Happy birthday Ellie!!! We LOVE you more than words can say!

Good Morning and Happy Birthday to our little ray of sunshine!! Ellie, you have brought so much joy and laughter to our family, beautiful girl, and we are so glad God entrusted us to be yours. 

Ellie at 5...Loves to stay up late and does not like early mornings. She is most outgoing at night time and takes time to wake up in the morning. (Hmmmm, I don't know where she gets it from??) Ellie is funny, like really funny. She does funny voices, funny faces and will make funny comments under her breath. You have to be in her circle of trust for all of those things to come out but if you are in her circle, she is a card! She is more shy to people outside of her circle and does not like to be the center of attention outside of our family. Ellie has a sensitive soul and even though she can give it (learned by having 2 brothers!) she can't as easily take it. When she is upset or annoyed, most of the time she is just reaching out for a hug or some attention. She notices everything around her. She is very perceptive and she may not comment on it at first. She will ponder something for awhile and then ask me about it privately when it's just the two of us. She has been her mama's sidekick these past 2 years at home and she doesn't share me easily with people outside of our family. If my focus is elsewhere or I am working or hanging out with friends, she will do anything to get my attention to make sure I am still putting her in the center of my world. She always smells clean. I am not kidding. I don't know what it is but her bedroom always smells like a fruity or floral scent, it's just her smell. She has the BEST laugh. Ben is really hoping she always keeps it. She has a whole body, in the gut laugh and it's completely contagious. Out of all her names Elle, Ellie, Ellie Bean, Ellie Belly, E, Elle Marie, Sweetie Ellie is her absolute favorite. In a group of kids, Elle will stay back unless she has her 1 friend of comfort...Then she can be in her zone. She loves to play with her friends and family but Ellie also loves to have her own play time as well. After being gone for the day or having people over she can't wait to go downstairs and play on her car mat with all of her Lego and Matchbox cars. Her obsession, all things car related. When people come over she always asks if she can look in their car, she pretends to go on trips in them, and loves opening and closing car doors. Elle is the only child who will leave dessert left on her plate when she is full....She has no problem leaving a half-eaten cookie or milkshake. The rest of us are completely perplexed by this quality! As I am typing this Elle is downstairs playing cars but just came up for a hug and to just sit on my lap. :) Elle is a little mama bear and loves to keep track of her brothers and make sure everyone is following the rules and all is in order. I sure have a great helper but almost daily I remind her that I am the Mom and she gets to be their best friend. :) She is tiny and is inches shorter than Luke was when he was her age and she got my small feet. She is super, duper fast!! Ellie has really grown in her eating habits (phew!) and her favorite fruits are anything berry (strawberry being her favorite) and carrots and spinach are her veggie of choice (even over mashed potatoes!!). She LOVES to color A LOT way more than either of our boys. She enjoys pairing her outfits together matching a top to a bottom. She LOVES to read!! She likes the Berenstein Bear series and her princess books the best. She is really good at memorizing song lyrics or stories and can recite many stories and songs by memorization.

 Ellie, you are perfectly made in the image of God and we love you with all our hearts. Happy birthday, baby girl!    

Her birthday fell between summer trips so we decided to have a friend sleepover birthday party (On a Monday night, nonetheless.) with her two very besties, Zaydee and Lilah. These two have been like sisters to her and we all love them so much! Luke got outta the house and stayed the night at Zaydee's family's house with his best bud Ayrton and Drew stayed to be with the ladies. Drew is a big Zaydee fan. :)

Pizza for dinner and then us 4 girls took off to see Despicable Me 3!

The rock star life. Posing with her gal pals on the red carpet and then snuggled on comfy recliners, eating popcorn, watching a show, wrapped in their blankies, and cozied up next to their little animal friend. 

After the movie, friends...

presents...

and a homemade car cake that Daddy made special for his sweet, baby girl!

I mean, donuts for the wheels and everything!

These three had so much fun the whole night!

