May 21 - 23, 2010
Silver Lake State Park

We had a great weekend, camping on a wonderful site overlooking this....

Who's beautiful blue eyes are playing peek-a-boo from behind that tree?

We took a short drive to Little Sable Point Lighthouse, a tradition whenever we are near Silver Lake. It was just started to sprinkle and the wind picked up so we didn't stay long.

What could make a little boy happier than a great big rain puddle, a pair of rubber boots, and lots and lots of trucks ? For this little boy - not much.
(On a side note, Sam must be paying attention when I am helping Paul hook the truck up to the trailer - because lately when he plays with his trucks I overhear him saying "a little bit more, a little bit more", this seems to be his favorite saying as he backs his trucks up.)

We drove up to the dunes 2 or 3 times over the weekend.

Watching all the trucks and ORVs makes for one happy boy.

Of course, they also had lots and lots of fun playing in the sand and running up and down the dunes. We heard lots of laughs and giggles throughout the weekend.

Gabrielle was taking a few minutes to just look out over the lake.
She looked so grown up leaning there against the tree.

Back at the dunes - it was quite an awesome shot to catch these vehicles all lined up at the top of the hill getting ready to come down all at the same time.

The kids also spent quite a bit of time tying jump ropes to the Tonka Truck.
What you don't know is that this is their pet.
The Tonka Truck is really their dog Romeo - can you tell?
Romeo got to go on lots of walks while we were there.

The guys camping to one side of us had come up from Ohio to go ORVing.
They were kind enough to allow Paul to take Sam over to check out their 4 wheelers on the trailer. Once again, a happy boy!

A common occurrence during our camping trips this year is breaking out a new Lego game.
Paul started purchasing Lego games a few months ago and they have been having so much fun building and playing them that he kept ordering them. At this point, as far as we can tell, we now own every Lego game they have made~ including those available only in Europe.

May 21, 2010
Kindergarten Visitation Day

A couple of years ago, our school system started a Kindergarten Visitation Day. The current kindergarteners have the day off and next years class gets to spend a little over an hour visiting each of the different classrooms. Each classroom has a different type of activity and it gives the teachers the opportunity to access different aspects of the kids and make any recommendations for Young 5s vs Kindergarten, etc.

Ms. Doane's class had some memory games while learning the kids names in the circle and singing a song. Followed by some singing and "dancing".

Mrs. DeBoer's classroom for story time and some coloring.

Mrs. Oleson's class had a musical chairs type game with numbers. A silly motion song and a couple of games of number bingo.

Allison tells Mrs. DeBoer that she got Bingo and is then rewarded with a sticker for one game, and a piece of candy for the next game.

May 19, 2010
A new way to slide

Thanks to a connection through my brother Shawn. We were blessed to get a new swingset for the kids. They were quickly outgrowing the smaller metal one we had and the opportunity to get this bigger and better one free of charge was too good to pass up.

We got the swingset home, but due to other commitments we were not going to get it all put together right away. However, Paul did quickly attach the slide and steps to the platform part so that the kids could start to enjoy their new toy.

Allison and Sam were playing out there one afternoon, and I found it very comical as Sam decided to take the toy lawn mower up and down with them over and over and over again.
So great to see so much fun come from little things.

May 14-16, 2010
Yankee Springs Recreation Area/State Park

Our campsite this weekend was right by the beach on Gun Lake. The kids had free reign to run around the beach area and play on the swings, while we were watching them from the comfort of our camping chairs on our own campsite.

What a profound moment, the boy who never stops appears to be contemplating something.
Do you think he is just formulating his next plan for mischief?

What a sight to enjoy at the end of the day.

The girls collected lots of seashells on the beach this weekend.

Gabrielle looks like she could fish all day.

Saturday night, my family came to visit and help us celebrate
Nicholas' birthday that was earlier in the week.
The kids were very excited to meet
Uncle Shawn and Aunt Erin's newest family member: Stella!

The highlight of the evening was everyone getting a ride in Uncle Shawn and Grandma and Grandpa's newly restored boat.

After everyone got 2 rides each, the boat was pulled from the water
and Uncle Shawn let all the kids ride back to the campsite in the boat.

