Creative Arts Camp

Our church puts on a camp every summer for kids ages 4, up through 6th grade. Ava was able to be a part of the 4 and 5 year old class this year, and I happened to be one of her teachers!

The kids had a great time. Here are some of the different things our class participated in:

~we made puppy chow
~planted perrenials
~made cookies mix jars
~made musical instruments
~went on a parade
~made homemade icecream
~decorated aprons to take home
~leanred new songs and a new dance
~heard Bible stories
~memorized Bible verses
~made macaroni necklaces
And so much more! It was a great, but very tiring, week:)


The first part of the camp was singing and a drama. The theme was "He Delivers" and everything was Italian!




Ava decorating the aprons grandma made for our class.

We taught all the kids "If I Were a Butterfly," which they sang for their parents on Friday.

Making tamborines, maraccas, and Kazoos.

We planted perrenials by the pond at the church.

Allie was able to participate in decorating aprons.

Mike even came one evening to help out.

And of course Hannah came along a few times to enjoy the kids!

It was a wonderful week!

Greenbush

We bid on a cottage on Lake Huron last summer and ended up being the highest bidder. So we took a short little weekend and went up to Greenbush MI! It was a cute little cottage within 50 yards of Lake Huron. The girls had a great time. It was too cold to swim, but they did enjoy playing in the sand.





The view out our back door. We love the water!

The girls collected a lot of small shells on the beach!

Hannah was hilarious. She wasn't too keen on walking in the sand. I think because it shifts so much as she would walk, it felt unstabble to her. By the second day, she was getting more used to it.

Hannah and Allie enjoying their first smores of the summer.

Ava had fun roasting marshmallows too!

It was nice to get away with our family. Two friends from high school stayed in the cottage next door so it was fun catching up with them. We should definitely do this more often!

Hannah Margaret

Hannah will be 17 months at the end of June and we are so in love with this little girl. She is seriously so much fun. She squeals and giggles and laughs all day long. She usually is laughing at something silly her sisters are doing. She loves to tag along with whatever Ava and Allie are doing. Since it's been sunny and nice out lately, she has loved playing outside. Hannah loves getting up on the trampoline or swinging in the baby swing.


So often during the day, I'll walk down the hall to see Hannah sitting sweetly in Ava and Allie's room, playing with their toys.


She definitely has the darkest hair out of the girls.



She's still getting into everything! She pulls all the tupperware out of the cupboard, then moves on to pulling the towels off the oven, then will head to the living room to pull the dvd's off the shelf. It's pretty cute, and slightly annoying. But I've sort of come to terms with the fact that my house will usually be a mess (did I say "sort of!?").

Hannah will try to repeat anything we say. Her vocab at the moment consists of the following words: mama, dada, papa, gama (grandma), chicken, ba bye, hi, ball, and bath. She also has her own cute little way of saying "thank you, Ava, and Allie." Her favorite person is still Papa! And she loves bugs. Seriously, if she sees any kind of bug she squeals with delight and chases it till she can get ahold of it! I'm hoping she always keeps this non-fear of insects.

We're blessed to have this little angel in our house. She brings the whole family so much joy!

Nick's wedding

Mike's brother Nick recently got married. The girls were all invited to the wedding. They had a blast! This is the second wedding they have been able to attend. The girls talk about these weddings months after. They love getting dressed up and have so much fun dancing on the big dance floor! Even Hannah had a lot of fun at Nick's wedding. Congrats Nick and Melissa!

Grad video

Our little graduate

Ava graduated from pre-school last week. The teachers put together a very sweet ceremony. Each child was able to walk down the aisle to the graduation song. They showed a slide show of photos throughout the year. They also called each child up individually to accept their "diploma" and hear a little bit about the student. For Ava, Ms. Debbie said "Ava's favorite part of school was the Halloween party and she will be attending Commerce Elementary in the Fall." It was very cute!


Ava on stage with her friends.


