Aidan at 11

I took the children's birthday portraits myself this year on August 9 in Mason and Lansing, Michigan. I was very afraid I would not measure up to the exacting standards of photography created by my dear husband, but I think I did okay!

Our dear boy is eleven years old, very smart and very handsome. May he live up to his full potential in the years to come. :)

July 2011

This summer has been crazy busy and there isn't much more left! Jim and I had a fantastic time at the Avondale High School Class of 1991 Reunion events the weekend of July 22-24. We attended the Friday evening event at Hatchy's in Utica and were so pleased to see and catch up with Christy Michalec, Jennifer Schoenherr, Kelly Drake, Christie Frericks, Adrienne Collins, Donna Syck, John Hartwick, Mike Catalano, Matt Swigart, Jennifer Frohock, Deon Pugh, Dan Garavaglia, Brian Remington, Charles Watt, David Watts, and many more.

Saturday morning we took the opportunity to drive around the area and found that things have really changed. All sorts of roads that used to be modest two-lane highways are now four- or five-lane boulevards, and the Squirrel Road environs are practically unrecognizable. The high school is about three times the size it was when I attended there. We also drove through Rochester and stopped at St. Paul's UMC, where we were married in '95, and found they have added a new memorial garden outside. We couldn't resist doing a self-portrait there.

We went to the event at Stony Creek Metro Park where it was great to see Charles Watt, Andy Smith, Joel Kuhn, Marc Smielewski, Joe Cox, Kim and Tony Burean, Stephanie Hubbard, Heather Nehr, Erik Dahl, Jennifer Schoenherr, and lots more. People stayed as they could, dropped in and out, and in general it was a fantastic time.

Jim and I met Kim and Tony for dinner at the Red Ox Tavern in Auburn Hills and a few more folks joined us after dinner for the reunion event: John Hartwick, Heather Nehr, Joe Cox, Gordon Hall, Stephanie Bell and Deon Pugh. It was small but nice and we all had a terrific time in which every sentence began with the word "Remember..."!

Last week I took the kids to the Frederik Meijer Gardens for a visit. We walked around the long boardwalk trail through the swamp and saw lots of turtles, a couple of frogs, and lots of geese and swans. We enjoyed just hanging out in the children's garden until it got too hot in the punishing sun!

Way back on the 4th of July, we enjoyed the Grand Rapids fireworks at Front Seat for the Fireworks at the Public Museum. It really was the front seat! The fireworks were so close we had to lean back and look way up to see everything! It was tons of fun and we were fortunately nowhere near the shooting at Rosa Parks Circle...

We've been enjoying Uncle Shawn and Aunt Lori's pool about once weekly this summer. The kids can't help themselves with the inflatables; usually there are four or five in the pool at a time!

We've been trying to visit more and different beaches this summer, to decide which is our favorite. The closest Lake Michigan beach is Holland State Park though, and that's where we were this time:

A couple weeks ago Megan and Emily came to stay with us for a day while their mom was in Costa Rica and their dad was working at the Grattan race track. We all had a great time and the girls didn't want to leave when their dad came back to pick them up. :)

Happy 11th Birthday, Aidan!

Aidan turned 11 years old on Monday, 18 July 2011. Since Jim was out of town on business that day, we celebrated Aidan's birthday on Saturday, 16 July 2011 as a family. He wanted to open presents first thing in the morning, so he did!

Cards first...

He got a fancy new watch from Dad.

Aunt Melissa and Uncle Ryan sent him a whole set of Susan Cooper's Dark is Rising books.

Mom and Dad gave Aidan an electric guitar, which surprised him mightily. :)

Of course he had to try it out right away, jammies and all.

We had doughnuts from Marge's for breakfast, and after hanging out at home for a while, we had lunch at The Omelette Shoppe, where Aidan indulged in his favorite swiss-and-mushroom omelette and bagel. Then we headed north to Double JJ Resort to spend a few hours at the indoor water park. As usual it wasn't too crowded and we all had a great time on the water slides and in the lazy river.

We stopped at Guitar Center to pick up a couple of guitar stands and a new strap and case for the electric guitar, and then had dinner at Panera. Aidan, of course, had a ham and swiss sandwich - he never has anything different! He seems to consume a lot of swiss cheese, hmmm.

We came back home for cake and ice cream. Aidan's cake was chocolate, with chocolate frosting and chocolate chips, and of course he wanted mint chocolate chip ice cream. The boy likes chocolate, what can we say?

Posing with his eleven candles.

Dad lights the cake on fire...

