A mini family reunion

My soon-to-be 87 year old great-aunt Marianne, who lives in Canada, is relocating to Iowa to be near her step-son and move into an assisted living facility.  While she's still pretty independent, it's probably best she make the transition to be closer to family and be somewhere people can care for her, if needed.  So, it was bittersweet on Sunday as we all gathered to wish her good luck on the next chapter in her life!

Call it a farewell party/birthday party/early Easter celebration, it was nice getting to see almost everyone together in one house, healthy and happy.  My grandma made it out, my aunt and uncle who live in Kalamazoo made the drive in, and my two other uncles were there as well.  My mom cooked a delicious meal with some help from me and my aunt Mary.  And that fabulous cake was brought by my aunt Mary from a bakery near Plainwell.

We all arrived around 2ish and had some appetizers, while sitting around and catching up.  The boys were content munching on food and playing with Lego's and puzzles.  It was warm enough for them to take a dip in the hot tub too, which was a hit!

I'm sure with Marianne's move it will be much harder to see her now and I certainly hope that she'll come back to Michigan at some point to visit with everyone.  But, it's understandable at her age if she isn't able to.  Which is why it was hard to say goodbye when the evening was over.  I tried to take lots of pictures of the boys with both Marianne and my grandma since they don't/won't get to see them as often as we'd like.

After dessert and gifts, the boys got washed up and in their pajamas for the drive home.  But, they had to squeeze in some board games with Uncle John before we left!  It's fun to see the boys interact more with my family as they're getting older.  We had a great afternoon, although we'll miss Marianne very much!

The groundhog had it right!

Six more weeks of winter, he predicted.  And he was spot on!  I think February and March got themselves mixed up.  Our March has been more like February with random bouts of snow and cooler temps.  If it's not enough snow to re-open the ski resorts so we can get some skiing in, then I'd rather have no snow at all.

The kids on the other hand didn't seem to mind last weekend.

Evan's reaction to getting to play out int he snow and do another round of sledding last Saturday expressed how both of the boys felt.  It was actually really pretty Saturday morning.  Huge snowflakes brought a good inch and a half.  We rushed the boys outside knowing that it would melt by the afternoon.  They shoveled, threw snowballs, and built a snowman (with perfect packing snow) complete with a real carrot nose and blueberry buttons.

We ended up having a pretty relaxing weekend at home.  Our goal was to not spend any money, except for groceries.  So, we did board games, puzzles, books, movies, and toys in every room of the house to keep occupied.  It wasn't the most exciting weekend, but it's probably a good idea to have a "no spend" weekend every once in a while.

I'm happy to report our weather is starting to feel more like spring today.  The boys and I took Bailey on a walk to the park before dinner to soak up some sunlight and get some fresh air.  With the temps forecasted to hit the 60's this weekend, I'm ready to say goodbye to winter.  Even if it rains all weekend, I'll still take not having to wear heavy winter coats and snow boots.

And it totally made my Tuesday night to see Sean FINALLY be able to swing by himself from start to finish!  He must be working hard on practicing during recess.  Proud mama here!

Back to winter...

It's March!  Know what that means?

It's Disney time!  That's right...we are 20 days away from our trip!  And we are sooo ready!!  Dining is booked, fastpasses are booked, our touring plans are almost finalized, Tinkerbell gifts have been bought, and call me crazy, but our clothes are already laid out.  In fact, I might start laying things in suitcases tomorrow to see how much room we have...or don't have.

The countdown chain started at 30 days and we've already had to move it down since we've cut off 10 links!  We almost had to cancel our Disney movie night this Friday because of our power outage and crazy weather.  This week was flat out nuts.  We started with a very exciting night at swim.  Sean passed Level 5 while my mom and dad were there watching!  It felt even more exciting having an "audience".  Of course, that meant we were doing ice cream cones from McDonalds on the way home.  I'm so proud of him and I'm excited to see him do the crazy amount of laps they do in Level 6.

Tuesday, was my field trip to the DIA with 60 of our Spanish 2 students to study art and lead them ourselves on tours.  It was a success, but it took a lot of panicking and preparation to get to that point.

As I picked up Sean that afternoon from school, it was his turn to have Buster overnight again.  Luckily we were headed to the library for Lego Club so we had something interesting to write out about in the journal.  But, seriously, adding that to the mix on a Tuesday night almost put me over the edge.  I believe Sean's words were, "These are the best two days of my life".  Well, in that case, I'll suck it up and write in that journal for you, kiddo.

Wednesday brought on the most ridiculous weather I've seen in Michigan in a long time.  Snow storms are one thing to expect, but 60-80mph winds?  Nope.  It was very stressful picking up the boys from school and driving by so much damage to people's houses, yards, trees, cars, etc.  And of course, coming home to dim lights and no functioning outlets was no picnic either.  The boys used the last of the hot water for their shower that evening and from Wednesday evening - Thursday night we were out of power.

Thursday was an adventure and one that I would not like to take again.  I used ice cold water to wet my hair in the morning so that I could put it in a bun.  Of course I had parent-teacher conferences that evening so it was awful not being able to shower and feel put together.  Sean and Scott both had school closed for the day so they were home in the cold house together with no ability to cook.  They used coolers and bags of ice to keep the refridgerated food cold and I took an ikea bag full of freezer food to work.  It was such a good decision since we had to throw out next to nothing in the end.

Work was a drag.  I was exhausted and I worked until 6:30pm when my principal let me leave an hour early to be able to pick up the boys, pack a bag, and head to Troy to sleep at my parent's house for the evening where it would be warm.  It was a bit of a drive in the dark to get there, but it was for the best.  We had a warm house, a warm shower, and some time with Grandma and Grandpa.  Scott called me at 9:30pm to tell me our power was back on.

Friday, Scott and Sean were off school again.  So, Sean and Evan stayed at my parent's house all day in Troy and Scott put the house back together and was able to wash some dishes and get some laundry going.  It made coming home after work more tolerable since everything was clean and back in order.  What a week!  We made some homemade pizza and snuggled in to watch Beauty and the Beast for our Disney movie night.  I made "grey stuff" and put it on graham crackers as the only treat for the movie.

This weekend has been so relaxing after a very stressful week.  I feel at peace this evening after a great day with the family.  We took the boys to Jungle Java this morning to play.  We finally got around to playing with the Short Circuits activity we bought Sean for Christmas and it was so much fun - although definitely hard for a 6 year old.  The boys and I colored for a while (I can't believe I'm actually saying that!).  We ate dinner at The Burger Stop in downtown Plymouth and did some browsing at the toy store downtown.  It was just a nice evening.  I ran on the treadmill last night and tonight and it felt good to get back into routine.

Last weekend was nice with the family too!  We finally have our weekends back with Scott's basketball season over.  We went to Trader Joe's, did a Home Depot kid's workshop, got ice cream at the opening of Dairy King downtown, and just enjoyed time with each other.

I'm kind of liking our March weekends.  :)