June 25 Twenty-four hours of Kaity

Saturday:  Jesse had an unusual situation arise today inthat he had to work from about 1:00 until midnight (it's a long story) about an hour north of Grand Rapids. He wondered if I could accommodate having Kaity during that time ... so we decided she would just spend the night! Emma was gone on a tubing adventure with her work friends and left by 9am Saturday morning, not returning until 8pm that night. SO ... it was just Kaity and I! Here are a few pictures of our time together.

Kaity wasn't feeling quite herself physically (there is an explanation for this that I won't write about in this blog--nothing to worry about, just life happening and Kaity growing up too fast) and really wasn't very interested in going to a playground to hang out, so we just played here. Kaity got out my old marble run and using the detailed instructions, she was able to make this all by herself! Good job, Kaity!

We did our usual stuff around here: snacking, playing with puppets, hanging out with Belle-Belle and had a pretty relaxing day.

I had been trying to take a few pictures of Kaity sitting at my computer, but she kept photobombing me with putting her knees in front of her face--I showed her some of those funny pictures, which cracked her up.

Kaity brought over baby Angel to spend the night--she is such a cute little baby doll.

She also brought over her stuffed snow leopard.

Later in the evening, Emma came home from her tubing/kayaking adventure. Here she is combing through Kaity's hair. I love these pictures of my two girls.

We popped some popcorn and watched the original "Jurassic Park" movie. I had to leave the room during the real horrid parts ... but we finally finished watching it and settled down to bed by about 11pm. I made a bed for Kaity on the couch and she slept until I woke her up at about 9am Sunday morning.

Kaity and I had a bowl of cereal together and then we got ready for church. Kaity was pretty sleepy all through the service, but it sure was good to have her there with us. After we came back home and had lunch, Emma took Kaity for the rest of the day--thank you, Emma! Emma told me they went to the playground near Diana's house and kicked a soccer ball around for several hours! Good for you guys!

June 23 with Kaity

Thursday:  When I picked Kaity up from Jesse this afternoon, I had a Plan A and a Plan B in my head--Plan B's are always necessary ... just in case! Before I left my house, I had laid out our swim suits, beach towels and all of the stuff we would need to go to Versluis Park for a little while today--even though I am not crazy about the place, due to the fact that they no longer have any life guards on duty; and therefore, they are not charging people to enter the park and swim. This was a "new" policy last summer and we soon found out that the visitors were a much different "sort" when there was no admission fee. It was very WILD and rather depressing. But this is a different year--I thought we could give it a try.

When I suggested it to Kaity as we were driving to my house, she told me she didn't feel like swimming--she had been swimming yesterday with her friends, Kenzie and Harper, at their grandma's pool; and she "didn't feel like getting wet" today! Well! Okay, then.

Plan B:  I found this unpainted wooden lighthouse Diana had given me ... still unpainted ... a few days ago and wondered if Kaity might like to paint it for me. She very happily agreed to work on it for me.

Look at the nice job she is doing with her painting! Go Kaity!

Kaity chose my favorite color for lighthouses: RED (it's also my favorite color of every other color in the world). She painted the base of it GREEN (which is Kaity's favorite color) and even made "grass" growing up the side of the lighthouse! She is going to continue painting it when she comes over on Saturday.

While Kaity was painting, she managed to eat an entire watermelon (one of those mini-personal-seedless kind)!!

We also played puppets. Oscar has become Kaity's favorite lately. He is unique inthat you can make his arms and his legs work AND his head. He also has a very tiny mouth that you can open and close, if your finger is small and strong enough to manipulate it. His leathery, floppy feet are so cute--and his crumpled whiskers are super funny too.

I love these pictures of my Kaity-Girl and Oscar!

Six more days until Kaity turns DOUBLE-DIGITS! Oh my!

June 21 The rest of the day ...

