Don't rain on my parade

Big Rapids loves any excuse for a parade. April in the Month of the Young Child and to celebrate, the last day of the month a parade was held downtown today for all kids in Big Rapids pre-school to elementary. It was the perfect weather for a parade, not too hot, not too cold. It was supposed to rain, but no rain during the parade. Not until Charlotte and I walked out of Meijer without umbrellas or rain jackets did it start pouring down. Anyway, here are a few pictures of the parade.



One week from today we will be in Indianapolis for the summer. See everybody there!

Let's go fly a kite!

Today was a great day to fly a kite. It was about 75 degrees and very windy. So we headed over to the intramural fields and tried to have some fun. Brooke had a bit of a meltdown after falling down in the mud, but got over it. Charlotte even had a good time, until she got the string tangled up. Anyway, enjoy the pictures!

Sleeping Bear Dunes

Nathan is taking an Earth Science class this semester. Today he went on a field trip to Sleeping Bear Dunes. Yes, college students do go on field trips too. Brooke was very excited he got to ride on a big bus like her. Anyway, it is about a 2 1/2 hour drive to the northwest located on Lake Michigan. He got some scenic pictures and I wish I could've been there too. Maybe we'll take our kids one of these days.

Overflowing with....

...COOKIES!!! AAAHHH!!!

Play Day

So the last few days have been perfect weather. Today it reached 70 degrees! It's going to cool down in the next couple days, I just hope it doesn't snow like it did in Utah!! Anyway, we've been taking advantage of the beautiful weather and have been spending lots of time outside. Nathan had a service project to do with school, so the girls and I had a picnic at the park, followed by playing at the park, and then riding bikes/walking along the Riverwalk. We had lots of fun and stayed for several hours. It was nice just enjoying the day and not having anything else to do. And, of course, when we got home, we played with our friends outside some more. Here are some pictures of our day.This park is so cool. It's all wooden equipment, and has lots of secret passageways, slides, castles, a stage, a puppet show, sandbox, tire swing, climbing wall, swings. It's so fun and the kids love it.

Here's Brooke trying out the balance beam.

Brooke on the tire swing. With a random girl.

It's the Little Mermaid!

This is what Charlotte calls "the house". Very cute!
Charlotte is actually really good going up and down those tires!
Brooke striking a pose!

Brooke on the climbing wall.
She decided to try w/o her flip flops. Maybe it will be easier, she said.
We found our friend, Siri on the Riverwalk.
On the bridge, next to the river. Sorry Charlotte is picking her nose.

And back at home. Charlotte is trying to pull Peyton and Brooke.

This would've been a cute picture if I could've got anyone to look at the camera and smile. Charlotte and Peyton had their arms around each other.

Cookies

A couple weeks ago Brooke and some of her friends decorated Easter cookies. You'll notice they're all boys. There's not too many girls in our apartments, not any that come outside and play anyway.
Charlotte and Peyton played together nicely while the older kids decorated cookies.

Strike it Rich

Friday night we decided to venture 45 minutes east to see if we could strike it rich. There's a casino in the next town over and boy was it big. It was pretty much a great and spacious building in the middle of nowhere. We went with some friends and just wanted to see what it was all about. I've never seen so many people in my life! Before anybody gets the wrong idea, we weren't going to gamble our life savings. They actually gave us $10 to use. You can't beat free money. I won $7 on a penny slot machine. Nathan and I ended up coming home with $13.70. It was definitely something different to do, since our options are limited here in Big Rapids.

Dying Eggs

Happy Hunting

Yesterday we went to not one, not two, but three Easter Egg Hunts. The first one was at our Community Center. Brooke ended up with a lot of eggs, but not Charlotte.

We heard that there was going to be another hunt in between softball games across from where we live. So we loaded up and went over there after we were done at the community center. Unfortunately, Charlotte got no eggs and Brooke only got about 5. Apparently nobody in Michigan knows how to do an Easter Egg hunt. You let the little kids have a head start and then let the big kids go. I guess this was their first time and they didn't know how many kids to expect. A lot of the families from the community center went to the softball fields too.


Our third and final hunt was just a small, intimate affair with just our friends. We had a pitch in dinner and did our Easter Egg hunt. Less kids, more eggs and more fun. The kids got tons of eggs (and candy) and really enjoyed it much better. I think we'll just stick to doing our own from now on.






Here is Brooke and Charlotte seeing what the Easter Bunny brought this morning.

Children's Museum

Tonight we went to the Grand Rapids Children's Museum. The kids had a great time! For those of you in Indy, it's nothing like the Indianapolis Chidren's Museum, it was much smaller. Which was fine, because we got to see and do just about everything. There was lots of pretend grown-up stuff like going to the bank, grocery shopping, post office, playing kitchen, etc. Brooke's favorite was the Post Office. I think she found her new calling in life. She could've stayed there forever. Charlotte really enjoyed playing in the kitchen and "cooking". They both really enjoyed grocery shopping though. They had grocery carts and baskets, play food, and a cash register and a belt for the food to go down. It was lots of fun. We knew it was time to go though when they were both hoarding money at the bank!
Charlotte was also lucky enough to get her picture taken by the Grand Rapids Press. So she may be in the paper tomorrow. We'll have to see if we can find one around here and I can post it for everyone to see!

Spring Break Day 1

Today was the first day of Spring Break for Brooke, but unfortunately it didn't feel much like Spring. We're just going to try to do fun things around here since Nathan still has school, except he's off on Thursday and Friday. Anyway, we hung out most of the day and then we picked him up from school this afternoon to go to the Card Wildlife Center. All these animals were donated by one couple, The Card's. They travel all over the world hunting these animals. It actually bothers me a little that they kill kangaroo, lions, giraffes, etc. but they are neat to look at.

Here is Brooke trying to jump like a kangaroo.
It looks like the giraffe is going to eat Nathan.

Some of the antlers. That rack alone he is standing by is 130 pounds.
Brooke with an alligator.
Brooke with the polar bear.
He had a big mouth.

Brooke wanted to take a look too.

Scary lion.
Afterwards, they saw The Ferris dog and wanted to get their picture with it.

We stopped by McDonald's to get ice cream cones. Brooke was done with hers, so Charlotte decided two was good. Why have one when you can have two?