We read Madeline that Z had gotten for Elle that day! And then off to bed. I was laying with Elle rubbing her back and the girls were in a sleeping bag on each side of her. While I was rubbing her back E said, "Mom, can you leave? So, you know. We can talk and giggle and stuff." My heart melted..."Of course, sweet girl." SO off I went cracking the door behind me. We could hear their talks and giggles and it made me so happy. They tuckered themselves out a little past 11. Ben was up and out to work and I was waking up around 7, when I heard them talking and giggling. Laying in bed listening to them was my absolute favorite part. A girl's girls are so important. I LOVE my girls and I love watching my #1 girl falling in love with her own friendships.

Making homemade rainbow pancakes!!

AND then outside to play until the mamas came!! A 5th birthday girl. The time is flying by so fast...

A special birthday package from Auntie Nae!! Look at that smile! And Luke in the background looking all Gaston"ish", sticking out those pecs. What?!

The next am, off for E's 5 year old apt, with all her shots, finger prick and urine test. Poor kiddo. She did great and only spiked a low fever later that day. Which is great because off to Boyne Mountain we shall go!!

The Space Between

After our rendezvous we headed straight from Springhill Camp to IKEA down in Canton that Sunday. We rolled out of our van with sand still in our shoes and the smell of sunscreen into the big, giant world of merchandise. We were off to buy new bookshelves for my classroom! The kids were seriously such troopers. A weekend of adventure with no sleep, to a long drive, to a huge store....Troopers, I tell ya. Good thing we got our mini van because we were able to fill it to the brim on top of our vaca luggage with 5 new bookshelves! And off we were to finally arrive home. 

This week was a transitional week as I finished my last day as a Kensington employee and began really setting up my classroom as a third grade teacher. I was able to get my exact same job back that I taught in for 11 years! Same school and everything. I am one lucky chic. So we arrived home from our TC/Springhill/IKEA trip Sunday around 10ish and we had 8 days to regroup, work my last week,  Ben back to work, set up my classroom, have our besties with us for the weekend, attend a birthday party and throw Elle's 5th bday party! We have had so much fun...Why stop now??

The pic above and below Luke asked me to take and text it to all of my friends. I thought I would just share on the blog instead. :) This kiddo has had no tubes in his ears for almost a year! He had them put in at 8 mos old and ever since then his little body did not know swimming without earplugs and a headband to keep the plugs secure. Well folks, almost 7 years later, no more ear infections and say goodbye to the era of earplugs/headband! He got the all clear to swim around completely free. :) 

After our last days at Kid Care and late nights at my school we were off that Friday for some fun with our Kensington family! The kiddos below are the group of kids that attend Kid Care with us and all of their mamas worked with me there. You should be able to count 11 kiddos...Brecks was just 8 days old in this pic!

11 kiddos and 4 mamas. Love them all so much and the kids LOVE being together!

One last check on my classroom...My bookworms love reading the books from my reading center. 

Pics below are a sign of progress, slow progress, but it's coming together! The 2 pics on the top are the way I got the room from my new teaching partner, Nicole. The 2 pics on the bottom are the start of my new room.

  

 

Brian and Molly came with their 3 boys for the weekend and we were all so busy none of us even took one pic!!! So, I had to put a little shout out to them. Muah!

Sunday, Ben and Drew stayed back with the Ulrich family and I took the 2 kiddos over to the Shores for Lilah's 5th birthday party!! Our sweet Lilah turned 5 and we love her too pieces!! 

Girlfriends are just the best. Even at 5!

The next day we celebrated OUR beautiful princess!! Pics of Elle's 5th birthday partayyyy on the next blog post!

Rock Your Family 2017, Springhill Camp

After our Traverse City adventures there was no slowing down for this crew. We left Drew with Gma and Gpa Cooley in TC for the weekend as the four of us headed straight to Springhill Camp in Evart, MI for the Rock Your Family retreat through Kensington!! We worked the sessions with the Birkett family and had so much fun!! With all 9 of us we slept, worked, ate, and played together 24/7 all weekend!

