The Boys are Back

Last weekend Miss Penny went to her first ever birthday party. It was a garden/flower theme and it was totally Pinterest worthy. I love these cute pictures of these flower girls!

On Tuesday the boys flew back to Michigan from Arizona. Ben ran up to me when he saw me and gave me the biggest, bestest hug ever. It was so good to see both boys but it has also been so hard to readjust to having 4 kids again. After going from 2 for a couple weeks back to 4 I feel like maybe we were a little bit crazy having so many kids. Life was so much easier with 2! 

The next 2 days Steven was able to attend Scout Day Camp, it had a bug theme. He loved everything- fishing, BB guns, science lessons and activities, crafts- and archery was his favorite. His first day there he left his lunch in the car but thankfully I noticed before I left. Oh that child!

Sadly for Grams, we didn't do too many exciting things the first couple days she was here. The kids kept wanting to stay home and play with their toys- I guess the boys had really missed their stuff. I also think they missed playing with their sisters. We mostly spent Wednesday and Thursday at home.

On Friday we took a couple walks- we walked in Kensington and then we walked in downtown Milford. While we were walking in Milford my kids found some painted rocks and decided to join the Milford Michigan Rocks craze that is happening in our town. It involves finding painted rocks, painting rocks of you own and then re-hiding them all. Whoever started this is a genius, it's a great way to entertain kids on long summer days!

Friday night we got ice cream from DQ. Even though Poppy is not here I feel like we need to respect his daily ice cream tradition. 

 Saturday we went to Greenfield Village. We got there when it opened which meant parking was great and the village wasn't too crowded, it was nice. The kids got to try and blow out a tin lantern, print some paper at the printing press, watch salt pottery dishes being made and watch a glass deer being made. The artisan shops are always their favorite part of the village.

After all the artsy stuff they played in the play area. Poor Lucy has been suffering from middle child blues lately because the boys keep playing with Penny and leaving her out. They were both being super helpful to Penny which was sweet but it made me sad for Miss Lucy. She's not my social bug that she usually is, I hope school will get her back into being social.

Also please note Penny's flip flops. She kept wearing Lucy's which were way too big for her so when me and Grams went to Kohl's this week, Grams bought Penny her very own pair of Paw Patrol flip flops. When I showed them to Penny she was ecstatic and screamed "Woof woof fwip fops!" It was adorable!

After playing we were all starving so we left Greenfield Village. For lunch we had Steak and Shake because Grams had some gift cards she wanted to use. The kids all got their dessert first, milk shakes, so they had a fantastic time there.

And I'll end with a funny story: Lucy was singing "I'm a little teapot" and was struggling with saying "stout." She kept saying "shout." So I was trying to help her but she got frustrated and told me "It's my song, I can sing whatever words that I want."

Girl's Week

Penny is officially potty trained! She hasn't had a single accident this week, seriously don't know how I got so lucky, she was so easy to train! With potty training out of the way, we were able to get out and have fun this week. At first the forecast was calling for rain pretty much everyday but Monday and Tuesday so on Tuesday I decided we need to get out. We spent the morning in Kensington taking a walk on the nature trails. It was perfect weather for a walk and we had fun, we even saw some turkeys and a woodpecker. 

Penny and Lucy love collecting rocks and since Penny didn't have any front pockets, she put all her rocks in her back pockets. She sat down with them multiple times and even rode the whole way home with them in her back pockets. I can't imagine that was comfortable but she didn't complain. Silly girl!

After lunch it was warming up so we went to Mercer Beach. I don't love that beach because the water is pretty murky but the girls had fun chasing ducks and splashing around. They could have stayed all afternoon but we ended up only staying a couple of hours because I always get so nervous about us being out in the sun for too long in the afternoon. Me and Lucy burn SO easy!

The forecast ended up being wrong and we ended up with no rain for the rest of the week so we went to two other beaches that week. The girls just have so much fun and the weather has been so warm and perfect for it. On Wednesday we went to Spring Mill Pond in Brighton which I love the best, the water is so clean and clear. We saw lots of fish and kept trying to catch them but to no avail. We were just not patient enough. I did pretty good at keeping our skin protected that day and we all made it home with no sunburns, this is a big accomplishment for me! 

