Meijer Gardens with the Neighbors

We attended one of Meijer Gardens free family concert nights with our wonderful neighbors.  We chose a country music themed night that advertised the music selection as "highly danceable", which we figured the kids would like.  (Note:  We were right)

 

We enjoyed a picnic dinner, with Megan getting her fave meal: Subway

Time for some post-dinner dancing with Claire

...and Norah

Claire, Gianna, Norah & Megan all jammin' to the tunes

Zachary was REALLY into the music (and Ashlyn) :)

Hannah preferred a less interactive experience and enjoyed the music over a good cookie

Hannah's first camel ride

We spring for one camel ride a year at the Zoo, which generally coincides with birthday season.  Hannah was previously too young to ride, but now that she's got a whopping three years under her belt, her time had come.  We haven't been to the Zoo as often this summer, so the annual birthday ride didn't take place until we visited in July with Oliver.

Megan has ridden three times at the zoo, and each time Milkbone the Camel has been her escort.

Hannah did not hesitate whatsoever to get in the saddle, and she seemed to enjoy every second of it.

Upon completion of her journey, Hannah immediately asked to go again!

We also enjoyed the petting zoo with Oliver...

...and were entertained by one lazy lion

A visit from Oliver

Towards the end of July, we had a very special visitor - my precious nephew, Oliver!  The girls and I got to babysit him for a night at our house.

 

He's here!  He's here!  The girls swarmed while he checked out some toy cars.

 

Time for dinner.  Homeboy loves his watermelon.

 

Ugh - he has all the ladies of the house smitten.

 

No.  Seriously.  S.M.I.T.T.E.N.

 

It was funny to see Hannah functioning as the "big kid" in the relationship.  She relished it.

 

He probably didn't really need a bath, but Aunt Nicki has a thing for cute babies in bear towels.

 

Learning the downside of being adored by cousin Hannah.

Grand Haven - Bunk Beds for Marie-Grace

To be clear, we do understand that Marie-Grace (Megan's American Girl doll) is not real.  Nevertheless, she is kind of a big deal in our house.  As such, we decided it was necessary to come up with a set of bunk beds for her that matched Megan's bunk beds for the house in Grand Haven.

 

HOLY EXPENSIVENESS, BATMAN!  The cheapest set we could find out there was right around $80 - it looked cheaply made and was ugly to boot.  Following a tutorial from Ana White, Daddy set out to build Marie-Grace a bed. 

Not too shabby, Daddy! 

He completed this in one weekend, for about $11 in materials (including the upgrade to pre-primed wood so I wouldn't have to do any extra coats - good man!) Ignore the pile of unpainted furniture that it is resting on - who needs a coffee table when you have a doll without a bed? Priorities, priorities.

 

I had been looking for a way to get Sherwin Williams' Begonia paint color into the house - thanks to Marie-Grace, I had my chance!

Then it was off to the fabric store, where I spent a ridiculous amount of time coming up with a bedding fabric combination

Then it was time to learn to sew.  Oh yeah, did I not mention that I don't know a thing about sewing?  Thankfully my mother-in-law is a very patient expert, who imparted her wisdom onto me.



I did it! Two complete mattresses, ready for business



Two comforters - by this point I was getting arrogant with my new-found skills

One complete set of bunk beds ready for moving day!

All moved in and ready to surprise Megan (and Marie-Grace of course)

And for the gift?  Well, now that Marie-Grace had an extra bunk, it seemed only logical that she get a friend to fill it.  Mom found one heck of a deal on Craigslist, and we were able to surprise her with not only the bunk beds, but also with Marie-Grace's best friend Cecile. 

Cecile & Marie-Grace - together again!

Momma Day - Brookfield Zoo

We knew we wanted to use one of our long weekends this summer to visit my best friend Becky and her two kids, Gabby (3) and Sammy (1-1/2) in the suburbs of Chicago, and we were finally able to arrange the perfect weekend to do just that.  As a bonus adventure, we also scheduled our first ever visit to the Brookfield Zoo.

We made it!  First stop: the camels.

Attempting a group pic - a major fail due partially to uncooperative children, but mostly to an idiot adult female who refused to get out of the background.

Baby giraffe!!!  Awwww.

The girls loves her zebras...

...and her Gabby.  Gabby adores Megan and looks up to her like a proper little sister should.  Hannah is sort of over being bossed around all the time.

Enjoying the dolphin show with Aunt Becky

Underwater seal viewing

The polar bear exhibit was super cool!

Trying again on the way out - I wish we would have had Aunt Becky & kiddos with us, but at least we didn't have a strange moron in the background.

This was definitely one of our favorite summer adventures.  What a great zoo!  and even better company!!

Grand Haven - Adventures in Furnishing the Master Bedroom

In an effort to furnish the second house for a song, we have been doing a lot of deal-hunting on Craigslist lately.  We picked up this six drawer dresser and two matching nightstands (one of which has a fair amount of water damage on the top) for use in our master bedroom.  At this point we're not entirely sure what we will need for storage in each bedroom.  Not only do we not live there, but each room has a pretty large closet.  However, there is still space to be filled in each of the bedrooms (especially the master), and for $75 for the set, we decided this was a pretty low risk investment.

I failed to take an official "before" picture with the drawers still in tact, but here is my best attempt to show you what we're working with.  Warning:  You are about to be exposed to several layers of honey-brown laminate - BLECH! 

Nighstand 1 of 2 - after painting the top and inside-back, it dawned on me I didn't take a before pic - oops.  These nightstands also each have 1 drawer - ripped out and already painted below.

Drawer faces in process.  This is my first experience with oil-based primer - the stuff stinks to high heaven, but it's clinging to the laminate surfaces like superglue - a major improvement from my previous attempts to rid the world of this stuff.

Nightstands are done!  (well, minus the new hardware - see below)

Time to start the big boy!

The old hardware (the silver monstrosity above) reminds me of something from outer space.  I replaced it with a simple black/bronze pull that I found at Cool Pulls & Knobs.com (nope, not kidding).

The nightstands - really done this time.

And the finished dresser product.  So happy to check project  #1 off the list!

Momma Day - Gone Fishin'

As is tradition, we spent July 4th in Newaygo, on our annual tubing trip with friends.  Unlike previous years, however, the ladies and I spent the night, and enjoyed a beautiful July 5th on the river as well.  Grandpa Don took us out for a turtle watching and fishing expedition.

Suited up and ready for a ride!

Enjoying the cruise

This picture is here for no other reason than because I find her adorable (and Grandma is cute too, of course)

Fishing!

Girlfriend loves her some worms (kind of shocking when you consider what a diva she is)

It's all fun and games until someone actually catches a fish!