Yes, Michigan! The Feeling Forever!

I like to pretend that I'm a famous blogger and that for the last two weeks my readers have been wondering why I haven't posted anything. But the reality is that the people who read this blog know where we've been - Grand Rapids and Chicago. So for the Chicago crowd, here's what we did in Michigan (tomorrow's post will be for the Michigan crowd, OK?).

We were able to see a Dance Guild performance which was a real treat since the star of the show is are very own, Mallory Feyen. This year we even got to go back stage to see some of the behind the scenes action before the show started. Shani was really excited about this.


We were also able to celebrate Halloween in Grand Rapids which was really fun. This was Hadley's first "official" Halloween. She really wanted to be a monkey, and thankfully there was a monkey costume at Target. (No, I don't make my kids' costumes. I wish I could, but anyone who has ever tried to teach me how to sew, knit, crochet, whatever, is no longer my friend.) The rest of the family wanted to get in on the Halloween fun, so we dressed up, too.

Nice looking group, huh? Jesse's a baby. He is sporting a really nice sleeper that my brother got him for Christmas last year. Surprisingly, Jesse has gotten a lot of use out of this thing. I am Olivia. You know, the pig? From the children's book? Harper is supposed to be a diva construction worker. We put her in overalls, and Jesse tied ribbons to a set of Hadley's play tools, and attached them to a belt. We also got the cutest little boots for her, but Harper would have none of it. Harper HATES wearing shoes and socks. She hates it with a passion. We're thinking of looking into some kind of therapy.

Here's the crew getting ready for trick-or-treating. I have an outstanding video of Jesse walking in his dinosaur sleeper, but I'm pretty sure he'll kill me if I post it, so you'll just have to imagine it. It really does rival the Magnum P.I. costume a few years back.

Getting ready to knock on the door....

Hadley didn't quite understand the concept at first, but once she saw got the hang of it, she really got into the idea that knocking on people's doors and saying, "Trick or treat!" led to getting candy. In fact, she was the last to come in the house. Here's a video of my happy monkey singing happily while trick or treating:




After trick-or-treating, Hadley and her cousin Maria decorated cupcakes for everyone.


And Harper loved them!

She loves her Aunt Mallory, too.

While we were in Michigan, we had a chance to see my cousin Tara and her beautiful family. Cole and Chase tried to show the girls how to play Dance, Dance Revolution.
They thought the mat was really cool:

Harper loved playing with blocks with Cole and Chase:

And Hadley enjoyed doing puzzles (one of her favorite past times) with Tara and Chase.

On our last day in GR, we had a chance to walk around Calvin for a bit. The school has made a lot of changes, and it was pretty impressive to take a look around. It is always fun for me to go back to Calvin because it made such a difference in my life....despite how long it took me to appreciate being there.

We also had a nice dinner with friends at Rose's on Reeds Lake. This area is my favorite part of Grand Rapids.

This is Valerie's son Joshua with his dad, Paul. I just told Joshua that he had to take Harper to the PROM, so you can understand his expression.

And Hadley had a very good time sitting next to Elisa, our friend Todd and Rhonda's daughter. Hadley kept calling her "Elisya" because that is Diego's sister. She was a little confused when I told her that Elisa was not Diego's sister, but that she was, however, Seth's sister.

We had a great week in Michigan, and were happy we could make the trip out to see our friends and family.