Laura the Elephant

Ever heard of the charity Little Dresses for Africa? Rachel, the woman who founded it, attends our church, and organized this fun little fundraiser in order to build a school in Malawi. There was a little carnival with a bouncy house, games, crafts, food, and live music. The main attraction was an elephant ride.

Meet Laura. She is a rescue elephant who lives in Michigan. She may look familiar to you (ha ha!), because she is the elephant that was in the movie Ace Ventura. We took Liam to ride her, and he LOVED it! He had to be accompanied by an adult, so Josh rode while I took pictures and showed London. She called it a puppy :)

Summer Nights

Last month, Josh was home early every night (by 5:30), so we got to spend a lot of nice time together playing outside, relaxing inside, or making ice cream in our new cuisinart machine- everyone needs one of those machines! Now it's back to work as usual for Josh, leaving early and coming home near he kids bedtimes...at least he has most weekends off now though, making those something to look forward to again!
London enjoying some of the ice cream we made- cookies and cream...who needs a spoon?!

Watching a Veggie Tales video before bed.

Love.

I love this picture. I don't really know why, but I think it's because it encompasses the stage that they are in so well. They are starting to play together better and love each other more. Not that that makes things easy- the play often becomes too rough, or Liam gets upset because London doesn't want to play with him, but it's nice to know that they love each other and really like to be with each other most of the time.

Let's go Outside!

I've been trying to plan some outdoor activities while the weather is still good...I took the kids the a splash pad last week and Liam had a BLAST. London, as it turns out, hates sprinklers, but she was happy just to sit on the blanket with me and watch Liam have a good time. We've also been using our kiddie pool as much as we can before it's time to put it away for the season. Here are some pics of the kids having some outdoor time!

Liam LOVED the splash pad. It wasn't very warm outside- only about 75, but he still had a great time.

London sitting by the pool (in the shade!) relaxing. I know her swimsuit doesn't fit. Honestly, she usually just wears a swim diaper because I'm too lazy to put a suit on her. :)

London sitting on the blanket at the splash pad. In her coverup- she DOES have a suit that fits, and she wears it in public!

Playing in the pool!

Ode to the Backyard

We've been spending a lot of time outside these days- the weather is perfect right now, and I feel like in Michigan you have to jump on that when you get the chance, because it will starts snowing here in about two months. Here are some photos of our backyard- these were taken about a month ago when it was hotter out, and the grass was dying.

There are a lot of plants out here, and I don't know the first thing about gardening. Luckily, my mom and aunt came up a couple of weeks ago and helped me get caught up on the weeding- it was a mess!

This is our first house that we've had a fenced in backyard, and we love it! We don't have to worry that the kids are wandering off if I need to run inside to grab something or if I'm busy in the garden. The deck is great too with the sandbox, grill and kiddie pool. I'm going to miss the summer!

Balloon Fest!

We finally got to go to the Balloon Festival in Howell this year. We almost missed it again, but I happend to see something for it the day that we went (Sunday), which was the last day of the festival. It was fun to get to see the balloons taking off, and Liam had a blast on this roller coaster (but he only got to ride it once, because it was $5 each time- yikes!

A boy and his Dog

Josh and I have been discussing when the right time to get a dog would be. Mostly because Liam asks for one all the time, and when we take him to do something fun (like play at the park) he is only interested in the dogs if they are around. He LOVES dogs. We knew that we would eventually get him one, but the plan was to wait until after Josh's fellowship. Josh, for some reason, changed his mind, and thought maybe we should get one now. We talked and talked about it, and decided to go for it. Mostly because the timing is good (the weather was mildly warm), we have a great fenced back yard for her, and I am home with the kids during the day, so she would rarely be left along for full days. We researched breeds and were deciding between a boxer and and English Bulldog, but we didn't want to pay English Bulldog prices. Then we found out about a hybird breed...a "mini bulldog" that is 1/4 pug and 3/4 English bulldog. The don't cost nearly as much and are supposed to have a lot fewer health problems and be much lower maintenance. We found one in Ohio, about 4 hours away, and went to pick her up right away. We didn't tell Liam, just in case we decided not to go through with it at the last minute, or if she didn't look healthy and ready to go home. When Liam first saw her he was SO exited. Now he loves her most of the time, but says that we really need to teach her not to bite. When she does bite him, he says he wants her to "Go to Seattle". Does that surprise any of you who have been around Liam lately? I think once we get her trained a little better, they will be the best of buddies, as they were intended to be :) Here are some photos of Paisley

Our New House

Thought I would post some pics of the house, although Blogger is not cooperating with me tonight, so they are all out of order. I am missing pics of the back yard (one of my favorite places here!) and London's room, because she seems to be sleeping every time I think to take a picture.

