Go pink!

We got our pink hair extensions today to join the fight against breast cancer! We thought it was the perfect opportunity to teach Kayla about how a simple pink hair strand helps girls & women fight sickness and get better, provides hope for those who are sick, raises money for medicine to help find a cure, and most importantly, Granny got sick and died from cancer, so this is what we can do to help. And she was ready too! I believe that starting the conversation at this young age about healthy lifestyle choices and making OUR (girl's and women's) health a priority will make those conservations and appointments completely natural as she gets older. It's pretty neat what happens around here in October to support Breast Cancer Awareness - there are 15 salons in town that offer the pink hair extensions for $10 each. The money is collected by one salon at the end of the month who donates 100% of the proceeds locally. Give where you live.

Bonus: Today was Kristi's 25th birthday! Happy birthday Kristi!

We set up a special salon at home just for Khloe!  She got pink in her hair too by way of pink tinted mousse She got pampered by Kayla who took charge of putting in Khloe's pink highlights.

Smiles all around!

Field Trip

One of my favorite field trips of the year... the Pine River Nature Center. This year's program focused on learning all about trees.

 The trouble table!

 Writing in their Tree Discovery journals

Funny blindfolded tree identification game

There's 18 girls in Kayla's class, and just 6 boys!

We had a fun beautiful day exploring the woods and taking several long hikes!

Afterwards, Kayla, Addison and I took some time to go to the park next door and go geocaching. Even Addie is hooked after just one time and she can't wait to do it again!

Little monkey

We are so proud and quite impressed with Khloe's gymnastics ability lately. This girl excels at anything that involves moving! She is in CONSTANT motion. CONSTANT. Sometimes - No, always - it makes me dizzy and tired. I know it's the difference between having a three year old at 39 versus 29 years old!

She graduated from her 3-5 year old class last week when she accomplished a cartwheel and is now officially in Level 1. Here she is celebrating her graduation on the "stage" with Flames Gym owner and her coach, Coach Mel. We love Coach Mel, but I think Coach Mel might love Khloe more. These two have been together since Khloe was 17 months old and they have so much fun together. Coach Mel is SO wonderful with Khloe.

A certificate and a medal!

Coach Mel pushes and encourages the kids to always try and never give up. There is no going half way or quitting at Flames! Gymnastics has given our girls great confidence, strength and independence. A new Level 1 goal on Khloe's chart is to climb to the top of the yellow rope and touch the white tube. This is an activity Khloe has never had to try before, so Coach Mel had Khloe do it on the first day of her new class. Coach Mel expected Khloe to make it half way up - most kids do on their first attempt. But not Khloe. She went straight to the top and back down all by herself without hesitation. Coach Mel was blown away! She said no other kid has ever done that before! Way to go Khloe! You are so strong and brave and confident! There is nothing you won't try ALL BY YOURSELF!

American Girl

It was our first. And I'm sure it will not be our last. 

It's official, we've been immersed head-to-toe into the American Girl doll world. There's no going back now! This weekend we visited the American Girl store in Columbus, OH for Lexie's 10th birthday.

American Girl packages with their names on them received upon check-in at the hotel

As the story goes, Lexie's family had this trip booked for their family of four for Lexie's birthday several months prior. Turns out, this weekend was High School Homecoming weekend and Lexie's older brother was taking his girlfriend to the dance, which meant Brother couldn't go and so Dad had to stay home to supervise (neither of them shed a tear I'm pretty sure). That left two open spaces for the hotel room and the birthday meal at the American Girl cafe. Karry gave Lexie three choices of friends she could ask; Lexie choose Kayla because "Kayla is nice, we have fun and play well together and Kayla doesn't have any drama". There you have it, the drama-free friend was chosen! What an honor and special privilege for us to spend this memorable weekend with Lexie. It was a weekend we will all remember!

