The Other Fun Events of July

 Emily and Grace helped me with a Yard Sale.  It was pretty cool, and the mosquitoes were terrible, but we sold lots of stuff.  The kids made some money on a covid lemonade stand: Bottled water & mix your own lemonade pack.  And, my streak of no more than one car at the end of a sale still holds up!

I'm in use up gift card mode, and that took us on a trip to Panera!  We were returning the school shoes that we had ordered online that did not fit, and Panera was a nice convenient stop.

For Avia's birthday, Haley flew up from Texas and Sarah agreed to a picture.  I made a German chocolate cake for all to enjoy, but I think Avia enjoyed it the most.  = )  Hopefully she had a great birthday!

We had some playdates this month, and when Abby came, she went with Emily to the mural meeting.  Grace wanted to go too.

William attended a board breaking camp, and loved it so much, we signed him up for karate.  It's twice a week, and he's already earned his white belt!

As part of the summer reading program, the kids all received a book coupon to a book store in East Lansing.  So, we headed that way to pick out books, eat a pizza lunch, and then went to cold stone (to use up another gift card that I had had in my walled for years.)  I told the kids that Cold Stone is where Daddy and I went on our first date when we were in college.  They were all shocked, because their initial thought was that we came to this particular one. lol.

Alice did not eat lunch, so she skipped the ice cream and went back to the car with Avia.  The other four wanted to recreate the picture that I took of Daddy in the snow. = )

Grace's friend Zoey invited us to go out to MooVille with them.  It was a much more fulfilling experience this go round.  Everyone enjoyed some ice cream, the petting zoo and playground!  We attempted to go to the park in nearby Nashville that we had spied on our previous trip, but there were so many mosquitoes, that even with spray it was unenjoyable.

At his last appointment, we learned that William gained enough weight (yay!) to move up to the next dosing of his medication.  An unforeseen consequence of this is that we will now be receiving two shipments of medication, since he will be taking two shots.  = /

Building towers with the twins!

later days

East Lansing for a Valentine's Day Celebration

My mom offered to watch our crew so that we could go overnight again.  We decided that the bed and breakfast we'd seen at the Jazz festival would be a good time.   Despite booking a month out, the room we wanted was occupied for Valentine's weekend proper, so we waited an extra week to get the room we wanted.

We arrived a little before check in, so we walked down to a very neat bookstore, that we'd visited on the BATYOT a few years ago, so that I could look for books for next year.  I found one, and several titles that I've already purchased, or that we used this year.  = )

When we went to check in, there were letters with guest names and instructions sitting on the table.  It had a very murder mystery feel, with no host. ; )

Our room was the safari room, and it was lovely.

Hallway.

Our room & bathroom.

Even a cute little balcony that would be perfect for morning coffee, if it weren't 10 below freezing and covered in snow.

We started the night at HopCat, because they had a nice beer menu that Billy was looking forward to, but we failed at selecting the correct location and looked at the Ann Arbor menu instead. = (  After trying one or two of the ones at this location, we moved to the Jolly Pumpkin.  It is definitely somewhere I want to go back to, though this trip didn't leave me with the best impression.  I think knowing what type of place they are now, I would go back and try something new. = )  We next went to a very typical college bar, the music was so loud we were shouting, and half of the playlist was from our own college days (20 years ago.)  We only lasted one drink, and then decided to go to "No Thai," a place that we saw on our walk to the bookstore, to settle whether or not they served Thai food.  They do and it is so good.  These two old people then called it a night and went back to our room.

The next morning I was up and waiting for breakfast to start (what?)  The breakfast was so good.  We then had time to kill in our room, and actually checked out before the end time!  Our next stop was a local coffee shop, but they were busy, and we had groceries to collect from two places!  

On the return trip to the car, we found some corporate art, and I just couldn't help myself!

Impressive icicles on a house across from the b&b.

It was a lovely trip, and my mom has generously offered another outing for our Anniversary next month, so we will go explore Ann Arbor in March!

later days