A brief excursion to Myers Lake ...

I have a near neighbor who told me that Myers Lake was a good place to take children swimming in the summer months. There is a very small public beach (no entry fees), a nice playground, and clean bathrooms! I would much rather swim in Lake Michigan, but it's not always possible or economical to drive that distance ~ and sometimes time doesn't allow for an entire day outing either.

Myers Lake is 15 minutes from my house!

I decided to take a little drive out to Myers Lake late in the afternoon on Saturday ... just to see what we could see. OBVIOUSLY, we were not going to be swimming ... the beach has been closed since Labor Day ... and it was a very typically cold and windy November Michigan afternoon. But the kids were "up" for an exploration, so that's what we decided to do! 

The boys ran right down to the water's edge ... but Emma wanted to see the playground first. 

I told the boys to be sure NOT to get wet, and they were very obedient. Naturally, they took it as far as they possibly could with the tips of the shoes right exactly on the edge of the water. 

It's difficult to see exactly how cold it was Saturday afternoon. The boys were unphased by the wind and the cold. Both of them dug holes in the sand using their hands as shovels. Emma and I were too miserable to last very long, and we convinced (bribed) the boys back to the car with a promise that we would return to this place next summer to build sand castles and swim.

Brendan visits his cousins ~ with Uncle Dylan and Aunt Kelly

Emma, Chris and Matthew were elated that Uncle Dylan and baby Brendan were coming for a visit! Aunt Kelly had been working hard all week with her birthing clients and had a bunch of errands to run, but she was finally able to come over and join us for lunch!

Even though it was quite cold and very windy Saturday, Christopher talked his Uncle Dylan into tossing the football around in front of the house. I don't have an official football. This is only a Nerf ball, but it serves its purpose I think.

I would have stayed outdoors longer, because it was so much fun to watch these guys ... but I was too cold ... and went back inside. 

Christopher hopes to join the Comstock Park football team when he reaches middle school. Chris has a lot of natural athletic ability. I think he will make a very good player.

Baby Brendan was up to his usual shenanigans ... pushing every button he could find that either made a light go on and off . . . or some such magical reward for his effort.  

 Chris got out the beach ball. He and Brendan used MY room as their field of play. Brendan was so overjoyed! And I was so pleased to see how good Christopher was with Brendan! They truly enjoyed each other.

Dylan was able to squeeze in a song or two ...
always beautiful to hear him play.

 Aunt Kelly arrived just barely in time to catch some lunch with us ... and then the kiddos asked if she could help us understand some of the Origami book we had checked out from the library. Kelly is ... amazingly mechanical. And she is very wonderful with children too. 

Matthew and Emma had tried to make the Origami sailboat earlier in the morning. I was (thankfully) busy in the kitchen and couldn't be of much "help." However, Matthew constructed the FROG (not pictured) all by himself, and Emma made several CUPS (that you can actually drink from!)  After lunch, Kelly sat down with the children and helped them make the SAILBOAT and the WATER BOMB, which was quite difficult to construct! Emma quickly memorized how to do it, and even taught me how! 

Our BEAUTIFUL Kelly with her pink sailboat!

 Meanwhile, Dylan played the piano!

Brendan found his way back to the playroom and DE-constructed the city and zoo the children had made earlier in the day. But nobody was offended by his behavior one single bit!  

 I super LOVE this picture of Matthew and Brendan. They were on my reading chair in the bedroom for the longest time just visiting together.

Emma, Chris and Matthew are used to babies! I have observed them being very kind and helpful with their baby sister (little Kaity-girl). Perhaps it just comes naturally to them to enjoy babies ... they certainly played well with Brendan, and there was obvious affection between them. 

 Happy sounds were all over my Beach House Saturday ... laughter that made my heart sing for JOY!

Our quiet Saturday morning ...

Friday night, Matthew was the first one asleep ~ which is usually the case. I'm not saying that he fell asleep EARLY because on any given Friday night, the "earliest" sleeper is not soundly sleeping until after 11:00. It was nearly 11:30 when Matthew fell asleep Friday night, and everyone followed soon after.  We all got a good night's rest!