The girls carrying all their luggage, their dolls, and their doll's luggage into the hotel

 The hotel was amazing (one of the nicest I've ever stayed in) and treated the girls like royalty. Lexie and Kayla were greeted with special American Girl packages upon arrival which each included a bed, blanket and pillow for their dolls. At 3pm milk and cookies were delivered to our room for the girls and their dolls and later that night the dolls received turn-down service for their beds with a piece of chocolate. The dolls! Not the girls, not the mom's (Ummmm I could've really used that), THE DOLLS. How fun for the girls to receive such special treatment!

The cookie and milk delivery (cookies already eaten!)

The bed with turn-down service and a chocolate

 The main purpose of the 4-hour trip south was to visit the store which did not disappoint and MANY HOURS were spent inside. Our experience included a birthday meal in the cafe, spa and salon appointments for the dolls, and lots of shopping. Are you beginning to think that the dolls received better treatment than the humans on this trip? You are right.

 It was a fun birthday lunch that included appetizers, drinks, an entree and of course cake and ice-cream! Even the dolls (here we go with the dolls again) had their own chairs, cups and plates.

 After lunch Lexie's doll had an appointment for the spa and Kayla's doll had an appointment at the hair salon. Kayla chose for her doll to receive a fancy up-do with a sparkly crown. Unless you're there to witness it in person, you wouldn't even believe that each doll has their own hair stylist, chair and cape. 

The finished 'do!

The Easton Town Center, where the shopping and hotel were, is an amazingly huge indoor/outdoor mall with every up-scale store and restaurant you can imagine. There are beautiful fountains, outdoor model train sets, park-like settings, and fireplaces. Despite the cooler than predicted weather, our weekend was very relaxing and even included lots of hot tub time and sleeping in until 9am! (I haven't slept until 9am for three years!)

The dolls went with us EVERYWHERE but in this hotel, it's encouraged! In case you momentarily forgot this weekend was about Lexie and not her dolls. Lexie said "It was the best birthday ever!" We truly did all have such a fun weekend  - the girls, the mom's, and the dolls. Kayla and Lexie can't wait to go back! Happy 10th Birthday Lexie! Thanks for letting us come along on your super fun birthday weekend!

A full weekend of fun

Since Thursday, we've had a full line-up of fun activities, so we thought we'd share them with you! The fact that the weather has been in the 70's and 80's this week has been icing on the cake.

On Thursday morning I led the SC4 Biology 101 class on a stream monitoring activity at a creek in Marysville. Since I only teach this class once every fall, I took advantage of introducing Kayla to some of my "work". For her, this meant skipping school! When her alarm went off in the morning, I invited her along and she was so excited. You would've thought that she was one of the college students --- she was right there in the middle of everything --- the stream, dirt, bugs, equipment, helping with everything she could. Yes, she willingly - without instruction or prompting - picked through dirt to look for bugs. I was so impressed. She was the best helper ever, and hey, not a bad way to spend our morning together.

Not afraid of bugs anymore? We shall see! She found a walking stick and was moving it to a safer location in the woods.

 

 My future water scientist 

She had so much fun wading around in the creek. It was hard to convince her to leave the water.

An outcome of the day? Kayla requested her own kid-size waders. 

Thursday was also Kayla's "birthday anniversary", a day my mom celebrates once a month with the girls on the date of their birthday. On their "birthday anniversary" they get their choice of doing something extra special. Kayla's choice was to go to Barnes and Noble. And I'm pretty sure a Tim Horton's MSU sprinkle donut was also somehow involved.

 Our favorite book!

Saturday took us to East Lansing for Homecoming weekend to watch an MSU football game with the Thelen's, Heptings, and Grandpa.

Sparty twins

It was a HOT day inside the stadium! Perfect football weather in my opinion!

 "On the banks of the Red Cedar..." Or, in this case, "in the middle of the Red Cedar"

To wrap up the weekend, Kayla saw Annie on stage at the Fisher Theatre in downtown Detroit with Grandpa and Grandma. What a lucky girl to get spoiled that way!

And while Kayla was off doing that, Aaron, Khloe and I went to check out the thick heavy fog lingering in the late morning under the bridges

 A fishing boat drifting in the current

The fog was so thick we couldn't even see a freighter passing right in front of us until it sounded it's fog horn