Craig turns 34!

Ella, me, Court and Ryan at the game

Craig, Todd and Amanda

Ryan and Connor at the East vs. Northview game

Craig on his birthday.....studying for boards

Uncle Craig with all the girls and Connor

Last Friday Craig turned 34 and much of the weekend was spent celebrating this milestone. After 12 days straight of work, Craig finally had a day off. He started it off with studying for several hours for his board exams and then picking up Allison from school. Friday night we took Allison to swim lessons and then we all headed to the EGR vs Northville football game. We met Courtney as well as Todd and Amanda. Connor had a great time playing with Ryan and we enjoyed the company of our friends. Saturday we went to Allison's final soccer game of the season and then on to Grand Haven. We watched the MSU football and thrilled to see them come back and win against Northwestern. Saturday afternoon Craig's parents had a fun party for him and then we dropped the kiddos off to my parents for the night!!! Craig and I went to the movie Inception and then we went to Rose's for dinner. Sunday morning we slept in, exercised and then headed to Spring Lake to pick up the kids. It was a wonderful weekend.

Impossible Task?

Not too bad, minus the camera case and fire truck.

I was doing something sill to make these crazy kids laugh.

At Clover Bar
I have been trying for months to get an updated photo of the crew, but it is not an easy task. In fact, I am beginning to wonder if it is an impossible task. Allison is almost always a sure bet, but Connor and Ella take turns being a real pain:) Anyway, here are few shots of them.

Craig has been working a lot of hours and by Saturday I am spent. So we decided to go to Spring Lake for the day and hang out with my parents. It was a fun day. I went for a nice long run a long the bike bath by myself and then we went to a cider mill and to Clover Bar pizza for dinner. We headed back to EGR around 7:30....just in time to say good night to Craig.

October Fun

Enjoying the MSU game at my friend Courtney's house

Allison made this dress!!!

Watching MSU beat U of M:)

The Elephants for Artprize

Riding the Carousal

Allison at her Kindergarten parade

Allison and Connor at The Breton Boogie

Dance time at school to raise money. Allison is jamming!
Well, October has turned out to be a busy month for us. Craig has been on call a lot, Allison has been busy with school, soccer and swimming, and the rest of us are just along for the ride! Connor, Ella and I have been enjoying going for long jogs around the lake, playing at the playground and just hanging out together. Here is a brief summary of what is going on with each of the kids.

Allison has been busy with school and playdates! She absolutely loves going to school and can hardly wait to get their. She is enjoying the friends she has made at school and has had several play dates with girls in her class. She also enjoyed a fun birthday party at her friend Emma's house where she had a tea party and then this week a birthday party for her friend, Ryan at a farm. Allison has enjoyed playing soccer on Saturday mornings, "Unless it is too cold or too hot". She is good when she wants to be, but needs some encouragement to be aggressive. She has practice on Monday nights and then games on Saturdays. Tuesday, Thursday and Friday nights are devoted to swimming. She loves being on the swim team and is becoming quite the swimming. It looks like torture to me, but she LOVES it! I am hoping she sticks with it because she pretty good at it:)

Connor is working on being a big boy. He has been working on being trained for over a month now and it is all about the same. We resorted to using pullups and he goes on the potty about 75% of the time. We are hoping it will get better. He has become quite the talker....meaning he talks NON STOP! He is pretty darn funny! When we arrived at the farm he said, "Wow, this is AMAZING!" He talks super cute.....Soy latte is soy watte, Allison is Alyeah, look is wook, you get it. He is constantly cracking us up.

Ella is off....she is walking all over. She talks a ton, repeating whatever her brother and sister say. Some of her words are mama, dada, con ta (connor), All sa (Allison), diapa (diaper), stinky, doggie, turtle, dinsor (dinosaur), banket (blanket), Elmo...the list goes on. She is showing a bit of a temper when she doesn't get what she wants and she guards everything from Connor! She is still such a sweetie.

So, the crew is doing well and we are gearing up for Halloween! More to come soon. Oh, I almost forgot...we enjoyed watching MSU beat U of M at my friend Courtney's house! So much fun!