1st day of 1st Grade

Lillie had a great 1st day of 1st grade.

Sophie had her picture taken with Lillie and she said that she was going to miss her.

We had our picture also taken at the bus stop as we waited for the bus.

This year, Lillie looked confident and excited as she got on the bus. Since, she is in 1st grade, she got to sit anywhere that she wanted. She sat next to two of her 3 best friends on the way to and from school. Her other best friend is on another bus.

 Sophie and I met Lillie at school and took her picture with her teacher, Mrs. Renne.

Sophie and I made Lillie a "1st day of 1st grade" cookie. I told Sophie that she could have some after we got Lillie from the bus stop. When we got home Sophie picked up the plate on the left. She thought that she could eat the whole thing.

Yesterday, Lillie and Brian had fun afternoon in Battle Creek. They ran an errand to Menard's and then stopped for ice cream and a visit to see his office. She was quite happy in this picture.

Grandma and Grandpa visit

Last week, Grandma and Grandpa came to visit.

We had a lot of fun playing lots of games, reading lots of books, making S'mores, and visiting Frankenmuth.

Beth, Sophie and Lillie had their picture taken with this sign. We ate lunch at the Bavarian Inn, a German-American Restaurant. While at lunch we were entertained by a guy in lederhosen playing an accordion. When he walked into another section of the restaurant, Sophie asked "where is the music man." After lunch we went into the gift shop and bought Sophie her own accordion. This was special since her Great-Grandfather played the accordion.

After lunch, we did some Christmas shopping at Bronner's and Back to School shopping at the outlet mall.

Lillie had a mini recital at Mrs. Lawrence's (piano teacher) house as part of her twinkle graduation party.  Lillie made it through the first part of her suzuki book. She had to play 4 different songs from memory including "twinkle little star" and the variations.

We went fishing and Sophie caught her first fish and she caught one more.  She was scared of the fish, when it would jump about.

Lillie caught 3 fish. She also caught the biggest fish of the day.

We had a great week and we can't wait until we see them again.

Sherman Lake camp and Blueberries

Last week, Lillie attended a day camp at the Sherman Lake YMCA camp ground. She had a lot of fun. During the 5 days of camp, she swam, Kayaked, climbed the rock wall, did archery, played camp games, and had lots of fun. Thursday night was family night. Lillie got to show us around camp and we tried a few things like the archery and rock wall. 

While Lillie was a camp, Sophie and I picked blueberries one morning. We went with some friends and Lillie was disappointed that we went without her. We picked 7 pounds in less than an hour. I had enough for 2 batches of jam and Lillie and Sophie ate the rest. Sophie probably ate more than what she put in the bucket, but she picked the entire time that we were there.

Vacation to Traverse City and Michigan's Adventure

We just returned from a vacation to Traverse City, Michigan and Michigan's Adventure amusement park.  Lillie has been asking to see a light house, so on the way to Traverse City, we stopped at Pointe Betsy Lighthouse.  We were able to tour the lighthouse and go up to the top of the light house.

Next, we went to Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes, national park.

The dunes and Lake Michigan. This dune is over 400 feet tall.

We climbed this sand dune. It was over 350 feet tall.  We all made it to the top, without being carried.

Brian, Lillie and Sophie at the top of the sand dune.

Beth, Lillie and Sophie at the top of the sand dune.

After climbing the sand dunes, we stopped at Moomer's Ice Cream for homemade ice cream. Then we made it to our hotel on the Grand Traverse Bay.

The next day, we played in the water and sand. We even rented a Kayak.

The second day in Traverse City was too cold and windy to go to the beach, so we did some shopping downtown. The following day, we went to Michigan's Adventure amusement park in Muskegon, Michigan.

Lillie and Sophie posed with this Snoopy statue, but Sophie would not stand with the live Charlie Brown, Lucy and Snoopy Characters.

The first day at the park, we rode the rides. This was such a great picture of Lillie on log ride that we had to buy it.  She did go on it again the next day with Brian.  The second day, we spent some time at the water park at Michigan's Adventures. 

Lillie rode several small roller coasters, but her favorite rides were: 1) the scrambler, 2) Tilt-a-whirl, 3) and water slides with an inner tube. These happened to be my favorite as a kid too.  Sophie did not want to ride the flying dumbos, but she would ride the cars with us and Lillie. She even went on the tilt-a-whirl and liked it.

4th of July fun, gymnastics camp and beach time.

We had a great 4th of July.  We helped out with the Jack and Jill Preschool float for the Richland Parade. Later, we had friends over for dinner and fireworks. The girls enjoyed the sparklers and fireworks.

This was Sophie's first year for sparklers and she was mesmerized by them.

This last week, Lillie had a gymnastics camp and Sophie took a gymnastics class.  They both had a great time.

Yesterday, it was 90 degrees, so we went to the beach at Eagle lake to relax and cool off. Sophie loved playing in the sand and Lillie loved playing in the water.

First two weeks of summer break

Lillie has been out of school for two weeks and we have been enjoying her summer break.

Lillie started tennis lessons and took a few science classes.

We went to the Grand Rapids Children's Museum, picked strawberries, 

and we had a playdate at Jack and Jill Preschool. This past year, we bought a brick as part of Jack and Jill's fundraising project. Lillie and Sophie sat by their brick pictured below.

Today, we went to a library event and met Zeus, the world's tallest dog. He was in the 2013 Guinness World Record book. He was 44" tall to the top of his back. He was really friendly and the girls were not scared of him. 

Tigger 1 year later

One year ago this month, we brought Tigger home to live with us.  There is a saying "Everything grows with love." As you can tell from the photo, Tigger is loved and he loves food. Lillie can't carry him around the house anymore. He weighed 3 pounds a year ago, and he now weighs 17 pounds.