fall festival

Who knew our first Fall Festival at church would be a hit? Actually, I did. Had complete faith in my wife...

Here are some much delayed pictures of the event.

The amazing magician.

The magician wowing the crowd - and shocking J. The card she is holding secure in the middle of her hand switched places with the one on the top of her hand when he snapped his fingers...

One of his incredible baloon creations.

Grace, Donnell, and Hannah enjoying the show.

Taylor and Megan posing in the picture area.

The can smash game.

Our street sign - Vineyard Blvd South and East - a great addition to our scenery.

The putting game.

One of the candy stations - all of the offices were decorated and used for handing out candy.

The santuary set up for the event - games along the rear (bottom of the picture) and right side, Magician in the middle (front of the stage), and face painting and picture taking to the left.

Face painting.

Hay maze - set up with 4 dead ends...comment from one of the kids was, "Best maze ever." Made it worth transporting 100 bails of hay.

Lanterns (like the one on the ground to the left) were placed throughout the maze.

Our huge moonwalk...held quite a few kids all at once.

Our spread of food.

All in all, it was a wonderful event - better than we had hoped for a first time. We had 11 games, 6 candy stations, a moon walk, hay maze, face painting, and the magician - not to mention all of the food. Next year will be even better, and easier - now that we know what to expect. It was a great jumping off point - and I think the kids (and all of the adults) had a fantastic time.

Costume

Who knew Taylor would look good with pink hair?


This year for Halloween, Taylor decided to be Lola Lufagle (character from the Disney TV show Hannah Montana). Here are some pics of Lola, and then of Taylor...

family

Who knew some people never change?

We had the opportunity to visit my sister a few weekends ago. My parents were also there and my Aunt and Uncle came for the visit as well. I hadn't seen my aunt since I was Taylor's age (which was quite a while ago). She hadn't changed a bit and neither had my uncle. It was great to see everyone and we had the chance to celebrate my niece's birthday as well. Always great to get a chance to see family.

Taylor and her cousin Christina

My Uncle Rudy, sister Cheri, me, and my Dad

Uncle Rudy and Aunt Barb

Pure excitement for the great ice cream cake we were about to eat!

corn maze

Who knew a corn maze could be so complicated?

So we went to a corn maze on Sunday with a few friends...I'm thinking, "Ok, a turn here and there, maybe a dead end or two - no big deal." Wow, I was not prepared for how complicated and amazing this corn maze turned out to be. It's a good thing we purchased the 'optional' map for $1. There were 3 adults and 5 kids and it took us at least an hour and a half to get from start to finish - and we cheated by using the map halfway through.

We started out by taking turns deciding which way to go at each crossroad. We let each person make a choice and did this for a while. When it started to get later and later, we decided to start using the map...and eventually at every crossroad one of the kids would say, "Which way now Kevin?"

We had a blast and really enjoyed ourselves. As you can see from the map of the maze below, the farmers that created it did an amazing job. We definitely had a great time and enjoyed working hard not to get lost in the field of corn. The kids loved it also - it was as if they had never seen corn before in their lives. They couldn't pass a cob on the ground without stopping, picking it up, and yelling "Corn!" Guess it's more fun when it doesn't come from Kroger...

The 'enter' and 'exit' are on the far right on the map...just imagine how small we would be standing at those points and you start to get an idea of how big this really was...

new template

Who knew my template could just disappear?

So, I'm not sure what happened to my template (background), but apparently it's been gone for over a week now. I dug and dug, but couldn't find my template again (I'm still investigating though). Since I couldn't find the one I already had, I spent way to much time getting this new template up and running...and it still needs to be tweaked...I'm not sure I love it, but I guess it's growing on me...

Guess the new template is better than the white background with no side bar I was running with...

binder zoo

Who knew one of the coolest zoos ever was only an hour and a half away??? We do now.


So yesterday, we went to the Binder Zoo with Ann, Adam, and Wroxy. What a great time that was! It was like being on a safari - all the animals were so close and they were all out in the open. It was the perfect zoo day because the weather was great, all the animals were cooperating, and it was an amazing place to visit.


There were so many great things there, but the highlight for me was feeding the giraffes.
Yes, we actually were able to pet, and feed multiple giraffes! That was pretty amazing.

sniff...

Who knew that once Michigan football started, it could actually hurt your insides? Sniff...

Was a tough game to listen to, read gamecast for, and get text messages about (since it wasn't televised - that's why I moved to Michigan, to be able to watch all the games on TV).

I haven't given up on the boys, and still expect great things...going to be a LONG season though...

michigan football

Who knew waiting for Michigan football to start could actually hurt your insides?

Just thought I'd mention the fact that I'm totally flipping out at the fact that Michigan football season is 3 days away. It's the one thing I rarely miss and park myself in front of a TV for on a regular basis. I have been waiting patiently for it to start up again, and am very excited to get it going...although I'm sure J hasn't missed it at all...

Nothing else, just thought I'd throw that out...

happy birthday taylor

Who knew kids keep growing up - even if you don't want them to at all because it makes you feel really old and then you start feeling like everything hurts and you just want to go back in time because being older isn't as fun as you thought it would be and then you realize you have a ton of responsibility and you wish you could just watch cartoons and eat cereal?

So I now have a 9 year old - yes, 353 days until she is in double digits. It seems like just a few weeks ago she was only 8...

Last weekend we had her Michigan birthday party at High Velocity Sports. We had 3 inflatables set up and then had the rest of the soccer field to run around. We had 7 kids and 5 adults (including all of us) so it was a lot of fun. I was clearly over the height and weight limit for the jumpy things, but it sure didn't stop me...what a fun time...and man, that took a lot of energy out of all of us. One of the kids came up to me after 20 minutes and said, "Man, we have to do this for a whole hour?" No worries, they figured out how to hold up.

It was a great place, they provided snacks (chips and pretzels), pizza, and drinks (lemonade, sprite, and water). It was a good time and I know Taylor had fun. It was good to see so many of her friends again.

The whole group.

The party room

Taylor and I at the top of the Titanic
Lake, Wroxy, and Taylor
Tate, Lake, Taylor, Wroxy (front) - Owen, Daniel, and Meagan (back)
Taylor eating the green chip they found...

Titanic inflatable slide
Castle inflatable jumper
Castle inflatable maze and slide

Party room before the chaos began

round 2

Who knew we would have so much fun in Minnesota that it would take 2 posts to contain the pictures?

Dakota (Jeff and Jodi's Dog)

Jeff showing the stops on the train from where we were to downtown.

My once in a lifetime bowling claim to fame...2 strikes in a row...
Jeff and Taylor schooling me at basketball - this was at Gameworks downtown.
Jeff and I putting out fires...we saved many lives that day.