RRrraaaaaarrrrrr....

I had put a mask on this night.... Audrey saw it and said "Mommy, I want my face to be a monster too". So we put a monster face on her & she ran around the house trying to scare her Daddy.

Audrey's Birthday...3 years old!

This year we decided to have a smaller birthday with family and a few friends for Audrey. We intended to take her and Owen to Bay Beach, but due to rain, we made a plan B of going to Sir Bounce a Lot, which worked out well. We all had a lot of fun there. Audrey's favorite part was the carousel ride. We played games, rode on rides and did a lot of bouncing / sliding down their big slides. The big kids played some games too. We even bounced in the bouncy houses (Grandpa Pat joined in too). : )

Audrey and Owen liked it when the machines dispensed tickets. : )

Owen was a good sport too and he rode along with Audrey.

Audrey wanted a "purple birthday" as she would say. She picked out the fabric for her shirt and flower I made for her special day. This was the best close-up I could get of it.

One of Audrey's favorite parts of the day was her purple birthday cake, and especially when we sang Happy Birthday to her. She was saying up until the time we sang to her, "It's NOT my birthday"... but when the cake came out she screamed "IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!!"

Salmon Fishing...

On 4th of July Monday, it was perfectly calm - no wind, which is rare here, so Mario thought it would be a perfect opportunity to take us out Salmon fishing on Lake Michigan (so we would not get sea sick). Turned out to be a beautiful day... a little slower than his previous trips of catching 12 -15 per trip, as we caught just 3). Here are the fish we caught & Audrey would point out the one in the middle and tell you she caught that one, which is true. I held the pole and she helped reel it all the way in. She was sooo excited when she saw it was the biggest fish.

This is the fish cleaning station, and when Audrey saw what people did here, she was not so happy. "Leave my fish together", she said. I then distracted her.

Strawberry Picking...

We brought Audrey strawberry picking for the first time this year... We thought we were being so smart when we dressed her in red for the insane amount of strawberries she would eat and cover herself in. Turned out she would only pick the green ones and white ones to eat. Funny girl.

I love America

On Saturday morning, while Mario was working, we went to JoAnn Crafts. While there, Audrey picks up this pack of red, white and blue headbands and puts one on, and then grabs these two flags and starts waving them all around. People walking past had to stop and admire this very patriotic little girl. : )

I wanted to capture the moment, but didn't have the camera so here she is when we got home. Proud to be an American... and very proud of her Grandpas who are all Veterans (Grandpa David, Grandpa Donnie and Grandpa Pat).

Happy 4th of July. We love you all.

Johnsons Cottage

Mario had to work 4th of July Saturday so we went to Tim and Julie's cottage in Sagola, Michigan with them the weekend before...and had an awesome time. We enjoyed some blue gill fishing and lots of relaxing and lounging in the water and on the beach.

Below is Audrey catching a fish with Tim. She wanted to touch, hug and kiss every single fish that came in the boat. She even touched the worms this trip.

She reeled in as many as we would let her.

This is the beach we played and lounged at - Audrey loved the water again even though it was extremely cold. This is her walking with Julie.

She didn't take a nap at all this day...just played and played. She and Julie built a lot of sand castles and were busy finding feathers to put on the top of them. At one point she layed down in the sand. As soon as I grabbed the camera, SMILES... : ) Such a poser.