And Baby Makes Three!

OK, ok....a cheap ploy. I don't blog for what, 2 weeks - give or take - and then I drop a headline like that?! Not fair I know. Especially because it should really say And Baby BEAR Makes Three!
Yup. A Bear. The "mascot" of Quinn's preschool class. At the end of each week, one lucky kid from the 4B class is somehow chosen to bring Fred home. To love, honor, and cherish. The whole weekend long.
A couple of weekends ago, it was Quinn's turn. Hallelujah! He had been waiting for this since school began. Each Thursday when I'd pick him up, I'd ask how his day was. And he'd reply [rushed voice, eyes slightly down-cast]: "FineSo-soGetsToBringFredHomeToday."
But alas, it was finally his turn!
And so, for the weekend, it was a 3 kid household. Yup, Fred was treated like one of the gang. He even sat at the table with us, with his own sippy cup and plate. We also had to make Fred his own special bed, right next to Quinn's, with his own blanket and pillow.
Quinn really did take fabulous care of him, which was very sweet to watch. Fred came with his own bag of belongings- including PJs, several changes of clothes, a few hats, and some tennies. And Q made sure he was dressed appropriately each day. Of course, Fred's stuff was usually strewn all over Q's room, so there was still a 4-year old element to all this. Nonetheless, here's how it went down.........

Fred joins his weekend siblings in playing with the Word Whammer.

While Keira's napping, Q convinces me that Fred very much wants to watch Buzz Lightyear of Star Command!

And check it out: Fred is a natural at air hockey!

Now Keira is awake from her nap, but pouts about Fred taking her place as Q's playmate.

Yikes!! Fred is Bear-Napped by a jealous sister!

The ransom call is placed.......

A bit of a tussle ensued....adult intervention was required....but in the end, Fred was returned to his rightful guardian.

And now, Fred is gone. Back to Room 4B. Ready to head off to another unsuspecting preschool family.

And even though Fred has left our home, his spirit lives on.....Quinn hasn't stopped asking for a baby brother since!

Two...Moo...Blue

Those 3 words don't have a whole lot in common, other than rhyming and describing a little bit about what is going on around here....

TWO. As in, Keira will be 2 years old in about 2 months. And her words are coming fast and furious, 2 by 2. She speaks in 2-word phrases a lot more. She's been saying some 2-word phrases for a while now. Mostly repeating things she hears: Mommy mine (from her fav book), love you, oh wow!....you get the idea. A couple of weeks ago, she came up with her own: Ball mine! Since then, she's added many more 2-word Keira-isms, like "no way", "no bite" and "no try". All favorite dinner-time mottos for the Mighty One. Recently, she upped the ante and began speaking in 3-word phrases. Her first: No, Mommy, No! in response to me putting the kibosh on her super-extended hand-washing ritual. She's also said "no try bite" or "no like bite"...we aren't sure which. Not that it matters, we got the hint. In addition to the words which are somewhat decipherable, she babbles on and tells us many, many [ahem] important things. None of which I can figure out, but to which I almost always reply "Is that right?" This drives Quinn crazy. He doesn't understand why I'd reply in the affirmative to something I really have no idea about. My guess is, in about 30 years, he'll be doing the same thing.

MOO. A few weekends ago, we attended the Country Fair at Conner Prairie. The weather was great. We ate great food. Well, make that we grown-ups ate great food. The kids wanted nothing to do with BBQ pork, fresh apple crisp, and kettle corn. Go figure. Q was happy with a hot dog and Keira survived on fumes. They were most happy about checking out the farm animals. Although they primarily kept to looking, not touching. Of course, as I mentioned before, these kids are city all the way. Remember this? Well, here's my country boy again, amazed at the livestock.

He didn't want to get too close to the head, but was ok to pet the rump of what will some day be some pretty tasty roast beef or hamburger or sirloin. Later, Q and his sis saddled up. This is as close as they wanted to get to anything horse-like.

All in all, it was a fun day. And even better once we capped it off with a caramel apple. Yummy!

If you live close by, it's not to late to visit the CP Apple Store to get your own. They are open through November 4 and we grown-ups are plotting a return visit just for this treat. An apple a day....

And now. The last of the "oooo" words.

