Steven's on the JV team :)

Here are some shots of Steven from his first JV soccer game of the season. It's been a couple of years since Steven has played soccer Staci and I were both proud when the game began and he was a starter. I had to take these pictures as he was to much in a hurry to get to the game to let mom take a picture in the yard and he would have to look at the camera, yikes!

This picture shows Steven waiting for the starting kick.

These net couple of shots are obviously Steven going to the ball.

Soon I will get a full frontal photo like it or not for the mom to post here :)

Grandma's visit

I know no one will believe it I have no picture to post tonight... Even though I said several times I need to get a picture we were so busy playing cards with grandma on the porch that we forget to get a picture. Well anyway we enjoyed Grandma Barb's visit, she usually comes and stays over night at the beginning and the end of the summer. Since this was the second week of my vacation we only had a little pick up cleaning to do before we could set down to serious business of card playing. We play Phase Ten until after ten last night(boy was grandma surprised), and then today before taking grandma to see the High School we played Wizard. A great time was had by all and everyone likes to see Grandma come down, all the kids on the street, and Mrs. Morgan too, Grandma went over to see her last night and when Mrs. Morgan saw us outside this morning on her way home from breakfast over she came. Thanks for the visit grandma it is fun to have you to ourselves.

Summer Games(Ida Street Olympics)

This is going to be a long post. What great fun we had Thursday night, it was time for some games, we always do this at the end of the summer some time before school starts. This set of games was exceptionally funny.

To get things started the first game was easy everyone sat in a circle except one person who left the area. Someone in the circle is named as the "killer frog", the killer frog takes people out of the game by sticking his tongue out at them. The person who left then comes back and stands in the center of the circle trying to figure out who the "killer frog" is.

Here is Cam having just been killed by the frog.Steven is in the center of the circle trying to find the "frog"
The next game was a relay race. The object of the game was to get your entire team on a noodle, run down around the tree and back.

You start with one team member on the noodle and each time you go down and back you add another these pictures show the final teams.

Next was find the hidden peanut butter cup..it is hidden in the pile of whipped cream and you cannot use your hands to get it...
so line up...
run down...

eat the candy...

eating the candy is not so easy with the whipped cream also on your face and the pressure of your teammates behind you...

but it can be done!

Then we played a game called "spaghetti head", the object be the first to fill your teammates head with the uncooked spaghetti.

Staci had allot of hair to work with but Cam and Steven made quite a handsome team.

One that became a favorite was the underwear race(don't worry we used pajamas)

Line up race down and get a pair of pj shorts...

put them on...

run like crazy.

Now for a really messy game. Cover marshmallows with strawberry syrup and throw them into your partners mouth, he he he...

your partner then sucks the syrup off of the marshmallow, and you do it all again to see who came get them most. This was a personal favorite of mine...

but not everyone felt the same way I did he he he.

A game that proved to be one of the hardest was the wet sweat shirt game. Run down get a sweat shirt out of a bucket of water and put it on. Then it has to be taken off and put back in the water before the next person can put it on.

Getting the wet shirt on is harder than it sounds.

We have a very sporty group here on Ida Street and so the competition is fierce!

An all time favorite that is asked for by all the kids when we paly these games is

the egg toss.

Although it is hard to look cool when your egg breaks!

Or if you get in the way of the other teams egg!

And of course watch out if you get caught from behind if someone has an egg left.

Well that is the end for now but be assured we will not wait four years for our next set of games as the Olympics does, I wonder what Michael Phelpps is doing next week????

P.S. GREAT job on the photos Marcia wish I could have posted all 377 of them :)

Smart little birds

So tonight I was telling Triston how I wanted Steven to sit and hold the humming bird feeder so I could take a picture of the little fellows eating. Steven laughed at me like I was nuts. Triston said I'll do it....so we sat for about 10 minutes, two times the humming birds flew by but never seemed to look at him...of course, and I am not kidding, 2 minutes after he hung the feeder back up...the little stinker was on the wire watching me...

and then here he comes, well we will try another night.

I am sure we will try another night Triston was a real trouper, he had a coupple bees come and get a drink.

Time for new pictures

Just wanted to post a couple pictures from this week, boy are my young adults growing!! Marcia just said this week we need to do new pictures and she is right so before school we will get to play again and we will have new photos like we did last year at the park.