Wow, I didn't realize how much smoke 11 candles make.

Happy birthday to our boy! :)

On Aidan's actual birthday, we puttered around the house in the morning, getting some chores done. Grandma Margie and Mariah came to take us to lunch - at Panera, of course, at Aidan's request, where he had yet another ham and swiss sandwich.

In the afternoon I took the kids to Guitar Center again - we needed a strap lock for the electric guitar - I envision us visiting their shop frequently over the next several years. We then hit the town looking for a Harry Potter wand for Aidan, on which he had decided to spend some of the money Grandma gave him for his birthday. We struck out at Toys R Us as well as The Kostume Room, so we just ordered one from Amazon.com and then headed to Target to pick up a few sundry items.

We had originally planned to go to Pietro's for dinner, but as it was 90 degrees with a heat index of 104, none of us really felt like a big Italian meal. So we came home instead, and had blueberries, strawberries, grapes and birthday cake for dinner, and followed it up with a quick trip to the library for books, and to Houseman's for ice cream.

We then spent an hour or two playing games on the Wii - Sports Resort, Rock Band 3 and Mario Kart, and by then it was time to chat with Jim.

We try to remember to take Aidan's picture at exactly 8:08 pm, the time he was born. This year he was playing Angry Birds on his iPod at that time!

Above - Aidan at 2 years old, in a chalk drawing by an artist at King's Island. Below - Aidan at 11 years old, playing Angry Birds on his iPod. :)

Summertime

I can't believe June is over already, but here it is the first of July and Aidan has begun counting down in earnest to his 11th birthday. Shocking, no?

Jim and I were both able to attend Aidan's 5th grade awards assembly at school on June 9. He received awards for perfect attendance, perfect high honor roll (all As & A-s the whole year), and for being a finalist in the spelling bee. He barely missed receiving a high academic award (he had one A- with the rest of his all As), and also barely missed receiving an award for the mathematics competition - by one point! We are super proud of our smart hard-working kid.

Also on June 9, both kids had their recitals. Margie, Mark and Marcia joined us for a whirlwind tour of southern Kent County. We started at Hope Reformed Church at 7 pm for Esme's piano recital, and as soon as Esme performed, we lickety-split drove back to Byron Center and Nickels Intermediate School for Aidan's recital.

Aidan and Tyler played "Home on the Range" and "Amazing Grace" together for their guitar recital, and then Aidan played the melody of the Beatles' "All My Loving" while Tyler played the chords and Mr. Shepard played the bass line. It was awesome. :)

Our deck has hosted a family of robins for five springs in a row now, and this year we managed to catch one of the fledglings on film - from this year's second batch, I think.

Esme played "Flopsy and Mopsy" for her piano recital this year. She is taking a few lessons during the summer to stay fresh, and will start up full-time again in the fall. She'll be taking part in the local sonatina festival in November, so we are really proud of how far she's come in just one year. She's awesome. :)

Both kids took summer courses at the zoo this week. Esme's was called "Aquatic Adventures" - they studied all the aquatic animals at the zoo, including those from freshwater and salt water habitats. She had an awesome time, and made a puffer fish sculpture and a "triorama" (triangle-shaped diorama) with sea animals.

Aidan's course was called "Photo Safari" - they photographed almost every animal in the zoo and learned a lot about photography techniques and display options. He took some awesome pictures! This is just a small sample, as he has only unloaded the pics from the first day so far.

This sheep is ready for her close-up. :)

A goat collage.

Aidan's teacher called this picture "professional grade". He is very proud of his turtles. :)

Jim and I went to see Huey Lewis and the News at the Frederik Meijer Gardens on June 8, as a belated birthday gift for Jim. It was SO much fun. We thank Grandma Margie, who stayed with our kids while we were out having fun!

Mini Pep went in for her regular service, and we got this car for our loaner. The kids were thrilled, they felt like movie stars. :)

We spent the Saturday before Father's Day with Papa, who naturally had a project for us all to do! We helped put up poles for his bird feeder town - of course he can't have just one bird feeder, and each one has to have a gauntlet of squirrel-resistant obstacle courses. And again of course, he won't use just Quikrete, he has to mix his own concrete. I managed to get a photo of all my boys in one shot - brother, husband, son, father. :)

On Father's Day we took Jim to the zoo just for fun. Here are all my peeps saying "who?" at the owl exhibit. :)

My big girl still sleeps like she did when she was a tiny baby. What a sweetheart.

I reached a major milestone on June 21 - 100,000 people in my family tree file. Amazing!