Lions, Tigers, and Saints?

This was the first year that our end of October activities required two sets of costumes...one for the All Saints Festival at Marie's school and one for our traditional Halloween trick-or-treating with Rosie, Lilly, and their family.  I wasn't too worried about dressing up for Halloween, but was a little daunted by the need to first figure out which Saint Marie and Joey wanted to be and then put together a costume.

Marie had originally asked to dress up as Padre Pio for the All Saints Fest, but settled on St. Therese of Lisieux (thankfully!).  Joey on the other hand didn't really have much to say about what saint he wanted to be.  He just knew he'd need to dress up if he wanted to go to and participate in the festival at Marie's school.  So, it was decided that I would make him a basic Franciscan robe and we'd go from there.  It seemed like a natural extension to grab a couple of stuffed animals and go as St. Francis.

The day of the festival was a busy one.  I dropped Marie off at school and stayed for daily Mass.  Afterward, there was a Saints parade in the gym.  It was neat to see all the different costumes!  Afterward, I went home and picked up Joey before going back to school to help with lunch duty.  Joey and I stuck around for the festival later that afternoon.  There were 10-12 stations set up in the gym with games for all the kids, bowling, fishing, golf, basketball, pin the wings on the angels, etc.  By the time the hour was over, both Marie and Joey had a full bag of treats!  It was nice to get to know some of the other parents and match more faces with names of Marie's classmates.

The actual day of Halloween, we had arranged to meet up with our friends the Roberts' family.  We have gone trick-or-treating with them the last couple of years in Northville.  We reused a couple of costumes from years past, Joey was a cowboy and Stevie was a tiger, which was especially cute since Leo who is about the same age as Stevie was a lion.  Marie got a "new"costume this time around...she was a firefighter (notice the reflective tape in the pictures!). 

Northville is known for their trick-or-treating and it is always a busy place.  It took a lot of vigilance on the part of the parents to keep track of our six kids ages 5 and under. Thankfully, the kids were happy to just hit a few houses and then head over to Aubrey's for pizza.  It was a fun, memorable, and yes tiring evening!

Chapter 3. Shut-down week.

Every year around the 4th of July, Jon has a week off of work. It is basically mandatory vacation time when (almost) all of GM shuts down for maintenance, re-tooling, and other big jobs that quite frankly are easier to do when no one around. It also usually coincides with the annual Speckhard family reunion in Mishawaka, IN so that works out nicely for us. I (Peg) also take vacation and we spend a week on the road visiting with as many loved ones as we can. This year, there was also a baptism, wedding, and birthday party thrown in, so it was busy!

This year's road trip started with short drive to Canton, MI. On Friday, July 1, our Godson, Leo Benjamin (Rosie and Lilly's baby brother) was being baptized. Of course we couldn't miss that! It was a nice, intimate ceremony followed by ice cream and visiting at Leo's grandparents' home. Leo and Stevie are just a few weeks apart in age. It was already fun to see them interacting and "talking" to each other. We think they will turn out to be pretty good buds!

PS - Thanks to Tabbatha Plomaritas for the great pictures!




As an aside, at the after-baptism party, Marie tripped while running in the yard, landing squarely on the sidewalk on both knees. There was quite a bit of blood and crying, but we eventually did recover from the first really good knee scraping of the summer. This provides the explanation for the band-aide theme you might notice in some of the subsequent pictures.

After the baptism, it was time to hit the road. We had never attempted the driving at night approach with our kids. We were a little leery about it, but we just needed to do it this time. On Saturday, July 2, Jon's cousin was getting married in Mishawaka, IN. Marie and Joey did fine...but didn't sleep. Stevie, who was (and is) still not a big fan of riding in the car, cried a good part of the way. But, alas, we did make it to the hotel and finally got everyone settled in for some restful sleep.

