Peace Day Celebration '09

Today the kids got the chance to take part in the 31st Annual Peace Day Celebration at Daley Plaza.

Here's Clara getting her flag ready...
And Alex getting his ready...
May peace be in Antigua and Barbuda...
May peace be in Australia...

May peace be in the world...
The kids really enjoyed being part of the World Peace Flag Ceremony.

They also enjoyed watching the Indian dance performance...

Afterward, they wanted to slide down the Picasso...


They had a really good time and we had absolutely perfect weather! We got to have lunch together before we all had to run in separate directions in order to make it to afternoon classes.

Now, the kids are heading to an early bedtime since we have a crazy weekend ahead of us!

yesterday afternoon...

Yesterday afternoon, after her schoolwork was done, Clara asked if she could paint a picture to hang above her desk in her room. I happened to have one canvas left so we got it down, picked out some paint colors and set her up on the back deck...
She loves to paint...
When Alex found out that Clara was going to be outside, he announced that he was going to go outside too, but he was going to build volcanoes...
(I have no clue why he had that bandanna around his head, but it was there ALL DAY)

So, he grabbed a box of baking soda and the big bottle of vinegar and started to work on his volcano.

They were out there for a couple of hours, working away.

Here's Clara's finished painting...
Now we just have to get it hung up in her room!

Okay... I'm behind schedule this morning... gotta run!

back to our labor day weekend photos

Well... since I haven't taken many new photos lately, I'm going to get back to posting photos from our Labor Day weekend trip to Crystal Mountain.

Saturday we stayed on property all day. We started out the morning riding the Crystal Coaster. But after his second wipe-out, Alex was done and needed a break.

We decided to grab some lunch and then head to the pool...

While at the pool, they discovered that another family from our church was there so the kids had friends to play with the rest of our time there.

We stayed until time for dinner and ordered pizza to take back to the room.

Clara was determined to tie-dye another t-shirt this year. She makes one every summer. Here is this year's shirt...

After dinner, Alex decided that he was ready to tackle the Crystal Coaster again. This time he decided to wear long sleeves and long pants in order to save his skin in case he crashed again....They rode for 2 1/2 hours straight and he never did crash again.

Down and back up....
... over and over again.

They love it! :-)

a great day...

Yesterday had to be the most perfect amusement park day EVER!

We went with friends to Six Flags Great America for Homeschool Day. It was a perfect day all around... perfect weather, light crowds and best of all, good friends.

Here are the girls waiting to get started...
and the boys doing what the boys like to do....
First order of business was to head straight to the American Eagle. We did make a couple of side trips to other rides along the way.... but eventually we made it. The moms even rode the American Eagle!

After that we went over to the kiddie area and the kids rode the planes...
I have no clue where else we went after that... we were everywhere.

After lunch Alex and Clara wanted to ride the pirate ships...

Those photos give you a good idea of the crowds (or lack thereof). They rode all by themselves on this ride. I think the tops they ever waited in line was 10 minutes (maybe), most rides they didn't wait at all... they could walk right on and even stay on and keep riding when they were done.

There are some rides, however, that should only be ridden once....
... I think this was one ride of a couple of rides that they rode one too many times in a row. I should have packed more Queasy Pops!

Below is the photo that shocks me...
Yes... the girl is singing karaoke with her friend!!! They had a blast and had plans to sing again but the booth was closed when they got there.

We tried to get a group shot as we were leaving for the day and this is what we got....
And the group screaming for ice cream....
Here's Clara with the prize she won...
... it was exactly what we *needed*... sigh. :-)

The kids had so much fun and were completely worn out! That's a great day in my book!

the drive-in

Friday night we took the kids out for their special surprise....

... a trip to the drive-in movie!

The Cherry Bowl Drive-In is about a 20 minute drive from the resort we stayed at. The kids had never been to a drive-in before and neither had I! We were all pretty excited.

We got there about the time the ticket booth opened, went on in and got set up.

First order of business was to play around with the photo cut-outs near the concession stand...



Then it was off to play some mini-golf.

Here are the kids contemplating their golf ball choices...
I had never seen golf balls in gumball dispensers before!

Here's Alex getting my ball for me...
Then it was on to the first hole...

No clue what the girl was doing here....
... she was hamming it up for the camera.

After mini-golf, we walked over to the gift shop to check it out. On the way back we stopped for a photo...
Next stop was the concession stand for popcorn with real butter, drinks and candy. We folded the second row seats over and the kids sat on the third row, using the second row seats to lay on or as foot rests.

After some vintage advertising reels and a cartoon, it was time for the first feature...
It was a double feature with Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Jeff and I really wanted to stay and watch it again (we had just gone to see it with Alex the previous weekend), however, the kids were tired and wanted to go back to the cottage and go to bed.

The Cherry Bowl was a lot of fun and I'm already looking forward to going again next summer when we go back to Crystal Mountain.

a girl with curls...

A couple of quick photos from today and then I'll get back to our Labor Day Weekend photos.

Guess who slept in sponge rollers last night...
Don't they look pretty? Sadly, they lasted all of about half an hour... sigh.

And a shot of Clara working on one of her stained glass coloring sheets...

That's it! :-)

a weekend away...

We decided to take a last minute weekend trip to our favorite place... Crystal Mountain Resort in Michigan.

We left mid-day on Thursday and got there just in time to have dinner and head to bed. We had to get a good night's sleep because we had a big day planned for Friday.

Friday morning we got up and drove out to the dune climb at Sleeping Bear Dunes. The kids love it there and insist that we go each time we're at Crystal Mountain.

Here they are climbing up the dune....
From this point... Alex and Jeff continued on across the dunes to get a view of Lake Michigan (they took photos with the point and shoot but I haven't downloaded them yet).

Clara took off running down the big dune...
I followed her a ways down. Then she climbed back up to the top so she could run down again.

Here she goes....
(apparently "jazz hands" are necessary for dune running)

she decided to take a running jump into the sand...


We then went back down to the bottom to wait for the boys...
Then, before long, here came the boy running down the dune....
After that we loaded up and headed for our next destination. We stopped at a little sandwich place for lunch along the way.

Then it was time to play in the Platte River...
This really is a nice place for the kids to play... nice little river with a gentle current that empties into Lake Michigan just a minute or two walk from where we set up shop. The rocks here are amazing... the kids could play with them all day. Lots and lots of perfect skipping stones, smooth rounded rocks, and the occasional fossil. They really didn't want to leave but we had a surprised planned for them later that night that we had to get ready for.

We went back to our cottage and got cleaned up for the surprise.

While we waited for it to be time for us to leave, the kids went frog hunting behind the cottage...




They didn't catch any, but they did spot a couple of them.

Hey... look at this....
... a "real" smile!

And more "real" smiles...
The trick? Having them recite tongue twisters! The downside... they we were rarely looking my direction when they were laughing.

One last set...
color

or

black and white?
That's as far as I've edited today... hopefully I'll get to the "surprise" photos tomorrow!