Last nights concert

It seems our porch just lends it's self to being a stage. Staci and Steven used to ask to "do shows", so we would sit on the porch and they would sing or do some sort of gymnastics in the yard and we would clap of course. Well they have passed this on to Tara and often she is more than willing to "do a show" for any and all willing to listen or watch. Tara does a good job of putting her feelings into her songs, however you clap at the end, you DO NOT laugh in the middle, first because it would be rude second because you may get told if it is funny or not, Tonight was serious song about feelings and missing a cousin who had to go home. I hope Tara puts this creativity to use in the future and stays confident in front of others.

Baseball is over :(

Well the season is over but the fun was not, Saturday one of the coaches hosted a party for the boys who could make it and even in the pool a game of ball broke out. Here are a couple of shots of the boys playing jack pot .

They had a beautiful place for boys to be boys here is a shot of Steven driving the go cart and in the back ground you can see that the adults were able to pick some blue berries.. thank you coach! The season ended what seemed all to fast but that is OK because soccer practice started today for Steven...he he he..that means the day began with a 2 mile run yikes! But tonight when Steven came home from practice he said "if we keep up like this I am really going to be buff!" He loves his sports..well of to watch Micheal Phelps!!

Rachael We're Proud!!

Tonight I am writing about Rachael that cute little girl who I used to play with at grandma's and grandpa's house, occasionally babysit, and have sleepover "all the way in Allegan"...

Rachael is not that cute little girl any more she is a beautiful young woman!Now is is time for a new adventure and it is not a sleep over "all the way in Allegan" it is a new apartment in a suburb of Chicago and a teaching job downtown Chicago. This is going to be different from good ole' Grand Haven, but I have no doubt Rachael has gifts to offer and this is where she has been lead to share them for now. We will continue to pray for you Rachael as you enter this new stage of life. Look, see the new teacher at Epiphany Catholic School in Chicago, they are lucky to have such a good teacher and woman of strong faith!!!

The Twilight Saga

At some point during the last school year one of Staci's friends introduced her to the book "Twilight". Well that lead to the next two books in the series, which I have to admit a couple of times during the year I asked is your homework done before you read(how often do you stop your child from reading) This is a very popular series of books with the girls right now so when they heard the date for the 4th and final book to come out off to Barnes and Noble they went to pre-order their copies, thus starting the count down to the release. The big day was Aug 2 for the release, so on Aug1 at 10:00pm there was a party at Barnes and Noble. As soon as the girls pre-ordered the book and found out about the party I was recruited to drive them as Staci cannot drive after midnight.

The girls made shirts and were ready to go.

I saw them come out of the store and before I could turn the car on they were calling "where are you parked hurry, hurry, hurry, so we can get home to read!

It was a very emotional ride home (not for me my worry was I would wet my pants from laughing) They wanted the overhead light on in the car I asked just let me get on M-40 and out of Holland, so between cell phone lights and street light they would peek at the different chapters and pages. I am here to say every emotion a person could have was in the car....

from thrilled squeals, to NO WAY are you kidding me...

... they came home and read off and on until about 3:30 and then quit, sure they did not like the book, and were so disappointed. Steven asked me this morning how the book was and I told him the story, his reply was "well did they read the whole book or just jump around maybe they will like it"...


This is where the girls spent the entire day and now are really back into the book...

Staci has bee trying to get me to put down my crime fighting mystery books and read this series for a long time... well look at her face now because when I went out to the porch today my book finished she asked again "don't you want to try it mom"

200 pages later I said I have to get some work done so I did I put this to gather and as soon as I hit publish post I am off to read also...I'll get those girls!

Coast Guard Festival

This week was Coast Guard Festival in Grand Haven. This has always been a fun time for me growing up in GH the carnival, the parade, the art fair, and of course fire works. Well over the last few years the carnival has become my favorite part again, not because I go on the rides but because Staci and Steven go to school with me and help with our students. As soon as they were 12 they were old enough to volunteer and are happy to do so. Best friends Cameron and Taylor have been going also since they have been old enough. The festival is fun for our students and fun for the helpers but it is work also, getting in and out of the rides. I could not be prouder of Steven and Staci for giving some of the day to be with our students. Of course after the students go home they ride the bigger rides also :)
This little girl kept reaching for Steven's hat so he shared it with her!

Steven also wanted to get some sun off of her face.

As we were walking around after the students left we ran into our old neighbor April who has always been fond of Staci.