Mae turns 6

Yesterday was a big day. Mae turned six!! It started out with donuts day in the basement of the school where we ran around with our friends and had a bunch of fun.

Then after work we picked up Mae's bestie - Adrianna and Ana - and headed for Roots, Mae's pick of choice for her birthday dinner. Ana thought it was funny to disappear from the picture... Mae thought it was funny, too.

Then we came back to the house where Juliana had decorated so nicely for Mae's birthday and she and Paxton even made Mae a Shopkins cake.

We sang Happy Birthday with the crew and Mae had a couple presents to open up... one of them being... SHOPKINS SEASON 4!!! We were pretty stoked and for some reason Pax was taking a bite out of my leg (he's so weird).

We often caught Pax just standing and staring at the cake waiting for a bite. Oh, and that's only the second time in his entire life he's had something on other than sweatpants. I think Mom and Dad even relented on Christmas when he rolled around all day in track pants and a t-shirt.

Mabel, oh Mabel, the one and only. Happy Birthday medium cat. That's what we call her in the house - I'm the Big Dog, Mae is the Medium Cat and Pax is the Little Duck.

Pure Michigan 2015

Well, you can see some past Michigan trips here and here, but this one really took the cake. And here's why: we had our own log cabin with our own private fishing dock, and that really made for the whole trip.

We fed some ducks and then started casting.

But before the day began, Pax made sure mom's face would be completely protected from the sun... for the next three weeks.

Not long after, this happened...

And then Mae hit to casting and a little later on... jackpot!

Last was our buddy Pax. He was enjoying a little fishing fun when he felt a tug...

Boom! Three for three.

This pictures sums up the fishing nicely.

We also made sure to hit up some berry picking, as late August in Michigan is the perfect time and place for that.  As is the tradition, we bunked with Ana and Sid and their mom and dad, and had ourselves a blueberry pick for the ages.

At one point, we decided to start measuring each other. Sid is three but gaining on Mabel quickly.

And this is Dee. She owned the blueberry farm and was one of the sweetest ol' gals you'll meet.

On top of blueberry picking, the beach was a hot spot for us on Saturday morning. The ideal day from a weather perspective - 82 and sunny - and with really warm lake water to boot, the beach treated everyone well.

On our last morning we decided we had never been raspberry or blackberry picking and so we made sure to stop and got in a nice pick right before the rain.

This last pic is our "Goodbye Michigan" pic, but we'll see you next year, without a doubt.

Little Man Turns 2

So we celebrated a LOT for Pax's birthday. And I'm not complaining because birthday celebrations means cupcakes and cake and even donuts. In all honesty he just REALLY liked when we'd say his birthday was coming up and he would say "A bwow it" (I blow it) and then pretend he was blowing out candles.

So we had our friends Ana and Sid over one afternoon and decided to snag some cupcakes and sing to him.

And then we went out to Nana's for Mother's Day and Nana made him a cake and we sang to him again.

And then a couple nights later we opened some presents for him, on his actual birthday, and they were goo-ood. First he got this awesome singing and dancing dog from Nonie that he really loved, as you can see.

And then he opened his present from us, which was a box full of outdoor equipment like a lawnmower, a watering can, a little rake and shovel, stuff like that. We went right outside and he got to work.

And that night, his actual birthday, we also snagged some donuts from West Town Bakery and sang to him again.

Two years... Mom and Dad said this one is really funny because it feels like two weeks have gone by since he was born but also it's felt like 200 years, at the same time...

Easter 2015

So we had ourselves a wonderful Easter again this year. Got ready by painting some eggs with our friends Ana and Sid (until Sid fell off the chair and cut his head open and he and his mom went to the ER to see if he needed stitches).

Then the next morning we did a big Easter egg hunt at a park by our house with some neighborhood folks.

And then Easter morning arrived. The Bunny did, in fact, come, and he left us a couple cute things in our baskets and hid 29 eggs around the house. As you can see, I was having a blast and Pax was so excited he took almost all his clothes off.

Then we headed out to Nana's for where a 65 degree day awaited us and we spent the whole day outside with our cousins - another Easter egg hunt, we all went on a big run, the whole bit.

Oh, and Dad met Grizzly Adams... oh, wait, that's just Papa; never mind.