My sister Amy, niece Grace, and nephews Andrew and Matthew made the 10+ hour drive from PA out to visit us here in MI. They left Wednesday night after their dinner, drove through the night, and arrived in our driveway 6:30am Thursday morning. I was working Wednesday night, so I could keep tabs on where they were during my shift. (and they beat me home in the morning). We spent Thursday morning/afternoon being pretty lazy as we took naps, watched TV, and let the kiddos hang out together in the basement.
Friday we spent part of the morning visiting MSU and sightseeing around campus. The kids enjoyed Sparty, Andrew was quite impressed that someone had glued pennies on Sparty's toes, and we took a little stroll around. While checking out the Beaumont Tower, we saw a proposal under some of the trees nearby, how romantic! We did a little MSU gear shopping, which proved to be too much for Matthew as he passed out cold in the stroller. It was a nice day to walk around campus and show the kids a good time.
We came home to relax and enjoy being outside some more. Matthew was thrilled playing in the puddles on the deck just splashing around. It doesn't take much to entertain a toddler :)
Grace and Andrew had so much fun playing sprinkler frisbee, cooling off and playing a game together, what a perfect combo! We had fun playing bean bag toss as well.
On Saturday the weather was looking a little iffy, so we packed lunches and figured we'd give the Potter Park Zoo a chance. This was both Hannah and Matthew's first time to the zoo, they seem excited to go see the animals.
We pet some goats in the petting zoo, the kids were so brave petting and brushing the goats.
There were noisy peacocks everywhere, all the kiddos got a kick out of them opening the feathers up.
Posing for some portraits :) (My attempts at some sort of neat photography)
We found some tigers hanging out inside the cooler building. Here is Grace and Andrew 2013, here is a flashback July 2010, 3 years ago. Look at little Grace and Andrew, so stinkin cute!
Curious kiddos :)
I never knew they had this bird feeding area, but it was fun (yet not fun to have birds flying at your head, or pooping in your hair...). Hannah wasn't too keen about the birds being that close to her, she clung to John for dear life. Amy caught the first bird on her stick, Matthew looks on in awe! Andrew was so excited for his bird catch and he shared with Hannah. Grace wanted to catch a blue bird so bad, and was so happy once she got one!
We enjoyed our lunch outside the zoo, even though the mosquitos were on full attack. We decided to press our luck and see how the kids would enjoy Impression 5 next.
Hannah and Matthew enjoyed playing in their AMAZING under 4 years old-kid zone. Hannah preparing for ballet, she's got a lot of work to do :)
Both kids enjoyed playing in the water table, this was Hannah's first time. She wasn't too happy when we had to leave either.
The big kids were ready to go play in their area, but they were good sports keeping Hannah and Matthew entertained.
It was a long, but exhausting day out and about, but we had a great time!!
On Sunday morning we attempted to go bowling nearby. I saw online the Sunday before noon rates: $1 games, $1 shoes... what a great deal! We drove over to check it out, BUT there was a women's tournament in progress and they were closed for the day. Bummer. So we headed to the park to let out some steam. This park is so awesome with steps, slides, and so many paths to head on. Not so great for little ones, but they managed with only a few bumps and bruises.
After seeing how much fun Hannah and Matthew had playing in the water table, I headed to Babies-R-Us to purchase the one I'd been eyeing up for a few weeks. We (John) put it together as the kiddos napped, and they had a fun time splashing each other and playing in there. Grace and Andrew enjoyed some more sprinkler frisbee as we played outside in the beautiful weather one more day.
Monday was an overcast and gloomy day, which pretty much mirrored how everyone was feeling anyway. We were still able to play outside just not in the water as it wasn't that warm. Hannah and Matthew looking for the neighbor's dog. Snuck in a good picture of all 3 kiddos!