BLUE. And this time, not Blue as in COLTS. But Blue as in Blue Man Group. Oh yeah, hubby and I are having an official date on Friday night. And we are seeing the BMG here in Indy. It's a surprise for Chris. Obviously I'm banking on the fact that he'll keep up his not-so-religious blog-perusing schedule; and therefore won't see this til after the fact. Not only did I get tickets for this mystery date and take measures to be sure he didn't have to work Friday night, but I also got us a real, non-grandparental babysitter. This is rare for us. I'm so proud of my skillls. (Ha!)

With this under my belt, there's no telling what I'm capable of next. Watch out. And watch this space!

So that about wraps it up from here for now. Have a good weekend, kind readers. And when all else seems unpredictable, know this for certain: After this weekend, the Colts will STILL be undefeated. Mark my words.

Can't Live With It, Can't Live Without It

I'm talking about my camera here, contrary to whatever else might be going through your head! My. Super. Irritating. Digital. Camera. (Think slow, nasal-y voice, like Ben Stein in Ferris Buehler's Day Off.)

If you aren't aware, my digital camera woes go back to our time in China. We had our "old" camera then. It was on the fritz, but somebody (ahem, ahem) somehow remained immune to my incessant complaining about this prior to the trip. And so we traveled to China with the old camera, muddled through with a minimum of I-told-you-so's from me to you-know-who, and came away with one fabulous daughter and many less than fabulous-quality photos. A month after being home, ykw decides that the camera is cr*p and that we need a new one. Uh...no kidding.

Anyway, here we are today. About 9 months with "new" camera and I am getting equally frustrated. We have a Sony SuperSteady Shot DSC-H2, or something like that. Loved it at first. It even made a cool clicking noise when you took photos, reminiscent of a camera from "back in the day". I felt like a real photographer. Ha. Then, somehow someway, it starts freezing and acting like it can't focus. That delay you get when snapping a shot on a digital camera? Well, that would seem like a nansecond compared to the delay we get now. Of course, me and ykw both deny that we ever changed any settings - knowingly or unknowingly. I want to just take it to a camera shop and have somebody in the know take a look. YKW actually gets out the manual (for real! there's a guy on the planet who consults the manual - and I live with him!) to try to figure it out for himself.

In the meantime, I get this:

Granted, I'm so in love with my kids that I even love the tops, sides, and backs of their heads, but I'm missing some really great smiles. Of course, I am also grateful that I'm not paying cold hard cash to get film developed only to see such head shots - there is a certain satisfaction in the digital world of just deleting that which is annoying. But still. There has to be something better. Right? Something within the budget of a SAHM, eh?

Anyone? Anyone?

America's Next Top Model?

Contrary to my son's belief (who filled his head with that stuff anyway??), girls can do anything they want. :-P
For example, when Miss K grows up, she could be.......

...a pilot?

...leader of a think-tank?

....construction worker?

...Super-Hero??!!

...acrobat?

....or maybe, just maybe, a SUPERMODEL?! Oh yeah, America's Next Top Model may be right here in on own house. Go ahead. Click that link. Watch for SuperGirl in the opening slide show. Fabulous, no? Makes you want to order a shirt, eh? Just to be as cool as K?? (heehee)

So, while we are on the topic of fame (OK, I'm stretching it a bit, but work with me here) and parents-with-websites-who-make-cool-stuff, check THIS out. I'm pseudo-famous now because - can you believe it? - there is a purse named after me!! Woo-hoo!! Yup, scroll on down (no, not so far -- it's not the leopard love purse, you wacko) and there it is. Lovely, eh? A good friend, great mom, and super-creative woman I know makes these marvelous handbags. And it is even better in person. Lucky me.

And, although you may find this hard to believe, K and I haven't let this fame go to our heads. Oh no. We are the same demanding girls we've always been. Just ask the 2 boys who put up with us!

New Kid on the Block

Well, it's official. Princess Keira has been dethroned. A new princess arrived in the family last Friday. When I told Quinn last Friday that it was the day the baby was coming, he asked if the baby would be born or adopted. How sweeeet, I thought. The baby will be born to Aunt D, I said; Remember it was in her tummy? He replies: Yea, that's good....but I'm glad we adopted Keira, Mommy. Oh yeah, buddy, me too!

So, anyway - back to the baby....And yes, I'm a bit late in posting this, but dethroned princesses are high maintenance! Although in the pic to the right, she looks at peace with it, eh?? heh, heh!
Nonetheless, Congrats to my baby sis and her hubby!! :-) And what the heck, while I'm doling out family greetings and such, Happy Belated Birthday to my other sis (meant in the kindest possible way) and nephew #2 on my hubby's side. They both share a b-day with the new princess, so the 21st will be a partying day, now more than ever. Also, happy b-day today to Chris' bro #1.

