Greenfield Village

Spent Wednesday at Greenfield Village in Dearborn, which is part of The Henry Ford.  A lot has changed since I'd been there last and it is incredibly child friendly.  Met my cousin, Jac, who is all grown up now and works for the complex of Henry Ford, and he got us in and showed us around a bit.

We spent the day at the turn of the century, complete with hoop and ball games, puppet shows and getting from place to place in horse drawn carriages, authentic antique city busses and black Model T Cars. We also rode the caursel a number of times and took a steam engine around the park, watching the horse drawn wheat threasher work and the school kids taking lessons.

Polar Palace

In an effort to teach my children something that I loved to do while I was growing up, albeit it on a pond freezing my touche off in the cold afternoons of winter, and to find something fun to do on this incredibly rainy day, I took the girls ice skating for a couple of hours at the Polar Palace in Lapeer.

(Lars was invited but had zero interest. He went instead to build Legos with Zac).

Now I must admit I was a bit sore after an hour of kickboxing with Meegan kicked my butt yesterday at noon. (For the record, kickboxing is not for sissies. Nor is it for ladies. My sister, however, is neither a lady nor a sissy. She is a lovely woman, and somebody you don't want to anger in a dark alley.) 

So, I strapped on my hockey skates, wiggled the girls into their figure skates, and headed for the ice.  Except for the first 10 minutes, we had the entire rink to ourselves. Elia cried the minute she stood up. Eden tried valiantly to make it around the rink without any ice skating aides. It took all the muscle and energy I had to keep them both from falling, and taking me with them. In the end, Elia mostly skated tightly clung in my arms and Eden was really getting the hang of it, but tired quickly.  We lasted about an hour.

I longed for a stick and puck.

Coincidentally, A hockey practice was going on on the other rink, so we took quick breaks to watch the excitement and sweat pounding adrenaline.  And in the end, we skated off the ice with frost stuck to our butt, cold hands and ankles that ached like no tomorrow. 

But even though Elia cried and mostly clung to me with one hand and sucked fingers with the other while trying to skate, Eden and I had a lot of fun.

Cousins

All the Kenny Cousins after church on Sunday.

First step left;  Josh, 7 & Lars, 6.
Back step; Ariya, 10, McKenzie, 14 & Elia, 4, Mataya, 9 & Eden, 8, Zachary, 18, & Ziana,  5.

Southern Links

Meegan and I took off yesterday morning on a 22 mile bike ride that took us from Columbiaville to Millington via Otter Lake.  (Initially she told me Mayville,  but I had my doubts that she could get me there in 20 miles).

The trail is called Southern Links Trailway and it was groomed beautifully,  void of mosquitoes, and on this lovely 70 degree day, full of wildlife to watch and dodge.

The lakes were calm, the swamplands croaky, and the bridges creaky, just as it should be. We had a wonderful time and I hope to steal...I mean borrow...her road bike again tomorrow!

Lars in a box

While picking up firewood for a campfire, Josh asked Lars to help him pick up a big heavy log.  Lars says, " I can't.  When I was born, I come out of a box and it said 'fragile'."

Josh says, "Lars you didn't come out of a box you come out of a belly!"

"No" he argued,  "I didn't.  I came out of a box". And it said fragile. "

Chad relayed this conversation to me and in my laughter,  I denied having ever said that to him. For the record,  so did Allen. 

Today, after having cut his sloppy jo in half, he cried and cried, screaming that it was against the 10th commandment to cut food in half. 

The rest of our life is going to be interesting. 

Michigan adventure -the Kenny way!

The first few days of our summer vacation in Michigan has been nice and fairly relaxing. Once the plane got up into the air.  Which wasn't looking good at first. But I digress.

 

After 9 hours of travel we Got into Detroit on a typical rainy night, stopped for Happy meals after mom's obligatory offering up of turkey sandwiches.  (That's a long story - ask me sometime), and headed for Lapeer. Somebody was dumb enough to say we would go past the Palace, and for the next 40 miles, Lars asked about it non stop.  When he finally saw it, he was less than impressed and remained very hungry.

 

Bedtime was easy and all the cousins greeted us warmly the next morning,  despite the mangled hairdos and jet lagged sleeplessness.  Out came the toys. And music. And books. And leftover airplane snacks... all day long.

 

Kenzie and I spilt for a cake decorating class at the library with famous food network star Michelle Bomarito. Fun. Complicated.

 

Met Brian. (Need more page space for that).

 

Went to Meijer (Miss that place).

 

Dad grilled burgers. (Enough said).

 

Had a campfire at Chad's (forgot the marshmallows) and a 4 wheeler tour of the property while the kids swam. 

 

Friday we went to town for an ice cream social on the courthouse lawn and I walked thru the Old Courthouse. Haven't been in there since I performed a play there in April1997. Dad reminisced the old wooden witness stand and remembered his last trial there with The Honorable Norm Bagley to his right and higher up. The kids all played jury in their straihtback chairs.

 

Went to Grandma Greats for pizza and family, shopped the Amish store and now

 am lying in bed enjoying the fresh chocolates with sleeping babes all around me.

Swimming Lessons 101

Swimming lessons have begun here in Bridgeport and it was a busy and exciting morning in our house finding new suits and fluffy towels! 

Because my bike was in the shop, we walked the one mile to the swimming pool. Eden rode her bike & Lars pulled the wagon most of the way, and told me all the reasons he did not need to go to swimming lessons.

Once we got to the pool, and the lifeguards had all their ducks in a row (get it?), he sat on the edge of the water and dangled his feet in. He watched Elia (also in his level 1 class) get in and start bobbing,  he looked across the pool at Eden who was in the middle section, learning to tread water and dive and pretty soon, he slid in the water and joined in the fun. 

At the end of the class, the kids are offered a chance to go off the diving board. The girls skipped on down and jumped off the new board, Lars came to find me and his towel. 

Lars sat on the bench, watching the girls jump in and reminded me of my own rules on swimming;  "Mommy, I don't have to learn to like swimming, I don't have to be a good swimmer, I just have to learn to be safe in the water".

You got it buddy.

We'll see what two weeks in the water does for them all!