G.A.C.E. @ Home: 2009

Sunday, August 2, 2009

!Feliz Cumpleaños Papi!

On Sunday, we visited Karen and Gary to celebrate Karen's and Gustavo's birthdays with a bbq.

Here are C. and E. in the pool with their cousins Cody and Stephanie:

Getting ready to huff and puff out those candles at home on his 44th birthday July 27:

On Saturday July 25, we met our friends, the Pline family, at the Toledo Zoo, for a Fisher-Price weekend. The kids, besides seeing the regular exhibits, were able to try out new toys and activities and also were treated to a goody bag on the way out. Here are some of the highlights:

A little bit of silliness...

Some of the Fisher-Price activities to try out:

Up close and personal with a polar bear:

Enjoying a break from the action with friends Daniel and Lauren:

Friday, July 24, 2009

Swimming Lessons, etc

I've been very lazy about bringing the camera with me the last couple weeks....so no pictures in this post.

C. and E. completed two weeks of swimming lessons. Both were put in level 2A - yeah! - they were in level 1 for three summers! C. completed all the requirements and is ready for level 2B. E. however, missed two objectives and is slated to repeat 2A. Hopefully, G. can work with her on those two points and she will then be able to start in 2B also next time.

On Friday July 17, we met our friends Linda and Yensi to tour Chelsea's Jiffy Mix plant and Timbertown Park. The tour was interesting and fun. Each child got a box of Jiffy Mix and the adults were given two. We had a nice picnic lunch at the park and the kids, of course, had a great time playing on the giant playscape.

Monday, July 13, 2009

Gone Fishin'

We had a nice afternoon at the ol' fishin' hole - Spring Valley Trout Farm in Chelsea.

Preparing the bait for all of us:

Here are some of the dozen plus "catch of the day".

Afterwards, our hard work and good luck sure tasted good straight off the grill.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Bowling

There's a summer promotion of "Kids Bowl Free", so we gave it a try. We have a couple of naturals!

That's G -54: C-70. For both games, G. had the lowest score of all of us. Well, his forte is soccer! And me?? The high scorer (not by much) - well, hey! I'm pure Polish!

Lego Land and Underground Aquarium

Who can visit Minneapolis and NOT go to the Mall of America?? Not this traveler. This was a great vacation. The kids were able to experience a lot of new things (G. was back home working) and I was able to visit with my good friends - Marietta (from the WMU days), Gayle, Chris, Aggie and Michele (all from the Brazil days). Wonderful!!

Playgrounds

Traveling with kids, we spent a lot of time at playgrounds (and more time at McD's than I care to admit):

Here's a great wooden structure in Manitowoc:

It was an extremely hot morning, so we didn't last long at the park. We got in the car and headed for Pine River Dairy - for ice cream, of course.

(Aunt) Marietta with C. and E. before ordering our dinner at The Malt Shop in Minneapolis:

At a neighborhood playground near my friend Chris' house in Minneapolis. This one had a wading pool, but we went to another park w/pool the following day with Chris. The kids "swam", while the ladies visited.

Road Trip

The kids and I took to the road June 22 -28. We traveled through southern Michigan, wee bit of Indiana, through Chicago (and was able to visit with my friend Gayle at a McD's in Gurnee), then to our final destination to the home of our good friends Marietta and Terry in Manitowoc, Wisconsin.

Here we are at Bay Beach in Green Bay. The kids were here as "babies" in 2005. It was much more fun for them this time around.