Friday we met a friend at the beach in Kensington. This beach is better than Mercer Beach but still not as clean as Spring Mill Pond. This was a much more fun experience for me though, I love being able to chat with friends while my kids play. I wish I had more friends that liked to go places. This time I did not sunscreen us well and poor Lucy ended up with a sunburn that lined under her eyes and I burned my back. Fail. But the girls really did have a good time and we lasted a whooping three hours there.

Also this week we made an offer on another house and once again did not get it. This one had really seemed like one we could get but someone came in offering cash the same day as us. I am sad and relieved at the same time. It would have been a smaller space and it needed a lot of work but it was really charming, it had a great backyard, it would have kept us in the Ward and it would have put us in the school boundaries for where Lucy will be attending Jr Kindergarten. Oh well. I keep trying to remember that God knows best and it will all work out when it should.

Tyler's Birthday & Potty Training Penny

Tyler came home from the Scout Camp around 7pm Saturday night. After a long day of waiting to celebrate his birthday (translation: eat the cake) the girls insisted on immediately bringing out the cake and presents.

The cake (that I made from scratch) tasted good- to me it didn't really taste any better or any worse than one made from a box. The recipe for the white cake I made was pretty easy too so I feel like it's 50/50 to make from scratch versus from a box.

Tyler got spoiled with man child gifts. The Hogwarts tee, junk food and lock picking kit were from me. The bug gun (it shoots salt at bugs) was from his parents and the Amazon gift card was from mine. I think the bug gun has been by far his favorite. He is constantly out in the yard looking for bugs to get. I am also starting to find bug carcasses in the house, super fun.

The next day Tyler gave a talk in church. The person before him gave a short talk and so he ended up with 30 minutes of time to speak. He did really well filling the time. As per usual, he got emotional, it's the only time he ever cries. He spoke about the importance of being obedient and I wished the boys were there, they could have learned a thing or two about that.

Our week was pretty quiet and uneventful so when Wednesday came around and I realized we had zip plans for the rest of the week, I spontaneously decided to potty train Penny. It was a great decision. She has been by far the easiest and I wonder if it was because I was way more laid back and calm about it. On the first day I just had her sit every 5-10 minutes on the potty. She had accidents but nothing more than damp underwear. The next day I just asked her frequently if she had to go potty. She had no pee accidents but she did poop her underwear (of course she did it while I was upstairs). After the poop in her pants, I ordered some Paw Patrol Figures from Amazon and told her she could have one each time she pooped in the potty. Well on the third day she had zero accidents but she also didn't poop at all. Today (day 4) she pooped in the potty for the first time (and she's very excited to get Chase when he comes in the mail tomorrow)! She also hasn't had any pee accidents today but we are going to a ice cream party tonight so we'll see how she does when she's playing with friends.

Anyways, overall it has been such a pleasant experience compared to the previous kids. The only hard thing has been Lucy who doesn't really enjoy being stuck at home and who also feels she should get a treat every time that Penny does (Penny gets a mint every time she pees in the potty). I think next week we should be good to go out and hopefully that will help make Lucy less crabby. She might also be crabby because she misses her brothers...

The picture on the left is of the girls favorite activity: they sit on a skateboard and I push them with my feet. It's my favorite activity too because I can sit and do it, ha ha ha! The picture on the right shows off Penny's amazing style: socks and flip flops and a dress up skirt (because they are easy to get on and off when going potty).  

Back Home

The drive back home was long and tiresome but I survived. We listened to the first book in the Land of Stories series and it was a good distraction. I wish the boys would have listened but they were busy playing with the new felt books and their tablets. For the way home they had to be good for a half an hour in order to earn the tablets for an hour. We did this rotation of a half an hour break and hour screen time for the whole journey home. It seemed to work perfectly.

