June 2015 Photo Sampler

For this post, please travel back in time to this past June…

To refresh your (actually MY) memory, the girls and I were in Michigan.  Annika has just flown off with Lily.  It's just Ava and me right now!

14 June 2015-

Strawberry Harvest Moon Festival…or was it Harvest Moon Strawberry Festival?  Or maybe Harvest Strawberry Moon Festival???  All I know is that there was the word "strawberry" in the festival's name but guess what?  There were NO strawberries…or strawberry anything at this festival!  Doesn't matter – it was a fun excursion with the Mears family.  The small festival located close to Grand Haven was a brief glimpse into what life must have been like in the 1700s in the United States.  

…HA!  I just Googled this festival and the actual name is Feast of the Strawberry Moon.  Okay, that doesn't make any sense at all to me.  Somebody had better explain to me what strawberries and moons have to do with each other.

We got to watch these two HILARIOUS brothers juggling various objects and cracking up the audience with their honest-to-goodness funny jokes:

Ummm…those are canoe paddles they're juggling:

At the metalsmith:  

Learning to play games from the 1700s (this is sort of a catching a ring using sticks):  Aaaaa!!!! My poor Baby has an arrow sticking through her head!

Silly girl!  She really wanted to scare me and she had fun posing for this photo (pretending to be unhappy to have an arrow sticking through her skull).  

Henry and Ava:

 

Back at the Farm….

the kiddos wanted to get out Henry's kayak and scoot around in it on the Pond:

with little Oreo.  

Because puppies love kayaking too!

Strawberry picking season! Gorgeous day for picking but the funny thing was that the strawberries weren't actually all that good.  ;-)

 

We found an injured baby bird in Grandma and Grandpa's yard.  We could hear its parents fluttering and chirping fiercely in a tree close to us.  We left the baby under one of the trees and thankfully it was gone by the end of the day:

Gregory and Ava playing with the puppies:

I'm a little bummed as I didn't take any photos of Gregory and Ava's project: they built tiny traps and catapults using old-fashioned mouse traps.  Quite clever!

Awwwwwww….Rudy and Ava

Ava and I ducked out to Red Robin and shared a Mudd Pie:

Grant and Miles (and Bonnie…where is Bonnie???) are here:

Beth, Ava, Gregory and I trying wheel-thrown pottery.  Aunt Beth is a natural!  She made two beautiful bowls.  After we threw the pots we could either paint them or wait to glaze them after their first firing.

 

Auntie Beth is a pro!  

Ava should be proud of her pieces!  

Ava and I slipped away one fine morning to indulge in breakfast at the Morningstar Cafe in Grand Haven.  I love this place!  (even though we had to wait  quite a while before being seated).

Cinnamon roll anyone?  I think it's bigger than Ava's head!!!

Beth read about a technique for making edible chocolate bowls. You dip balloons into melted chocolate (chips) and let them harden on a cookie sheet.  For the most part it worked….except those balloons that popped.  And when they popped melted chocolate splattered ALL OVER THE KITCHEN.  

The end result….an edible bowl!  Loaded with homemade strawberry ice cream and schmoo….

Annika and Lily returned from camp on 27 June 2015.  The one photo I took of them was quite blurry…so never mind that and let's move on to this photo of a visit to the Grand Haven Fine Arts Street Festival:

We found a lemonade stand that used stevia as a sweetener.  So perfect for diabetics, like Henry.

The cousins engaged in a card game:

Annika and Miles playing a game:

30 June – we visited the Grand Rapids Public Museum as we wanted to check out the King Tut exhibit.  Lily is quite the Egyptologist!  It was an engaging exhibit for all the age groups – I think Miles and Grant might have enjoyed it the most. Sadly we weren't allowed to take photos of the actual exhibit so here are photos from the rest of the museum:

Faster Lily!  Peddle harder!

Every time we come to this museum we MUST (and I mean must) ride the merry-go-ride at least once:

An oopsie left Beth scrambling to cook and bake everything she could from her freezer (freezer was accidentally left open and the foods inside were starting to thaw).  Perfect time for Lily to teach Ava how to make pie crust since we had to make two pumpkin pies in a hurry.

Lily is a great teacher!  

 

Yes, the pie was deeeeeeelicious!

I think that's it for June. Stay tuned for July photos…..