What our Saturday Mornings were like - SOCCER!

Abbie and her friend, Olivia

Just standing there - posing - and looking pretty!

I will admit, I am a little sad that soccer is done for the season. It now means that snow is right around the corner and shortly we will be wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and soon after that Merry Christmas. It just doesn't seem right - time goes WAY too fast!

Halloween at Hidden Ridge Campground

The Pumpkin Chuck - Well, macho man(Brandon of course) only chucked the pumpkin about 10 feet. Don't worry, hunny I still love you! I'm not going to say much about this because he probably chucked it 10 feet further than what I would have.

The Pumpkin Roll - we bought the girls pumpkins to roll down the hill with other kids their age and I think Alexis came in second. Too bad they only award first place finishers.

The golf cart that my dad rented for the weekend was loved well by the kids. We put MANY miles on it!

A princess, a witch, and goofy??? Odd combination of characters if I must say so myself :-)! Don't worry, we didn't let "goofy" drive the cart!

Frantically running back to the campsite to empty their bags so they could reload on more sugar - they claimed that their bags were getting too heavy! The girls counted and they came up with 138 pieces of candy - I think that is about 10 to 20 shy of what they might've gotten since they were eating the candy as they Trick-or-treated to the campsites! I didn't get a picture of Bryce - bummer, but he made the adventure about an hour into it and then decided to take a nap. Everyone at the campsites thought he had the cutest costume.

It was really nice that Alexis came along with us. Abbie really enjoyed having a friend there. I didn't see much of them, they were always on the go!

Swimming Lessons - a busy two weeks!

For the past two weeks, Abbie has been having swimming lessons everyday for 40 minutes with her class. It made mornings quite complicated for me because I had to remember to pack more than just the normal everyday homework, books, and lunches. I had to focus on swimsuits, towels, goggles, and other items that a 7 year old going on 13 would need :-)! One day really stressed me out because it was school picture day. I didn't want my daughter to look like a drowned rat in a yearbook that the whole school district would look at. Then there was relief when I found out that the schedule was switched around. I will admit that I am a crazy mom that has to have her kids looking just right :-)! I was even planning on making a special trip to school to make sure she was picture ready! How crazy is that!

Abbie and her friend Tanna

Sorry a few of these pictures turned out blurry my digital camera doesn't have the best of zoom. I really need a camera that has great zoom and snaps pictures on demand!

Time to rest! (Swimming the length of the pool 5 times would tire anyone out!)

Abbie is also in private lessons, which is every Friday night for a half hour. I have been doing this a few times throughout the year for the past three years and have had Ms. Kerri every time.


The highlight of the lessons are at the end when Abbie can jump off the diving board. I think if you are to ask her what her favorite part about swimming lessons she will tell you jumping off the board. It really comforts me to know that she has become such an excellent swimmer! She does qualify for the Age Swim Team, but at 7 years old, I really didn't want her to have that much responsibility quite yet.

Allegan County Fair

I am now able to update the blog! Our computer has been fixed for a couple of weeks now, but I just didn't have the time. We went to the fair with the Mazureks and had a great time. I just wish I would've thought of getting pics of Abbie, Bryce, and Emma - shoulda coulda woulda huh?? Sara's brother and cousin had livestock there so the kids were able to get right by the cows to pet them. Again.... wish I would've used the camera! There was an exhibit that was for kids and the kids were able to milk a cow (not a real one of course) and look for eggs. We had a great time and great weather!





























We probably spent the most time by the tractors, we just couldn't get Bryce away! I can only imagine what he will be like when it is time for the combine to come out by us! Hmmmm..... probably free babysitting service because he will just sit by the window for hours if there is any tractor in site!

Back to School

Wow, where has the time gone? My girl is now in 2nd grade and is quite the "preteen" sad to say. She is now of the age that she chooses her clothes and fashion, and I have to admit she does have good taste! It's really hard to believe that a 2nd grader knows the latest fashions, but they do. As for her 1st day of school pic, this is the best I could get because she didn't want to waste a whole lot of time "posing."

Extreme bow fishing

Sorry, but I don't have any pictures for this post, but I still wanted to keep up on what we have been doing. Brandon, Ben Mazurek, Tim Smith(from church) and his son Hunter spent a long weekend doing Extreme bow fishing. Ben has a fifth wheel and a fishing boat so the guys hooked those things up and took off for the Illinois river. They had it all planned out, two guys would stand on the back platform with a bow aparatis hooked to their fishing pole, one would drive, and the fourth would stand with a baseball bat. Why a baseball bat you ask? Well, the guys went fishin' for carp and when you pulsate the motor of the boat, the carp would fly out of the water and the guy with the bat would have to try to hit them back to the water instead of having the fish jump into the boat. Both Brandon and Ben went to bed one night with a headache 'cuz they each had a carp, the size of their arm (25 pounds) fly out of the water and hit them in their heads. I would just love to go along just to watch them. They all came back with plans to do this again next year - I think this is going to be the annual guys weekend out!

Camping at Hidden Ridge RV resort

My dad took Bryce to the playground one afternoon and as I walked up, this is what I saw and just HAD to take a picture. Kinda a "monkey see monkey do" type of situation here!

During the week of camping, the kids consumed quite a bit of melon - 3 watermelons and 4 cantelopes. Pampers diapers do hold up very well :-)!

Abbie had her friend Alexis along, which was a lifesaver. Without Alexis, I have a feeling her week would've been boring. Those girls are such preteens, at seven years of age, it is unbelievable. We had a great and stress free week! I think most of my stress free was because we were camping on a cement pad with nice grass around us instead of dirt and weeds - my trailer stayed nice and clean!