Our Village: Part 1 and Part 2

As I transitioned back to work from the summer, Ben and I found ourselves planning to see how to get coverage for our kiddos for my first week of school. (My school district started a week earlier that our own kiddo's elementary.) Aunt Cathy, Gigi Budd, and Gpa/Gma Cooley made the week so memorable for our trio. They are the best!!

Village Part 1: Aunt Cathy took our kids to see Thomas and spend the day at Huckleberry Railroad! They were so excited. Even our big guy Luke was all in and even made sure to wear a Thomas shirt too. :) Ben and I met Aunt Cathy in Flint to drop them off for the night. 

We stayed to wave...

 Drew was fast asleep. On the ride to the park, I told him to go to sleep in the car so he wouldn't be tired. He was like, " Mom. Last year, I fell asleep on the train. Don't worry, Mom. Aunt Cathy won't care." Welp, sure enough I got this pic from Aunt Cathy!

After the day, they went back to Gigi's house for a sleepover...

Movie night!

Such a sweet picture with Gigi.

 Drew loves Casey the cat.

We were able to have a date ON a school night! What is this?! A real date going out to dinner at Macaroni Grill!

The next day they took the kiddos to the wave park! 

That night we celebrated our wonderful and loving Aunt Cathy!! Happy birthday, Aunt Cathy! We all love you so much!

She stayed the night with us and then took our kids to Spencer Park to go swimming!

Afterwards, they had ice cream at Brain Freeze. Looking at this picture, it looks like Drew is having a brain freeze. :) Permanent smiles when Aunt Cathy is in charge!!

When we got home, baseball practice was in "full swing" (pun intended!) with these three.

We had our superstar babysitter Bria babysit the next few days and then we all headed up to TC! We had a great time on the bay for the last time of the season. Till next year, East Bay!

 Ben and I headed back home with just Drew! We left Luke and Ellie for the first time for the next 4 days with Papa and Gma!

These are some of the memories they made together...

 Going to Uncle Dean and Aunt Laura's house to see their horses!

 More Peninsula fun!

 The Butterfly House!

Don's Drive-In...

Awww, Papa. We feel ya!

Drew spent the week back at his preschool, NC3, for the week. I picked him up after school and everyone was home from TC! Look at these bro-bros. They were so excited to see each other!

I missed my baby girl. 

Papa and Grandma stayed the night and the next day took the kiddos to NC3 for this music performance. Ayrton and Zaydee came too!

That night we all had fun cheering on the Pirate's under the lights at their night game! Night games are a big deal around here and everyone loves to go!

Thank you Aunt Cathy, Gigi, Papa and Gma!!! We love you guys so much. Our kids were left happy, sugared up, and tired. What a FUN week for them to end summer before their first day of school!! It takes a village!

Horseback Riding!

After the cottage trip, we stayed home, regrouped and just enjoyed the summer days!

Luke finished his season with Moose Baseball. This was a training facility team that met once a week to practice and then would play in some local tourneys. It's purpose was really for Luke and his teammies to practice their fundamentals.

More playing around just at home...

Later that day Aunt Cathy and Uncle Tom surprised us with a new Dyson vacuum!? Say what?!?!? They had one up at the cottage and I was telling them how much I loved it. These guys! This was the best surprise!

I was gone for the day at Literacy conference and Ben took the kiddos on a bike ride to Spencer Park to swim, play, and fish for the day. So fun!

The next day, we were off to the Library for the Summer Reading program finale celebration! The mascot was there from the Utica Unicorns baseball team! Elle's name was drawn as one of the raffle winners!! 

On Sunday, we loaded up the van after church to cash in Ellie's family bday present...Horseback riding lessons! This girl was fearless and felt so comfortable with the horses. 

Here she is with her horse for the day, " Sparky"!

And out for the lesson...

Afterwards, we bought a thing of "horse cookies" and had fun feeding all of the horses.

Then a stop to Meijer for back-to-school supply shopping. Ugh. We always have fun walking around and checking the items off the list but this pulled at my heart strings. Summers are so fun and go by way too fast.

This is what I'm talking about. The next morning, these 2 cuties climbed in bed with me for an extra snooze. 

Then, talking about supplies, we spent the day out and about back-to-school shopping for my classroom.

I found these 3 new chairs at Michael's for my classroom for $8 each on clearance! Score!! Luke trying it out with some reading.

Our good friends, The Patton's, spent the summer in Hawaii! Ellie got this postcard from Calvin. :)

Elle at her 7 year well visit! This sweet girl's stats:

I was back to work, midweek, for our back-to-school PD. My District provides child care for those days at their Early Childhood Center. As we pulled up in the driveway, this is what I found. Summer!! Come back!

These 2 were cracking up so hard I just had to capture it!! Bros.