first grade....

oh my FUNNY!!!!!!! 1st grade HW tonight was to read the girl and the frog....and when Jack read "kissed", yelled GROSS! When he read, "married" he yelled, GROSS! and when he read "happily ever after" he yelled, GROSS! so funny!! He even had a hard time writing kissed :P hee hee

also we have a LOT of first grade humor.... "spell I cup"...."spell Pig backwards and say funny", talk about wieners, pee and poop. oh my! :) 

 

 

over 30 years

my dad has been in fire service for over 30 years and retired recently. on saturday, selma township threw him a surprise retirement party :) he did NOT want to go....he had a 6th sense and knew where we were going. my dad is a very humble man and does not like any attention drawn to him. i am glad he went--a lot of people showed up to share their thankfulness for his service. thanks dad for serving the cadillac community!

visiting uncle tom

we went up to cadillac for the weekend and of course we stopped at the cemetery to visit uncle tom and grandpa bill and grandma beep beep.

the boys left a favorite lego guy for uncle tom :)

and if you look to the right of the stone, you can see luke left a little "digger" for grandpa bill

the cemetery is a very comfortable place for the boys. running the "track"

reading update

jack took his star reading test today--range from 2.7-3.8 :) estimated grade equivalent: 3.2 .   GREAT JOB JACK O!!!!

date night

i picked up jack, luke and kaden from school today and took the three boys for a date night :) first up: BOWLING!

bowling names (selected by the individual)
luke: fireball
kaden: kaden
jack: yellow jacket
me: mom

second up: PIZZA HUT :)

now: home to play

new dip

created a new dip tonight and it made me think of my friend sarah-- cream cheese, mayo, siracha, soy sauce and a tid bit of sesame oil--warmed piping hot in the microwave :) I had it with fritos. MMMMM

11.9

jack read a magic tree house book last night. jack conquered the book last night. jack aced the test today. he is now at 11.9 in his ar points :) needed 5 to earn the end of the year party!

green child

luke is our green child. his favorite thing lately to share with us is how wonderful worms are for the earth. he raves about them! he also will chat your ear off about recycling to prevent the earth from becoming a big trash dump and taking good care of our oceans so we can swim in them and have a place for fish to live. i love my little green contentious guy :)

food

oh my yummy goodness! this has been a great food week!!!

sunday:  foil packets

monday: make your own :)

tuesday:  dinner at the farm--mom b made amazing stuffed chicken marsala with mashed bacon and leek red skins and roasted asparagus with fresh dill and lemon zest! DIVINE!

wednesday: josh and i had north carolina pulled pork on pretzel buns and topped with  bobby flay's coleslaw and boys had deli meat :)

foil packets: 

spray doubled foil with cooking spray, layer your ingredients (meats, veggies, etc), drizzle with oil and seasoning of your choice. Then grill for 15 minutes or so. Cut everything pretty small so the meat cooks fast :)   

one packet: thin thin thin sliced red potatoes, broccoli, shirmp, fox point seasoning, turkey kielbasa, onion and feta

other packets also had various items like: chicken and pepper jack
 
coleslaw: 

Ingredients

• 1 head green cabbage, finely shredded
• 2 large carrots, finely shredded
• 3/4 cup best-quality mayonnaise
• 2 tablespoons sour cream
• 2 tablespoons grated Spanish onion
• 2 tablespoons sugar, or to taste
• 2 tablespoons white vinegar
• 1 tablespoon dry mustard
• 2 teaspoons celery salt
• Salt and freshly ground pepper

Directions

Combine the shredded cabbage and carrots in a large bowl. Whisk together the mayonnaise, sour cream, onion, sugar, vinegar, mustard, celery salt, salt, and pepper in a medium bowl, and then add to the cabbage mixture. Mix well to combine and taste for seasoning; add more salt, pepper, or sugar if desired. 

pork: 

NEED:
1 pork butt (i had a shoulder so that would do)
2 cups apple cider vinnegar
salt and pepper to taste
2 tsp sugar

ketchup
hot sauce
mustard powder (i used dash of real)

DO:
pork butt into crock pot
pour in vinnegar
sprinkle with salt, pepper, sugar

cook on low all day mmmmmm

take meat out, shred (get rid of icky fat stuff)

mix 1/2 cup of the vinnegar cooking liquid with ketchup, hot sauce, mustard (to taste)
mix into pork

mmmmmm enjoy on buns!

the recipe also suggests adding dash of oj with ketchup mix.