Now, with the family niceties out of the way, here's the scoop on the new little one. She's cute. And she still sleeps alot (says me, who does not live with her!).
For the last 9 months, we've been referring to this baby, fondly, as the tie-breaker. On my side of the family, my sisters and I each had a son and a daughter, in that order. So, this baby would be baby #3 for sister #3. This baby would also break the tie. This was especially important to my 4 year old son, who mistakenly thinks boys rule and can do "way more than girls". So, along she came last week. And for those of you keeping score at home, that's 4 girls and 3 boys, as far as the new generation goes. This was a bit of a blow to Q, who somehow tried to come up with another male cousin to even the score, but to no avail. (When I informed him that the "score" on daddy's side of the family is 7-2 in favor of boys, he thought that was much better!)
Anyway, below is a pic of new Princess A along with her adoring cousin.

Keira could not get enough of this baby! She was initially irritated with me when I kept moving her away. She wanted to touch the baby, hold the baby, kiss the baby. The older cousins were getting a turn to hold A and Keira was getting pulled away by me. When you are older, I said. Hmmmph, she said (crossing arms).

So, she did what any self-respecting dethroned princess does - she took it up with Grandma. And sure enough, I was only out of the room for 2 minutes and then returned to find the above. Keira, as you can see, gives a victorious smile. She was pleased as punch. And looked cute doing so, if I do say so myself.

Now, I say all this proves that Keira really wants to be a big sister.
Chris, rolling his eyes at me, says it proves she'll be a great babysitter.

What do you think? The comment box is open......

[By the way, I would post a pic of Q with the baby, except I don't have one. He was so anxious to meet the baby and see her face, but when we got there, he didn't want to hold her. Later I found out his concern: Does she scratch? he asked. Ahhhh, a little bit of K goes a long way. I assured him that this baby wouldn't scratch, but he still kept his distance, just to play it safe.]

A Rose By Any Other Name....

I spent the better part of my childhood (and large portions of my adult life as well) correcting people when they first pronounce my name. It was the rare person that was able to properly pronounce my first name from the get-go. Not that I have one of those made-up names. Nope. Just an uncommon one. I didn't really appreciate my name until, oh, I think, sometime in college. I spent a lot of time wishing I was a Debbie or Jennifer or Michelle or one of the other more pronouncable names of my youth. Well, OK, maybe not those specific names, but you get the idea. At least a name where people didn't always expect to see a boy attached to it. I think my mom felt bad for me at times, and she said - more than once - that if she had to do it all over again....she'd still pick the same name. She loved it then. She loves it now. And now so do I.

So, fast-forward from my youth to my motherhood. Today, I'm dropping my daughter off for my "parent's day out". One of her care-takers asked me to again pronounce Keira's name for her. They don't think they've been saying it right, she says. I had noticed this from Day One and so at every pick-up and drop-off, I tried to say her name as much as possible, to save them from this very thing. Anyway, apparently my efforts will for naught. So today, per her request, I say clearly KEIRA. ("KEER-uh".) This isn't the first occasion where I've had to do this either.

Apparently, like my mother before me, I gave my daughter a name that seems tricky to the untrained eye. I really thought Keira was a name that people would know how to pronounce. Now I know that we could have picked the other, probably more well-known spellings (Kyra or Kira), but we opted for the Irish spelling. You know, so she'd have something in common with her brother other than wacky parents. And basically no Irish heritage. Nonetheless, I discovered yet another thing I have in common with my mom. Because if I had to do it all over again, I'd still pick the same name.

And speaking of Little Miss Keira-not-Kee-air-uh, here she is modeling her fabulous new t-shirt. Love it? Fits her to a T, literally and figuratively. I couldn't resist getting Mighty Miss K her own retro Wonder Woman tee. Check out Sandbox Threads for this and other great shirts for kids. I wanted her to model her new duds with a wonder-smile on her face. But as you can above, she was more interested in getting off the chair to come see herself on the camera. When I asked her to sit back down and cheeeeese again, she responded by striking the pose you see to the right. Yup, she's for real. When she's irritated with you, she'll put on her pouty face and cross her arms. With a hmmph. It would be maddening if it wasn't so darn cute. And even cuter in the WWt.

