Summer pictures

I currently have Christmas pictures of Lillian and Caleb hanging on my living room wall and decided that needed to change.  I attempted pictures last week and failed but after a couple of tries today I got shots of each kiddo that I was pleased with.  Surprisingly, Caleb was the only one who I got good shots of on the first try.  He was feeling rather photogenic, I guess.

 

 And the winner is...

As I said, my first attempt at photographing Lillian and Liam failed.  But on the second try I got some cute shots.

 

 And one bonus shot, compliments of Dan!

Dan and I sure are blessed with sweet, adorable kids whom we love more than we even knew was possible!

Houghton Lake, day five

I originally referred to this as our mini-vacation because we will be coming back to Houghton Lake for a full week (maybe more!) in August.  But, I guess we did get to spend five (partial) days here so that's not too shabby!  This morning the weather cooled off for the first time since we arrived, which allowed us to go to the annual craft fair comfortably.  The kids had fun checking out the ride-on toys last year too.

 Apparently the propeller is really fun to spin!

 We usually spend about $1 at the craft fair buying honey sticks, but this year we "splurged" and bought Lillian and Caleb each a small souvenir.

 

 

 Okay, technically Lillian got a necklace, bracelet, and tiara, but it was all for $4!

 

For a few hours the entire DuPuis family was together at the cottage.  Hooray!

 

 

 

Houghton Lake, day four

Have I mentioned how HOT it has been this week?  I'd rather have hot weather than cold weather in June, but it has been a bit extreme!  So much so, in fact, that today we spent most of our time indoors trying to escape the heat.  

While Caleb and Liam napped, Dan, Lillian and I went with his dad (Poppy) and Anna on the boat to do a little tubing.  It was a lot of fun but I'm going to be sore tomorrow!

 

 

Abbey's tenth birthday was on the Fourth of July.  Apparently the day was busy because we finally gave her some special birthday treats today.

Houghton Lake, day three

Phew!  It is HOT!  We were able to get to the park early enough that it was bearable for a while.  The kids loved it!

 

 

 

 

Houghton Lake, day two

Happy Fourth of July!  This morning we took a brief trip to the park after breakfast.

Later in the afternoon we took a boat ride and swim.  As always, the kids had a TON of fun!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The weather is HOT this week so as soon as we left the water we went back inside to the air conditioning for some more play time.  Lillian loved the surprise gifts she got from her Aunt Mindy, Uncle Elwin, Anna, and Jet!

 

 

Houghton Lake, day one

Today we piled three kids, two adults, and a dog in our car and headed north to Houghton Lake for a mini-vacation.  We made a pit stop along the way so Liam could eat and the kids could play.

After arriving and getting settled we attempted to feed the ducks but I think they were hiding from the heat.

Dan and I decided that Lillian was finally old enough to stay up late to watch the fireworks.  She was SO excited to see all of the beautiful, sparkling colors and even some floating lanterns!

 

 

Responsibility chart

Lillian and Caleb received responsibility charts for Christmas from their Bada and Poppy and have been working on filling them up.  Caleb has been slowly receiving smiley faces each time he keeps his diaper clean and/or dry while sleeping.  This afternoon he finally filled up the entire chart (all 49 squares!) and he and Lillian each received a Pillow Pet as their reward.  Since Dan and I both had things to do at the church office (and since we only have one car) we brought the kids to the office and let them watch a movie with their sleeping bags and Pillow Pets.  It was a fun, memorable afternoon!

Oh deer...

Sunday mornings can be stressful as I get the kiddos ready by myself and try to get Liam's feeding schedule timed just right to accommodate church.  Yesterday morning was actually going rather smoothly and we were on track to make it to church on time when I saw a deer standing on the right shoulder.  I slowed down slightly, being careful not to slam on my brakes on the highway.  The deer stood still on the shoulder until the precise moment that the van (with my three babies in the back) lined up with it.  At that moment the deer foolishly decided to cross the highway.  This resulted in the deer careening with the full length of the passenger side of our van.  Thankfully no one was hurt and Liam slept through the entire incident.  And, two nice men who work in the automotive industry stopped to see if we were okay and pulled the damaged panels of the van together with some industrial springs that they had in their truck.  I was very thankful.  Here are my little troopers, waiting 45 minutes for a police officer to come file the accident report.

 

This morning we brought the van to an auto body shop to get repaired.  I took the opportunity to take some photos of the damage.

As you can see, the damage isn't terrible, but because of the nature of the collision, both bumpers, both doors, and two additional panels of the van were impacted.  The good news is that it will be repaired and we have a rather small deductible.  The bad news is that we may not get our van back for three weeks.  I guess this is how the kids will be traveling for most of the month!