Happy 10th Birthday Esther!

Double digits!!  We can hardly believe Esther is 10!  We are so thankful for our thoughtful, caring, creative, smart, organized, book-loving girl.  She is truly a gift to our family.  We celebrated her birthday as a family today, doing whatever she wanted to do.

Since Casey and I got home at 2 am from my cousin's wedding in Chicago last night, we slept in a bit and went to the second service at church.  That gave us some time to laze around a bit and let Esther open her presents before church.

Peter and Miriam gave Esther an iTunes gift card

We gave her the game Qwirkle, a bunch of rubber bands
for her loom, nail polish and a Target gift card

Our beautiful girl before church!

After church we went to Olga's for lunch (such a surprising choice!).  We ate outside, which made it all the more lovely.

Peter and Miriam wanted their pictures taken in front of these flowers:

These Michigan-shaped "Mitten" chairs are so cool!

When my mom took Esther shopping for her birthday outing this week, they found matching dresses for the girls.  So cute!  I wonder if they'll still do this when they are 23 and 20?

Sister love

 We headed to the pool for a while and met our friends there...

We had a light supper and finished up the cake from her family party last weekend...

Then we finished off our day of healthy eating by going to Sweet Mellisa's for ice cream!

We ended the day by hanging out outside with our neighbors and relaxing.  Esther said it was a great birthday!

Our Baby Birds

We had a robin build a nest and lay eggs in the nest in one of our spruce trees in the backyard.  It was just about eye level for an adult, so we had fun checking on the nest and watching the progression.  I meant to try to take pictures more often, but kept forgetting for a few days at a time.  Also, truthfully, I was a little afraid of the parent birds as they did not like us looking at their babies and they swooped very close to my head several different times!  Here is what I did capture.  It's amazing how quickly they go from the egg to looking like real birds and flying off into the world!

June 2

June 4

 

June 7



June 10

June 16

We went to check the nest on June 16 and found it empty, with just this one bird still sitting in the tree.  He hopped down to the grass when we got close.  We're hoping he figured out how to fly and is off exploring the world now!

The end of baseball season

Tonight was Peter's last baseball game of the season.  It's a little sad because he had a lot of fun and had a great team and wonderful coaches.  We also enjoyed getting to know the other players' families and watching Peter's skills grow as the season progressed.  We were really happy with the Southern Little League program and I think he'll be back next year!

Father's Day

We had a very nice Father's Day this year.  We had a nice breakfast together (although we did not serve Casey in bed--it's hard to do that and make it to 9:00 church!).  Then we spend the afternoon at my parents' house with them and Karen and Juan, as well as Casey's parents, Nick, and the McCauls.  We had fun playing outside and Renee took some great pictures of everyone.  It was a nice, relaxing day!  We are thankful for Casey and both of our Dads as well.

 

I snapped a few pictures while Renee was taking professional shots... her pictures will be much better than mine!

This is one of Renee's shots.
I LOVE this picture!

These cousins are such good buddies!

We ended the day with TCBY!

Esther's Family Birthday Party

Esther is having an extended string of birthday celebrations this year.  It started this weekend with her family birthday party, even though her birthday isn't until next weekend.

As usual, we had a great time with our families and were able to be outside since it was a beautiful evening! 

Nail polish set, journal and JoAnn Fabrics gift card from the K's
She also gets to go on a special birthday outing!

A cool freezable lunchbox from Uncle Nick!

Fun beach bag and matching towel from Jeff, Erin, Anna and Elizabeth

Snapfish Gift Card from the McCauls so she can do something
with all the pictures she takes!

Target and iTunes gift cards from Uncle Juan and Aunt Karen,
and the special popcorn she likes!

Desk organizer with little goodies inside and a JoAnn Fabrics gift card.
She also gets to have a birthday day with Grandma W!

Grandma K. made a fun beach themed cake

Happy birthday to our almost-10-year-old!