Not a Gray Day but a Grey Day

ArtPrize

We took the kids to ArtPrize this year. We went to Meijer Gardens on one day and then downtown a few days later. The kids loved it.This was the girls' favorite entry- it was at the Gardens. The steel circle moved when you played on it - it was really fun.

Sydney also liked the huge flowers - the insides were made out of beads.

Okay, this is not ArtPrize but it is really cool. Meijer Gardens has a whole bunch of Chihuli glass pieces. I liked his art better than some of the other stuff we saw!

One more piece...

we liked a lot downtown too but I did not bring the camera. Sydney's favorite was the Elephants and Raleigh liked the giant penny made outof pennys. We are already looking forward to next year:)

200!

A couple of weeks ago, we found our 200th Geocache. Raleigh spotted it in a tree. We have had a ton of fun with our new hobby!!

Hey Mom...

Hey Mom - look what I found...

...thanks to Grey...

...at least he likes to clean up...

...especially with the help of his sisters!

Becky Ellis' Wedding

Raleigh and Sydney were in my friend's (well, second cousin) wedding last weekend. The wedding and reception were at a cottage on Lake Michigan.

The girls did great and we had a lot of fun!

Mike and Becky with the girls

The girls danced a lot!

We were so glad to be such a fun part of Becky's wedding - it was so nice that it was in Michigan and the kids could be in it. Best Wishes Becky and Mike!

First Day of School

The Girls are both at school! It took Raleigh about 12 minutes to get ready this morning. When can we go??...when can we go...???

Raleigh got a new bigger backpack this year - it looks huge on her!

Sydney starts Spanish Immersion today. She has the same teachers that Raleigh had. Both of her teachers were excited to see her...and Greyson. Baby Hudson was born the year that Raleigh was in preschool - the teachers did a great job with Raleigh through all of that - they were glad to meet Grey.

I asked Greyson, "What are we going to do without your girls??" He gave me a big smerk - I think we are going to have some great 'Mom & Grey' time!

Our New Hobby - Geocaching!

We rented a cottage up North this past week and James found our family a new hobby...Geocaching. We signed up on-line and then picked some caches to find via GPS coordinates. The kids LOVED it - we found some during our bike rides and some by car. We ended up at so many fun and beautiful places that we NEVER would have gone to or even found. The girls had a great time on dunes, playgrounds, waterfalls, climbing on large rocks, etc.

Greyson was a trooper - he loves being in the backpack and didn't complain much at all - he was always trying to see what the girls were doing and seemed really "into it".

In some of the caches, there are little prizes - the girls got to leave something if they took something - and oh, did the girls get a lot of treasures...I like to call it "geo-trash" (or should it be geo-trache??) We left marbles, littlest pet shoppe, silly bands...

Sydney made a great find in some bushes - this one the cache was attached to a Geo Metro hubcap.

here is the geo-trash. Any jewlery was great - Raleigh got a beautiful CZ necklace and Sydney got a compass ring. We left with glowsticks, necklaces, stickers, penquins, dinosaurs, keychains...the list goes on...

Ummmm...okay...the kids looked a little beaten up after all the tromping around. Greyson has scratches on his forehead (to his credit, he did learn to "duck" when James walked through branches) - this is sydney's leg - James and my legs don't look much better. Raleigh has scratches too. The girls didn't complain though! The kids really were AMAZING - James and I kept commenting at how great they were and how much fun we (and they) were having.

This cache was one of our first ones - this path led us on a nice little walk - the cache was not too far off the trail.

Greyson loved to help too - this is a medium size cache - some looked like this and some were as small as a key box.

We found this one in a hollowed tree trunk. I think the cache was an old Jiffy Jar.

And...as expected...James is ADDICTED! I think we found about 36 caches in the East Jordan, Petoskey area. James even made us stop at a few on the way home. We ended up at a great apple orchard with great food. They had a farm market, petting zoo, rope maze, playground. I cannot remember the name of the place but the coordinates are N 45deg 11.421 W 085deg 45 20.757 if you ever want to go!