By the way, you really should check out this t-shirt place. Funky stuff for kids. You can pick your design and the type of tee you want it printed on. They send your order pretty quickly and in some pretty cool packaging. Watch this space for K modeling her PEACE t-shirt sometime soon. And if they'd have adult sizes, I'd be getting this shirt for myself. (Love you, mom!)

Before I sign off, because I'm an equal-opportunity mom, I gotta put a pic of Q in here, too. He has no new,

cool t-shirt (yet), and his name is almost always correctly pronounced, but he deserves a little print as well. After all, with a smile like that and a knack for saying things like "You are the best mom, ever!" what's not to love?!

And the Award For Best Performance in a Reality Series Goes To....

Well, OK - I didn't actually watch the Emmys last night, but all the talk surrounding last night's event paired with Keira's recent foray into pretend play got me to thinking about when Quinn first started to pretend.

For those of you who know Quinn to any extent at all, you probably know how much he loves pretend play. He loves becoming someone else, in his own little made-up world and made-up scenarios. He loves it even more when he can recruit others to join him.

I can still remember the very first thing he acted out.

He was 2ish. He walked over to his toys, grabbed his toy keys, headed toward the back door and said "Gotta go to work. Love you! Drive careful!" We thought it was so cute that he was pretending to go to work like mom and dad.

Then, a few days later, he pretended to leave to go pick up pizza. Ah, yes. He was really capturing the essence of this household.

Next, he started to pretend that he was the one dropping me off at daycare. And he instructed me to cry for him. And then (it gets worse), he would give me a hug and give me the pep talk I used to give him. His version: love you; play with your friends; it's fun; be back soon!

How do they know how to guilt you so well at such a young age??! Ugh.

Was this, at the time, how he saw his life? Parents off to work; daycare drop off; pizza for supper? Surely there was more.....

Now, 2 years later, his little sis is starting to pretend. Today at a play date in the park, Keira and her buddy M pretended to feed each other snacks and drinks. It was quite cute. I'm guessing the hint here was that we weren't supplying them with enough food on our own! After we came home, she grabbed one of her dolls (this in and of itself is newsworthy - she usually gravitates toward cars and Buzz Lightyear) and pretended to put the doll down for a nap. "Shhhhhh," she told me. "Nappy."

So, the jury is still out on who's the better performer. One performance is a bit less guilt-laden than the other, but they are both priceless just the same.

They both act from the heart. Make it real. Really get into their characters. They are a director's dream.

I guess it's a good thing we have a best actor AND a best actress category.

**************

By the way, aside from knowing how Q is constantly pretending something, you may know that he really, really does not like art. I can always pick out his artwork at preschool - it is the stuff done all in one color or done very minimalistically. Last year, the teachers told me that he was always the last one to come to the art table. So, imagine my surprise the other day when he told me he wanted to fingerpaint! "Who is this kid?" I thought. So naturally, I captured the moment on film. And then, true to form, he used one color, painted for 5 minutes, and was ready to move on. Ah yes, that's the boy I know!

Time Flies When You're Havin' Fun!

Although it is officially still summer according to the calendar, it has been a bit cooler here, school's started, football is in full swing....so it must be fall!
We had a busy last few weeks of summer. On the somewhat-official-end-of-summer weekend (Labor Day), we took the kids to Conner Prairie for the last of the summer concert series there. The first half of the summer they feature ISO concerts. The second half of the schedule includes different musical acts each weekend. On Labor Day weekend, the River City Brass Band was playing. Although I typically try to avoid all things Pittsburgh, these guys were good. Even the kids enjoyed themselves. Keira danced to the music and Quinn proclaimed "Great idea, Mommy!" when it was all over. I'm pretty sure that was post-fireworks-display euphoria speaking there, but I'll take the praise anyway I can get it.
Here's a picture of Mr. Oreo Face himself:
He was working on a "sticker project". The only real way to get the kids to sit through a concert like this is to bring stickers, coloring books, a zillion snacks, bubbles, flashlights, cars, and on and on and on.
As the evening wore on, Little Miss Dancing Queen chilled out. We could hardly believe it -- she's usually go-go-go to the very end -- so we had to capture it on film. She was so snuggly with me; I wanted to freeze this moment forever.

