Ice Cream Again

When the kids stay at Grammy and Coach's, at least during summer, the daily routine often includes an ice cream cone outdoors after supper. Perfect, n'est-ce pas? No dishes to wash and all drippy mess is outside.

Fun at the Movies

After the hundred year birthday party, our next advenure was to do a "kid swap" with Frank and Cristin. Josie came home with us for a couple of days and Will went home with Frank and Cristin. We met halfway later that week to trade the kids back. Will got lots of concentrated "boy cousin" time and we had girlie time at our house.

One of Eva's favorite things to do is to change the house into a theater and Josie was all for it. Maybe she does this at home too! The girls rearranged the furniture for "stadium seating," made tickets, and (as you can see here) a concession stand. Princess Diaries 2 was showing that night.

Three Little Kittens

The girls enjoyed having matching hairstyles and also hairdos more creative than the usual ponytail or braids. Today, they all had cat ears.

A Day at the Park

Cherie and Sydney and Porter were in town too so the kids really got a lot of time together. Here we are at the "school park." This is Lyra's park of choice. If you look closely, you can see that Eva and Josie have matching hair again...a french braid from one ear over the head to the other and ending in a braid. I am getting pretty good at hair.

This never happens!

Why Not is having its end-of-season sale and I actually found matching dresses to fit all three girls! I can never seem to find Lyra and Eva matching clothes so I was pretty surprised to find 3 dresses all in the right size. Don't they look pretty? Eva and Josie have matching hair again, regular sets of french braids this time.

Great Gram Turns 100!

On August 8, Gram (Dad's mom) turned 100 years old! All the DeRonja kids and their kids went up to celebrate at a birthday party hosted by Uncle Pat. Our cousins and others from Pat's side of the family were there too. It was a gorgeous day and we had the most enornous picnic (in terms of food) you've ever seen! Gram's cake was beautiful. Cherie had gone to Kinko's to make the special table decorations in the background here...Gram's wedding picture, her birth certificate and entry papers from Ellis Island and a list of interesting facts about life in 1908. A loaf of bread was just five cents!

Emily really took to Grandma! It was very sweet. Even their leis match though I believe Emily is wearing hers in the "princess style." Most of the grandkids had not had the chance to meet her or Aunt Mary before so this was a very special day.

Bill probably has the best photo of this and you would not believe how many we had to take to get everyone in there and relatively presentable. While Unce Pat had a perfectly lovely backyard for Gram's party, the kids could NOT keep away from the swingset at the next door neighbor's. Lots of fun was had by all and the kids slept well that night.

Sleeping Bear

We took the kids to climb the Sleeping Bear Dunes on the shores of Lake Michigan. The view is beautiful at the top. The kids at Interlochen do a field trip out here every session and then Will and I did it when I picked him up last year, so this climb was old hat for Will. Bill and Eva had ever been here.

The kids are at play on top of the dune. Will looks like he's falling off a cliff but it is really a gentle slope! Eva finds a gymnastics opportunity wherever she goes.

Here we are at the top of the dunes; a nice guy took our photo because Bill and I rarely have photos with both of us in them. I think these make the dunes at Kitty Hawk look very small. I carried Lyra up in the backpack and my calves were SCREAMING. This makes up for not doing any running this week.

Blue Angels

The Blue Angels did some flying at the National Cherry Festival in Traverse City. I love to watch them fly, it is just amazing! I don't want to know what the fuel cost was. We saw them warming up while we were waiting for fireworks on the 4th of July. At dusk, it was very clear just how much faster light travels than sound. We'd see the lights of the planes and then the sound would follow behind it in the sky. That night, they were flying much lower and faster. It was LOUD. Lyra is sort of afraid of planes now. We found her some earplugs for this performance.

This second photo looks just like the Air Force Memorial in Washington. Will and Eva call it "the french fry" memorial but it is clear that the memorial is supposed to represent flight, not food.

4th of July

Doesn't it look like the elk is watching the fireworks? Don't the fireworks look sort of like his antlers? Because Traverse City is so far north, it didn't get dark until quite a bit later than at home. The fireworks show didn't start until 10:30! The kids were wrecked and begging to go to bed. Isn't that funny? Bill took this photo as we were walking back to the car.

Eva is a Monkey

I have never seen monkey bars like this. We were walking around Traverse City and found a little playground with some different equipment from what we usually see at home.

There were 3 or 4 wheels mounted on a bar that gradually declined a bit from one end to the other. When you grab a wheel, your weight pulls you around to the next wheel. Then you have to grab that one quick and your weight pulls you around to the the one after that. It was not easy to hang on. Eva LOVED IT. She kept begging to go back to this playground.

How Much is That Doggie in the Window?

Lyra continues to request her signature 3 pony-tail hairstyle. She is starting to look like those little lap doggies that you can carry around in a purse. Which do you think is closer, the Chinese Crested or the Yorkie?

Adventure Baby!

At the International Cherry Festival in Traverse City, they had this big inflatable obstacle course thing. Will took Lyra on it. I think she went on it four times. Once she got the hang of climbing up over each obstacle, no one could keep up with her!

Ice Cream at its Best

Our connoisseur (or should I say "connoisseuse")...The mint flavor in this ice cream is just exquisite! And the dark chocolate is a perfect complement.

We had ice cream at Moomers which is supposed to be some of the best ice cream in the country. There were cows there an everything. As you can see, Lyra thoroughly enjoyed hers.

Last Day of Camp!

Will was so surprised and happy to see us! He thought we were coming a little bit later in the day.

The trip out was a bit of a fiasco. I had thought it'd be fun to have a leisurely drive out there and spend a long weekend exploring Traverse City and the surrounding area and then drive home. Unfortunately, Bill had a surprise trip to Rome the week we were supposed to leave and wasn't going to be back in time for us drive to Michigan in time for Will's Friday morning recital. ARGH! So the girls and I picked him up in Detroit at the airport. Except there are two airports in Detroit and Mapquest sent me to the wrong one. It didn't even give me a choice of which airport; it just assumed I wanted the teeny weeny private plane airport and not the big commercial airport.

So it was a looooong trip out there but, as you can see, worth the trouble! We arrived in time to see Will and his friends perform at their piano recital.

Will's drawing elective was full so he took ceramics instead. He made a little vase shaped like KC. Will and KC even have sort of the same expression on their faces here. I don't know what I am going to do with all of these projects. I do not have a place to display them (there are more that aren't in the photo).

Kevin and Eva entertained themselves while I helped Will pack up. I think Bill must have had Lyra off somewhere and out of the way.