Tuesday afternoon:  These are Aidan's tiny Squishmallows. He took them with him today when he left his house with Miss Jen to go over to Reed's Lake to watch Brendan's sailing lesson. I could see them on the window ledge of Miss Jen's car while we were waiting for Brendan's lesson to end. Aidan told me all about them! He brought them with the intent to meet MY Squishmallow over at MY house! Well, okay then.

So ... that's what we did!

Aidan is really good at photobombing my pictures ... he is a stinker.

Little Erin wandered around playing with the toys here and was very content. Brendan too. I don't have to entertain these little kids at all. They are very busy and quite content to just ... play. That is a blessing to me.

We showed Brendan the "Duck Song" 1 - 3 and he really enjoyed them--I knew he would! By about 3:30, we got ready to go over to Kaity's and capture her to take her to Altitude to play. This has been our habit for the last few weeks. 

Erin and Aidan had a battle, which I think no one won! They both fell in the pit at exactly the same time!

Whoever "invented" this place did a good thing! It's wonderful for the children to be able to run and play like this. It's perfectly air conditioned inside, and the risks for injury are pretty low--if you obey the rules, that is.

Erin has gotten really fast at running up this incline at the dodge ball area. The first week we were here, she kept sliding back down and cracking herself up. Now, she just runs up and down like a pro!

Kaity and Brendan waiting for their turns on the trapeeze!

And here goes BRENDAN!

Aidan kept a close eye on his brother and cousin while they were flying through the air on the trapeze ... he could not be convinced to do it himself; nor was he interested in just jumping off the platform like he did once upon a time.

Aidan really LOVES the foam cube pits--there are two of them. He buries himself in foam with great delight.

Aren't Aidan and Erin the cutest together?

ALTITUDE is a HUGE place ... something like 32,000 square feet! WOW.

Kaity learns another trick or two every week we are here. Today, she was doing front flips--first jumping on the trampoline, doing an in-air summersault and trying to land on her feet; which I think she finally accomplished. I've seen kids do back flips--but Kaity worries that she might break her neck if she tried. I like your caution, Kaity!

We drove Kaity back to her house by exactly 5:30 and then everyone else by 6:00. When we arrived, Miss Madelyn was outside with little Cal. When I was getting out of my car, she told me "We have a situation." I wasn't sure what to expect, but was glad it wasn't anything more serious than being locked out of Dylan and Kelly's. Evidently Miss Jen is so used to locking up the house that when Madelyn picked Cal up from her today and drove to the house, she found it all locked up tight. Miss Jen drove right over to unlock the doors and let everyone inside. So we waited in their yard until Miss Jen showed up. The only negative being the extreme heat--but the kids all did well and Madelyn was as cool as a cucumber about the whole thing!
 

June 21 Sailing Class

Tuesday morning:  Brendan is once again at Sailing Camp over at East Grand Rapids Yacht Club. I don't think he was enrolled last summer (due to COVID)--but I think this is his 3rd class over a few years. Miss Jen had all of the kiddos over at Reed's Lake today while Brendan was taking his 3-hour lesson.

I arrived at about 11:45 this morning to try to be of help to Miss Jen with getting the three younger kids changed out of swimsuits into street clothes and ready to leave with me after Brendan's class. I don't know how Miss Jen does it all alone! She is one of the calmest people! I'm so thankful for her. She is so kind with the children, but clearly in charge. Oh to have that ability!!!

Darling Erin LOVES to be in the water.

Brendan is at Opti-2 level this year, meaning he gets to be in a sailboat SOLO. The picture below is NOT the sailboat the younger children use--Brendan's was much smaller than this, but I neglected to get a picture of it.

Here is baby Cal in his beach duds ...

Brendan was finally ashore ...

Wee Cal was reportedly "grumpy" all morning, until about 30 minutes before I arrived. Jen thinks he is just super sleepy--I totally agree with her. Look how darling he is!

Mr. bossy Aidan was letting us know just WHAT was going on and WHEN (as always) ... Erin doesn't let herself get pushed around as much anymore by her dear brother. They actually do really well together and play really well--but now and then, Erin just really voices her disapproval of Aidan's bossiness. Good for her!

Love these kiddos so much.