When these boys get together…
Strange things often happen…
Declan and Owen went to their first Cub Scout Fun Day last month. This is a day when Camp Munhacke is open to the Cubs and their families. There are lots of things for them to do. The usual shooting sports stations are open as well as crafts, sports, and Minute To Win It games!
It was a very fun day. My compliments to the volunteers who made Cub Scout Fun Day happen. My boys and I really appreciate how much effort you put into making our day memorable.
Today was Declan and Owen’s first Pinewood Derby. It’s their first year as Cub Scouts and the Derby is one of the highlights of the year. They picked out their car designs from a book mom brought home from the library. It wasn’t much of a plan, just a shape. So we improvised the rest.
The cars from all the dens were raced in various heats. When it was all said and done only the scouts from a particular den competed against each other. There are eight other boys in the Tiger Den with Declan and Owen. In the end Owen took first place and Declan took second place! They were both incredibly excited.
Life goes by so very fast and leaves no time to blog. However, I wanted to share these pictures that the boys created for the Original Works program that their school is offering again this year.
Owen has a stuffed kitty named Candy Corn. He decided one day that it was soon to be Candy Corn’s birthday. When he mentioned that he needed a birthday present Linda suggested they could make some treats.
Out came the playdough! I think the results were very impressive. Owen was thrilled with the results as well as the time with mom.
Linda returned home on July 15th and noticed this turtle walking on our driveway. So the whole family had to check it out. After we all had a look we put him in a box and walked him over to the pond across the street. When we released him there he scurried into the water pretty quickly.
Sometimes there are books that the twins really want Kieran to read to them. Thankfully, he doesn’t mind.
On Easter while Linda had the boys in a photo taking mood and me with the camera she wanted pictures with each of them.
Easter was not a huge to do this year. Just a very nice meal enjoyed by a happy family. That’s enough isn’t it?
Here’s the centerpiece Linda created for the dining room.
It’s not often that all of us guys put on something that isn’t a t-shirt. So when it happens there must be a picture.
Thanks to this picture I finally replaced the old banner image for this site. This one is much better. Hope you had a nice Easter.
We took a little vacation to Ludington over the Labor Day weekend. Linda and I used to visit Ludington quite a bit. Even after Kieran was born we went a number of times. We even camped in the state park back then. However, we haven’t been back to Ludington for a stay since we became a family of five. It was nice to be back!
We surrounded our one night in Ludington with nights in Reed City. So we headed up to Reed City on Friday night. We had dinner at home and then hit the road. We thought maybe Declan and Owen would sleep in the car if we got a later start. That didn’t work all that well, but it was worth a try. Saturday we got ourselves over to Wrights Bake Shop for breakfast. We got enough to take with us for the next day too. It’s always great to visit Wrights!
We made the hour drive to Ludington and got there around lunch time. What to do for lunch?! Linda got a brilliant idea. She suggested we got to Bortell’s. If you ever go to Ludington during the Summer you must eat at Bortells. We were introduced to it by the proprietors of Bed and Breakfast at Ludington where we used to stay. It’s a little way out of town, but quite popular. They do seafood. You pick what you want from their display case, then they take it out and fry it up right in front of you. Oh it is good!
Since there are five of us these days, our favorite B&B isn’t as good an option any more. So we opted to rent a cottage for the night. The Lakeview Cottages owners were nice enough to rent to us for a single night at the last minute. It was the end of the season so they helped us out. Our cottage (#3) was nice. It doesn’t look like much from the outside, but inside it’s good. The kids weren’t sure about the lack of TV, but that’s just fine for Linda and I. It does have Wifi which works for the two of us.
After we got our stuff unloaded we walked a couple of blocks down to Stearns Park. That’s the city’s lakefront park. The wind was pretty strong, and it had been for a while. It had blown lots of sand off the beach across the parking lot into the grassy part of the park. It was also causing big waves that were crashing up over the north breakwater. We thought it was crazy that there were actually people out on the breakwater while those waves were present. Our common sense was right. On Monday, after we’d returned home, a tourist was out on the breakwater and a big wave swept him right off into the lake and he drowned. You should never underestimate the power of the lake!
After we walked the length of the park we were at Ludington Avenue. So we headed up the street and checked out some of the shops. It didn’t take long for the kids to get bored with that. We had dinner at the Jamesport Brewing Company. A walk in the dark back to our cottage was fun. When the kids weren’t being raucous we could hear Lake Michigan a couple of blocks away.
Sunday was Big Sable Point day. We had the Wrights goodies that we brought with us for breakfast, picked up some lunch at Subway, and then drove out to Ludington State Park. We parked at the Lake Michigan beach and started our walk to the Big Sable Point Lighthouse. To get to the light you either have to walk along the beach or a state park road. You cannot drive out to it. The walk along the beach is much more fun so we do that. On the way out there was much “I cannot walk one more step” heard from the children. It got better once we walked far enough for the top of the lighthouse to come into view.
It was a beautiful day to walk along the water. The sun was shining and it wasn’t too hot or cold.
We made it back to Reed City for dinner with Grandma and Grandpa who came up that day. After a nice evening with them the kids slept well. The fresh air and walking helps with that. Monday it was time to head home. It was a short vacation, but a great end to the Summer.