Film Festival 2013

Traverse City has a film festival every year in August. We have never really participated in this event for many different reasons. Once my child are a little older I hope we can go watch one of the free movies on the huge blow up screen at the open space. This year Cahill and I headed out to Lars Hockstead and watched a series of short movies (some without sound) and participated in many of the activities after the show. Cahill enjoyed the free popcorn and thought it was super cool to sit in the balcony. We had a blast making our own movie/flip book. We even played dress up together, scored a free bike helmet and rode a antique fire truck. 

Stimpsons vacation Part II

Camping has always been something I have dreamed of doing with my children! I have waited patiently for them to come to an age where they were old enough. This year I gave up and said we will go to a campground but will stay in a cabin. So we headed up to Mackinaw City to stay in Millcreek campground. We had a tremendous amount of fun even tho a certain 2 yr old was a little wild. (will not name any names here) The campground had three playgrounds, located right on the lake with a gorgeous view of the bridge and had a pool. Every night around 6:00 a tractor pulled hayride and a antique fire truck would come around  to give the kids a ride. Of course we had to do both and enjoyed every minute. We spent a lot of time swimming and some time walking/hiking. The weather was perfect for the first day but really cold for the rest of the time. On the coldest day we headed indoors to a large water park where Cahill played nonstop for 3.5 hours. But here are some pics that tell our story. Excuse the mismatch outfits as that is a mix of colder weather thne anticipated and a certain 4 yr old who loves to pick out here own outfits. So we hugged a chef guy..

 had some incredible ice cream

 of course we colored, did some painting and played with the little people

 had our first starbucks hot chocolate

 took lots of pics in front of the bridge on our morning hike

 did a lot of running around

 she is the queen of the world

 no wait she is the queen of the world

 of course we had smore time.. Kurt taught them how to start a fire (great)

Kurt may have enjoyed the smores more then the girls

Stimpson vacation Part I

enjoyed our coffee in front of the bridge

a little love for momma

jumping in

trying fudge for the first time

North Bar Lake

On one of our family adventures we headed out to North Bar lake for a little swim. The girls were in heaven as they are always are in water.

Happy Independence Day!

It was interesting trying to explain to Cahill why July 4th is such an important day for us to celebrate. Basically we were stuck on a lot of vocabulary like independence, freedom, war and other words. I tried to explain in the simplest of terms but was harder then I could ever imagine. I guess that is why the day is so important to our country we do not understand what it is like to not have freedom. What our lives would be like if we had not won our independence. It would be a lot easier to explain to a 4 yr old what freedom is if we did not have it. So thanks be to God for giving us a country blessed by his hand and thanks be to all of the people who laid down their lives so we could be free.

 

Pinwheels

I purchased some pinwheels from the toy department for my garden. I was trying to scare off rabbits and other creatures from eating my veggies. But what I did not realize is that Ashy would fall in love with them. She would sit outside the fence and watch them and then strain to reach inside to grab. So next time I made it to the store I made sure to pick up a couple more for Ashy to play with. She has had so much fun with her pinwheels I knew I had to get the camera out.

 

Strawberry picking time!

This year was extra special strawberry picking as the whole family did it together. Cahill and I have been picking for a couple years but this year we had Ashlynn with us also. I was a little concerned as I could imagine her running through the fields squashing all of the beautiful plants, but she did great.

It is also more enjoyable when Kurt joins us and we all pick together. We picked a total of 14lbs of berries and I am sure Cahill ate atleast a pound while in the fields. I am hoping that later this week we will do some organic raspberry picking also. (oh by the way the strawberries were only $1.46 a pound to pick)!