Double Ones Love Day

What have the past 11 years brought....6 total moves, 3 cross country moves, 4 little feet, lots of little fights, lots of big make ups, a substantial amount of wine, a whole lotta laughter, a few tears, countless hours of patio talk, hiking, mountain driving, sea doing, doctor visiting, oh so much airplane traveling, tackling parenthood...blessing after blessing after blessing. Happy Anniversary love. You are my best.

Sqirt's Adoption Day Mini Party

She's a little young to understand the concept of "Adoption Day," but we wanted to do a little something to mark the day, one year ago, when we trekked up to the mountain town of Georgetown to "legalize" our role as Squirt's family. The Syers fam joined us this past week and we strolled down our hill to get celebratory ice cream. The worst part of this summer outing is climbing back UP the hill with a huge banana split in your gut.  

 The kids had us crackin' up as they acted liked "frozen gnomes" every time a car passed.

Happy adoption day to our most favorite little girl.  You continue to add a ridiculous amount of spunk, life, laughter, awe, energy and love to our happy fam.  Love you punky girl.   

We All Scream for Ice Cream and a Hose

What started out as a lovely backyard ice cream social at the Shea's pad, complete with hand dipped cones, an assortment of ice cream options, custom made signs, candy jars etc.......turned into a wet and wild free for all.  Who says you can't mix ice cream and a hose, aimed at 10 little children?  The ice cream was fabulous and enjoyed by all, but the water wars were definitely the highlight of the night.  It was a wet, 20 step walk home.  Thanks to the Sheas for one last summer hooray before you headed East.  Miss you already!     

I had to post this shot first because it's about the cutest image I could dream up.  Look at those cheeks.  After 18 months, I still can't get enough.

 Caleb took things to a whole new level with the addition of the big metal bucket.  His 4 kids didn't stand a chance.

 Even our little Hadley got into the action.  Randy was dripping.

 Dude had a riot going after Dad.  My trusty camera and I stayed dry.

 It looked really cute for the first 30 minutes...the kids used the water bottles as ammunition.

 We always have a free hand for wine friends.  Always.

 The master soaker got hosed down at the end of the festivities.  Rightly so.

Meal Time at Casa Vogel

And it goes a little somethin' like this....

My Fire Fighter's Big Day

We drive past our local fire station almost daily. I'm always telling Dude to look for the fire trucks, but he hasn't seen much excitement from the little brown building. SO...we decided that Wednesday was the day. We picked up a box of doughnuts from our neighbor's sugary haven of fried dough, got Dude adorned from head to toe in his fire fighter costume and rang the door bell at the fire station, hoping for the best.

ALL the fire fighters and the trucks were there, ready and waiting for us. Dude made quite the showing as he introduced himself as "Firefighter Dude" and had to remove his adult size ski goggles so he could properly see his new fire fighter friends. He promptly showed the 2 buff men that greeted us ALL his gear, as if to impress them. They then showed him all their matching gear and let him hang in the driver's seat while he talked their ears off. We even got a tour of their bedrooms as they explained to him that they live there while on shift. Dude was most impressed with the THREE refrigerators in the kitchen and the HUGE map on the wall, displaying their coverage area. They showed him where our house was and we were very disappointed to find that our new friends are not our designated station.  

Squirt worked her way into their arms at one point of the tour (that's my girl) and fist bumped every single one of them on the way out. Didn't even know she grasped the concept of "fist bumping." We walked away with coloring books, plastic hats, stickers, tattoos, pencils....gold mine.

I don't know that Dude heard one word they told him on their tour as his little mouth never stopped moving, but he thought the whole experience was quite rad. Correction...I think he thought HE was quite rad. Definitely worth the 2 mile trip and $5 in donuts. Thanks to our new friends for a fun 45 minute break in our day. Mommy rather enjoyed the outing too:)

Grandparent Vaca Time

In between cottages, we stopped in to visit my grandparents (my Mom's parents) in Hudsonville and went to an 85th birthday party for Tim's grandma (Mom's mom) just 5 minutes down the road.  It was so great to see family who we rarely get to see.  My grandparents are just the lovliest people and it was awesome to be reminded of that.  My sweet Grandma had a change purse with one of every coin for Dude. Perfect idea.  He still plays with it and counts his money.  She had a handkerchief of hers for Squirt, which I'll keep forever.  My grandpa went into his bedroom and grabbed a big handfull of change that kept "magically" appearing on the floor for Dude to find.  He was the king of finding money in my ears when I was a kid.  Oh how my grandpa made all us grandkids laugh growing up.

Tim's grandma has moved into an assisted living center and has been quite sick, which has been so sad for the family.  We're glad we could celebrate her while we were in town.  I thought she looked beautiful and had me laughing as she told me she was ready for all the people to leave as she's not used to so many small children screaming and running around. 

We stopped at a forest-like rest stop where Dude had hunted for tigers and bears on a previous Michigan trip.  He thought maybe we could find them this time.  We didn't.

 

And they slept.  The end.

Celebrating Dad

My Tim turned 33 on Saturday, so we tried our very best to make his day special and relaxing.  He went karting with his BMW Club earlier in the week, which was part of his birthday present, so Saturday was all about fam time.  Squirt and I went to pick up cinnamon rolls at 6:45am.  What better to do when a one year old is wide awake and the you want to keep the rest of the house sleeping?  We opened presents at breakfast (we bought him a Nano for all his bike riding and a docking station for his pimped out garage). 
 

On to T-ball, where Dude got an A for effort once again.  Squirt loves running around with Lando.  How cute is that little face below?  Poor baby lost his front tooth this week in a battle against a bunk bed ladder. 
 

 Monkey see, monkey do.

 Dad was fortunate enough to give Squirt her very first time out for hitting Landon in the face at the game.  She sat there rather obediently and gave Lando a tap on the head and kiss as her apology.  And so it begins.

 Would we have given Dude a Capri Sun at the tender age of 1?  Absolutely not.  Squirt?  Whatever.  No big thing.  Might explain why she's already obsessed with sugar and Dude really could care less. 

Next stop, Lifetime pool.  It's nice taking them with Tim so we can actually swim with Dude. He's getting pretty good and is confident on his own in the deep end.  Swimming lessons do eventually pay off. 

I spent the rest of the afternoon making a scrumptious birthday dinner.  Oven roasted tomatoes covered in an assortment of delectable cheeses and basil, spinach salad with goat cheese and grilled pepper, mushrooms and caramelized onion and burgers infused with wine and onions.  The McKinsters joined us for the night - it had been way too long.  The kids kept busy in the dress up bin while the adults finished the raspberry beer, wine and Katie's home made pot stickers.  THAT is my kinda night. 

All in all, a successful birthday for my studly.  Love you babe.  A whole lot.