Family Fun Night

Douwe and his cousins were invited by Grandpa and Grandma Lanting to a Family Fun Fair fundraiser, and Jeff and I came along to enjoy the fun.

Douwe thought he could climb over a huge inflatable climbing wall, because he had enjoyed something similar (though smaller) a few weeks ago at the Greek Fest. He got stuck part way up and at the top and so started off the Fun Fair with lots of frustrated tears. But indoors it was cooler and the games were more at his level, so he enjoyed several tossing games, like tossing peanuts in the elephants mouth.


Then we enjoyed a wonderful meal, including fruit kebobs!, and Bella and I plotted to have Grandpa Jim put in "jail" (pay a few bucks to arrest someone of your choice, and someone has to pay the sheriff to get them out.)

Bella asked me to try to win a cake in the cake walk, and I did! Her cake of choice was the candy land cake
and so all the cousins and some other kids flocked around the cake for a few minutes to pick some pieces off.
Douwe was disappointed that I didn't choose the "campground" cake. The cakes for the cake walk were first displayed for a decorating contest and they were all amazing works of creativity.

Indiana Dunes

We scheduled a short two night camping trip in the middle of the last week of June and made sure that Steve would have permission to join us, and we were able to set up camp on Wednesday afternoon and spend a few nice hours at the beach before the storms and tornado warnings rolled through. A few trees fell near us and prevented us from leaving the park till 9pm to find supper, but it was mostly an adventure. Thursday was beautiful and we hiked the rugged trail #8 to the highest two sand dunes

, then spent all afternoon at the beach.

On Friday morning we had a great time with a group hike led by the naturalist called Dune Swamp Safari.
All the children were given a dip net and the naturalist had microscopes and a big white pan for observing what they caught in the swamp waters.
Lots of different and very interesting creatures. Steve was happy to catch a tadpole in the leg + tail stage, and we observed leeches, dragonfly nymphs, bloodworms and other fascinating beings.
The naturalists were excited to point out a few yellow warbler birds to us as well.

We campfire-cooked all our meals and desserts. Steve invented the triple decker s'more,
and I invented my own "hobo-pie" concoction, after my favorite kind of coffeecake: Almond Cream Cheese. Slather some almond pie and pastry filling and some cream cheese between the slices of bread, roast until warm and toasty in the fire, and enjoy!

Father's Day

We celebrated the afternoon of Father's Day at Hesston Steam Museum in rural New Buffalo, which had several small scale trains and an actual 1920's steam locomotive train for riding through the woods and past the ponds. This weekend invited dads to ride for $1! We lunched in the picnic grove then rode two different kinds of trains. We invited Steve along with us for the day. After the museum we visited the New Buffalo City Beach for a short swim.

Splash Pad

Douwe had his first splash in the water feature at Millenium Park. We strolled for a mile or so with Kristin and her daughters, played in the water, then went up to the Pritzger Pavilionconcert lawn to check out our 3D dinosaur glasses and romp on the lawn before heading back. A beautiful afternoon to be in this world class park!

I love these boys!

We picked up Steve for a 24 hour visit and he is the greatest kid ever. I am not amazed that Douwe is so wonderful because he has the kind of life any toddler would dream of having. But Steve has the hardest life of anyone I know and yet he is so personable and adds so much zest and enthusiasm to our household when he is in it. Douwe absolutely adores him and they share the same sense of humor. I'm really, really glad we are given permission by Steve's mom to have a visit with him once a month. It is always a special time, and a chance to remind him that he is a wonderful person and to hear him recount some of the vivid memories he has of his first weeks in our house five years ago. It is not sappy or sentimental, but true to say that he is one of my favorite people I have ever known.

Strawberry Week

I have been picking strawberries from Johnson's Farm in Hobart for the last 4 or 5 years, but this time Jeff and our friend Bill wanted to join us, so we went on Saturday morning the day of their Strawberry Festival. First we had a quick stop at Munster Donut, then headed east to the Ripley Street exit. We arrived at opening time and the plants were loaded with large and ripe berries, the most beautiful I have seen yet. I picked my first bucket in about 10 minutes, so it only took about an hour to leave with 9 buckets. Douwe picked 1 strawberry and spent the rest of the time playing with the straw. We were home and cleaning the berries before the morning showers so it was a good thing we started the day off early.



What to do with six buckets? Freeze 6 quarts whole berries. Three batches of freezer jam. A quart of homemade strawberry ice cream. Give a bucket to Dad for father's Day. Give a bucket to Steve to share with his siblings. Chocolate covered strawberries. Sliced on salad. Topping for Cheerios. Snacks and more snacks.

Water Taxi

We are hoping to meet Jeff downtown several nights this summer for an after-5 excursion in the city. Tonight our itinerary was to take the water taxi to Chinatown and visit a park and walk around then return. But the water taxi schedule was messed up, so we took the boat to Michigan Avenue instead and visited Millenium Park and another park just north of that, a beautiful hidden spot with playground, fountains and greenspace called Lakeshore East.

10 years

Well I just enjoyed the tenth year of an annual weekend with a group of women who went to Calvin College with me. Although most of us graduated in 1997, we did not start this up until 2001. A few of the girlfriends I have known since high school days. I value this event more every year, as I come to realize that we each have our own identity but we share many common experiences over the years.

We traditionally spend the whole weekend sitting around on a patio and chatting over many beverages and snacks, but over the years a few special "activities" have been added, such as pedicures, in-house massage, golfing, and a boat excursion. Every year I laugh more and laugh harder, and I don't think it is because we are funnier, it is just because each year I have mellowed out even more and am able to enjoy the group and the canon of stories that are retold each year.