Summer

Tim often gets out his guitar & ukelele for Finn to enjoy.  The ukelele looks just about the right size for her!  I'm so glad that Tim has the musical background to bring this gift to our girl.  One of her favorite things to do is see the street performers.  We have a great lineup of talent every Thursday evening & Finn is interested in every kind of music.  Tim & I have seen more than one tantrum over not being able to stay and hear this musician or that.

                                            A hug on Father's day

We took Grandma & Grandpa Hartsaw to the beach to watch a sunset.  Here is Daddy & Finn making their miniature woodhendge.  Then Finn & Grandpa go for a walk to find treasures.

Michigan can be very very hot in the summer & also a bit chilly at times.  Can you guess what the weather was like on the lake this evening?

The week before the heatwave, Michigan was swept with some severe thunderstorms.  Our town was hit pretty hard.  Our house and yard was undamaged, including the baby cherry trees we just planted.  But so many old trees around town were ripped up and uprooted, it looked like Paul Bunyan had a tantrum.  The picture above was on the college campus.  Below are some from around town.  It was hard to see trees that had been around well over 100 years be obliterated in only moments.

I thought this fungus was really interesting.  There were some on a downed tree in the park, and others spilled across the lawn.

Our oldest and most beautiful graveyard also suffered.  Look at the carpet of sod.  Those roots stood at least 15 feet high!

Did I mention before that Finn loves statues?  This installation actually has speakers hidden in the bushes that project classical music.  It's one of Finn's favorites.

Fourth of July

We met my parents at (my sister) Evie & Brian's house on July 3.  Mom & Dick invited themselves over, then invited us!  We were anxious to see Evie's new house so we threw manners to the wind and accepted.  Brian's Mom & stepdad were also there.  We grilled hamburgers & hotdogs, corn on the cob and ate...and ate.  We were a little worried though, that Finn's favorite thing to do at Evie's house was to play on Brian's drums.  We were even more worried when Grandpa offered to buy her a set (said with a perfectly disgustingly sweet grin).

The next day Finn enthusiastically experienced her first sparklers & then we watched some spectacular fireworks just up the street at the lake, another first for the wee one.  It was a very nice holiday indeed.

Doesn't Grandpa look smashing in his green gingham apron?  A nice complement to the red golf shirt!

Highland Dancing

So we made it to the Highland Festival in Alma, MI, again this year. We were a little disappointed that after making a concerted effort to arrive on time for the massed bands at noon we found out that only half of the bands in attendance would be performing at that time. There were so many bands entered in the competition, they said, that the competition had to start early, and continue right through that performance. If we wanted to stick around until 5:30, then we were promised all of the bands would perform. Unfortunately, that wouldn't work for our schedule, so we missed out. There really is nothing like a football field full of pipers and drummers marching straight at you playing Scotland the Brave. Talk about a wall of sound! Hopefully next year we'll get to experience it again.

One really cute thing to come out of the trip was Faolan in her kilt, getting to see the Highland Dancers in competition for the first time. She'd seen them online, and we'd talked about them before, but this was the first year that she was old enough to appreciate what was going on. The competition was held in a gymnasium, so we got in and took our seats at the end of the basketball court. And then... well, this adorable moment happened:

Note: there is no sound; this was taken with our photo-camera, not our digital video recorder.

We're not sure what she'll go into yet, but we wouldn't be surprised if it had some performance element to it!

Highland Festival

Every year we attend the Scottish Highland Festival in Alma.  It is a time for me to remember my family, my heritage, and enjoy the exhilarating pipes and drums.  I am so happy to share it now with my own child and husband.  We park at the Presbyterian church, which is just off Alma college campus where the festival takes place.  There is a courtyard there where the ashes of my grandparents & father were laid.  There is a bench in the garden where we can sit and remember, and listen to the bagpipes in the distance.  The whir of the pipes stirs in me both the near past, and very distant past as I imagine it...that one ancestor making his way from Scotland to the new world.  I am a hopeless romantic I suppose.  That journey in thought ends in the present, as I look upon my own continuing bloodline and wonder what life's journey will bring to her. 

