wake up or something so I could hang out with her or have something to do!  haha.

The camping trip was a big success.  The next morning Dude was so excited about and wouldn't stop talking about it... so we will have to do it again soon.

JVG

No power

I have to say since moving to Kalamazoo I have experienced a bunch of weird weather related things!  Apparently Kalamazoo is right in the middle or belt of where strange weather happens to go... so we have since had a tornado warning, lots of severe thunderstorms and rain and snow... and this last one was so bad it knocked the power out!

I was having a lovely Skype Date with Amy and it was definitely that kind of dirty martini night/wine night.  I knew that it was raining really hard outside but I didn't know that the wind was so fierce!  Well... mid Skype Date no more power... :(  In the dark... and a little drunk... couldn't find a lot of candles... no power=no A/C.... gonna get hot up in here!

Well, on the no power cue,  I decided I should drink a crap ton of water and go to bed... and when I woke up I was hoping we would have power again.  Having power outages were a much bigger deal growing up because that meant that we couldn't run the water either, but that isn't the case here.  Just no lights and cooking (frickin' electric stove!) and the worst was the no A/C.  The storm sort of helped cut the humidity down but not really... by the time the kids woke up in the morning it was already quite warm in our place and it was only bound to get warmer.  So as soon as the kids were up and I got all our stuff packed we were off to my parents early.  We had planned to go there anyway (you know, pizza and beer night) but this just meant going a little earlier... and we all know that my parents would have their AC on.  I did call and check to make sure that it was OK that we went over so early (because it was like 9 in the morning) and that they did in fact have power too.  Mom said that they didn't even get rain!

While we were getting ready to go we saw people's patio furniture from different buildings blown all over the place... and some even into our backyard!  As we were packing up our van we also ran into one of our neighbors who said they called the power company and asked when we should be expecting to have our power back on and they told him Sunday night at 11... so we packed another days worth of clothes because we figured that we would be staying another night at Mom and Dads.  Apparently all of Kalamazoo got wrecked by this storm, so they had a lot of things to fix!  Before we left we told our neighbors what we found out and they said they had water coming in through their front door because it was flash flooding so poorly!  And unfortunately she said that she just went grocery shopping and didn't know if all her stuff was going to make it... Well, lucky for us it was the end of the week and that meant all our groceries were used up so nothing was going to spoil in the refrigerator!  While we were driving to the highway we saw so many broken branches and trees in the road I wasn't surprised that we lost power...

Later Saturday night our neighbor texted and said that they got the power back on!  (Whoo! Normally when they give you an estimate it's later, not earlier!)  Glad that nothing got damaged in the huge storm. .. and it didn't wake our kids up :)

JVG

Sunday Brunch

I love me some brunch.  There is something about brunch type foods that are just fabulous.  My friend Lindsey invited us over to hang out with their baby and have some brunch!  Yum and I love babies (obviously).  The last time we had seen them their baby was a month old and I was still waaaaay pregnant.  My, how time flies!

It was great catching up with them and talking parenting of newborns.  Their son, Owen, was finally starting to get a good sleeping pattern down so that they were getting some sleep.  He used to just take little cat naps here and there, which makes sleeping for the parents hard!  But, we had talked about some sleeping techniques which apparently helped so that was good!  The crazies loved Owen.. he is more mobile than Norah... he is a rolling machine!  If his arms caught up with how well his legs were moving he would be crawling EVERYWHERE.  We had some french toast bake, bacon (a must), watermelon that Dude helped cut up and hashbrowns.  I bought some cookie cutters and cut the watermelon real thin so that they could make shapes with it... kept them busy and helped cut it up!






























After we ate we walked to their little playground in the complex.  It was pretty hot outside, but the kids didn't seem to care!  Owen and Norah both experienced swinging for the first time and seemed to do a good job with it!  It was adorable to see them in there... The crazies played all sorts of adventures on the jungle gym part... first finding rabbits and cats to being a pirate ship!

It was nice having some young family time and discussing things that work and all the joys and unexpected things that children can bring!

JVG

Jungle Joes with Chase

This summer has been hot. and humid.  And when it gets to be this hot and nasty out you can't think that its good to be outside!  At least that's what I'm telling myself... it had been a few days of indoor activities because it was either thunderstorming or way entirely to hot to be out... and the kids were starting to get stir crazy, so we decided it was time for another trip to Jungle Joes.  Tristan had been asking to go there and we figured, why not.  We also thought that it would be a nice thing to bring the neighbor, Chase.  He and his Mom had been on vacation and she came back with pneumonia... no fun. And, I know that as a Momma you don't really get sick days.  Luckily for Kim (his mom) he is an only child and he's a very well behaved 6 year old, so she was getting a bit of rest... but I knew that if she could get pure quiet and sleep that would be best.  So, we offered to take him and he was really excited to come!  It was also nice because he is such a nice, well behaved kid that it wasn't going to be much harder having another one along.

Dude heading up while Papa and Goose are flying down!

Chase with the kiddos

Classic Dude

Half way through

Goose completing the course

Part of the obstacle course

Big bunda bomb!

'Driving' games

Norah... loving it haha

Bounce party!

See Dude's head way up high?

Oh man, when they got there they played hard... for about the first 10 minutes.  After that Chase was so red in the face and had to sit down.  He and Tristan were racing through the obstacle courses and slides... and well, Dude is FAST.  And Chase, bless his heart, is a bit on the chubbier side, so he was having a time keeping up.  They did continue to play and have fun though the entire time.  I unfortunately had forgotten to bring the baby babypack, so I was left to hold/carry Norah the entire time... And let me tell you, my arms felt it!  Work out!  Lucy was really just interested in playing on the arcade games they had there... she liked the driving ones the best.  So, it was really easy to watch her because she would just steer and pretend she was driving!  haha.

It was a lot of fun and I'm glad that we could help Kim out.  I did eventually make her some bread and soup to help too which they loved!  :)  I'm glad that we got great neighbors... it is such a blessing.

JVG