I wonder what Pluto did to deserve this? :) 

Friday morning we left our house and headed up to Cadillac, Michigan where the rest of Curt's family lives. Friday night we celebrated Curt's birthday at Tim and Molly's house and Ben enjoyed getting reacquainted with his cousins. We had fun visiting for a few hours before it was time to head to bed. Saturday was a busy day! Curt had a golf outing with his dad, Tim, and Uncle Doug. The rest of us went to Kenwood Park right next to Lake Cadillac. Mark and Betsy got their new boat out onto the lake and came right by the park to pick us up for a ride. It was really fun to ride out on the lake and Ben loved the wind in his face. It reminded me of the fun times my family had back when we had our boat. I'm sure the Nickels will have a blast taking their boat out many more times this summer. Later in the afternoon, we went to the theater to see Cars 2 . The guys that were golfing met us there a little bit after the movie had started. After the movie, we sat outside of Curt...

Last Thursday night we headed up to Grand Rapids for the weekend. Curt had plans to golf and see a Tigers game with our friend Derek on Friday. While he was gone doing that, Ben and I went to the mall and out to lunch with my parents. He had Chinese food for the first time and said his favorite part of the meal was, "The cookies and mints." :) My brother Jacob graduated from high school this year and his open house was on Sunday. We helped my family get ready for that over the course of the weekend. We decided to stay until Monday morning, so that we didn't feel like we had to leave the party early. And I wanted to help clean-up because those things can be a big mess! It was nice to visit with friends and relatives that I have not seen in a long time. I did a really bad job of getting the camera out, so there are just a few pictures to recap the weekend (most of them are courtesy of Curt).  Curt took this picture with his phone at the Tigers game on Friday night.  On ...

It is a hot one out there today! It was nice to spend most of the morning doing some fun stuff indoors. We started off at Country Kitchen SweetArt for the toddler time class. The theme this month was "Under the Sea." The kids decorated three cookies and made a molded chocolate crab sucker. We sat with my friend Bekah and her kids (Tiana, Isaiah, and Amarah). After the class was over, Bekah and I headed to our friend Erin's house. While we were there, the kids had fun playing in the backyard on Will's swingset. After they were a bit sweaty (esp. Ben) we headed inside for some lunch. It was wonderful to sit and visit with friends. I wish every day could be this fun! :)  The table is always set up and organized for each child when you come into the class.  Concentrating on filling up his crab mold.  He dipped this cookie in blue chocolate and added the eye. (I think the eye placement makes the fish look a little crazy :) ). He brought his new Cars 2 McQueen and Holly ...

Ben was watching a few minutes of Special Agent Oso on the Disney channel this morning and saw Oso help a little girl make a leaf rubbing picture. We were inspired to head outside and find a few of our own leaves. We found a variety of leaves to use for our pictures. The whole project didn't really last that long, but it was nice to stop what I was doing and have a little fun with Ben.  Ben found the crayons without wrappers that would work best for the rubbings.  Getting to work with a really big leaf.  He colored on his paper when he got tired of rubbing the leaves.  Ben's masterpiece. I got in on the action and made a picture of my own.