Seven years old

Somehow that happened. Somehow our baby turned seven. Hard to believe there's a seven year old in this house now.

I feel like we are entering one of the most rewarding phases of parenthood. Yes the parenting cliche is true: Every year gets better and better. Seven year old's are delightful to be around! And life is easier with a seven year old. A seven year old sheds some of their neediness, can roll with change better now, and requires less supervision, but still looks up to us to be the guiding and shining light in her world. But the BEST is that THIS seven year old still likes to cuddle and hold hands, something we're not looking forward to diminishing (at least in public) over the coming years.

Our seven year old looks, talks and acts older, but somehow still seems little to me.

 Guess who's seven??!?

(She wanted her picture taken with her new Precious Moments dolls)

Kayla's birthday, of course, ("of course" because that's how the Faust's roll) was celebrated over the course of many days with many different activities. Wednesday June 25th was an action-packed, very full day. And as it turned out, more action than I needed or wanted.

Good morning birthday girl

 After opening presents and a special Daddy-Daughter breakfast outing of Kayla's choice (Tim Horton's. No surprise there), we picked up Addie and headed to swim class.  But not before swinging by the Blue Water Bridges to see the fog rolling in. Can you see the bridge behind the girls?! Barely! Here we are the end of June and it's cold, 61 degrees and foggy. 

"Mom, can we go? It's freezing out!" 

It really was cold! And they still had to get in a pool and go swimming! Happy June 25th! I told Kayla that the day she was born 7 years ago it was over 90 degrees! Quite a different picture today!

 After swim, we had a girls-only luncheon to celebrate the birthday Marlo and Kayla share. Gabby even brought her recorder and played the Happy Birthday song that she learned and practiced just for this moment. It was so sweet!

 What's a birthday luncheon without a birthday song and free ice cream?!

So while Kayla did not notice the chaos surrounding her birthday, there certainly was. The part when I had to rush Khloe for an emergency appointment to Orthopedic Associates to see Dr. Todd for a swollen ankle was not planned and not fun. Aaron got called out of town last minute that afternoon and jumped on a plane for New Jersey, which made the emergency visit to the doctor's office with Khloe that much more stressful on me. Because of the infection in her foot she was diagnosed with (thankful it was not a broken bone!) we had to back out of Vacation Bible School for the night for Kayla and myself and Sporties for Shorties for Khloe. The day was not going like planned, but ended up on a great note anyways. We spontaneously pulled together a girls-only dinner out with Karry and Lexie to celebrate Kayla's birthday again. So yes, if you're keeping track - that was three meals out in one day - and LOTS of sugar. Donuts for breakfast, ice cream for lunch and cake for dinner. Hey! You're only seven once! All that matters is that Kayla had a GREAT day! It was a long but fun-filled day with friends.

 Kayla's birthday dinner request - the bbq Tower of Ribs! I was so impressed! We had to take a picture and send it to Daddy!

 As you can see, the smile on Khloe's face meant that she was feeling and doing much better!

On Friday we celebrated again with all the June 25th birthdays in the neighborhood - Marlo, Matt and Kayla! Thanks for the cake and ice-cream Annie! It was a fun neighborhood party... that lasted waaaay too late into the night. We are so blessed to have such wonderful kind neighbors that we love to spend time with!

Happy birthday Kayla Raine!

More boating fun

 My little boater

 Rainbow twins, Kayla & Lexie

We invited our neighbors out on our boat with us, to meet up with the rest of the neighborhood on their boats out at the sandbar :)

Happy father. Happy day.

Thanks for being a great Dad! It only makes me love you more.

We gave Daddy the exact thing he wanted for HIS day... a day of boating!!! We suffered through it. Just kidding! It was our maiden voyage! And a beautiful day!

As you can see, for some the excitement couldn't keep them awake.

A special program at church just for Dad's

Lucky, lucky girls.

Thanks for always being there for your kids and putting our family first! Happy Father's Day!

Graduate

Officially a second grader!

So proud.
Full of joy.
Full of tears.
Full of joyful tears.

She left our house in the morning a 1st grader and came home a 2nd grader! We can't believe we have a 2nd grader in our house!

First day of 1st grade

Lord, thanks for giving Kayla a wonderful school year, full of friends, the best teacher ever, and the ability to excel at her school work. Kayla's friendships with "old" friends grew, new friendships flourished, she excelled in reading (ended the year by passing all the 2nd grade spelling words & reading 4th grade level books!) and passed every math and spelling test the entire year with 100%.

 The required dress code for the last day of school was shorts and tennis shoes to celebrate with the entire 1st grade a fun field day party outside.

 Pete Raymo challenged Kayla to a hula-hoop-off! Pete was REALLY good - they both were - but Kayla won!

 Good friends - Kiaya, Danika, Kayla, and Meghan

 A second set of twins in Kayla's class and these girls LOVED Kayla!

We wish we could bring Mrs. Raymo with us to 2nd grade; we are going to miss her SO MUCH! But we are already looking forward to a great year with Mrs. Schweihofer next year!

HAPPY SUMMER VACATION! WE MADE IT!

Zoo field trip

Just two more days of school to go!

