A Nice Sunday Evening

I was messing around outside this evening and thought I would take some pictures of the outside decorations on our porch. Unfortunately, the lot our home sits on is way too small for a garden, so the only plants I can have are hanging plants (which I often kill) or house plants. I LOVE Mickey Mouse, so the kids and Chris often get me something "Mickey" or Disney themed for special occasions. The Mickey with the watering can is my wind chimes I received for Mother's Day 2009. The hanging Mickey is my favorite! He's hanging off the purple flower. The other wind chime is from the Mississinewa Frontier Festival that takes place every year (in September) in Marion, IN. They put on a Civil War reenactment and have booths where you can buy old timey things. This is actually from a booth that was run by a favorite Irish band called "Father, Son, and Friends." They were playing music and selling Irish souvenirs. Very cool!

The little family you see here is a knicknack Chris bought on a day out to Shipshewana. We went into a neat little toy store in one of the shops and I saw this and had to have it! I need to get back there so I can get a bigger little boy, Colt is getting bigger! The flag is the decoration on our front door. I got this at the Kendallville Apple Festival a few years ago. I LOVE antique looking flag/patriotic items - my kitchen is full of them!

Thanks, Maria!!

More Holland, MI pictures...

WOW!! Thanks to Cousin Maria for the collaging tip! This is great!!

Daddy's Picnic Table

OOOPS! I accidentally deleted the previous post about Chris's picnic table. We are so proud of him for building this! I think he's decided to just finish it with a clear coat and leave the color as is. His next project: making one adult sized : )

On a Warm Summer Day...

This afternoon while Colt was napping and Chris was in Fremont working the Music Fest, I got to spend some quality "girl time" with the girls. It's nice to be able to relax with them and have a nice swim without having to hold Colt the whole time : )

Grace's Last Tee Ball Game

Grace's last tee ball game was Wednesday. She did really well this year. She was on the Pythons again this year, so she knew most of the kids on the team since she played with them last year. She was a little disappointed, though, at the end of the game because she was supposed to receive a trophy for the year, but the coach broke the news that the trophies weren't in yet. Hopefully we'll be getting them soon!

Day at the Pool

We decided to take the kids to the city pool for the first time this year. This was Colt's first time at this particular type pf pool. We have a swimming pool at home, but it's above ground and doesn't have as many cool toys to play on in the water. After he got used to it, he had a great time. He definitely didn't want to leave!

Ella's Fourth Birthday

This is a picture of Ella's Kai-lan invitation. The eyes and hair were the hardest to make - lots of little cuts with tiny scissors!

Her birthday is fast approaching. She has decided to have a NiHao Kai-lan/Chinese themed party. It's really giving me a run for my money! Ella's grandma Ruthie (Chris's mom) bought her an authentic Chinese dress, fashion chopsticks to put in her hair, and a really pretty silk Chinese fan. We're having the party at Grandma Vicki's (my mom) house since everyone who is coming is from the Lagrange area.

We decided on a Kai-lan cupcake cake, finger foods, and I'm making Chinese Firecracker Candied Fruit Sticks for fun. I hand made all of the invitations myself since I enjoy scrap booking. (I make all the kids' invitations myself) I also decided to hand make a huge paper dragon that I'm going to string on fishing line out on the porch. Each child will also get a Chinese take out box full of Chinese goodies, such as chopsticks, fans, Chinese finger traps, Chinese penny candy, fortune cookies, etc. I also made handmade goodie bag tags in the shapes of Kai-lan's friends with the kids' names on them written in Chinese.


My mom and I found some great paper lanterns and a few Kai-lan decorations at the local Party & Card Outlet Store (they have the best selection!) My biggest exciting find was the Chinese take out boxes - they were kind of hard to find.
I'll post all of the pictures after the party (on July 23rd).