Spring Break 2024

We are not often a family that takes a lot of vacations or travels far and wide around the country.  We prefer shorter trips, here and there, with just enough planning to make things easy.  Finding the time to do these things, with a busy family of six, can be tricky so we opted to do a quick trip up to Boyne Mountain over Spring Break.  

The kids love an opportunity to stay in a hotel -- this was actually a 'resort' -- and with most of snow melted around here already, it was fun to travel north to enjoy it for a bit longer.

We checked in and headed to up to our 2-story room where the kids all snuggled up on the couch for a quick picture.

Jack approved of the extra-large (and so plush!) bathrobes.

Bright and sunny with some (man-made) snow still on the ground.

Such beautiful scenery in the background.

This was the first time that any of the kids ever rode in a chair-lift and I have to admit, this one was bigger than any that I was on either.  It was shaky and cold but we all survived and then the kids stopped to pose at the top of the hill afterwards.

One of the things that Steve really wanted to do was to go across the Sky Bridge.  This is the longest timber-towered suspension bridge in the world!  This took some more courage on our part (or at least, for many of us), but the girls loved stopping periodically to take pictures along the way.

I chuckled when I saw this picture because they are not really scared; rather, I made them turn around and face directly into the sun.  Ha!

Once we made it to the other side, we stopped for a bit to warm up with the bonfire that was onsite.

Some fun memories were definitely made that day!

We stayed two nights at the resort and enjoyed the indoor water park, as well.  You could tell that it was beginning the 'off season' there as it was definitely not as busy as it could be during the cold winter months.

After we packed up, we decided to stop in Gaylord to visit Call of the Wild, a small museum with all kinds of taxidermy animals native to Michigan.  

There was a fun scavenger hunt set up for the different age ranges of children so it made it exciting for all four of the kids to read the clues, find the exhibit and then check it off their list.

 

At the end, we stopped in the gift shop and everyone was able to pick out a souvenir of their choice to take home.  

One of Jimmy's favorite displays.

All in all, we were gone just three days but we managed to pack in quite a few events ... and we made lots of memories together.  The car ride was not too long either.  Ha!

Mid-Month Randoms: Focus on Sophia and James

I went through my camera roll and decided to do a "Mid-Month Randoms" post with some of the pictures that were on the reel, and then realized that all of them focused on Sophia and James.  I blame that on the fact that we just got done celebrating their birthday month ...

On the morning on her 13th brithday:

Later in the day, she opened all of her presents from us and then we headed to Relli's for dinner, her restaurant of choice.  Grandpa joined us, of course.  

Sidenote: the weather was unseasonably warm.  In fact, the next day (my birthday), the high reached 72 degrees which broke a record.  Crazy!

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The same weekend that we celebrated Sophia's birthday with friends, we had a "Family Party" to jointly celebrate both Sophia and Jimmy.

I made a cake for Sophia and she absolutely loved how it turned out.  I kept it a secret on how I was planning to decorate it and it made it even more special for her.

Because I had already decorated a cake for Jimmy for his earlier party with friends, I kept it more simple and did some dinosaur-topped cupcakes.  That way, we had the option of either white or chocolate cake for our guests:

We kept the balloon arch up, although it was starting to lose a bit of its "ooomph:"

I then added a little plant to this adorable disco ball planter that I found and used it as a centerpiece.

A sign of a good party is wild hair when it is time to blow out your candle!

Sophia's hair was a bit more tamed, ha!

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As a potential decoration for the disco ball party, I custom ordered this neon sign for Sophia.  When it didn't arrive in time for the party, I completely forgot about it.

The following week, it showed up on our doorstep.  I had a good laugh about it and then waited for Sophia to get home from school.  Together, we did some rearranging in her room and then opted to put it above her vanity.  It is PERFECT there.

