Mackinac Moment

The kids and I went exploring down by the shore after school today. It was rather blustery, so sheets of ice were piling up on the beach. Not very much ice though, it's nothing like some past years.

Only on Mackinac

Somehow I don't think I'll find many snowmobiles, complete with groceries, parked outside the store on the mainland...

Score

On Friday,  the kids and I took the day off school so I could take them to orthodontist appointments. Whenever we have a few minutes on the mainland we always pop into thrift shops so I can look for sweaters, and of course, the kids often find a bargain or two. On this trip they found two snowball makers at Goodwill for $1.99 each.

The next day they spent the entire morning outside enjoying the wonderfully packable snow. 

Worth. Every. Penny. 

New Toys

One day after school last week, the kids walked into the gym to find their skis. Each child in grades two through six was assigned a pair. As long as they come back to school for gym class the kids can take them home.

I think it's awesome that the kids learn to ski in gym class. Heaven knows I could use a few lessons.  

The Good Old Days

I've been having some fun lately digging through the boxes of photographs I've collected over the years. I could sit there for hours looking at them; sometimes giggling and other times feeling frustrated that somehow dates were never written on the back.

Luckily, when it comes to photos of my childhood, I can often narrow the date based on one huge family event: my brother was adopted in 1980 - the year I turned 10. I'm thinking the picture above (with our dad) was taken not that long after he arrived - maybe the summer of 1980,  and the one below a few years later - maybe 1982 ish (with our cat Sybil.)

I feel like I got the best of both worlds when it came to childhood. I had ten years to experience what it was like to be an only child, and then in an afternoon I went from being an alone to being a big sister. (My brother was eight when he came to the US from Korea.) While we may have fought and bickered like typical siblings, I'll take having a brother to being an only child any day. Though, I'm not sure how I feel about us having matching haircuts. Ugh!