The next couple of days were packed full of wedding activities, playing with the Shibata's (the event was also attended by Grandma and Grandpa Shibata, Uncle James, Aunt Jaclyn, JJ, and Gracie, and Aunt Jess), catching up with family that we hadn't seen in a year or more, swimming, eating, outdoor games, celebrating Gracie's 2nd birthday, and the like. The weather was hot and humid. (Though that is reportedly not the reason the groom was in a kilt!) The pool was refreshing and thoroughly enjoyed. Joey did get a couple of wasp stings, but after a bit of ice, he was as good as new. Even though we don't get to see Jon's aunts, uncles, and cousins all that often, we always feel right at home and cherish the time with them. We are so grateful to have such wonderful extended family.

Gracie, the newest 2-year-old!

Needless to say, all the time outside in the sun and all the tremendous fun that we had really wore us out. Back at the hotel, Marie and Joey slept together in the pull-out couch. When they are teenagers and can't seem to get along, we look forward to pulling out this shot!

After a couple of full days, we got back on the road. We drove down to Grandma and Grandpa Meinhart's house on Monday, July 4th. This time the drive was during the day and went much more smoothly. By this time, we were beginning to figure out how to keep Stevie and happy as possible. Instead of Jon doing the driving (he almost exclusively did the driving up until that point), I drove and Jon sat right next to Stevie. Hey...whatever works.

Down in Illinois, there was lots of stuff to do and see. Marie and Joey got a kick out of the new kittens that Grandma and Grandpa had. The kids were kind of scared of them at first. (Scared of kittens...I know!) But, after a couple of days, they realized they were completely harmless and got up the nerve to pet them and pick them up. Marie and Joey still talk about them now!




We were kept busy checking the garden, looking for Purple Martins, fishing, watering flowers, driving the tractor, and lots of other fun stuff as well. Time always flies when we're down there!


Another one of our Illinois activities was taking the kids to the farm, where Grandpa Meinhart grew up and were his two brothers (and nephews) still farm. Marie and Joey were pretty nervous about the cows in the milking parlor and wouldn't even think about letting us put them down. They were also afraid of the dogs, calves, pigs, and steers. At least they're consistent! We were a little surprised about Joey being so nervous since last year, he got right in there and fed the steers by himself. But, they both still really enjoyed playing in the big pile of cottonseed.





We took a day to drive to St. Louis and see Great-Grandpa Boedeker. He is definitely slowing down and his hearing and eyesight is suffering, but he is still sharp as a tack. He always brightened up when the kids would be playing or running around. And, he could see well enough to comment a couple of times about how big Stevie was already! We can't get anything past Great-Grandpa.


After a packed few days in Illinois, we drove back up to Michigan on Friday, July 8. The next day, we celebrated again with our friends, the Roberts' family. This time it was to celebrate Lilly's 3rd birthday. No skinned knees this time, just pizza, cake, and ice cream.



Later that night, we celebrated with our friends, the Thomm's (and many others!), who were renewing their wedding vows and celebrating their 10th anniversary. Not only that, but Uncle Dave and Itaxso flew in for the weekend on their way to Chicago. Whew! So much going on, so much fun, and so thankful for safe travels, all the family that we got to see and events we got to celebrate. This year's shut-down week will be hard to beat in the years to come!

Halloween Fun

The kids were really looking forward to Halloween this year. Last year, Marie started talking about going trick-or-treating with Rosie and Lilly again within a couple of months. Well, the time finally came!

The first activity was to carve their jack-o-lantern out of one of the pumpkins they had chosen during our previous outing with Rosie and Lilly. (Note: The other pumpkin met its demise while being rolled and thrown down the hill behind our house, an activity that was neither dreamed up nor accomplished by the kids alone. I'll refrain from naming the instigators/accomplices.)

Marie and Joey thoroughly enjoyed scooping out the seeds, drawing Jack's face(s), posing with the finished product, and ultimately lighting it (sorry, no pictures of that). The whole family was there for the lighting and Joey was very excited about showing Jon their work. He used one of his more recent favorite phrases, "Look! Look!"

Since visiting Pittsburgh for JJ's birthday, the kids have been interested in Thomas the Train and Lightning McQueen even more than usual. I must have been feeling overwhelmed with my list of things to do when I saw these costumes because I quickly banished any thought of finding creative (i.e. less expensive) options and just got them. I have to admit, the kids loved them.