All of the kids continue to enjoy my piano
Christopher looks like a natural pianist here!

I was surprised, and I won't lie, I was PLEASED that everyone slept until 8:00 in the morning. I was even able to shower and get somewhat presentable before the last of them (Emma) crawled out from her sleeping bag ready to enjoy breakfast. 

Matthew was actually the first one awake. He was pretty taken with a new Origami book I had checked out from the library, and he got right to work on making some stuff. 

I also found a couple of really really cool LEGO books that showed huge models constructed entirely out of LEGO's that were replicas of The Statue of Liberty, The Empire State Building, Mount Rushmore, and so much more. Christopher was very interested in looking all through both books and kept showing me the models he liked best. 

 Emma re-arranged my refrigerator magnets ... she does this almost every week, and tells a little adventure story with them.

Matthew and Emma spent some time back in the playroom, hauled out most of the varied blocks back there and began building a city of their own, and I think they were also making a zoo ... 

There was nothing extra-special about our morning. But I was happy to see how relaxed all of us were, just hanging out here at the house, enjoying each other's company. In my life, nothing compares to this quiet JOY of having the children nearby.

I wasn't sure what we were going to do with the rest of our day ... and then my phone rang and it was Dylan wondering if he and Brendan could come over for a little while to play! YES! I should have posted these entries in a more time-accurate manner; but I didn't think of that until I was already in the middle of my narration! Please see "Brendan visits his cousins ~ with Uncle Dylan and Aunt Kelly."

The Gift of Playworld

A few weeks ago I received a call from a friend who wanted to treat the grandkids and I to an evening of pizza and indoor play at a place called Playworld (Grandville). Wow! I was very surprised by her offer, and thankful too ... so we arranged to meet her there on Friday afternoon after school.

Playworld is a fairly large indoor playground for children under 12. There are tunnels and ropes and mazes and slides, bouncy basketball courts, and a whole bunch of stuff for kids to enjoy. 

 Emma, Christopher, and Matthew were SO EXCITED to go and play! These kiddos take their playing very seriously. I'm so glad they are still young enough to do imaginary play, as well as to make new friends instantly. They were surrounded by a bunch of children their own age, and immediately were running and playing with all of them. 

I didn't take a whole bunch of pictures here, mainly because I wasn't fast enough to keep up with WHERE they were, and they weren't about to stand still for me to snap their photos.

This certainly wasn't our typical Friday night activity. However, now that the weather has turned colder and there is even colder weather on the way, we will not be doing as much in the way of outdoor adventures. This was so much fun! 

We came home, and even though each of them had devoured (inhaled) three rather large pieces of pizza, they were "starving" and .... definitely NEEDED a huge ice cream sundae to fill their stomachs ... 

After our sundaes, we looked at books from the library basket, got ready for bed, and enjoyed "Project X" on Netflix ... which the children loved because it was about an animal, a chimpanzee named Virgil. I'm so thankful for another great Friday night with these sweet grandkids.

Wednesday with Brendan

Aside from the fact that is has rained all day long today, it was still a pretty nice day. Today is Wednesday, and it is the day that Kelly brings both laundry and baby over to the Beach House!

It's been awhile since I tried coloring with Brendan, but at only 21 months, he finds it's pretty difficult to keep those colors from spilling over from his paper, to the table, to the chair ... etc. I think I'll wait a little while longer for him to get the concept ... 

Brendan is a climber ... so watch out! He climbs everything without fear. He loves my radio/boom box and pushes every button on it with delight.

We played for awhile today with my wind-up toys. They are starting to really show how old they are! Some of them are rather sluggish, and others refuse to ... wind up! But our bumble-bee was working just fine today. 

It seemed that every time I turned my back on this little fellow today, he had climbed a different chair to see just what was up on top! 

I got out my bucket of Lock-Blocks just to see if Brendan was ready for some building. He liked them mostly when I was building something that could be knocked over ... 

But then we found this rotary blade lock-block and that's all Brendan needed to keep him occupied for a very long time ... 

Some day, I think Brendan is going to be some kind of technical engineer type of fellow ... but for now, he is my dear little fellow, and that's all that matters to me!