Outside every day

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!