Our first stop on Halloween night was to Uncle Mark and Aunt Sarah's house. Joey was quite impressed with the whole concept of getting candy and then spent the rest of the time kicking around a stuffed (Illini) basketball. After our short visit, we were off to do more trick-or-treating with our goddaughters Rosie and Lilly.

We went trick-or-treating in Northville, and area very close to where Rosie and Lilly live. It was the same area were we went last year. The streets were crawling with people. Marie was definitely shy at first, but then warmed up to the whole process. She and Rosie (both 4 years old) definitely have different personalities; Marie is more hesitant and cautious while Rosie is a real go-getter. Lilly just turned three and also got into the fun. Joey on the other hand was completely happy being carried around by Jon as he watched everything around him. He especially liked seeing all the people out with their dogs. Another highlight was the girls happening upon a large pile of leaves in front of one house. Before we could even say a word, they had jumped right in. We barely had enough time to snap a picture!

After about 40 minutes, we had our fill of trick-or-treating. True to tradition, we all headed to Aubrey's for some dinner. The kids did very well even though they were pretty tired. Between the cool air and the surrounding commotion, they were beat. By the time we were leaving, Rosie had even fallen asleep.

Needless to say, we parents had our hands full keeping track of the kids in the crowd and we wondered how in the world we would do this next year when we would be outnumbered by two (their family is also expecting a son just a few weeks before us). I guess we'll worry about that when the time comes. :)

Independence Weekend Parties...

I'd have to stop and think a while if I were to say the last time we were actually in Michigan over the 4th of of July. Between annual out-of-state family reunions and the fact that Jon usually has a week of vacation during that week, it is usually the case that we are long gone. For a variety of reasons, this year was a bit different.

On Friday evening we were expecting the arrival of our friends from Wisconsin, the Conraths. Carl is a good friend of Jon's from his first job at GE and also stood up in his wedding...wearing a kilt...just had to throw that in :)

Aneliese, Carl's daughter, is Jon's 4-year old god-daughter. They have family in Erie, PA and so decided that they would take a brief detour on their way and stop for a visit. Unfortunately, we got a call on Friday afternoon saying that their 2-year-old son had been up the night before with a fever and ear infection. Their plans had changed and they were still in Wisconsin. So, instead of hanging out with the Conrath's, we had a fun family outing to Home Depot and Lowe's to get some shelving for the garage, which was in dire need of some organization. A quick stop at Dairy Queen made a nice end to the evening.

On Saturday morning, we cleaned and organized the garage. It is so nice for the kids to be able to access (and put away!) their toys by themselves! Plus, we now have a method to the madness of sorting all the various recyclable items....ahhh.

Saturday afternoon we were hosting a 3rd birthday party for our (local) god-daughter Lilly. She, her older sister Rosie (age 4), and Marie have so much fun playing with each other. They played hopscotch, threw water balloons, ran around in the sprinkler, went swimming in the pool, read books and generally packed a lot into an afternoon. And of course, there was cake, ice cream, and presents.










On Sunday, we headed to Mass and stayed afterward to celebrate the baptism of our friends' dear son. That was followed by a BBQ during which we got to catch up with even more friends and Marie and Joey got to play on a really cool play structure, in the sand and on a trampoline. Somehow, I forgot the camera though and didn't get any pictures. :(

We opted not to go to any big fireworks displays...our kids do go to bed late, but since they wouldn't have started until 10:00 and we were really not looking forward to battling lots of mosquitoes, we just stayed home. Marie thought she was pretty big stuff though when she got to play with a few "sprinklers" (sparklers).

Monday was another beautiful day, though rather hot. A perfect day for the pool. Our friends the Clausers came over in the afternoon to take a dip. Megan is the same age as Marie within days and Jacob is within a few months of Joey's age and they all get along pretty well. The water was great, all the kids (and dads) enjoyed it I think. We grilled again and had some yummy veggies from the Clausers' garden. Afterward, the kids all played in the sandbox. They must have had fun because it was straight to the bathtub for the kids and I have never seen so much sand in the bottom of our tub. It took a few iterations, but we are happy to report that Marie no longer has sand in her hair!





That's about all from our busy weekend. We hope yours was just as fun and that you were able to celebrate the blessings of our freedom as well!