Another Day In The Life...

Yesterday was Father's Day. {in case you weren't aware}  In hindsight, I realize we make such a big deal over Mother's Day and very little happens on Father's day.  Truthfully I think it's just because I host a party every year for the moms in my family and myself ☺ and we travel around to visit the dads.  Sorta sucky maybe? 

This year Keith volunteered for some OT because we haven't seen any in ages and K wants to rebuild our deck.  Swear...it wasn't even my idea! {the frame will stay the same for another year, but he wants to rip up all the boards and replace them with vinyl maybe or another more solid surface. next year our plan is to finish what we start this year and extend the deck to the western part of the back of our house...makes the most sense for getting the most use out of it.}

Anyway, because of OT he spent a little time with his dad before heading to work.  My dad got the shaft.  Our only time spent together was at church.  Kyle and I took K out for breakfast afterward.  We're trying to get a few things accomplished at home before the fourth because otherwise football will consume all his free time.

After work, Keith headed back to Whitehall to play in the father-son basketball game with Caleb, his dad, and the other boys, their dads and one mom.  I asked him if he felt like he had a leg up on the competition since he played "dad ball" Saturday night {hard core I might add} and he said definitely NOT!  He was still sore from it.  He said thirty nine isn't young anymore and I reminded him neither is forty. ☺ I think he likes to forget he's turning the big 4-0 in less than two weeks.  Sorry dear.  Getting home after eight thirty doesn't lend itself to hanging with your honeys to celebrate much, but we'll get to it soon.  After all, isn't every day Father's Day for a dad?

Going backward, Caleb participated in a phenom football camp last Friday at Muskegon Catholic High School.  Ruvell Martin put on a free camp at MCC and both himself and Todd Herremans were present.  What an awesome experience for Caleb, his friend Connor and the rest of the participants!!!!  Caleb said the camp was amazing.  That's what I got from him.  Keith received many more details.  Figures...  I totally meant to send him with a camera and a marker but forgot.  Instead, he was given an autographed group photo with the pros.  Sweet! I asked him to bring it to me to scan and show off on here, but it didn't happen.  Oh well.  I will share soon.

The bigs' dad is out of town again this week so I am running a little extra once again.  I've accepted the fact that my lunches will be spent running kids around, mine and others, most of the summer.  It's all good.  This week looked to be promising as far as evenings go.  I thought we'd have all kinds of us time.  Then the phone rang.  And then it did again.  First Andrew was invited to a sleepover for tonight.  Then Caleb and Andrew were both invited to small group at our pastor's house for tonight.  Tomorrow is the eighth grade all-star game, followed by the varsity all-star game.  Wednesday Kyle is sleeping over at gram's because he is taking a road trip with her, poppy and the TenBrinkman kids to Jackson for the day to visit out of town cousins who will be in Michigan.  Thursday the bigs will spend time with their little sister and Friday is a tennis match and basketball tournaments, as is Saturday. 

The thought of Sunday seems so promising, but...their dad asked for them for the day so...my tough luck.  Nobody can use the argument that I have too much time with them.  The pre-printed calendar may say so but our handwritten calendars show quite another story.  I do spend more time driving them from place to place but that's the extent of it.  Someday...  Actually, when things go back to "normal" {haha} we've already committed to having a sacred day each week for anything other than sports...friends, family, fun...but no carpooling and no sports.  Looking forward to that.

My Star...

Last night was the highly anticipated opening night of the play.  What excitement!!  The place was sold out...totally awesome!  I'm hoping the next two performances are just as successful.

The entire cast did an amazing job!  What a great group of talent.  It's amazing to me how much talent is out there, in my own little backyard.  Kudos to everyone, including the director, Alice.  Her mind goes in every direction at all times.  I can relate.  Maybe that's why I really like her. ☺  She certainly has a lot on her plate considering she's also directing Alice In Wonderland starting next week I believe.  Incredible.

{Andrew as a candy kid...not sure why I chose this pic...}

{and as a super duper Oompa Loompa...}

Phenom performance.  Worth every penny.  If you live in the area, make sure you pick up tickets.  Early.  Don't miss it. 

Slight Break In The Action...

It's hard to believe a week has already passed.  I haven't had a single second to process this past week and it's already almost over.

T-BALL:  We are nearing the end of the baseball season.  We have two more Saturday morning games and one Tuesday evening games.  I think it's so the kids can play an evening game like the big boys! {and girls}  Kyle is doing exceptional.  He is so talented.  I'm not that mom but I truly believe Kyle's got something special going on at this age.  He may grow out of it, but fingers crossed he never does.  Nevertheless, he's so fun to watch in all he does.  Who knew that even t-ball would be fun to watch?!

{um, yes...he tends to yell at teammates to tell them what to do...awkward!}

{a horrible example of Kyle's slides...he's ridiculously dramatic each and every time but he looks pretty sweet doing it typically}

SUMMER THEATRE: It's here...the end of the line.  Okay, I guess that sounds bad instead of good, but it really is good.  This morning marked the last rehearsal for Willy Wonka Jr.  All the kids have worked so hard to get to this point.  I went against my typical and watched a small portion of the rehearsal last night.  I love the anticipation and like to be totally surprised but whatever.  It was a pretty small part.  Last night was full dress rehearsal including makeup.  I picked up dinner for Andrew and we hung out at the office until it was time to prep.  The play is running three nights here at our old city theater.  Glad caring people have saved it.  Hope the kids have more opportunities to perform in the building.  It brings back plenty of memories from my childhood.  I can remember performing in two plays there, as well as numerous talent shows, dance recitals and choir concerts.