Prior to LD weekend, there was the small matter of my birthday weekend. :-) Here's my b-day present...happy, smiling kids. No fighting, no grouching. This may be the cake talking, but I'm willing to look past that and think that my newly-learned Siblings Without Rivalry skills are kicking in. (Yeah, right. Keira bit Quinn today and hit him about 15 times, so there goes that theory!)By the way, I share my b-day with the likes of Marvin Harrison (greatest receiver in the NFL, if you don't know that already) and Sean Connery. Also, Regis Philbin and Rachel Ray. Two of us are quiet, two have big mouths, and one has a fab Scottish accent. I'm sure you can figure out who's who, riiiight??? (Be nice here, people!) :-)

And on that note, I think I'll retire for the evening. Afterall, I'm a year older and I can't stay up and blog into the wee hours of the evening anymore.

That, and Burn Notice is on soon. (Yes - I'm still a slave to the TV. Old habits die hard.....or you can't teach an old dog new tricks - take your pick.)

Off To A Good Start!

Quinn had his last first day of preschool today. (Did that sound right?) His preschool year officially started today; and next year at this time, I'll have already sent him off to Kindergarten! But, in the meantime, he's headed to preschool 3 days a week, from now til spring.

Little sis Keira is going to the same preschool, in their mini-me program. Actually, it's called "Parents' Day Out", and she'll be going every Thursday morning.

So today was a first day for both of them.

And it seems they are both off to a good start.

When I picked up Keira after lunch, I got the usual "oooh-she's-so-cute". Now, I don't mean to sound glib, but there seems to be a certain way people tell you that your Asian baby is so cute...it's in that gosh-we-hardly-ever-see-one-of-those tones. I don't think people mean any harm, and maybe I'm splitting hairs here, but sometime it'll be nice to get a compliment on how she's so smart or cute or whatever just because she is (so sayeth her mother!), and not because she's different. (I'm probably not making much sense here, but if you're an adoptive parent with kids who don't look like you, you'll know what I mean.) Nonetheless, she seemed to get along well and play nicely, so I'm happy about that.

And she must have played hard, because check this out....when we got home, she walked in the back door and promptly crashed with her blankie onto the kitchen floor.

After retrieving Miss K from her class, I headed down to Quinn's room. He had a great day too, playing with old friends and new. Even a new "girlfriend". Paige. Or maybe it's Claire, or Kayla and Emma (the twins he wanted to marry last year - both of them!), or Gabrielle. Quinn and his best buddy, Jack, like to play SuperHeroes....and their qualifications for what makes a good girlfriend is one who will play along (and let them rescue her). I'd love to be able to watch this all unfold someday. If only to be a fly on the playground!

Anyway, back at home, when I picked up Tired Girl off the floor, we headed upstairs for her nap. Of course, as she sits in my lap in the rocking chair (we rock for one song on her Lullaby CD after reading a book, before she goes into the crib), she's chatty and restless. I "shush" her a few times and try to remind her that it is naptime. She continues being chatty. I finally realize that she is talking to herself, saying something like "love you" and trying to get her sweet little hands to do the "I Love You" sign. (We do that a lot around here, especially when daddy leaves for work or when we are going to bed. Quinn demos his skills to the right.)

I just couldn't believe what she was doing. It was so sweet! So cute!

So, I join in. Yes, yes, I say. Love you! Love you! (I try to help her do the sign.) Then, she stops. Looks back at me. And - you guessed it - she shushes me!

What a peach.

So there you have it. The start of something good. The start of many good things.

And, wait....wait.....yes, you knew it, didn't you? I couldn't end a post entitled "Off To A Good Start" without a picture of this fabulous start - the first 6 of the 41 points put up by the Good Guys.

Oh, what a night!

Cage Match

In our house, there is a place we affectionately call "The Cage".
Now, now. It isn't as bad as it sounds. To effectively segregate the youngest child from our old dog, we put up a gate that spans the entire width of our family room, thereby giving the room a cage-like effect. The kids play in there a lot, sometimes with a parent and sometimes not. Like when I'm trying to make lunch or something. The two little suburban angels are in there all alone (but not out of my sight), left to their own devices.
And that's when Cage Match '07 is likely to break out.
I know they are just kids being kids, typical ol' brother-and-sister stuff, blah, blah, blah.
But. It. Was. Driving. Me. Crazy. (See previous post on vacuuming for one way I tried to cope!)
Here is where it is confession time for me.
You see, when we were waiting for Quinn to be born, I read What to Expect When You're Expecting, Your Pregnancy: Week by Week, etc. After he was born, I was diligently perusing What to Expect the First Year (at least for the first 7 months or so). We started getting Parents magazine.
Then, as we prepared for Keira, I read all sorts of stuff about adoption, international adoption, attachment and bonding. I also read books about China and I took some Mandarin classes. We subscribed to Adoptive Families Magazine. We even got books to prepare Quinn for a new sibling.
All this, yet I had never read anything about parenting siblings. And that was rapidly becoming more and more apparent to me.
And then, a friend mentioned this book to me: Siblings Without Rivalry. Good stuff, she said. Very helpful for them (they have 2 kids, about the age of our 2). A few days later, I read this review of it on Rumor Queen. (Here's another confession: I still read RQ...but only b/c we have friends still waiting. Really!)

