Northville Parade

Aunt Meg was heading out of town to her basket weaving conference but she very graciously left her house open for us. She prepared breakfast and reserved our seats on the lawn. All we had to do was show up!

Aunt Meg's neighbor, Jess, brought over her new puppy, Jake. Mack really loved him but wasn't sure why he can bite and not go to time-out:
Here's our crew waiting for the parade to start.Wilson's came and Aunt Janet was a little too far right to get in on this picture, but she was there, too!
Griffin had the right idea:
Mack and me during the parade:
If you ask Mackenzie if she had fun at the parade, she'll tell you " Yeah. The fire truck sirens were sooo noisy" :

Will and Erin commented how watching Mack and Olivia is like looking at a Norman Rockwell painting. I agree!
This is why they are smiling- they made out like bandits!

Later, Mack and Mike played DS together:

Mom's night out!

The long awaited "Mom's night out" was so much fun! Erin and I had dinner at Red Robin, cruised Target for any " must haves" and movie snacks then headed over to catch opening night of " Eclipse". Erin and I both read the books so it's fun to see them come alive on the big screen. It's so great to have such a good friend so close by!

Workin' girl

Mackenzie has an official job- she puts away the clean ( non-pointy) silverware out of the dishwasher. For now, she LOVES her new job.

Shift work....

Mike has been working some pretty insane hours that last few weeks in efforts to store up some money for our Colorado trip in Sept. So this is how I've been seeing him a lot more lately- sleepy ( but still handsome!)!
Mack had some big shoes to fill:


And boy have we missed him!

Hiking

We've been spending lots of time exploring the local metro parks. Mackenzie loves to listen for different bird noises and she is always the first one to spot a wild turkey or a frog. Here are a few pictures of our hiking adventures:

Tossing pebbles into the water is always a big hit. It wasn't as much fun when she started throwing lily pads and giant rocks in:
Mackenzie hiking in:
Mackenzie hiking out:
She's not picky about who she hikes on- daddy or mommy:
And a ride on the swings before we go home!

More letters!

Mackenzie has now mastered writing the letter " M" and the letter " A". If you think I'm proud of her, you should see how proud she is of herself, exclaiming " I MADE AN "A"!" nearly every time she does it. Now, instead of tiny circles and lines and scribbles, Mackenzie's coloring pages are full of " M's" and "A's" and rainbows ( her third favorite thing to draw).


And now we are working on how to write the letters next to each other. That may prove to be more difficult than writing them letters themselves.

Mack-ism

I love how Mackenzie says " Rubby duck" instead of rubber duck.

Oh, and a special thanks to Mike for teaching Mack " John Jacob Jingle Heimer Schmidt" ( Sarcasm noted?)