Halloween and Stuff

Fall has continued to be a busy time for us. Ava's team ended up winning the District Tournament. And they ended up taking 2nd in the conference tournament. It's an incredibly talented group of girls!

The DeJonge's hosted their annual pumpkin fest, which is always a good time. The weather was decent, a little chilly, but not too bad. The girls carved pumpkins and had fun with their friends.

Fall in Michigan is so beautiful. It was nice to get out for some hikes while the weather was still nice. This is at Proud Lake.

Mike and I went to Saugatuck for the 25th annual Impact fall retreat. It was such a fun time. And our group won the video contest!

This was another beautiful hike! Actually I walked to Mill Race from my house, and then walked through the park! 

Hannah had fun at her school's Halloween party. The weather was awful so there was no parade, but she still had a fun morning. And bonus that it was only a half day!

We went trick-or-treating with the Boyagians in Wixom. The weather was terrible, it actually snowed for the first time. So I lasted about fifteen minutes, then I went back to pass out candy with Sophany! The girls got a ton of candy. I think a lot of people skipped this year due to the weather, so people were very generous with how much candy they gave out. Ava got 11.8 lbs! Allie got over 10 lbs, and Hannah got under that, but she didn't stay out as long. Too much candy!

And finally, the girls fall pictures for school. I can't believe how old they are getting! 

Fall Activities

Fall has been a busy time for us. All three girls are in an activity during the months of September and October. Here's some of the fun things we've been able to be a part of this Fall. (There are some videos at the bottom!).

Ava was inducted into National Junior Honor Society. Such a great honor!

Hannah is part of Girls on the Run again this year. It's a really cool after school program where the girls basically have a sort of small group. They talk about empowerment, have a snack, and then run together on the track. 

Hannah was also able to be in the homecoming parade at Northern, as a future Knight!

Kailey and Andrew helped us set up our new volleyball net! We've had some great games already. Our goal is to put sand in next summer.

Hannah had her color run, which is always a fun time. I was at the orange color station!

We visited Long's for cider slushies and donuts a little too much, as usual. But they're just so darn tasty.

Here's a video of Ava at NJHS.

We didn't play floor pong as much during the summer, cause it's so nice outside, but here was one of the evenings we happened to play.

Allie ran Cross Country this year and did a great job! Here's her finishing up a mile!

It's been a busy fall! Halloween is coming up and I'll post about trick-or-treating and the annual Pumpkin Fest soon!

First Day of School 2019

How do I already have two middle schoolers? How is my baby in fourth grade already!? I can't believe how fast life goes by. I remember posting something when my kids were younger that went something like "the days are long, but the years are short." It was true back then, raising little ones. The days felt so long. Now the days feel short AND the years feel short. We had the girls wait till they were 10 to get into any organized sports. We knew the craziness that would come with that. I'm glad we waited. It gave us lots of family dinners, and relaxing, non-stressful evenings at home. Because now it feels like we are into the craziness of activities! Ava plays a different sport every season! Allie plays volleyball, softball, and is running cross country. Hannah's not even 10 yet and she's doing a great after school program called Girls on the Run! I do love that they love sports, but it can be stressful. I'm thankful to be job-less at this time in my life!

All that to say, we had a great first week of school! Ava started 8th, Allie is now in middle school, in sixth grade, and Hannah started fourth. Hannah has Mrs. Morley, a teacher neither of her sisters had, but we really like her! Allie has Cummings, Chapman, White, Arens, Singlyn, and Laplante. Ava has White, Feld, Ristau, Connel, Hopper, and Stahl. (I figure my family is the only people reading this so they will enjoy looking back and remembering their teachers!).

Ava was very excited for Allie to join her at the bus stop in the morning, and be in her school as well. The intersection at Cooley and Carroll happened to be closed the first week of school because they were putting in a round-about. So we had to drive the girls down to West Grand Traverse for their bus stop!

Hannah has enjoyed having the house and bathroom all to herself in the mornings. It's actually been pretty smooth, as Allie and Hannah don't always see eye to eye on things. Hannah also gets to be in the same school as her cousin this year! Emilia started Kindergarten!

This was also Hannah's temporary bus stop, but now we get on right by our house.

We were sad to see summer end, but we're excited for fall and a new year of school! We shall see if I get a job this year. If not, I'll sub occasionally.

Vascations Part 2: 2019

2019 was such a great year. We were able to do a lot of fun small and large trips. This one isn't in order but that's ok. Mike and I split the CT Ohio trip in June. He went for the first half and I took the second half. We went back to Tiffin University for Velocity. We did a lot of great service projects during the day, and enjoyed the conference. The students did a great job and it was such a wonderful group. Evan's group from Chicago came, as well as Matt's group from Grace Commerce.

The rest of the trips are in order now! In February, we went back down to New Smyrna Beach and stayed in the Varilone's beautiful beach house!

We mostly just relaxed and enjoyed being on the ocean. But we did take a day trip to the oldest city in the US, St. Augustine.

We went back to Universal Studios since Katie, Mitch, and Nikki had never been there! It was so much fun and it wasn't crowded at all!

I went on our annual girls trip with my high school friends. This time we went to Charleston. Wow what a beautiful city full of amazing food! We actually stayed in a condo right on the ocean in Folly Beach. So that was amazing!

I didn't realize this next picture was from Instagram but oh well. Mike and I surprised ava and met the Crossroaders in Cedar Point after their serve and swerve trip. It was a very rainy day but the park was empty and we had a great time!

Mike and Sophany asked if we would like to go on a weekend trip with them some time in the summer so we ended up going to South Haven with them. We stayed in the Whitted's brother's house. It was a lot of fun spending time with everyone and hanging out in South Haven. A highlight was definitely the double decker pontoon with a slide off the top!

We surprised the girls with tickets to the live Dude Perfect show in Grand Rapids. We went out for a night and stayed at a hotel right down the street from the venue! Allie and Mike actually got to meet Coby! The show was really funny and the girls loved it!

The next day, we spontaneously decided to go to Michigan's Adventure. It was fun spending the day there. The weather was beautiful!

And for the final hurrah of the summer, we went back to UPBC. This time we went three days early. We spent two nights with the Bucinski's in Grand Junction. They live off the grid right on this gorgeous lake! We spent some time at Lake Superior, ate Tammy's amazing cooking, and just relaxed and visited! On the way to camp, we stopped at Munising Falls and Black Rocks of course, to jump off the rocks. Everet came with us.

Camp was incredible once again. Mike was a shepherd and I was a teacher. The girls were campers. We stayed in the same cabin as last year, Awsegan. The Westermans were on the opposite side, with Mary Kay in the counselor's room. What a wonderful summer we've had! We are blessed.