(Oh and tonight i used just bbq sauce instead....) 

rest of the week: 

thursday: eating at the farm again 

friday: 

 

saturday: cadillac 

 

sunday: stomboli 

 

monday: 

 

tuesday: out (luke appt)  

a trip

sunday morning luke woke me up early and "needed" to snuggle on the couch. as we lay there watching mickey mouse club house, i couldn't help but take a trip down memory lane. my thoughts wandered to jack and luke when they were little--watching little einsteins, mickey mouse clubhouse, higgley town heroes and jo jo's circus. i thought of all the baby snuggles, the late nights and the early mornings. i remembered all the lovin' they gave this mama :) it was such a sweet and peaceful trip. i snuggled luke just a bit harder when i remembered my little guy is heading off to kindergarten in just about 5 months. gulp :) he is ready. i hope this mama is too!

2. 10. 100. 10.9

2: # of chapter books he read in a week AND tested on today for accelerated reader

10: # of chapters in the book he read LAST night

100: # of pages in the book he read LAST night

10.9: # of his AR score now that he earned 1.0 point for EACH of the two chapter books today when he got 10/10 on each test :)

GO JACK-O GO! :)

spiffied up :)

LOVE love love love this little man's eyes :)

love this goofy gus! :)

man my boys look good when they get their hairs cut :)

time to play

i have spent a lot of time resting lately--this pneumonia is not playing nice and i am wiped out a LOT. today i rested all day long (thank you fog day) while the boys played nice and then with the neighbors. resting gave me the energy to take the boys to the playground after supper :) a few pictures for you to enjoy!

March

came in like a lion.....and here beautifully!!! i believe this is the earliest i have ever had flowers bloom! :)

these are the chapters of our lives!

and man do these chapters fly by fast! our "little" jack-0 (age 6.5) IS NOW reading chapter books on his own! he read magic tree house dingoes at dinnertime partially outloud to us and partially to himself before falling asleep at night. he took the AR test today and got a 100%!!!!

seems like just yesterday he was climbing up into my lap to read the same firefighter book over and over and over and over again :) oh these chapters go so fast!!!

bridal shower!!!!

melissa and chris are getting married june 30~:) they live in new mexico and the wedding will be there. melissa is from traverse and we were college roomies :) today, as her matron of honor, i had the honor of throwing her a shower! so many lovely college friends attended! so fun!!!!

watching M answer questions about C :)

m's mom with v's baby

melissa, julie and kt

erin, melyssa and juliane

verbeek girls! me, melissa, vickie and kt

lots of hope girls!!

bridesmaids
julie, me, melissa (bride) and erin

so much joy :)

i had such a joyful weekend--college roomies were in "da house"!  vickie and gordon arrived friday with their beautiful boys--carter (2.8 years old) and logan (4 weeks). melissa and chris (her finacee) flew in saturday afternoon! the ten of us (including my family of four) had a WONDERFUL WEEKEND!

highlights:
--quick shopping trip and lunch with vickie in howard city
--laughter, lots and lots of laughter
--bridal shower (another post)
--t-bones over charcoal!!!!
--62+ degree weather
--boys trips to the playground and to see the farm
--late night talks
--newborn baby snuggles
--play time for young friends--the next generation
--talking LOTS of talking :)

handsome carter

dinner party for great friends--yes please :)

melissa and chris--the soon to be married couple :)

sweet baby 4 week old logan

under ONE roof again--it's been close to 7 years! roomies!