Nicholas was very excited to receive some money for his birthday from his aunts and uncles. He was able to take the money he received tonight, plus other money he received from Paul's side of the family and money he had saved to buy a dual blade lightsaber AND a mini lightsaber flashlight with changeable colored bulbs.

However, he did receive 2 gifts to unwrap from Grandpa and Grandma
A TurboBlaster

and a Clone Trooper helmet

Aiden had a blast playing in a box with some wrapping paper.
He actually stayed busy for quite some time.

Blowing out the candles on his space cake.

May 10, 2010
Happy 8th Birthday Nicholas

Nicholas turned 8 years old today. Could it possibly be true that he is 8 years old, seems like just yesterday we brought an 8 pound bundle home from the hospital and laid him in the bassinet in our living room. Now he is 8 years old and leaving stuff all over the living room.

Today was a school day, so his birthday celebration had to wait until after dinner.
Nicholas enjoyed opening his gifts. Of course, they all came directly off the list he meticulously created and organized by price and the website we could order them from. So, all of his gifts were Star Wars related and it was just a matter of which ones we selected for him.
He was very excited to receive each and every one of them.

May 7-9, 2010
CranHill Ranch

The weather was not looking good for the weekend, but we had reservations and we were going to be with some great friends and the fellowship is all we really needed to make a great weekend out of it. We had wind, rain, cold temperatures and a few little snow flakes in the air ~ but we also had great company, good movies, arts & crafts, scheduled activities and a great attitude.

Oh-- and did I mention it was FREE! We got 2 free sites for the weekend because we brought friends who had never camped at the campground before.

For Mother's Day weekend, the ranch hosted a free (oh - there's that free word again)
pancake breakfast up at the lodge.
Paul does not like sausage, not a bit, so the girls were having a ton of fun teasing him to take a bite of theirs. Oh the giggles of little girls - priceless.

The ranch had many activities scheduled for the weekend -
the older 4 kids participated in archery.
They had a great time and I wouldn't be surprised if they want to try it again this summer.

What's a trip to CranHill Ranch without a "pony" ride?

For some reason, Sam is convinced that he rode a horse named 'Lucky' last year.
The ranch employees insist that they don't have a horse by that name ~ but we can't seem to convince Sam of that fact. Actually, as I write this it is almost an entire month after this trip and Sam still tells me that the next time we go to CranHill 'Lucky' will be there.

No camping trip with the Peters is complete without some great lightsaber duals.
Even Sam is learning to get in on the action.

The only thing the girls need lately is each other, but a couple of swings never hurts.

Given the state of the weather, Lyn planned ahead and brought some crafts for the kids.
One of them that was definately a hit was their pirate hats, swords and eye patches.
(The girls made necklaces, but I didn't find any good pictures of those)

Friday night, was quite windy. The wind was even worse for the Peters, they kind of blocked some of it for us. Heavy wind in a travel trailer can lead to little and interrupted sleep. We had spent a lot of time in their trailer so we called a couple of hour quiet time in the afternoon. They hung out in their trailer and we hung out in ours.

Nicholas' birthday was on Monday - so we brought one of his presents. Our self imposed quiet time was great time for him to open one of his gifts that we brought with us.
We played his new game for a while.

A hayride in the summer's sweltering heat, sitting on haystacks in your shorts isn't the same as a beautiful spring night cuddled together under some wool blankets watching a beautiful sunset.
Not to say I don't prefer the summer weather - but this hayride had a feeling of it's own.

Our attempt at a group picture to commemorate our weekend together.

Sometimes it's just NOT about the perfect shot -
it's about kids being kids and loving every minute of it.

Lyn caught this shot of Allison and I absolutely fell in love with it when she e-mailed it to me.

The kids say hello to the donkey.
Note: Tyler doesn't want the donkey to get his pop-tart.

Lyn spent several summers attending summer camp at Cran-Hill when she was young.
So - one of the things we did was climb up the steep hill to find the cabins she stayed in.
I'm glad I don't have to climb this hill every day.

Gabrielle and Sam loved walking Romeo.

The kids theme for the weekend, which we saw repeated many, many times.

All for one.....

....and one for all!

We pray they can grow up together, sharing those same sentiments along the way.
All for one, and one for all.