Silver Lake Park

Fun, friends, sun, cool park!

$25

What would you do if someone gave you a $25 loan and 5 weeks to pay it back? During that 5 weeks you could use it for whatever you want to try and make more money from it......or just keep it tucked away to give back later. So what would you do?

That's what our church decided to find out. At the beginning of May everyone who wanted to participate was given $25. On June 8th we have to give the $25 back. Any extra money people have made will be pooled and given to a charity.

People are coming up with some really cool ideas.

I took my $25 and bought some beads and findings and made earrings. The earrings are for sale for $10-12 a pair.

I have already made back my $25, so everything from here on out is "profit" to go to a charity. We haven't as a group decided which one yet, but in the past have supported local food pantries and the Women's Resource Center.

Someone else is selling hanging baskets from Plant Masters.

Someone else is offering a full day car wash and full detailing with professional grade products for $100.

Some other friends have made a really cool photo calendar of the Grand Traverse area complete with a geocache to hunt for every month of the year for $15.

It's been a pretty fun project so far!

No it's not an emerald ash borer

The beautiful green beatle in the previous post is not an emerald ash borer. I looked up a picture to make sure. :)

In the woods

This morning Alex got a haircut, he did the best job ever....no crying or worrying at all! Then despite the rain we went for a walk downtown. Alex had been asking to walk with an umbrella for quite a while so we tried it out. We checked out a new children's book store that is pretty fun.
This afternoon after quiet time it actually cleared up, it was a little chilly but not too bad. So we went exploring in the woods and saw all sorts of interesting things.

Way to Grow park day

Today there was a Way to Grow event at a local park/beach. It started out a little rough because Alex got stung by a bee for the first time ever. He grabbed a railing on the play structure and the bee must have been sitting there so he grabbed it. At least we now know he isn't allergic to them, his hand swelled up a little right away but was back to normal w/in 20 minutes or so. Alex was a trooper and pulled it back together and ended up having a really fun time.
It was a beautiful day, the tall ship was out in the east bay along with the big Coast Guard ship and we saw swans, ducks and a cardinal.

Party girl!

Maya was so wound up last night! She was having the greatest time with my water bottle and her feet.

Fun project

The "teacher" from the Way to Grow program came over last week to do her monthly project with Alex. They explored colors and color combinations this month. Alex liked making these butterflies so much we made 3 more on our own over the weekend. They are made by taking coffee filters and dotting them with different color bingo blotters (available at dollar stores) and then taking an eye dropper and dripping water on them to make the "tie dye" type effect from the ink running. Then add the pipe cleaner and clothes pin and you've got a butterfly!

So I guess I'll take pictures of this one instead

I DON'T WANT A PICTURE TAKEN!

Ahhhh, I love age 3.

Thursday....

Random collection of stuff:
First the "important" stuff:
Maya signed "milk" last night. I thought it was a fluke and she was just imitating me but she has done it about 8 more times today! She hasn't figured out to ask for milk by signing yet - she just rubs her face in my chest LOL - but she stops nursing for a minute and gives me a huge smile and signs milk, looks very proud of herself and then goes back to nursing again.

We are going to consider this important too:
Tonight is the series finale of Scrubs. I love that show, there are rumors it might get picked up on another network but nothing official and they are advertising tonight as the SERIES not season finale. Thank goodness for TV shows on DVD because nothing can make me laugh like Scrubs.

Now some weird observation stuff.
Today we had a babywearing group meeting in the morning, then grabbed some lunch and headed over to the grocery store. Maya was asleep so we opened the windows and ate our lunch while she slept a little before we ran inside.
It was an interesting day in the Oleson's parking lot.
A truck pulled up behind us and two women (mother/daughter maybe?) unloaded approx. 49 twelve packs of empty beer bottles PLUS 3 thirty gallon size garbage bags of cans. Lets hope they'be been saving those up for a while. That's even more than I ever saw the frat houses return at Jim's Food Mart (highest alcohol sales per capita in the US) in Houghton.
Then a woman pulled up in a car next to us and waited a few minutes until a man pulled up on her other side. She got out and got into the car with him where they proceeded to make out...I mean to the point that I was getting embarassed a few cars away. If they would have been right next to us I would have felt like I had to move so I didn't end up having to explain some things to Alex. Alex was preoccupied watching the automatic sprinklers luckily.

So that is my thursday.

Outside

We've been out in the backyard a lot lately. On this particular day Alex decided he didn't want his picture taken. Maya was a little more agreeable.

I'm boring

I know. I'm boring. I have been lazy lately about taking pictures. We've been outside a lot just doing regular playing type things, bike rides with friends....
We've been to the library a few times, sometimes with friends. Yesterday we met friends at the "big library" and then all invaded a McDonalds with a playland for lunch. (So basically it's probably a countdown now until Alex gets sick - there were loads of kids there) But they all had SO much fun, all the moms were dragging dead tired kids out of there.