SPECIAL STUFF: Last weekend the gals and kids got together to show our love for a special friend.  The kids all enjoyed helping out and it didn't hurt that rough housing was the reward.  I asked the boys if they felt good about doing something nice for another.  I am always stressing volunteerism and charitable deeds and just doing nice for others.  I always hope my words are understood. I asked, Kyle, doesn't it feel good to do something for someone for no other reason than because you care about them?"  He replied, "Yes.  And it also feels good to get to play."  I rephrased my question, but when I received the same response I knew it was over.  It was funny though, that he couldn't quite grasp that it wasn't a birthday gift.  He kept saying, "I don't understand.  It's not her birthday?  Then why did we do this?"  I guess I'm happy he'd at least do a good deed as a gift.

{oops...the above picture is from our annual Last Day Of School siesta.  Bernie O's, mini golf and ice cream...totally a kid's treat day!!  Kyle even got a hole-in-one on his last hole and won a free round for the next time!  He, of course, couldn't wait for the next time so he talked his daddy into taking him back...the same night!!}

Our reward came later in the evening when we had what we thought was gonna be a girls night barbeque.  We had a couple surprise guests, but isn't that what makes a good night great?  The unexpected?  The unexplained?  We still ended up with plenty of great food and great drinks and great company.

Play tonight.  Tennis tomorrow morning.  Happy hour tomorrow afternoon.  Possibly a bonfire tomorrow night.  T-ball and an open house Saturday.  Church and Father's Day visiting Sunday.  I'm going to enjoy the slow paced weekend before craziness strikes again Monday morning.



Weeee....

Ahhh...Memorial Weekend camping.  I love this time of year.  It means warm weather is coming and lots of fun will be planned.  Our camping weekend was anything but warm!  It was so bloody cold up north.  Kevin coached back here and mentioned a fifteen degree difference between here and there.  Brrrr.  We stayed mainly wrapped up in blankets, along with wearing jeans and hoodies all weekend.  The crazy kids wanted to swim all weekend, but mainly stayed in the hot tub til Monday...the day we were leaving was absolutely beautiful!!  Figures.

{Kyle, Bob and Aidan}

 {the gang...sans girls}

Last week Kyle's class took one last field trip to Rainbow Ranch.  Kyle thought he'd get to ride a pony.  He wasn't too keen on a full size horse.  For a minute.  Soon enough, I turned to hear, "Giddyup, Horsey!"

He is so stinkin' cute, right?  He's all T.R.O.U.B.L.E.

After the trip, I picked up Ash from school.  Her and Kyle ate lunch then decorated bags for Kristin.  It was her anniversary.  Ash had a planted flower to put inside.  Good timing, Mrs. Johnson.  Not wanting to be left out, Kyle ran to his room and found a necklace he made at school to put in his bag.  'How you likin' the necklace, Auntie Kristin??

Kristin picked up the kids from me and I headed out for some major retail therapy.  Much needed, indeed!  It has been so long since I've been to the mall that I didn't even realize Verizon moved out.  When did that happen?  Since I was there, I decided to help stimulate the economy.  Mighty white of me, eh?  First I returned a pair of workout pants for new kicks.  My main squeeze has a new style and just came in...in my size!  I was looking for walking shoes because I thought I was getting shin splints from my running shoes.  After sizing up the competition, I bit the bullet and snatched up the beauties I've been checkin' out.  I was planning to exchange the pants, but the return was worth it to get me some brand new Asics...not last year's model like normal, but the new kids on the block.  WOOT!!!  And they look good on my feet. ☺

I also returned at AE and exchanged items for my Caleb.  Ha...I picked him a striped v-neck that he was really excited about...until he wore it to school the same day AE posted Justin Bieber wearing it on Facebook.  Total devastation! Super cool in their bold stripe tees. {Caleb looked much more adorable...and not so blurry}

Hmm...what else...I know I came home with major loot.  I had some gift cards to spend so the day wasn't totally killer for my wallet.  I knew I had to get home because the TenBrinkmans were coming over for the night and they were waiting for me to fill water balloons!!  Okay, so Pat, Jen and Keith filled some for me years ago for Caleb's tenth birthday so I guess I didn't realize what was involved.  I even bought a water balloon pump but that was all hype.  A half hour later, I had twelve balloons filled??  Whatever.  The boys decided not to have the fight that night because there was a fox in the woods and they didn't want to be eaten by it!  Allison didn't care about the fox.  She wanted to throw some balloons.  Keith decided to throw caution to the wind and sit out in the mosquito infested yard and fill balloons with the hose.  Those beasts are fierce!  Anyway, we filled up a tub and let the kids loose.  I think it took three point two minutes to finish the fight.

    Vicious kids...they wasted NO time.  They didn't even wait to get some space between 'em. 

Actually, I think  Allison got it the worst.  She was soaked.  She didn't have a dry stitch of clothing on in the end.  Kyle was dry.  He felt he was shafted so I sprayed him with the hose.  Happy kid.  Easy.



Happy last week of school!!  The kids have been so excited!  We're totally busy wrapping everything up and instead of a big break for summer, we're diving right in to the busiest week of the year.  I have the bigs extra time because their dad is out of town so I'm do double duty.  Here's one day in their summer life...

Monday June 13th:

{I work 9-5}

11-1... Andrew's tennis

1-2:30...Caleb's {and Kyle's} football camp

3-5...Andrew's play rehearsal

4:30-5:30...Caleb's agility camp

5-6...Andrew's play rehearsal {broken down because of two different parts}

6-??...Caleb's small group get together for summer youth group

6-7...Kyle's t-ball

6:30-8:30...Andrew's play rehearsal

Hahahahahahaha...isn't this killer?!  What doesn't kill us makes us stronger, right?  I can only laugh about it.  The whole week looks that way because of the culmination of the play at the end of the week.  My kids have a life.  I'm just along for the ride.  And what a ride it is...giddyup!