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Once a month, Jimmy comes home with an "extra credit math project."  It is completely optional, but we like to do them anyway.  The teacher gives the students plenty of time to complete them and we tend to add a little extra creativity to the project.  For this particular assignment, Jimmy had to compare the distances of two planets from the sun and share a few random facts about them.  He opted to use watercolors and the final project turned out awesome!

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Happy St. Patrick's Day!

As the kids get older, I realize that they still love some of our older traditions, but I find myself scaling them back a bit simply because the childhood magic is not as alive as it used to be.  While St. Patrick's Day in the past was filled with leprechaun antics, rainbows of color and sometimes even a fun-filled scavenger hunt, the kids are content now with some rainbow candy and hopefully some clover-shaped cinnamon rolls for breakfast.

I set out gold placemats (pulled from my Craft Closet) and cut out 4-leaf clovers to use as name tags.  Everyone received a big package of Sweet Tart Rainbow Ropes, which were sitting out with clover-shaped cinnamon rolls when they woke up that morning.

Of course the mantle was decorated (even if it was minimal) and the kids were kind enough to pose for a picture in their green shirts.  Even Mia, our cat, made a debut.

Because the holiday fell on a Sunday, and no one had to go to work or go to school, we spent the day just laying low at home.  By mid-afternoon though, Steve and I got ready to meet neighbors and head to Lansing to drink some green beer.  Steve was ready!

 

Sophia snapped a quick picture of us and then dropped Steve and me off on the golf cart at our neighbors' house where we waited for the rest of the group to join us.  There were about 8 of us in total and we went to downtown Lansing for a few stops and then ended in Haslett for an early dinner before heading home.  

 

Both us wanted to be home in time to spend the evening with the kids and watch some basketball.  These days, I like to spend Sunday nights doing a 'reset' for the week where we go over the calendar, get laundry all put away, get lunch bags set out, get water bottles filled, etc.  It helps things to go smoothly on Monday morning!

Sophia's 13th Birthday - A Disco Ball Theme

I knew that I wanted to do something sparkly for Sophia's 13th birthday and suggested a "disco theme" early in our planning stage.  While she did not want an actual disco dance complete with lights and music, we both agreed that the sparkles with silver, black and hot pink would be a great place to start, and then we could integrate a few other special items.

Of great importance was a balloon arch.  I have to say, we are getting pretty good at these now and I love how it turned out.

A true labor of love was the homemade disco ball pinata that I made.  It was layer upon layer of newspaper mache, which I then spray-painted silver and personally glued all of the sparkles on it.  The sparkles were actually punched-out circles from silver notecards that I found on clearance at Walmart.  I filled it with ALL KINDS of goodies and then sealed it up (more paper mache!) and used a coat hanger for extra support inside when hanging it.

Disco Cowboys!  We found these at the store and knew that they would be absolutely perfect for denoting everyone's special glass at the table.  (Everyone took their cowboy home after the party as as a souvenir.

All set up at the table and just waiting for her friends to arrive to celebrate.

I made virgin margaritas for everyone, using special glasses, and there was a lip gloss placed there before the party as another favor.

Sophia's Disco Cowboy was named, "Peace."

Ready to party!

Steve and the boys had other plans so I was on my own to make sure that the pinata was secured in the garage.

It definitely lasted longer than I thought and the girls ended up with TONS of items from the disco ball when it eventually broke.

Lots of silver sparkled adorned the floor afterwards, but it was worth it to see the girls having so much fun with it!

Afterwards, I planned another fun game for the guests.  The girls love playing BINGO, but I added a little extra twist to it.  Whoever won each game got to go to this homemade board and punch out one of the cups to reveal their prize.  

Everyone was allowed to win three games so they ended up with various gift cards and/or some cash.  This is such a big hit with teenagers!  In the end, they were allowed to switch with someone if they liked another prize better ...

All prizes were claimed!

We ended the evening -- before the sleepover began -- with 'brookies' and ice cream while singing 'happy birthday' to our newly minted TEENAGER!