After another successful crossing of the Mackinac bridge we stopped in St. Ignace to get some Mackinac fudge for Grams. Of course the kids had to go to the bathroom and all the shops in this cute town were anti the public using their restrooms. I thought this one shop's bathrooms were ok to use and I just needed to change Penny's shorts because they had gotten wet, but I got in trouble because I was NOT supposed to be using their bathroom. Of course Penny was screaming at the top of her lungs so they heard me and came to yell at me. It was so embarrassing. 

After the restroom fiasco we stopped at a DQ for some food. They had the History Channel on showing some program about the Civil War and there was this bit about amputees. It was totally unappetizing. 

When we finished eating we got our fudge, some salt water taffy (which turned out to be not so yummy, boo) and my dad bought this really cool Michigan puzzle that me and my mom will have to do when I come to AZ for Thanksgiving.

We did make one more stop at Drost Chocolate in Indian River. Tyler always gets me chocolate from there when he goes up North so I had to check it out.It was fun to go there and pick out my own chocolates for once. 

When we made it home at last I was pooped (seems to be a theme throughout this trip ;)) and I was not up to taking the kids out for any Fourth of July Festivities. Thankfully I have great neighbors that let my kids share their sparklers. For my kids, that was enough fun, lighting sparklers and playing with the neighbors. I enjoyed chatting with my neighbors and to me, it was the perfect way to end the fourth of July!

The next day was Poppy's birthday. that afternoon I took him to see the movie "Everything, everything." It was a good chick flick (which my dad likes) with a twist that I had totally forgotten about (I had read the book it was based on but obviously had suffered some book amnesia). 

After dinner that night we celebrated with some carrot cake that I had bought at Kroger's. It was a Sanders Bumpy Cake which is world famous ;)Penny was not happy that she had to wait to eat it and couldn't dive right in- hence the grumpy face.

On Friday my boys flew back to AZ with my parents. They will be there for almost 2.5 weeks. They have been waiting for this day FOREVER! They are so excited to see all their cousins so I know they are going to have a blast. They were also being stinkers and fighting in the car on the way there so that helped make it a little easier to say goodbye. Before they left though, I snapped these fun pics. I will miss them- especially their sweet goodnight hugs and kisses.

Since they have left it has been nice and quiet with just me and the girls. Tyler is supposed to be home from his week long Scout High Adventure today. It'll be nice to see him- it's been a week!- and we can also finally celebrate his birthday. I made a cake from scratch for him so I am eager to see how it tastes! You shall find out...in my next post!

Day 3- Marquette

We started out our third day by taking Poppy to his High School, Gwinn. We walked around the grounds and the kids ended up wanting to take a tour of the football field too. They had fun running the bleachers.

Our second stop was at his house that he lived at while he attended Gwinn. The house was near the KI Sawyer Air force base. His house had definitely seen better days.

After Steven took that lovely picture of Poppy and his old house, we took a walk in the nearby woods. Poppy said he spent lots of time exploring them when he lived there. Of course, they didn't have a dirt path going through them then.

After the walk down memory lane we had a lunch break back at the motel and then we decided to go check out the Marquette Harbor Light House (because remember, I LOVE lighthouses!). Unfortunately we were not able to go see it because it was closed for the day (and the path leading to it was blocked off as well). We ended up letting the kids play at a nearby beach but while were at the beach, I snapped a pic of it from far away.

The kids had so much fun at the beach. Honestly, I think it was probably their favorite part of the whole trip. Penny had her stick sword and there was all sorts of imaginative play going on, it didn't seem to matter that we didn't have any shovels or buckets. It didn't even seem to matter that the water was icy cold!

After going back to our motel and washing the sand off of everyone we regrouped and decided to go to Sugar Loaf Mountain. I head read that it was a beautiful view at the top and the reviews said it was an easy, short hike. Maybe it is easy if you are not super out of shape like me and you don't have to carry a little one most of the way but honestly, it was a rough hike. There were so so many stairs going up the mountain and Penny would hardly walk any of them (especially because she was still groggy from the car nap she had taken). By the time we got to the top I was pooped but the views were really amazing and I am proud of myself for making it to the top.