 Matt and Ally are great friends and Ally also worked with me during my time working at the church. Their daughter Lilah is Elle's BFF and attended both preschool and Kid Care with each other which means they were together every day M-F this past year. These two are inseparable and love each other to pieces however, they have also learned how to be a good friend through their old lady squabbles with each other. :) Devin and Luke have also gotten to be good buddies this past year as well.

After working our first session, the guys were off to the first event, starting BIG...The BIG zipline!! I could not believe that Luke just hopped off a 40 foot platform in the dark and away he went. Ben said he was really nervous as they were climbing up the steps but he loved it!

The next day, we woke up and after the 2nd session we were ready for the water activities! Here we are at the burger stand next to the lake. 

1st up: The Blob. The Blob is that yellow/blue striped well, blob thing in the water. You jump from that top platform and land on the Blob and then crawl to the outer tip of the Blob. The next person jumps on the Blob and this catapults you into the air and landing in the water. SO fun but I have to say it's a thrill and scary too! Ben, Ally, Devin, Luke and I had fun taking turns. The girls were out and Matt was holding Baby Weston. Ben launched me high into the air!

The water slide "The Gusher" was more my pace. It was a big hit for everyone...except sweet Elle. She could not get into the lake water...Not a fan of the muck and touching the bottom. Oh well, maybe next year!

Next up was the open swim full of a water trampoline, a castle in the water with different obstacles, splash pads, and these yellow foam floating islands (My favorite!) that you could run on top of the water on, jump off of etc. 

These two were ballers ALL day long!!! They played from sunrise until the early hours of the next day.

Rocking our family!

Birkett's and Morin's, love.

Then it was the Mom's turn to take the boys again on the zipline! I was completely fine until I stepped to the edge of the 40 foot platform and then some nerves set in. You have to take the plunge all by yourself and once I experienced it I was even prouder of Luke for conquering it twice!

Here we are set to jump!

We did it!

Luke is a great teammate! 

After the 3rd session, the retreat through a Princess/Superhero Ball! These two are dressed up and ready to dance!

(I wish we had more pics from the weekend!)

The next morning we worked our last session and then packed up and headed out to meet Mom and Dad to pick up Drew. We missed you, buddy!! The weekend was amazing and we are so blessed that we have loving and encouraging friends within our church family to do life with. We were beat, smelly, sore but SO much fun. We love Springhill! 

Cherry pickin' good time!

All three kiddos have had a blast going with me to Kid Care 3 days a week during June and half of July! I am working at the program through our church until the middle of July and all three of them get to go with me! How fun is that, that I get to bring all my kiddos with me?! Luke has his best buddy Devin and then Elle has her BFF Lilah (Devin's sister) and the rest of her Kensington Preschool buddies. It has been such a blessing for our entire family to be completely plugged in with the staff and their families at our church. As I finish out my time here on staff, I leave with a grateful heart for the time I had at home, the time I had with my growing babes, the friendships I formed, and the Christ-centered foundation that it's offered our entire family.

Below Luke and Elle are holding hands with Devin and Lilah...

One of the last "rest times' at our program and the three of them ended up together on the same mat by the end of the movie. :) 

Drew and his choo-choos. OBSESSED. These two have become real besties and even though they can give each other a run for their money, they are evenly matched and are always playing together.

Drew making us laugh "flying' in the air. This kid keeps us cracking up!

AND off we go...HELLLLOOOOO Summer 2017!!

First off, a trip to Traverse City to see Gpa and Gma Cooley at their summer house! Look at those excited smiles and the sweetest little photobomber. Also, look closely because this is one of the last family trips in our Saturn Vue!

Rockin out in the back seat to me and my girl's favorite riding jam "Happy Girl"!! Drew hears this a lot. He is very patient. :)

Ahhh, and here we are. Old Mission Peninsula, home sweet home, for summer 2017. This pic is taken from the porch of the house. We are surrounded by vineyards, famous wineries, family owned cherry orchards and family. We savored this piece of paradise for almost 3 weeks this summer.

Two lots over is the Old General Store that sold all types of candy out of barrels and hand-dipped ice cream. Yummo!

A little coloring station/Checkers station Gma Cooley had setup in front of the bay window!

Smores and bonfires almost every night!