We spent the third to last day of school on a field trip to the Detroit Zoo with all of the 1st grade. Forecast? 81 degrees and 80% chance of rain. Just great. We prayed the weather would cooperate... and it did! We hauled lots of rain jackets and lots of umbrellas into the zoo and we ended up just pushing them around in the stroller the whole time. Fine by me! There was one sad element to the day - unfortunately Mrs. Raymo couldn't be there. She's been out for the last five days with pneumonia, and although she said she would be cleared by her doctor to be at the field trip, she still wasn't well enough to go. I'm sure she was so disappointed, just as we were!

 Oh, silly Addie

Kayla said she was most looking forward to the zebras, Addison wanted to see the anteaters, and Khloe said "I don't want to see any of them; they're all mean!" Ha! She later changed to her mind to say the giraffes. Mine was to see - of course - peacocks (which just run around loose and can surprise you at any time; we even got to see baby peacocks and loved that too!), and Aaron was impressed with all of it. It was his FIRST time at the Detroit Zoo! Whoa. I know. I was shocked too. I said "Your parents NEVER brought you?!??!?!?"

We had a great zoo experience! What makes a zoo experience great? When you actually get to see the animals, as in they're not sleeping or hiding to get out of the sun. So, the weather and the animals cooperated for us today!

 Amphibian Conservation Center

Sleeping lion and lioness

And now, a moment for my peacocks...

Okay, moving on to other animals...

 The Article Ring of Life exhibit did NOT disappoint! The polar bears put on a show for us, and there were two of them... I've never even seen two in there before!

In just two more days these best friends will be 2nd graders! 

Trails End

Drive down a remote 2-mile "driveway" in Atlanta (ahem, Michigan) and you'll end up at Trails End, the 100-acre property that Jen's parents have owned for decades.

Thanks to Brett and Jen, some very awesome Memorial Day memories were made this year for our families! Back in the day, waaaaaaaaay before any of us had kids, we used to go up to Trails End in the spring for morel mushroom hunting (everything I know about morels I first learned from Jen's Dad) and in the fall to golf at Elk Ridge (one of the most beautiful courses to golf with fall colors). We have some great memories from those days with all our friends! Hiking, lounging, playing, eating at the Elbow Inn, and the sights of a crystal clear night sky and sounds from the woods during a late-night bonfire stay with you forever.

Clear Lake State Park beach

After an eight year absence at Trails End, all those memories came rushing back this Memorial weekend with a return trip - with 5 kids! - to Trails End. The trip was a bit nostalgic for all of us - this being our first time back since Jen's dad's passing (his presence was missed but his spirit was felt) and the Johnson's first time back since the passing of her brother, AJ.

It was a bit like "camping", although there are "shelters" to stay in - there's the main trailer that's the house, then there's a motor home, a camper and a loft space above the garage. Only the home had running water so it felt a bit like "roughing" it, at least by Faust standards. We welcomed the opportunity to immerse our girls in the Great Outdoors since, honestly, these rustic experiences may not come around (ummm, or be sought out) that often. The Johnson girls got the trailer, Jen's mom got the motor home, the boys got the loft (the first night since they were up early the next morning to go golfing), and we got the camper.

The comfortable camper

Kayla and Khloe tell me that the best part of the trip was sleeping in the camper! Together! I know for a fact they loved it because they both slept in until at least 9am each morning! My mom was worried about how Kayla would do; I was worried about how Aaron would hold up. As it turns out, we all survived our Trails End camping experience! Great friends and great memories!

 Smores and bonfires - the epitome of camping.

This picture was taken around 9pm, but look how light it is still!

 Besides being the "Elk Capital of Michigan", Atlanta is known for morel mushrooms. We skillfully learned to hunt for them and love their taste from our weekends years ago at Trails End. We were so excited to go morel mushroom hunting again this time - just look at all we found! 

Actually, that's a lie.

These are store-bought.

Although Jen and I spent an afternoon searching for them we couldn't find one. We told ourselves we wouldn't give up until we found AT LEAST ONE, but we eventually failed at that simple goal. I think we were about a week behind for prime picking.  Fortunately Jen's mom knew this and had purchased a pound of them before we arrived. Ymmmmmm! 

Jen's mom also "saved" a few from right around the house that we had the girls go "search" for.

 Woohoo! Three morels! (Yes, they are tiny! Squint and you can see them!)

 We could not have lucked out with a more perfect weather weekend! Memorial Weekend in Michigan is notoriously cold, rainy and yucky. RARELY is it nice enough to swim or boat. The nice weather spontaneously led us to Clear Lake State Park just a mile down the road. The air was warm, the water WAS NOT, but that didn't stop the kids from swimming!

For reasons no one will ever fully understand, the boys decided to do exercises on the beach.

The 100-acre property has 2 lakes on it - a small one close to the house where the bonfire pit is and another one, probably about a 50 acre lake, down a 1/2 mile path through the woods. We spent time at both. Kayla even went fishing for the FIRST TIME and caught her first fish! She was the only one who caught anything! After the fish she even caught a turtle on her hook too!

The 'big' lake

Yes, we went swimming after we took our shoes, socks and pants off! Hey, there were NO boys around!

 

Ahh! I just LOVE this northern MI scenery

 Two little peanuts "catching fish"

Somehow these 3 year olds seem so much cuter and funnier and sweeter than their siblings were at 3 years old. Jen assures me that their siblings were also this cute at 3; it just seems this way now because they're the "babies".

Thanks for the invitation Johnson's! We wouldn't trade the mouse murder mystery and tick endemic for anything!