Lots to Blog About

Well it was a busy and exciting weekend. Saturday were a couple activities in honor of Ben's birthday which was actually back in February. First we headed out about 8:30am down to Oxford Cinema to get into the first free showing of Tales of Despereaux. We took two cars down so the whole family could go; made it in plenty of time and really enjoyed the movie, very well done. Afterward, Rob went back home to take care of some repairs, while the kids and I grabbed some Taco Bell and made way to the Detroit Science Center to meet up with my Mom, brother James, his wife Shelly, my Aunt Betsy (up from Florida), and her granddaughter Maddy to check out Star Trek: The Exhibition. As an added bonus we also were graced with a few moments to chat with my cousin Luke who rode down from GVSU with James and Shelly. My Aunt Ann Marie brought the ladies to the museum and traded them for Luke. The exhibit was in a word, small. There was a lot of reading displays which of course the kids could care less about and not as many hands-on things as I thought there would be.

The real bummer for me though was that you weren't allowed to take pictures in the exhibit. Instead they had staff photographers to take posed shots that you could buy copies for $16 a piece. There were three 'sets' they did photos on, the bridge, the transporter, and a planet scene. Below is our group shot on the transporter. We did a cool one on the bridge where we all leaned to one side but you couldn't see everyone so we didn't buy it. They also had a display of Picard's ready room you could only look at through glass, lots of costumes (man were they all really that skinny?), some ship models, and a dismal display of props (tricorder, couple weapons, data discs). We barely spent a half hour in there but then the kids had a blast checking out the rest of the museum. They loved the light, electric and sound experiments. That little blur in the top left of the collage is my cousin Maddy whom I couldn't hardly catch still enough to take a photo of, she and Alex were on the move! Thanks to Gramma Judi for an awesome birthday outting. Next everyone motored back to Mom's house, Betsy cooked up an awesome dinner, Alex went for a little walk around the neighborhood, I took the boys and Maddy to the three playscapes right near the house, naps were taken, golf was watched, games played. Fox and Ben stayed overnight but Alex, Ethan and I went back to our house so we could be at Easter service. The kids ministered the song "Jesus You're My Superhero" and Ethan wanted to be there for it. Fox and Ben hadn't really been there for the practices.

Easter Service was a blast! We had great praise & worship, the dance team ministered and Seeds of Jesus, then Pastor read them the Easter story and all the kids got a gift before they headed back to class. We boogied out of there right as service was ended before anyone could grab me and start talking to me about something. Seriously I never get out of the building before 12:30-1p usually. Ran back to the house to pull in the chickens and pick up Rob, then drove to my Aunt Marcia's house in Waterford for the annual Egg Hunt and Easter dinner. We had quite a crew this year. Lots of kids and even a new egg! I realized I didn't put the kids' names on the picture but from the left: Fox (11), Maddy (5), Anna (7), Gabrielle (7), Josh (5), Ethan (7), Alexandra (16), Elijiah (2), Zachary (4), Ben (9), all cousins once removed. Thanks Auntie Re for coordinating the Hunt once again and to Aunt Marcia for hosting a fabulous dinner.
We definately wanted to get our weekly walk in this weekend since we didn't walk the last two. The theme: cousins! After dinner we decided to make a loop about the neighborhood and asked if anyone wanted to come, most of our takers were in the munkin bunch. My cousin Amy was the only older person that came with us. Her son Josh knew the turf since it is his gramma's house so he showed us down to the public access dock. We also had with us, Alex, Ben, Ethan, Anna, Gabby, Maddy, and Zack who was too cute holding onto to Rob's hand. A man and his girls were doing some fishing at the dock and he hooked all the kids up with balloons that he just happened to have in his tackle box. We saw a swan and geese in the lake and I liked checking out all the garden ornaments. The kids headed back to the house after once around the court but Rob and I went on by ourselves through a few more streets before we went back in. It was a gorgeous day, a little chilly but not terrible.

When we got back Rob ran the boys over to his parents to spend the night, then came back for Alex and I (right now we don't have a vehicle we can all fit in together so it makes coordinating full family adventures interesting). I'll pick them up later when I go down for gymnastics. Grandpa Wendell is going to put them to work picking up sticks and cleaning up the yard. All in all an amazingly busy weekend.