Summer fun...the end is near!

Mikayla and I went on a fun weekend on the East side of the state. James had to work so we made it a girls weekend. This was kind of my last activity before getting back into the school mode. We started out our time at Ella's 3rd Birthday party. Mikayla had a blast on the car bouncer, eating cake and playing with all the kids her age. Mikayla even had her first sleep over with Ella...Mikayla was sleeping before there was any girls giggling all night long. On Sunday we went to my Aunt Tammy and Uncle John's house and had a blast swimming in the neighbors pool and then over to my cousin's house to play with their 3 girls in their pool. It was the 90 degree weekend and so the only thing enjoyable to do was play in the pool. It was a fun filled day. Then Monday it was off to the Toledo Zoo. We met our friend Jess, Ella and Brayden and then Sunshine and Jackson and my friend Andrea even drove down from Ann Arbor to join us for part of the day. The skies were looking a little dark in the morning so we weren't sure if we would be able to make it through the day without rain...but in the end we did. The kids had a blast even though it was SUPER HOT. The Toledo Zoo was a very nice zoo with some animals that we hadn't seen at our other zoo tours of the summer-the Elephants and Gorillas were our favorites. I think Mikayla liked our train ride the most! We were exhausted on our ride home, but we had a wonderful time. We were very excited to be going home to see James though-we missed him while we were away. James was working on our new addition to our garage a nice storge shed-he got most of the siding on while we were gone. So it was nice to see his accomplishments when we got home too. It was a nice to spend time with family and friends before I have to get back into the swing of school. Next Tuesday is my 1st official day back...but this week I have been at a conference at school to get 2 graduate credits-so I am pretty much back to work. We found a new childcare provider this year. She lives in our school disrict so Mikayla will ride the bus from her house to school everyday! Mikayla love it there and she is really excited to start school. I can't believe that she starts in a week and a half and my baby is going to school! But she is looking forward to it and I know it is what is best for her, she will learn so much and make many new friends. We also have been having fun getting ready for school and shopping for new "school" clothes! Sorry for the long update...but I hadn't updated in awhile so I wanted to get everyone caught up on our lives! Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Ella's birthday party....

The Toledo Zoo-

I tried a new program to have more pics altogether-not sure I like it, but you can see that we had a fun time at the zoo!

End of summer fun...picking tomatoes out of the garden-trying out bikes at Toy's R' Us we are getting Christmas ideas already and then acting funny while waiting at Olive Garden for dinner!

Day at the beach...

We had a wonderful time at Holland State Park beach today. It was really windy and we did spend lots of time in the water, but the waves were large and it took both of us to hold onto Mikayla as she jumped in the waves and played-we didn't want her to get swept out. So we didn't get any pictures of our time in the water. Mikayla had a great time flying a kite-she has been talking about flying a kite since the last trip we had at the beach and there was several people flying kites. So James brought our kite to fly today-she loved it. The whole view they are small in the bottom right corner and then the kite is the left above the roof.

Eating a snack and lunch while laying on the blanket with daddy!

Getting buried in the sand. This is the first time she has done this-she loved it. She would get out of it and then say, bury me again.

This time daddy made Mikayla into "Ariel" the Little Mermaid. One of her favorite princess!
Buring daddy-Kayla thought it was fun to try and chop daddy's toes off with the shovel-she thought she was tickling them-not so much!

Playing with dolls!

Mikayla has recently began to do a lot of imaginary play. She loves to dress up and she loves to take care of her babies. This is a few shots I got last night when she made a bed for her and her baby to sleep in! She was also singing her baby a lullabye while they were laying in bed...so cute!

Jumping in puddles!

Mikayla and I ran errands on Saturday during the down pours. We dodged lots of rain, but in the end when we got home, Kayla found a puddle in the drive way. She enjoyed jumping in the puddle and then she let her new mini beanie baby tiger jump in the puddle too! It was nice of her to allow her tiger to join in the fun too! The muddy tiger!

Splashpad and Lake Michigan Wednesday FUN!!

We had a wonderful and busy day! Mikayla has had a cold for a few days and is finally get back to her normal self.....since it was James' last day off before he headed back to work-we decided to have a fun day that started out at the splashpad at Lamar Park...here is a few cute shots of Mikayla-she loves going there!

After the splash pad we went back home and Mikayla took a 3 hour nap!!! I think we wore her out! After her nap we headed out to Holland State Park beach for pizza dinner and fun at the beach with my mom and Brian. Mikayla had fun playing in the sand and water!

Playing jump the waves with Grandpa!Being so brave with Daddy...out in the "so deep" water.

Driving the car all over the beach...this kept her entertained for a while-she loved to see the tracks the car would make and then she thought it was so funny when the waves would wash the tracks away!I love this picture with her footprints in the sand!

Mom and I watching all the fun! It was a little too chilly for us to go swimming-well the water wasn't too bad, but the air was breezy!

At the end-Mikayla was freezing-but she wouldn't admit it. Her lips and teeth were chattering and her lips even looked a little blue---but she kept saying I want to play in the water-so we convinced her to warm up in a towel and play in the sand for a little bit. It only lasted a couple minutes and she was back in.
It was a great evening and are planning on doing this again a few more times this summer!