Sauder Village!

Grammy was getting antsy and looking for takers on a short getaway trip. We jumped at the chance and before we knew it, she had three tickets to Sauder Village!

Sauder Village is a smaller version of Greenfield Village ( the historic village in Detroit that we frequent) . It's located in Archbold, Ohio which is just an hour and half away. While it is quite a bit smaller, it was the perfect size for Mackenzie's toddler attention span! Here are a few pictures of our adventure:


I got Mackenzie up a little bit earlier than usual so she'd be ready to nap on the drive down. Once we hit the road ( after a few " go-backs" for forgotten items and " emergencies" ) she was out and slept for most of the trip down.

Grammy thought to bring the double stroller along so we didn't have to carry all our of " stuff". It was a great idea!
Mike and Mary looking over a map of the village:
We toured a few of the exhibits ( The wood shop, the quilt shop, the blacksmith and a few others) before it was time for an ice cream break.

Ahhh the life- Ice cream cone in one hand, spoon full of someone else's ice cream in another!
Next was the train tour of the village:


Our last stop at the Village was the children's " Please touch" area. It was here that Mackenzie came face to face with her favorite animal:
This cow was so cool! When you " milked" her, real " milk" came out and she moo-ed!
Mackenzie LOVES eggs so she had a lot of fun playing with this chicken and her eggs:
Grammy carted Mackenzie back to the hotel room where we spent an hour or so "resting". Mackenzie was so beyond tired at this point that Grammy said she was " Slap happy".

We ate dinner in an old barn turned restaurant. The bargain of the day was Mackenzie's dinner buffet: 79 cents per year of age!

After dinner we changed a very tired Mackenzie into her swim suit for her first trip ever to a real swimming pool. I was so impressed with how well she did. She even learned to kick her feet and arms in the water like a frog!

After about 40 minutes in the pool, we headed up to " bed". I say " Bed" because it's a well known fact in our family that Mackenzie doesn't sleep well any where but in her crib alone. Needless to say, it was a very long night ( but well worth it!). Here's Mackenzie's bed head before we packed up to come home:
We stopped at Tony Packo's for lunch on the way home and yes, that is a banana pepper that she's eating! She's got the Rose gene that makes us crave spicy food!
And if our weekend wasn't busy enough, we got back to South Lyon and put Mackenzie's sand box together in Grammy's back yard!
Aunt Janet came to join the party! Mackenzie showed her how to sniff flowers. Here's a snap shot of her " sniffing" face:
It was a busy, busy weekend but we all came home happy and slept well that night. Mackenzie slept 14 hours- an hour and a half longer than she normally does!

Herbs!

Over the last few years, Mike and I have really enjoyed having a little herb/pepper/flower garden but our condo doesn't have it's own yard. Thankfully, Mike went to work and built us a little herb box for our balcony. After a quick trip to the Wednesday morning farmer's market, we had all we needed for our herb garden!

Mackenzie got demoted after she tried to pull out the freshly planted herbs:

Here she is with the final product:
I think everyone was satisfied with the end result. Some more than others:

Howell Nature Reserve

We are having so much fun exploring all of the local " kid places"! We discovered a VERY cool program through our library - a grant ( funded by Macy's) which gives free passes to the libraries for local museums, nature reserves and parks. On Friday, we checked out the pass for the Howell Nature Reserve. While it wasn't exactly " age appropriate" for Mackenzie ( you had to really look to find some of the animals in their " habitats" ), it was a gorgeous day so she had fun just being outside.

Who needs to drive to Howell when we've got our own "wild" animal:

There were lots of animals to see: herons, beavers, bob cats and coyotes
Possibly the rarest breed we saw that day was the great half prairie dog, half man:
Oh wait! That's just daddy being silly! What was even more fun to see was Mike trying to make his way through that tiny CHILD SIZED tunnel to reach the "prairie dog" cage. I promised I'd with hold the pictures, though.

" WATYMEL!"

"Watymel"( wa-tea-mel) = watermelon in Mackenzien and boy does she love "Watymel!" Here's Mackenzie's instructional series on how a toddler should eat watermelon:

1. Find the perfect piece!

2. Take a great big bite!

3. Even Bigger!

4. Next, crunch on the green stuff

5: Oh wait, mom says not to eat the green stuff!

6. Remember to share!

What's left!

For the love of Elmo!

Only a video could fully portray the love that Mackenzie has in her little heart for Elmo:



Thanks to Grammy for finding this " squeezable" Elmo!


Mackenzie is far too busy to be a couch potato, but when Elmo's on, there's no distracting her!
But alas, even Elmo gets tossed aside when it's time for lunch!

Grammy's birthday and Memorial day

We celebrated Grandma Mary's birthday over the weekend! We had her favorite meal of BLT's served with sweet potato fries and ate apple tart, another favorite, for dessert. Here are a few pictures:
Ready to go! Mackenzie loves to look out the door to our balcony. She calls it " side" because it's where we can go outside!
Aunt Meg gave Mackenzie her first wagon ride! Maybe by next year Mackenzie can return the favor!

Doing a puzzle with Grandma Mary ( now affectionately nicknamed "Grammy" by Mackenzie):

Grammy and Aunt Janet taught Mackenzie a fun new game! Something tells me Mackenzie will be the first in line for the roller coasters.

On Monday, we went with Will and Olivia to the South Lyon Memorial Day Parade. It was a great way to support our veterans. My favorite part was the standing ovation the Veterans who opened the parade got. Mackenzie's favorite part was the sucker she from the fire fighters at the end of the parade!

The girls traveling in style ( Thanks , Will, for being " the mule"! )

The peanut gallery:

Mackenzie sat with Uncle Will ( he's her godfather! ) almost the whole parade:

And look who we found wandering around! Mackenzie's honorary uncle Matt.
We ended the day enjoying a wonderful BBQ ( Thanks to Will's mom, Diane) . It was a great day to remember those who sacrificed for our country and an even better "unofficial" start to summer!

MISSING

MISSING: Purple Oral B Tooth brush with flexible head ( perfect for those " hard to reach spots"). The tooth brush was last seen in the grasp of a blond haired, green eyed female toddler who is approximately 14 months in age. If you know of the whereabouts of my tooth brush, please quickly deposit it in the nearest trash receptacle and contact me so that I can add it's location to my list of " places to look" when things go missing. I can be found at CVS , purchasing a new toothbrush.