Vacation

Since we get to live on Mackinac Island, sometimes a vacation for us means leaving the place so many people choose to visit when they get a vacation. This week, the kids and I (and a friend) have been staying at my parent's house in Petoskey. The kids have spent the week immersed in:

art classes here,

(photo via)

throwing rocks in the water here,

exploring the natural world with these kind folks,

and of course what extended trip to the mainland would

be complete without going to the movies?

(photo via)

It was cute - and sit through the credits.

There's a wee bit more at the end.

Tomorrow we all head up to a cabin for a nice quiet

and relaxing weekend here... 

So tell me, what have you been up to lately?

A Grand Afternoon

Grandma treated the kids and I to a lovely afternoon at Grand Hotel the other day. It was delightful! We enjoyed the buffet lunch (especially the desert table) and then spent a few hours enjoying the hotel grounds.

Shyness is not something my two suffer from, in fact it is quite the opposite. S and K seem to make friends wherever we are. Today it was Max and his dad - visiting from Lansing, MI.  The three of them had a grand time playing croquet, bocce ball and chasing butterflies.

I probably shouldn't admit to this, but probably the kids' favorite part of the afternoon (after filling their plates with a mountain of deserts) was using Max's bug net to fish coins out of the fountain down in the Tea Garden. The three of them were a hoot to watch. Each penny was a valuable treasure - you would have thought they were gold doubloons as excited as the kids got each time they found one...

Counting Again...

I found this while walking by the construction site

on Main Street,

and the five is from the fire hydrant near our house...

Perfect

 

 We spent the morning at British Landing:

looking for fossils, skipping rocks, and wading

in the cool water of Lake Huron.

Days don't get much better...

Fishing Birthday Shirt

I love how my daughter's birthday shirt turned out this year! (Can you tell I took the photo back in April - there isn't a leaf to be seen in that picture.)

I wasn't quite sure how I was going to do a fishing shirt. My husband showed me a few ideas he found, but they were all more complicated that I wanted to get into. At first I thought about appliqueing the six onto the fish's body like I did with my son's Lego shirt,  but when I was looking at the number six in different fonts, the idea of making the six into a worm jumped out at me. At first I was worried it wasn't "wormy" enough, but my daughter knew, she took one look at it and started giggling, "Mama you made my number a WORM!"

 Except for the T-shirt, I had all the fabric on hand. The fish's body even matches the napkins we used on the table for the party. (Translate that to: Liz bought too much fabric was was thrilled not to waste it!) The fish is so big that he wraps around to the back of the shirt. Too cute.

She loved the shirt so much she wore it when we went out to lunch the day of her party. Unfortunately she dumped an entire glass of Shirley Temple (A.K.A. a kiddie cocktail) down her front! Fortunately, my homemade laundry detergent worked beautifully and got all that grenadine out in the very first wash - but that is a post for another day...

Mackinac in Paint

Did you know Mackinac had a paint color? It is the aqua color in the dresser.  I discovered it here, and now I'm having visions of Grand Hotel Mackinac Blue on the walls in my laundry room... 

Making Me Smile

We saw our first lady slipper while we were out for a bike ride the other day. Now that we've had a few good rains they are out in all their usual spots and even a few new ones. They're like little bursts of sunshine out in the woods  - just waiting to brighten someone's day...

Mackinac Moment

Mackinac was beautiful yesterday morning:

calm, quiet and

shrouded in mist.

Mackinac Moment

I love Mackinac in the morning - 

so quiet and peaceful

before the hustle and bustle

of life begins...

It's the Little Things

Hi there. Yes, it's me. I can't believe it's been almost a month since I posted last.  Spring is here, the school year is winding down, (eight days left - but who's counting,) so I should have a bit more free time to update this space. I miss it...

 

I titled this post about "little things", but that one on

the right really isn't really a little thing...

If you were to ask my seven year-old son why he likes living on Mackinac Island, I'm certain snake catching would be one of his top reasons. He loves to go out into the woods searching for them. Old Burners, the site of the island's old trash incinerator, is, by far, his favorite snake catching spot. (The snakes like to hide under the pieces of scrap metal that are still there.) Usually we come home with four or five snakes, but on this particular day they stopped counting at 10.

This little guy (or girl - I'm not sure how to tell on a snake) was my son's pride and joy; his first ring neck - ever. Apparently they are nocturnal so that's probably why we've never seen one before.  I'm always amazed at how quickly my son can move his hands and grab their little necks. And that he has no fear. None. I try to get them too, but I won't even try it without a pair of gloves. 

Just so you know, we always let the snakes go afterwards - usually in one of my gardens. I encourage them to hang out for a while and have a few slugs for dinner...