Here is a view of the basement when you first walk down. You see part of the kids toy area and the entertainment space. That exposed brick on the walls is painted. Very classy :) Basement Entertainment area:

Kids play area of the basement. The doorway you see is to an "extra bedroom", which is completely empty except for a bed. It has a nice walk in closet for storage though, and there is also a storage room off of this room. The stairwell is also right there.

The office/computer area and part of Josh's weight lifting/fitness area, also in the basement.

Liam's Room- he has a nice walk in closet to store more of his toys in.

Living room view from the kitchen- that's the kitchen island right there, and the stairway leads upstairs to the kids rooms and bathroom (not pictured!)

The kitchen. This photo was taken from the stairwell. Lots of cabinet space and a walk in pantry- Love it!

Dining room, complete with two kids enjoying their breakfast.

Outside Front View.

I'll get the pics up of London's room, our room, and the backyard soon- I'll leave out the bathrooms :)

Goodbye Friends!

Well, we have moved...again. This time back to MI. There were some things that I was looking forward to getting back to (mostly friends!) and some things that were hard to leave (again, mostly friends). I was given a surprise going away party by my friends in Iowa, which was so nice! It gave me a chance to say goodbye to everyone. Also, a lot of my friends there offered to watch the kids while I packed, which was super helpful, as you can imagine packing is difficult with two kids who are into everything!

This move was kind of eventful- I hurt my back about a week before the truck was to be loaded, got a stomach virus two days before the truck was to be loaded, and the day we were loading the truck, I was doing some of the light stuff myself and Liam fell off the back of the truck, requiring a trip to the ER- thankfully my fried Molly was there and followed me to help take care of London- she also helped calm me down. So I had to say goodbye to Molly in the ER. Thankfully, Liam was okay- I will NEVER forget the sound his head made when he hit the concrete- think of a Cantelope being thrown at the concrete and not busting open. THUNK. Ick. It makes me sick just to think of. So we finally got everything loaded, and my mom and dad were there to get us there (Josh had to stay behind one more week to finish up his work). So my dad drove the moving truck, my mom took their truck with Liam in it, and London and I drove my car. We were about 4 hours into our trip when the movers called and said they would be "a little late". I asked how late a little late is, and he told me he would be there at 8:30. That was two hours late, not a little, but I didn't have much choice. Two hours later, he called me again and said "Never Mind. We're not going to make it at all." Great. So now we have a truck to unload. My mom, dad and I were up late unloading everything so the truck could be returned the next morning (my dad did most of the work!), but we got it all unloaded. All of the boxes were unpacked and everything was put away in just two days- a new record!

Here are a couple of pics from our last day in Iowa City:
We met a couple of friends at the park for one last play date.

On the merry go round with friends. I know that Liam is missing these guys- he still asks to play with them sometimes, even though he knows they are far away :(

Lake Days

We had some sweltering hot days here last week, so Molly and I decided to take the kids to the "lake". We were going to go to the pool, but it had been packed, and she wasn't really comfortable with it as a first trip by herself with two kids, and I wasn't as my first trip by myeself with two MOBILE kids. So we decided on the lake so they could play in the sand, it was less crowded, and it was free, just in case we didn't last long.

The kids did great. I got there a little early, which was good, because it took me 10 minutes to convince Liam that the water wasn't dirty, and that he could, in fact, get in it. He finally got in and really loved it! He did great at staying near me (when he didn't, I just told him there were fish where he was going, and he should come back- hey, you tell them what you have to to keep them safe, right? And there WERE fish in there!) and London was perfectly happy to sit on the shore and play in the sand the whole time.

Here is a photo of London getting kisses from Lily- she loves Lily and is starting to kiss her back now :) This is the only pic we got of Liam- he was too busy to sit still and pose :)

And here's London playing in the sand (with Lily's toys). I stole these pics off of Molly's blog, since I forgot my camera- thanks Molly :)

Happy Birthday to Lily!

My friend Molly's little girl just turned two. I can't believe it! We met them a year ago, when we first got to Iowa City, so Lily was about the same age that London is now. Here is a photo of London at her party, and the cake that I made for her: (By the way, London is walking All OVER the place now!)