Great Weekend

We had a very active but enjoyable weekend. Saturday started off a little chilly and a little wet, but cleared and warmed up by early afternoon. Alyson and Kourtney ran in the Michigan Mile, a race for children sponsored by Kohl's and Sparrow Hospital. Kris accompanied Alyson who finished the mile in 8 minutes and 47 seconds! Kourtney ran the sprint race around Oldsmobile Park where the Lugnuts, a Class A minor league team play. We all had such a great time. Over 2,100 children participated in the race including some church and school friends. The girls can't wait to do it again next year!

Alyson and Kourtney then attended a birthday party which we had to cut short so we could head out to the country to see some chicks at a church friends home. Brother and Sister King treated ward members to a hay ride and hot dog roast, let us hold chicks and see lambs at a neighbor's home. We also visited an Amish store down the street from them and went for an Amish Buggy ride that the King's Amish neighbors offered. What a great and beautiful afternoon in the country! To top it all off we went to an ice cream shop called "Mooville" that serves the biggest ice cream cones I have ever seen! Seriously, 12'' ice cream a top an already extra large cake cone. Even if you aren't a "baby", the baby cone will suit most people just fine! They also have a petting zoo with calves, goats, ducks and pigs. A friend from church took photos of Ellary's cute encounter with a calf that I can't wait to see! It was nearly 10:00pm when we got home.

I'm glad we take advantage of these opportunities to enjoy some quality family time, letting the children explore a new environment, watching their eyes light up and also participating in ward camaraderie because these days are flying by like no body's business! Before we know it, Kris and I will be empty nesters recalling these special moments, having forgotten about Ellary's moments of fussiness due to a lack of sleep that day. We will recall with fondness the opportunities we took while we could, and I know the girls will appreciate it too.

May Chicago Trip

The girls and I tagged along on a trip to Chicago for one of Kris’ accounting conferences. We spent time swimming at the hotel pool, playing at the Chicago Children’s Museum, exploring the Adler Planetarium and viewing exhibits at the Field Museum of Natural History. It was a pretty inexpensive trip considering we got into the two museums and the planetarium free with or Impression 5 membership. We also took a cooler of food and enjoyed daily picnics and took walks through Millennium Park to get to Museum Campus. Here are some pictures to mark our trip and our adventures.

Only the beginning of our two hour walk on Friday morning!

North end of Millennium Park

Walking in Millennium Park with Kris

What a skyline!

The Field Museum of Natural History

Looking out from the Field Museum-What a view!

If you ever go to the Field Museum with children, be sure to go to the basement to the Crown Family Playlab. There are fantastic things for little ones to do like make crafts from recycled materials, try on costumes, play instruments and many other things.

Here are our woodland creatures!

Kris Mulches Our Yard

ris took on a huge outdoor chore...mulching our yard. He began Friday, worked all day with the help of some good friends then finished the job today. Kourtney enjoyed helping our neighbor, Mr. V., mulch his yard too. The outcome-a fantastic looking yard, and hopefully no more dirt sluffage under our deck. Thanks Kris for all of your hard hands on labor and thank you all our friends who helped out.

After Friday's session of mulching, we had a hot dog roast with some good friends and our neighbors. It was fun getting some use out of our fire pit and even better that we were in good company.

Trip to Campus

Kourtney, Ellary and I took a bus ride to campus this morning and went the MSU Butterfly House. Then we had lunch with Kris and rode the bus back home. Here are some pictures from our little excursion today.

Alyson's Week

A piece of Alyson's school artwork was chosen to be displayed in the Michigan Education Leadership Group office for one year. We were excited to attend an opening reception and recognition ceremony tonight because we had never seen this particular piece before tonight, a pastel sunflower. She did a fantastic job! We also had the chance to meet her art teacher, Ms. Roltsch. She seemed very excited about Alyson's creative talents and hopes Alyson continues to enjoy painting and drawing, as do we!

Alyson also celebrated her 6th birthday this past week. We held a family party and ate Cherry Chocolate Cream Cheese Cake (one of mom's specialties that I occasionally recreate and what Kris calls 5 C's cake), let Alyson open her presents from us, Nana and Papa and Oma, and then the girls and I watched the new Barbie Thumbelina. movie The following night we saw the theatrical version of "James and the Giant Peach" performed by a local children's theater group. It held Alyson and Kourtney's attention and they seemed to enjoy it. Kris and I both agreed that theater may be right up Kourtney's alley.

Alyson also performed a science experiment for the school science fair. She took bean plants and fed one set of plants with water and the other set of plants with apple juice. The bean seeds fed with apple juice obviously didn't grow. And of course the seeds fed with water "grew like a bean". It was fun getting the whole family involved in Alyson's science project.

So, that was our week, and more specifically Alyson's week in a nutshell!