The whole class

Proud graduate

Her sisters cheered her on!

Proud grandparents!

Proud mommy!

Mother's Day tea party

Ava's pre-school had a tea party for mother's day. The kids were allowed to invite their moms and grandmas. Both Grandma Epley and Grandma Ross were able to come! The kids sang a song for us and read us a story. It was such a sweet afternoon.

15 months

Hannah turned 15 months on April 26. She is growing so fast. She is now repeating things we say. Just the other day, I'm pretty sure she said "chickens!" She says thank you, papa, mama, dada, and the girls' names (sort of!). She knows where her nose, belly button, and teeth are. She sometimes mixes up her ears and eyes. She will fold her hands when we say "pray." And she also has a word for "Amen" that sounds very much like it! She is very proud of her walking abilities. Throughout the day she will walk from room to room, back and forth. It's really cute. She likes to pick up purses and put them on her shoulder and walk around. She now has 9 teeth. She eats everything! Her favorite foods are cheese, eggs, and cheerios. She's not a fan of green beans, chicken, or pork. She usually spits those things out. She's taking one nap a day for me, which usually last from 2 to 3 hours. We put her to bed at 8 or 8:30 and she'll sleep for about 12 hours through the night. She LOVES her blankie. She was my youngest to get attached to a blankie.

She loves her sisters. She'll play in their room with them very nicely. I love that her hair is starting to grow more!


Hannah loves to be held and snuggled. But she also likes being left alone to walk around or play. Her favorite person is still Papa, but I think I'm a close second:) We are loving this stage with Hannah!

Hair salon

My girls do not enjoy having their hair done. They would much rather wake up and leave it the way it is, tangles and all. If I pretend to be a hairdresser, get out their little chair, and talk in an accent asking what they'd like me to do today, they are more willing to allow me to do it. Of course I don't do this everyday. Ava knows on school days, she will be getting her hair pulled back. But it's fun to do the hair salon every once in a while. We did it on this paticular day and even Maya and Hannah were involved!

Happy (belated) Easter

"The greatest day in history, death is beaten You have rescued me, sing it out, Jesus is alive!"
These are words from the song "O Happy Day" and I love these lyrics. It really is the greatest day in history when Christ conquers the grave and rescues us from our sin. What lost, hopeless souls we would be without Jesus. Easter is such a great time to reflect on His sacrifice. We had a wonderful day celebrating this with our families. Mike and I actually were part of the worship team, so we had to be at church very early. My parents brought the girls to church and they were able to watch a childrens drama about Easter. They really liked it!

After church we let the girls find their Easter baskets. We then had them take naps because both the Epley and Ross families were coming for dinner. It was a full house!



It's fun getting all dressed up!


We seemed to have more candy this Easter than we did for Halloween. I don't know how that happens.

Hannah's basket was the healthiest!

All the cousins getting ready for an Easter egg hunt.

Their filled baskets.

We were thrilled that the rain held out because we ended up staying outside most of the day. Mike even took the kids on a tractor ride!

Hannah's best friend, Papa.

It was a beautiful and fun day, spending time with out families. Happy Easter!

Baby chics

When I was growing up, our family raised chickens. We always had fresh eggs, and when the chickens were done producing, we had fresh chicken. Within the past year, my parents have started raising chickens again. Mike and I have been talking about getting chickens as well, so we can have fresh eggs, and can sell some as well. We now have 12 chics taking up residence in the corner of our dining room. They have to stay under a heat lamp for at least the first two weeks. I believe once their feathers come in, they can go outside.

They really don't require that much work, especially once they're grown. You can usually count on one egg per day, per chicken. So hopefully we'll get a dozen a day!

The girls and I had a fun day today. We all piled in the car and went to Meijer in the morning.

After Meijer, we decided to get mommy a much needed coffee, and the girls some much needed "run around" time. This cold weather is making us all stir crazy. So we headed over to the McD's play place.

We love having Maya two days a week. The girls all play really well together.