My mom celebrated her 75th birthday in style! We rented a limo for all the grown-ups and had a delicious dinner at the River Crab Inn. Jody and Ed came to town for the big day, and we all had a great time (and a rough recovery)!
Happy Birthday, Mom!
Such a diva!
Limo!
Bobby thinks Fireball is gross. Bobby is dumb.
We're the cool club
Dad got in a bar fight protecting Mom's honor (or maybe he had eye surgery)
Too much fun
Too cute
Typical goofballs
It's been 12 years since we've been in a limo!
We celebrated Dad's birthday the following weekend with the Donoghues (it was a little less intense). I don't know that it was very peaceful for him, but all the grandkids just love his attention.
Make a wish!
Happy birthday, Dad!
They are now friends in crime
Ben took this photo of Jane - he did well!
We had a very relaxing 4th of July holiday weekend, mostly lounging by the pool and hanging with friends! We went to the Clawson parade with the kids which was very easy-going and low-stress - the kids had fun! That night we continued our tradition of going to the top of the parking deck to look at fireworks - 360-degree view of everything was pretty neat. This year we took Ben along too, and he was a trooper (less of a trooper the next day without much sleep!).
Kiddos from oldest to youngest
Mounted police and fire trucks were his fave
Snuggles and coffee
This picnic table has served us well... almost outgrown!
Ready to go!
Fireworks
We did pizza and swimming at our place for Will's birthday last week. Grandma and Grandpa got him a pet turtle and Maggie was very into it (Evie from a distance).
Happy Birthday, Will!
Having fun!
My favorite is Justin in the background
It would be so easy to dunk him...
Turtle observation
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Meet Donatello (vs. Shredder)
Gotta play stairball!
Jamie took the kids to the zoo 3 times last week (gotta love that membership!). They have a dinosaur exhibit, and he is slowly brainwashing Ben. Ben really just wants to ride the train, but he's a fan of the dinos too.
Bros and dinos
Cutie
Searching for red pandas
Time to rest
Watch out behind you...
Train ride
We got Evie a volcano kit for her birthday, not quite realizing that it was a pretty big project. We spent one day with paper mache, then painted it, and finally got to do an "explosion"! We had a really fun time working on it together!
Perfection
That's a real smile
We took Ben to see his first movie - Buzz Lightyear! He thoroughly enjoyed the snacks and was really into the movie for about 30 minutes... then he got wiggly as expected!
I'm a big boy!
mmm...
Some others:
Still loves pigtails!
Girlfriend fun at their friends' house
Maggie used her own money to buy a kids guitar from a resident... he only charged her $10!
This one is growing too fast
We went to see the new Thor movie (it was silly fun!) Any opportunity to bring out the axe... smh...
Helping paint Uncle Jason and Justin's new house!
Ben's daycare closed for the holiday week, so Jamie took him to camp... it went... so so
I am... inevitable.
Jamie took Ben out for dude breakfast... he ate A LOT
Those eyes... shudder
Apparently there's a more intense game of Rock, Paper, Scissors on the streets nowadays:
We had a great Father's Day weekend with beautiful weather. Jamie had a end-of-the-year party for his fellow teachers on Saturday, and some of them can party hard! Sunday we did church and lunch with my parents, and then headed over to the Donoghues for dinner.
Happy Father's Day, Daddy!
Guys hanging by the pond
The kids and I made a gift for the king of Lego...
Our address sign was super lame, so we added some character (so classy)
The start of the teacher party... so many shots...
Earlier this month we hosted a bunch of Maggie's friends for her belated birthday party... since it's hard to have a pool party in December. It was a total success - the pool is amazing, it just keeps kids happy and entertained for hours! I also planned a scavenger hunt (Maggie loves solving clues) that turned out to be kind of intense with 10 girls frantically looking for answers... at the end their treasure was a pineapple pinata that took a lot of work to break!
Hula chicks
She had a mix of friends from school, her old school and the neighborhood - they got along great!
Luxury
Getting ready for their dance-off-dives
June also meant the end of the school year and the end of soccer season. The girls both did really well and are excited to be moving up a grade! Their school had a fun end-of-year event with bounce houses and other fun activities. For the summer, Jamie and the girls are going to camp in Grosse Pointe a couple days a week, and he is home with them the rest of the week.
Maggie's girl troupe
Ben loved the obstacle course... probably climbed this 25 times!
Field Day fun!
Ready to compete!
Last game for Girl Talk!
Love these Unicorns!
Very proud with their medals
Evie's class each had to come up with a topic for "Teach the Teacher" day. Evie decided to teach them about soccer, demonstrating dribbling, pull-backs and fast footwork. Her teacher sent me this photo and said she did a great job!
I'm here to tell you about soccer
We let the girls have some friends over to swim last weekend, and it turned into a fun barbecue! Evie was thrilled because she lost another tooth!
All the blood I loved how her girlfriends were there to support her!
If only we could reach the ground, we'd be unstoppable!
2-minute meal for the kids, then back in the pool!
Baby Jane was dedicated earlier this month, and was such a good little girl the whole time!
So good for Mom and Dad!
Family!
Some other random shots:
First day of camp!
Best buds
Did my annual golf tournament with some fun people (and it was clear I only golf once per year)
Daddy is brainwashing them into Lego junkies
The girls' piano teacher said to start bringing Ben, so now he gets like 5 minutes of teaching too!
We had a patriotic weekend for Memorial Day! The girls' school does "Red White and Blue Day" each year which was a nice event. The kids sing a lot of patriotic songs, and they honor all the veterans that were able to attend. Uncle John's name made it on Evie's class poster. Maggie has been practicing her memorized line for a month now, and did a great job speaking!
Evie got to sit in the front row for the assembly - cutie pie
Spotted Maggie in the parade beforehand
Maggie's speaking role:
Over the long weekend Jamie and I worked and worked and worked. The kitchen is 95% done and is now usable! So we were cleaning, moving everything back into place, getting rid of garbage, cleaning out the garage and basement, prepping the pool, doing yardwork - I'm tired just writing about it! The Donoghues took our kiddos on Sunday for the big parade in St. Clair Shores and then kept them for the day so we could keep working (thank you!).
On the lookout for candy!
Cuddles with baby Jane
America!
On Monday we finally enjoyed our house - pool time and yummy food with family!
Cousin takeover
Maggie and Luke kept busy in the pool all day
Ben did not have daycare on Friday, so he helped me clean the house and then we had a fun day with just the two of us. We had fun at the park across the street, looking for ants and rocks.
He really though he could reattach this branch to the tree
Ben had his first visit to the dentist! He did so good, and I could tell he was a little anxious but followed all the directions. The office staff loved this guy.
I have 10,000 questions
We celebrated Grandma's birthday earlier this month! Dinner at the house, and then most of the family went to see the new Dr. Strange movie - Maggie was thrilled because Scarlet Witch was a main character.
Happy birthday to you!
Gotta put that costume to use!
Movie time
We also had Claire's birthday - sweetest little girl!
Cheese!
Claire's crew
Trying to get a picture of the birthday girl, and everyone else felt the need to join in!
Some others:
I love this boy so much
When you didn't grab enough towels! First swim of the season!
Starting young
Mother's Day happened in here too... this was the only photo I got, oops!
