Oma Oma visit 1

Lieve made the trek over to visit again this summer and we got a chance to visit with her!  It was a nice little visit because we had things planned through the entire visit so there wasn't a lot left to mess up.  I thought that I was going to have to teach but my lesson cancelled last minute so I got a chance to go to BARK with Dude.  I thought it would be nice to have her see what the kids are into and how awesome our community is, but she seemed bored.  Oh well.  We did get a chance to go get food at Food Dance which was a big treat me us.  I just love how they have things for the kids to do while they wait and how laid back everyone seems to be.  The girls really hit it off with Lieve and they had a good time.  :)  It's always so nice to see her and I'm glad that she is still able to come and visit.

My delicious burger...

The kids thought that they were hot stuff sitting at the bar

The Lieves together

The girlies were loving hanging out with Oma Oma

We got a foldable wagon

Waving good bye!

JVG

Good bye Brian and Heather!

There was a going away party/roda for Brian and Heather.  Brian is joining the air force and Heather got into a PhD program in Florida.  They held it at Fort Custer where there are a lot of trails and they have a beach and picnic areas.  It was a nice turnout and the weather was beautiful!  The kids weren't that interested in the roda part so we walked down to the beach where they had a good time.  :)  The actual park and beach were nice, but the people who went left a little to be desired.  I'm so used to everything being smoke free (even public places) so when almost everybody there smoked it was a bit of a turn off.  It was nice to be able to see people I haven't seen in awhile and to wish both Brian and Heather good bye and good luck on their future endeavors!

JVG

Happy birthday GRCM!

We made it to the Children's Museums birthday bash this year!  Their theme was beach/ocean and they had a lot of fun free things to do outside.  All the stuff outside was free, which was nice, but afterwards we went inside and played until we had to go home.  Ever since Dude was little (and G was working at CC) we had a membership there which was great... but now that we don't live around there anymore we decided to not renew our membership.  Its such a great deal if you go there even twice a year, but we really don't anymore.  We love love love the CM and we are so very excited that they have been blessing children for these many years!


































JVG

B.A.R.K.

Another fun program that the library does is called BARK.  People bring in old service dogs and have kids read to them.  For us it's a great way for our kids to get used to animals in a safe environment and then they also get to practice their reading skills!  Of course, all the librarians love the kids so they recommended Sam, an older golden retriever, who they said was perfect, and he was.  Lucy wasn't so sure of Sam at first, but the owner tried to get them used to Sam by letting them give him treats and water.  When I checked in on them they were doing great!  Dude was reading and Sam was laying on his back just listening and loving it.  I'm so glad that they suggested this to us because it was wonderful!  Hoping to be able to do it again soon!  Just another reason why we love our library.  :)

Dude holding the picture of the dog he was going to be able to read too.  This was one of the great danes that kids read too... he was MASSIVE

Dog just lounging, listening to the stories

Duder being brave and petting him!

They got to feed the dog treats and give him water to get more used to him.  :)

JVG

Morning Walks and Swim

Tristan has been doing this accelerated swim program where he swims Monday-Thursday and at the beginning Lucy informed us that she needed a break.  She always wanted to go with them and watch, and she finally warmed up to one of the instructors, Miss Sarah.  So, she told us last week that she wanted to go swimming again as long it was with Miss Sarah.  She hasn't been in the pool all summer but she got in the water and acted like she never got out.  She did great! But, that also means that Gaetan has the crazies in the pool in the morning and I get more time with Norah.  :)  We have been palling around running various errands and we love going on morning walks together.  She is just like her sister in that she LOVES her mamick!!  She carries/drags that things around with her everywhere.  She hides it when its time to wash pals and stuff too... almost like she wants to keep all the smells of her adventuring around.  She's very sweet with it.  :)

That is Lucy's old shirt and her helmet... she loves her sister so much

Mornings out

Dragging that things around

I love this shadow and how she is looking up at me

Sister <3 td="">

JVG

Hot Jazz

I have to admit that I love the CryBabies Concert series.  They included all different types of musical genres which was great to expose the kids too and, of course, their laid back attitude of letting the kids be kids and enjoy the music anyway they can.  This last group came highly recommended by a friend's Father In Law who is apart of the company who puts these concerts on... so we went on his recommendation and I have to say that i was not disappointed.  At first the kids were being a bit of a handful which made me question why I and busted my bunda to get everything packed and ready to go, but once the music started it was worth it.  Norah couldn't get enough!  It was fun to watch the kids dance around and get other kids dancing too.  :)

Fun on the walk there

I think this is the best pic of all 3 I've gotten in awhile!

The Hot Jazz

They started doing Ring Around the Rosie

Look at the height they're getting

Norah kept walking back and forth in front of them waving her arms about haha

JVG

Kimbap

I got to try something new... and apparently you aren't really a Korean until you've had Kimbap ;)  I am so very interested in getting to know and understand Korean culture/cuisine better but its hard because most of their stuff is handed down from generation to generation, especially the cooking.  There aren't a lot of written recipes so when people learn how to make Korean food it's from watching their parents or grandparents... and if you know anything about me my parents are the whitest tallest people ever... so, I have had to learn other ways.  Jane has been helping to enlighten me to my Asianness and I am so very grateful for it.  This roll has pickled daikon (radish), meat (we used beef but there are lots of other subs), spinach, carrot, and egg.  The nice part about this is you can substitute all sorts of things in.  It was delicious... like totally satisfying.  I am planning trying my hand in making it this week!  There is a lot of prep to it but once the prep is done the rolling is easy and fast.  Yum yum!

Norah loved it!

hahaha

YUMMO

JVG