Bringing up Baby Brang!: T.C and Turning 13!

New skirt that she made with Grandma :-)

Evie read a book about a little girl who was afraid to read in class but learned to read by reading to a therapy dog at her local library. She got the idea to read to HER OWN dogs the next day. It was the best.

So what is this? Carson was bored one day so I told him to go outside and play fetch with Nia. He threw it maybe 5 times and then had an idea...and that idea turned into another idea. Nia would fetch the ball but not the frisbie, so Carson spent quite some time creating this "ball frisbie". Did it end up working for Nia? No. But it got Carson off of video games so I'd call it a success. Just no surprise on with how this kids mind works.

Time for our LAST summer trip (here come the tears) to Traverse City! The day we drove up our first stop was at Jolly Pumpkin on Mission Peninsula. What a beautiful drive up there.

Next we hopped over to Bowers Harbor Vineyard and met up with Aunt Beth, Uncle Nader, Elaina, and Addie! Let the fun begin!!!

This year, we rented a farm house in Kingsley. It was amazing, better than I ever imagined, and I really didn't know what to imagine. We had soooooo much lawn space, house space, cows, chickens, and everyone's favorites, the KITTENS. We spent the first night grilling out hot dogs and celebrating Carson's upcoming birthday with cake and ice cream sundaes.

The chickens and kittens even ventured to the backyard to watch the kids in the hot tub. They were very sociable animals!

Day 2- Hop Lot Day! My favorite, every time. We also went to downtown Traverse and ate dinner at Little Fleet Food trucks.

Intense table game of Rocks, Paper, Scissors.

Look at all those bracelets Evie made me!

Oh what's that? Just the chicken at the back door.

The girls were so excited to have a "sleepover" with their cousins. Just the cutest.

Day 3: Beach day, Putt-putt, and Don's Drive-In!

#1 team!

When we were shopping at Momentum we came across these cute tank tops that were labeled "Evie Tanks". We just had to get everybody an "Evie" tank! That was it for my pics, but we had another great night full of pizza, pool games, and kitten chasing. The trip was just awesome, we enjoyed every minute knowing it was game on with getting ready for school as soon as we ventured home.

Pool day with Alivia and Abigail!

Carson's official birthday! How is he 13?!?!? We have a teenager! The night before his birthday, Patrick took Carson and 2 friends to Tree Runners for tree climbing and zip lining, then out to dinner at Qdoba, and back home for a sleepover. After his friends went home, he wanted to go to Starbucks to cash in his free birthday drink (who knew he had the Starbucks app?!). If there is free food or drinks, this kid will find it.

We had planned on ordering Cheesecake and having a special dinner at our house, but Maeve, Maren, and Peri were under the weather, so we decided to meet Grandma and Grandpa at the Cheesecake Factory for dinner instead. We all ate, and ate, and ate...and literally rolled around for an hour afterwards from being so stuffed.

Don't smile Carson...you are 13, definitely don't smile.

I can't stand this kid getting older, and on the other hand, I love it. He's really smart and can be pretty darn funny too. He never wants to talk when I want him to, but get him in the car with just me and he won't stop. I just kind of wait, and usually he will find me and just talk my ear off. Just NEVER when I ask him a question about his day. He loves the independence he has riding his bike with his friends in to Ada to grab Blimpie or McDonalds for lunch. And don't worry, he has the apps and gets all the deals on lunch too. He's been taking golf lessons and golfing with his buddy every week and seems to really enjoy it. Grandpa is getting into golf too and Carson has really enjoyed going to the 3 hole course and the driving range with him. His big gift this year was a guitar. He has been teaching himself guitar ever since he got his hands on Uncle Mike's guitar on our Florida trip earlier this summer. He's sleeping in every morning and staying up late to watch movies and eat popcorn in the basement. He's always telling us what we should watch. He's been getting dog and cat sitting jobs and has been mowing our lawn for $20 (that he uses for all the Blimpie and McDonald's). He's not ALWAYS nice to his sisters, but we got the nicest postcard from his week long Camp Henry counselor that wrote about how kind and helpful Carson was. How he was always looking out for his cabin mates, staying after meals to help clean up the tables, and cheering on his peers. It made us so happy to read! He's the same height as Patrick and me, but he's still such a little kid at heart. And that face just always reminds me of my first little baby. Gosh, we love you Carson.