A trip out to Hazarat Beach to play at their park!

Helping Gpa Cooley lay a cement patio...

AND a fun visit from our favorites the Brangs! These two had a blast!

And these 2 sweeties loved it just as much.

Patrick even got in a workout, rowing everyone for a moonlit cruise.

We had so much fun we met up with them again the following night at their place, The Grand Traverse Resort!

And Moomers to finish off the night! We love watching these sweeties grow up together! Bing and I are the luckiest. We met in 2nd grade and never looked back. Life is filled with so much laughter, fun, and friendship because of her and I am grateful to share this with our kiddos!

Peel me off the floor, we were a wee bit tired on this drive home. 

So, the next morning there were cuddles all around and with some of our favorite snugglers!

(All pic commentary is from our very own Lukey Lous)

We headed home for the annual 4th of July fireworks back home in Rochester Hills!

Luke playing ball with some of his buddies from school.

And us being us and loving it.

Almost firework time! We had another great time hanging out with our awesome neighbors and friends. We got home just shy of midnight and the kids were up and ready the next day for one of their last times at Kid Care. They were such troopers!

And two days later we were back up in Traverse for our 2 week stint and we kicked it off with celebrating at the Cherry Festival! The first Festival event was watching the Thunderbirds!

Drew is plugging his ears, it was fun but pretty loud.

Back to the house for more water fun! Pretty great spot to enjoy the summer with family and friends!

Taking baths in the bay is a family favorite!

Ben is the nominated aquatic director of the family. Here he is doing his due diligence.

This man-child will be in 2nd grade this school year! Love him beyond words.

We had lots of extended family over and some that we met for the first time. Chloe and her parents made a visit from Cali!

Haha, Luke was having fun with my editing options. This is Auntie Meg's option. :)

Always swimming in and out all day of the water. I don't think our swimsuits ever dried completely between swims during our trip!

Luke chose to stay back with Papa (by his side ALL of the time) and we took Elle and Drew downtown to walk around and see all of the events for the Cherry Festival. Elle chose to go on a car for her carnival ride. (I am telling you, this girl and her cars! They are her jam.)

She chose the blue car and loved it! 

Then a quick stop at the toy shop downtown and what did she choose to play with...The cars.

Ben was also named grillmaster. He's got a lot of jobs around here. :) We are getting ready for the big cookout for all of the Johnson's! This was the night before to kick off a great cherry season before the picking started the next am!

Ben and I were able to celebrate our 11th anni by having ourselves a little, no-child-just adult, staycation! Thanks Mom and Dad! We left all 3 kiddos up in Traverse and Ben and I went back down state! We were able to go out to dinner at our favorite spot, Penny Black, and when we talked about doing anything else we both agreed...STAY HOME! Ben had to work two days this week so I also went in to help out at Kid Care during the day. We squeezed in a marriage mentor session with our awesome engaged couple Jesse and Riley and on our way back up to Traverse on Friday...

We said goodbye to the Vue...

...and hello to our new mini van!!

We surprised everyone by driving it back up to Traverse. Ben would take the kiddos to look at vans at different lots for "fun" (I would stay happily by myself at home :)) and so the kiddos were so looking forward to getting one. I have to say, I LOVE it!

The next morning we were off to the Cherry Festival Parade!

This sweet girl. I can't believe she is going to be in kindergarten next year. She has been my sidekick these past two years and I am going to miss her!

Drew is just pooped.

And when we got back to Traverse, Dad had gotten a motor on the boat!

                                     

THIS was very exciting for everyone especially the aquatics director!

On Sunday, we were able to attend the Traverse City Kensington Church! We helped launch this campus last year so it was pretty cool to see it and attend service there. We even ran into some people from the Troy campus there and when we were out to eat afterwards in Glen Arbor at Boone's we ran into a family that volunteered for me at church in my 2's room! Crazy!

So here we are at Boone's after church. It was a beautiful day but man...

these two crazies were off the hook! It was a loud, non-relaxing lunch BUT

then the walk to the beach made it all wonderful again.

