Elise's 6th Birthday continued

Hailey, Becca, Kara, Elise...opening gifts.

Elise and Grace enjoying the tea party lunch.

Clockwise from Elise: Grace, Hailey, Becca, Kara T., Hope, Kara P., Brook

Girls enjoying a tea party lunch of bologna and cheese roll-ups, macaroni and cheese, fruit, veggies, jello shapes and pink lemonade.

September 2009

Seth having his first violin lesson, age 1. JJ teaching his first violin lesson, age 7.

Elise all pretty dressed for church. She is wearing a dress that Grammie (LaRayne) made for Megan when Megan was a little girl.

Elise's first day of kindergarten. JJ's first day of second grade.

Madeline Island Part I

We went to visit Madeline Island in the summer. It is one of our very favorite places in Wisconsin! In fact, one of our favorite places in general. The kids love playing in the water, watching sailboats, riding the ferry over, climbing the rocky hiking trails and more. If we don't get to the island at least once a year we just don't feel right. We had a perfect day. It was cool and warm depending where you were on the island. It was warm enough on the beach for the kids to want to play in the water (which means it was just this side of being ice).

Madeline Island Part II

Dad and Seth on the ferry boat looking "out to sea" for sailboats.

JJ and Elise found this rock ledge to hide in.
You can't tell in the picture but it was really high up above the water.

A rare picture of the whole family!
We love Madeline Island!

It is always a blast to ride on the top level of the ferry boat!

Laura Ingalls Wilder Day Part II

Each of the kids got to try their hand at churning butter, with a more modern churn. Elise didn't want to stop, and we were all a little disappointed we didn't get to eat it on something!

The kids' favorite activity of the day was washing clothes by hand. I couldn't pull them away. This actually prompted JJ to want to learn to do laundry at home. Yes! He's been learning!

Elise did really well at rolling the hoop. It is harder than it looks. There were about 10 kids all in this area in Laura dresses rolling hoops and it looked like they were on the set of the TV show.

All the little Almonzo look-alikes. JJ was the cutest, of course (on the far right).

A few of the many Lauras. Elise was the only one with red ribbons in her hair. She was proud to be the only one with that detail covered. Laura always had red ribbons in her braids when she was little.

Friends in Ohio in July

Bekah, Seth, JJ, Elise, Zeke
In July Megan, JJ, Elise and Seth traveled to Ohio. We stayed for two weeks, so we had lots of time to spend with family and friends. Here we were in the Bowling Green area visiting Jen and Israel and their kids. We had a great time just playing together, and visiting the BGSU campus with the big kids. It all ended too soon with crabby, tired kids and Megan had to head home early to spare us all!

Here you see Bekah, Elise and JJ on the sculpture outside Olscamp Hall at BGSU. It is the "Thinker" turned on its back, otherwise known on campus as "Thinker in the Bathtub."

Seth trying to get one last drop out of the Sundrop bottle. The unofficial drink of the state of Wisconsin. We start 'em young!

Nora Mercer, Elise, Seth, JJ, Trayce Mercer
Some fun times with Mercer cousins!

JJ, Elena and Kiersten Quinlan, Elise
Special "girlfriends" from Xenia. Spent the day with them, and they remember playing with the puppy and using lots of Kiersten's perfume! JJ just joins right in and makes the girl fun just a little rowdier than normal.

JJ's 7th Birthday

Seth tooling around while the boys hit the pinata. This is the first time JJ has had a sleepover birthday party. We limited it to his 3 boy cousins, Tucker, Isaac, and Griffin. They had such a great time being boys together.

Here they are scrambling for pinata candy and army men. Jonathan isn't trying to get some for himself, he's helping Tucker (several years younger than the other boys) get his fair share! The army men were a hit.

Tucker, JJ, Isaac and Griffin

JJ lovin' his birthday cake. I'm proud to say I did make that Lightning McQueen myself! It was worth the work to see how much JJ loved it.