September 3 with Kaitlynn

Thursday:  A very happy little face greeted me when I picked her up from Jesse this afternoon. You see, it was Kaity's first official on-site day of SECOND GRADE and she got to ride a real live school bus with her two best buddies--Kenzie and Harper! Kaity was sky-high with the thrill of it all!

Kaity actually built with me for almost an hour this afternoon. I wasn't sure that she would seeing that this toy is no longer "new." But she did! I suggested she make an entirely GREEN concoction. She went to work on it with all of her might.

I concentrated on purple and yellow and made a kind of high-ceilinged house of sorts ...

Kaity decided to switch to blue and built for a very long time ...

 This next batch of photos loaded entirely backwards! I'm not sure WHY on earth?!?!? Anyway, the picture below is Kaity eating her Wendy's Kids' Meal in my back trunk. I joined her there to eat my crispy chicken sandwich.

We went to AJ's with the intention of playing mini-golf ... but I did let Kaity talk me into letting her drive a go-cart.

We DID play mini-golf. I'll have to add up our terrible scores and admit to the bad result of our golfing. We did have fun while we played, and that's what is important.

AJ's has a really nice mini-golf course. It's one of the nicest I have ever played. I'm terrible at it, but that's OK.

I've added things up--Kaity shot a 57 (not counting the times she kicked the ball closer to the hole), and I shot a 59. We also didn't penalize ourselves for water mishaps and out-of-bounds shots. 

Here are the pictures of Kaity driving the mini-car. They gave her a really LONG turn! I think she did NINE times around the track before they called her in!

Good job, Kaity! I loved spending time with you today, dear!

When we arrived back at Jesse's, I got to say "hi" to Emma, who was on her dinner break from work PLUS I got to visit a tiny bit with Matthew! Happiness!

September 2 in Detroit

 Wednesday:  I drove to Detroit this morning to visit my sister, Ruthanne, and husband, Terry. They actually live in Clinton Township, in a house that Terry helped his father build many years ago. I brought my magnetic tiles along for us to play with because I KNEW Ruthanne would love them. She did!

Ruthanne is a very creative person--she doesn't seem to realize that fully, but she is! I loved the little house she designed--isn't it cute?

Terry made a small cabin to begin his building ...

And then we requested that he build a vehicle. Terry has an engineering degree from Lawrence Technological Institute -- among other degrees.

Ruthanne kept adding to her cute house, making it even nicer.

Terry built a very interesting truck for us. We couldn't decide if it was a dump truck or garbage truck or just what ... but we liked it!

See it? Isn't it great?

And then Terry just started showing off ...

... and made a crazy kind of building that we declared was VERY interesting! It was fun to build with these guys!

We also played a game of Scrabble, as well as Double Bananagrams! We watched some news and visited. We played with Matey-Bird, because, of course he came along for the adventure as well! I had a really nice visit, spent the night with them and returned home to Grand Rapids early Thursday afternoon. I need to make this trip again next month before the weather gets yucky in Michigan--which is predicted to be really harsh this winter!

September 1 Three cuties

Tuesday:  These kiddos were over for a few hours today--a bit shorter time than usual, because Brendan had an appointment from 11-noon, so we didn't actually get over here until nearly 1:00.

This is the way little Erin greets Matey-Bird each week. She is the sweetest little soul--I could just eat her up.

And look at curly-tops here ...

I LOVE these curls, dear Aidan!

These kiddos played magnatiles for TWO hours and made all kinds of beautiful things.

I'm so glad I got a double set. With three active children, we have quite enough to satisfy all of them.

Aidan is really quite a little architect ...

Erin just loves to plop the tiles one on top of each other ... but she gets a lot of joy out of it.

Isn't she the cutest?

Dear Brendan experienced several frustrations -- he will get an idea into his head and will want it to work even if it can't possibly work ... but mostly he did okay with everything.

Erin really loves the little people who I got to go with these sets. She likes to put them in families and make houses for them.

The cuteness is just everywhere when they build together ...

Well, there, Little Miss Purple -- and Mr. BLUE Aidan!

Look at all the cool things we made!

Aidan snatched up a few jets to play with on the way back to his house ...

Kelly suggested that we celebrate MY birthday and HER birthday with a nice Chinese dinner tonight from PF Chang's. YES! Brendan and I played a little bit of Pokemon Sword and Shield while we waited for Kelly to come home. The little kids were in the basement with us, jumping all over me, begging for my tickle bugs ... I've never seen a more ticklist child than Aidan Paul--Erin comes close though! Their laughter is such a JOY. And Brendan does unbelievably well with all of their interruptions. It was a GOOD day!