This is one of my favorite beaches in the mitten. Beautiful!!

Monday started Vacation Bible School at my Mom's old church that she used to attend on the Peninsula when she a little girl. I was a little skeptical at first. The kids going away everyday from 9-11:30 all week, being on a schedule, hmmmm.... However, Ben asked them at breakfast that morning and Ellie was all into it. So, that was that. Off they went to a week-long VBS on Old Mission Peninsula.

Side Note: At this point Luke was in a life jacket ready to head out on the boat when Ben asked them about VBS. He is more of a homebody than Elle and when he agreed to go with Elle, last minute when he already had his own plan on what his morning was going to look like...We were so proud of him!

After the first day and it was a hit all around!! Everyone was excited to go back the next day!

This VBS was the BEST! The rest of the week the "cool bus" picked the kids up from the end of our driveway and dropped them off at the end of the day! Kudos to Gma Cooley for thinking of this!

LOVING the bus!

This is Luke at his happy place.

And Papa's, with a good book in his hand!

AND the Brang's came back up to spend the day with us!!! LOVE! 

This time we had the motor on the boat and it was so funny to have all of us me, ben, bing, and 4 kiddos on an old fishing boat that puttered as fast as she could go. :) We had a great time though and Carson and Luke even figured out how to rig up some "tubing" like adventures to the back of the boat.

I think this is Carson!! All 4 kiddos took their turn and our two brave girls. 

After an hour or so on the boat I realized that Drew could be waking up any minute in the house with nobody in it. The thought sent me into a small panic like what if he ventured out to the water by himself. You know, total rationale mommy thoughts. It must have scared Ben though too because right away he dropped off the 2 boys to head straight back to the house to check on Drew. Bing and I were like, " You are just dropping them off so far from the bay?" This made us laugh to see the boys swim from so far back! Drew, of course was completely fine and just waking up but the boys wanted to swim the whole way back. This was them making their way back to shore but the drop off was pretty far back from this point!

Ben stayed with the kiddos while Bing and I had a night out to see some of our high school faves! It was 7/11 so Ben took all of the kids into town for free slurpees!

While the children are away the Mamas will play!! 

Alaina and Head!! These two were two of our besties in high school and now they are together living in TC! We were so excited to have the chance to meet up for dinner and back to their place afterwards.

So grateful to have such memorable and loving friendships.

And we finished the week strong at VBS!

So the kids are obsessed, really obsessed with the story of Beauty and the Beast. It started with me and my own love for it, then the trip to Disney, compounded with the DVD we borrowed from April and Margot, to the real show being released, and now that we have DVD players in our van it is the show and book of choice!! Listen to Drew reading Beauty and the Beast that he checked out with Gpa and Gma Cooley at the Traverse library. Sorry it's sideways but you can catch him quoting Belle, " Bonjour, bonjour!"

We were able to spend time with G.G.!! He is doing so well and it is great that he has Mom right down the road to be there with him. He also has lots of loving family and friends who stop by often to visit with him and take him out to eat. He is one cool and kicking 93 year-old!

And a Cherry Festival celebration would not be complete without a trip to pick cherries and lucky us...Mom's family owns their own acres of cherry farm and vineyards!! Growing up, we spent a lot of time picking cherries but I didn't really understand what a cool thing it was that my Mom's family owns a few thousand acres of farm on Old Mission Peninsula!! The Johnson Farms is still the family owned business and they are all hard-working, early-rising, hip farmers! It was great being able to introduce our kiddos to our family tradition and history.

Don't let the white cherries fool you! This sweetie will tell you they are just as delicious as the dark red!

Future cherry farmers!!

And for us, we have all the cherries we could possibly eat and share. They are so yummy and fresh and they hung in giant clusters wherever we looked. Ben called it "life-giving". :)

Afterwards, we stopped at my mom's cousins, Dean and Laura's, farmhouse to see the horses!

Does Drewman look like his Papa or what?! #twinning 

I saw their barn and I thought we could totally have a family photo shoot right here and now! Mom took the shots with my phone and we were dressed to pick cherries but what do you think?? 

My heart loves them.