The boys, however, kept giving us all heart attacks by getting so close to edges and cliffs and climbing where they really shouldn't have. It wore on my nerves (and my moms) but I kept telling myself that if kids were dying at this place it wouldn't be open or their would be park rangers there are something. I don't know, for some reason that weird rationalizing helped me a bit.

The hike down was, for obvious reasons, a lot easier. Lucy, however, wanted to take frequent stops so she could photograph things. I made her stop so I could photograph her and some of the many steps we walked. She took the picture of Penny on the right. Penny had stolen my hat and was putting rocks in it. Apparently my hat was perfect for stowing rocks.

After that tiresome hike (that my mom did not enjoy) we were all DONE for the day. We ate dinner at DQ and then rewarded ourselves with ice cream- me and my dad shared a banana split which is something we used to always do. Then we went and grabbed a few things from Target for the journey home. While at Target I discovered these awesome felt books and a felt princess/dragon/castle set. They were super cheap and my kids have loved them- a very worthy investment. Then it was back to the hotel and off to bed.

Day 2- Munising

Our second day of the trip we drove to Munising to see Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. We stopped first at the Visitor's Center to get ideas of where we should go with 4 little ones. It was a good idea because they gave us a list of day hikes and maps. I just wish we had actually mapped out a course instead of just randomly going places because we ended up driving more than we needed too. Our first stop was at Munising Falls. It was a super short hike which was perfect for our kids. The waterfall was beautiful but the sun was shining in a way that made it hard to see and to document.

After that we went to Sand Pointe Marsh. We were told that there were turtles everywhere and beavers and frogs and all sorts of fun creatures. Well, all we saw was a snake that didn't even stick around long enough for me to get its picture. It ended up feeling like one of the nature trails by our home so it was super disappointing but at least it wasn't crowded so it ended up being a nice place to stop and eat our lunch.

After Sand Pointe Marsh we went to Wagner Falls. It was another super short hike/walk that was perfect for the kids and it was also a super pretty waterfall BUT these people there were really annoying and ruined my ability to document. On the left, is the first picture I took of the waterfall. Note the man climbing off trail to the right of Ben. This man climbed all around the waterfall (but basically everywhere he was, was right smack dab in the middle of any picture you wanted to take). In the picture with just Ben you can see this man's photographer. It was SO annoying. Ben was sad in the first picture because he wanted it to be a picture of just him and the waterfall (and he was worried Steven was blocking him). So I promised to get him a picture with just him and the waterfall but these dang people were in all my pictures. They were there FOREVER so we finally just gave up and left. It was frustrating.

After Wagner Falls Penny was getting extra cranky and I could tell she needed to sleep so I figured it was a good time to drive to the Miner's Castle Overlook which was on the opposite end of the park. It worked like a charm, she fell asleep on the drive there. My mom was super nice and stayed in the car with her while we walked to the overlook. It was bit of a longer walk then the other 2 and it got Lucy whining pretty good but it was totally worth the views. The pictures don't do the colors justice. I hope to someday go back and do a kayaking tour of it.

After we saw the pretty views me and Poppy stayed with Penny and Lucy while Grams went with the boys to see the overlook. I was proud of the boys for doing it twice so Grams didn't have to be alone. They are both becoming good hikers.

That was our last destination in Musining. We headed to Marquette after that. I was pretty HAngry when we arrived in Marquette and Google Maps was not being helpful in getting us to our motel (actually, I got lost in a round about and then Google Maps got bumped and decided to take us to Wendy's instead)so when I saw a Big Boy's I decided we needed to stop for dinner. It was a good choice, I was much nicer after I got some food in me and we had no problems finding our motel, it just involved a dumb Michigan left to get there. The motel room was older and stunk (my dad said they had just painted) but it was roomy and even had a couch bed which was perfect. I was able to split up the girls without having to have one on my bed and the bathroom was big enough that I could hide in it while the girls feel asleep.It was a much nicer night than the previous one.