Summer Vacation, part I

We must confess that we were poor photographers for the first few days of vacation. We drove to Saginaw, MI for a family wedding and had a great time hanging out with some long-distance family and playing with cousins. Grandpa T came with us and Uncle J and Aunt M met us there too, and we had a good time hanging out with them in Frankenmuth and around town. Then J and M and all the wedding peeps packed up and headed home while we headed north with Grandpa T for some adventures in Mackinaw - which is when we finally picked up the camera and got to clicking. 

Tuesday morning we visited the Icebreaker Mackinaw. Monkey was quite taken with it. 

New Hat

Our kitchen's loss is Monkey's bath time gain. 

                                      

In case you were wondering, this is indeed the same young man who signed the wall of his playroom with 4 (FOUR) of his mother's lipsticks today. 

If You Give a Pig a Party

This book was Monkey's inspiration for his birthday party this year. He decided months and months ago that this was the kind of party he wanted, and we did our best. 

  

                                      

 Guests were photographed in pig noses and party hats at the door. Grandma and Grandpa were good sports (as was everyone)

  

The cupcakes were made by a dear friend - chocolate cupcakes with raspberry filling and pink or strawberry icing, or strawberry cupcakes with strawberry cream cheese icing. The pig faces were entirely edible - made with candy eyes and edible paper. So delicious!

We decorated sugar cookies (also made by our lovely friend) with pink lemonade icing and a variety of accoutrements.

Baby Cousin M got in the pool for the first time ever. (He liked it!)

Thank you, Grandpa T, for letting us have a party at your pool while you are out of town! 

We had a wonderful day. 

Someone Had a Birthday!

Someone just turned four. He spent the morning carrying our old broken steamer around to show us how strong he is now that he is a big kid who is four. Indeed, we were very impressed. 

 Remember this from another birthday? It's too small now. 

 A picture of Mr. Z blowing out the candles on his fourth birthday, so many moons ago. Check out his sweet threads. 1982 FTW!

More pictures of birthday festivities to come. 

Itinerary

Monkey is home from school for the summer, and Mrs. Z and Monkey took a big shopping trip yesterday to  stock up on birthday party supplies. Mr. Z was talking to Monkey when we returned, asking him where we had been and what we had done. Monkey told him we had lunch at 'Chick-will-A' and that we had been to Target. I asked him what other store we had been to, and he said, "Goodwill!" I said, "That's not the name of the store. What's the other store name?" He answered, "Badwill?"

(It was Meijer.)

Baseball Game

While everyone was in town for Great Grandma M's funeral, we took the chance to do some family things together. Aunt B, Grandma and Grandpa T and RHCR joined the Monkey and his keepers for a baseball game. You can look at the evidence and decide for yourself whether we had a good time or not. ;)

                                      

Great Grandma M

At the beginning of May, Great Grandma M passed away. She was 93 years old and lived a very happy, full life. Over Spring Break Monkey and Mrs. Z went down to see her and had a lovely visit, which is when these photos were taken. In May we visited again. We were all able to say good bye and she was surrounded by family in her last weeks. Monkey handled the funeral quite well - he especially enjoyed playing with his cousin and second cousins and aunts and uncles and Grandma and Grandpa T. Even now, weeks later, he will turn to us and say, "I'm really sad that Grandma M died. It makes me so sad about that."