The massed bands are impressive.  Hundreds of pipers & drummers all marching and playing in sync makes for a powerful display. 

                                            A "heelin' coo" or highland cow

                                The sheep herding demonstration is a favorite!

Faolan was so cute watching the highland dance competition.  She tried hard to mimic every move.

                                    Remembering family in the memorial garden.

Spring 2011

Faolan had a kitty cat birthday party.  Daddy made kitty ear headbands as favors.  Do you see the cute little cats on her skirt?  Beautiful handmade skirt from my favorite website, etsy.com.  Can you believe this pose?  My little kitten.

Mom made me a cat cake when I was three, so I thought it would be cute to make Finn one too.  Actually, I am told that I pleaded for a home-made cat cake...and didn't understand that it might be difficult for mom to bake a cake four days after giving birth to my sister, Evie!  Thanks, mom. 

Mine is not quite as nice as I had hoped...and too big to fit on a cake platter.  Finn requested a white cat, so there it is.  I have a new respect for cake decorating. 

Grandma & Grandpa Hartsaw got Finn a real CD player, complete with microphones.  Tim and I were a little worried over how excited Finn was to get it.  She is such a little performer!  Here she is rocking out to Mary Had a Little Lamb.

                                                                   I'm three years old!

We celebrate spring each year at the Frederick Meijer Gardens Butterfly exhibit.  It's so nice to come in from the cold and experience tropical warmth, beautiful flowers and lots of gorgeous butterflies!

                                                                   I"m a butterfly!

Faolan loves statues.  This one is outside the gardens & depicts the founders.  Faolan thought they looked like Grandma & Grandpa Hartsaw for some reason, so she ran and sat on their laps.

Faolan's first chocolate bunny!  You can see the ears have already been nibbled...then came the eyes right after this picture.

Faolan's cousin, Justin, came over for an egg hunt in the back yard.  It stopped raining just in time!

Faolan LOVED the klompen dancers during the Tulip Time Festival!  I couldn't resist buying her a pair of wooden shoes.  She was so excited to pretend to dance with them in the street.  She did a good job mimicking all of their moves.

                                                   I think I mentioned that Finn loves statues...

             
                                                                      Mother's day

The worm princess!  I couldn't resist taking a picture of Finn, who insisted on wearing her tiara while digging for earthworms.  The other day she had a cup with rolley-poley bugs, slugs and earthworms in it.  I had to talk her out of bringing them inside to be her "pets".  I love my wee garden gnome. 

Fall 2010

 I used to dread raking leaves in the fall.  But the world is born anew in the eyes of a child.  Now it is a much anticipated time of year!

 While Daddy was gone at a writer's conference, Finn & I occupied our three day weekend over Halloween at two different nature centers.  Each had a treats & trails night where the children stopped at designated areas along the trail where knowledgeable workers educated about nature & animals as they handed out treats.  Finn got to see owls, and even pet turtles and snakes.  Her favorite part though, was roasting marshmallows over a fire for smores.  What an adorable little chicken she was!

Finn road five of the six ponies at the pony farm.  It was her favorite thing to do.  She did so well all by herself.  I was impressed with her posture and bravery at 2 1/2 years old!  The ponies only work weekends in the summer & a couple of special weekends in the fall.  They seemed to be well taken cared for and loved. We also got a hayride with a bonus of holding baby bunnies while riding.  We rode on a surry as well.  Faolan hopped right up on the front seat by the driver and took the reins before I even noticed.  The driver was so kind, he allowed Finn to "help" drive the surry.  We also saw a donkey, cows, sheep, goats & chickens.  What fun!

It's all about the babies!  Tim's family gathered at his brother's house to say goodbye to Grandma, who moved to Texas.  Faolan was in heaven as she got to dote on her baby cousin Danielle & hold cousin Morgan's guinea pig.  The guinea pig looks a little scared.  I can't imagine why.