Day 212 - Friday, July 31, 2009

Day 212 - Friday, July 31, 2009 –
Kev mans the very slow garage sale. A reminder of why we never do these things. Lots of work, little pay off.

Day 211 - Thursday, July 30, 2009

Day 211 - Thursday, July 30, 2009 –

We checked another Summer Family to-do item off of our list today by visiting Cook's Farm Dairy for some delicious ice cream. Jordyn and Liam both got Mint Chocolate Chip. Kevin got Chocolate Peanut Butter, I got Pistachio Almond, and Owen went with Blue "Moo". MMM mmm

Day 210 - Wednesday, July 29, 2009 –

Day 210 - Wednesday, July 29, 2009 –
Owen found a turtle in the yard and wanted to keep it for a pet. Too bad it was dead.

Day 209 - Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Day 209 - Tuesday, July 28, 2009 –

Kevin was so excited to throw his first double ringer EVER! Too bad Joel threw his shoes after this and knocked one of Kev's ringers off. But still, it was very exciting. Good job, Babe!

Day 208 - Monday, July 27, 2009

Day 208 - Monday, July 27, 2009 –
Kevin let Owen help him mow the lawn today. Owen was thrilled. Let's see how thrilled he is when he's 13 and has to do this on his own every week!

Day 207 - Sunday, July 26, 2009

Day 207 - Sunday, July 26, 2009 –

Today was the Shellnut Family Reunion at Green Acres Park in Hazel Park. Here is (most of) the Bennie Shellnut Family, which accounted for 13 of the 70+ people that attended.

Day 206 - Saturday, July 25, 2009

Day 206 - Saturday, July 25, 2009 –
After begging Kevin to take him fishing this morning, Kev finally relented. As it ended up Owen caught a huge bass while fishing from the shore. He cast out the line, hooked the fish, reeled him in, (Kev took him off the hook), then he let him go. Yes, he's still in his pajamas!

Day 205 - Friday, July 24, 2009

Day 205 - Friday, July 24, 2009 –

Kev downs an LBL at home on the deck after a frustrating night of softball where the umpire cost us the second game of the night. This is a good way to cool off, both literally and figuratively.

Day 204 - Thursday, July 23, 2009

Day 204 - Thursday, July 23, 2009 –
Tonight we had dinner at the OX Bar & Grill on its second day open. A guy in the restaurant, celebrating his birthday, gave a wad of one dollar bills to Liam so that he could play Golden Tee while we waited for our food (the kitchen was backed up). We took the boys to Meijer afterwards to spend their remaining $2 on new Hot Wheels. Can you ever have enough Hot Wheels?

Day 203 - Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Day 203 - Wednesday, July 22, 2009 –

This is what we come home with when we go to BW3's on Wednesdays, which is "kids' night". This happens to be an octopus. But we've had balloon balls, swords, football helmets, and various other animals. The boys love it!

Day 202 - Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Day 202 - Tuesday, July 21, 2009 –
When I got home from work today, Owen dragged me to the basement to show me this train set that he had put together, ALL BY HIMSELF!! He was so proud of it.

Day 201 - Monday, July 20, 2009

Day 201 - Monday, July 20, 2009 –

Liam & Owen play on our neighbor, Alex's play set, along with Alex's sister and their buddy, Nathan.

Day 200 - Sunday, July 19, 2009

Day 200 - Sunday, July 19, 2009 –

Aunt Mary and Uncle Doug are visiting from Florida and came over for dinner. There was lots of picture taking on the deck. With my camera, Shawn’s camera, Aunt Mary’s camera. It’s always so, so good to see them.

Day 199 - Saturday, July 18, 2009

Day 199 - Saturday, July 18, 2009 –

Today we met the Parsons for dinner at BW3’s on the spur of the moment. Catie likes to take her own self portraits, so I asked her to take a self portrait of herself and Owen. I just had to laugh at how cute this picture turned out.

Day 198 - Friday, July 17, 2009

Day 198 - Friday, July 17, 2009 –

Sometimes all a kid needs is a bucket of Legos and his imagination. Liam proudly displays his race car.

Day 197 - Thursday, July 16, 2009 –

Day 197 - Thursday, July 16, 2009 –

This summer we’ve been drinking a lot of this. I call it Recession Wine. Whatever you call it, it’s yummy and goes well with a BBQ riblet dinner (with our newly discovered Cattleman’s BBQ sauce that the entire family absolutely loves).

Day 196 - Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Day 196 - Wednesday, July 15, 2009 –

Jordyn came home from her hair appointment at Di’s today with this super cute new hair cut. And, bonus! She LOVED it. I can remember getting my hair done when I was 13 and I cried uncontrollably because I HATED it. I’m so glad she likes it.

Day 195 - Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Day 195 - Tuesday, July 14, 2009 –

Jordyn and Kayla (along with several of their friends and all of the other teens in Oxford) went to see the midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince on its opening day. Such a thrill.

Day 194 - Monday, July 13, 2009

Day 194 - Monday, July 13, 2009 –

While we were on vacation, Owen saw his four year old cousin, Allison riding a two-wheeler at Grandma’s house on “bike day”. He mentioned to us several times that he wanted Dad to take his training wheels off when we got home from vacation. So, first thing Monday morning, he asked Kevin to take them off. Kevin took off the training wheels, went to put them in the garage, and when he returned to the driveway, there was Owen, riding his two-wheeler.

Day 193 - Sunday, July 12, 2009

Day 193 - Sunday, July 12, 2009 –
Day Six, and the final day of our family vacation was spent wave running. Owen loved the wave runner and kept telling me to do donuts and that it should really be called a wave jumper. This kid is a thrill seeker like his momma. Look out.