So, thanks to the old internet, I had a copy of this baby on my doorstep in about a week. Without even dragging the kids to Borders!
I'm still working through the book, bit by bit, but it has helped already.

Of course, it's not all peaches and cream here all the time, but it is getting lots better. Quinn still issues a warning when people first meet Keira ("That's my sister, Keira - she hits and scratches!"), although I'm hoping it'll go back to the enthusiastic greeting he once gave, those many months ago ("That's my sister, Keira - she's from China!").

Only time will tell.

And if not, well, I always have a fall-back plan.

No one's been irreparably harmed by repeatedly being told "Go to you room!", right??

Boiler-up, Rocket Man!

It's official. It's fall. And even better, it's football season.

The college season is now underway, with - even more importantly - the boys in Blue kicking off this Thursday. But, until then, I get my fix from the Boilermakers.

And in honor of this glorious time of year, I am dedicating this post to my almost-favorite-brother-in-law, the Commish in charge of the family FB pool, the Rocket Man himself.

52. 24.

Oh how I wish we had some fabulous wager riding on this game. I guess bragging rights will have to do for now.

[And before you start thinking about posting some comment here about last night's preseason game, between your NFL team and mine, I'll save you the time by reminding you that I have editorial (and therefore deletional) powers over all matter printed here.

Not that I would restrict free speech or anything.....]

Vacation All I Ever Wanted....

Got the Go-Gos on the brain now? Hear them singing in the background? Oh no, don't blame me for putting an 80s tune in your head - I'm just gonna turn around and blame it on someone else, specifically NBC's The Singing Bee. But hey, it's better than the new Scooby Doo theme hubby and I have been whistling ever since we let #1 son watch his new Scooby video about 89 times during vacation.
Which brings me to....South Haven! Lovely South Haven!
We were only there 3 days and 2 nights, but it was great nonetheless. The weather cooperated and we had sunny days the whole time. I was a little nervous before we left, as they were calling for some rain everyday, but it happened to rain only overnight, so nothing but sunshine and sunny Lake Michigan shores for us.


On our first day at the beach, we took the obligatory walk down the pier to check out the lighthouse on "south beach". Obviously not a Miami kind of South Beach, but a nice, family-friendly South Beach. After walking the kids down the pier and checking out the lighthouse, I noticed a sign that said something like "Pier Not Designed for Pedestrian Traffic. Walk at Your Own Risk." Seriously. I should've photographed it, but the shock was too great! What kind of mom am I? I let my kids walk (or roll, in Keira's case) on this thing? It's unsafe? Oh, the horror.
And then hubby comments, "What? You didn't see that earlier?".....Huh? He saw it? Before we walked it? Oh nice, sweetie. Nice.

Despite the 58 degree water temp, we had a blast at the beach. The weather was just right for some kite flying, and so the boys put our nice little parafoil kite in the air. We thought about upgrading when we saw some really, really awesome kites at the Harbor Toy Company. But, I'm not spending 3 figures on something attached to a thin little string. So, little ol' kite it is. Quinn loved it just the same. Probably.

Besides a satisfying breeze and chilly water, the sand at the beach was quite nice. Apparently, Keira was enjoying it so much that she decided to search for buried treasure. And then snack! (Yes, that's my hand reaching for her mouth.) Not only did she sample the sand once, but three times. That I know of! I thought the first taste would've done it. But she kept going back for more.

That was my first clue that these kids might be hungry.

And like any good vacation spot, you won't go hungry in South Haven.
We dined at Clementine's the first night there. The Red Barn Spinach salad was yummy. The Diet Coke spilled onto my lap by the waitress was cold. But, she profusely apologized; we got my salad for free; and she offered to buy us dessert as well. (We declined this offer since we were already so full, but it was kind of her to offer.) My only concern was the loss of a perfectly good DC.
We also dined at Jake's Beach House while we were in South Haven (see Q's grin below....he just found out that they offer chocolate ice cream for dessert with each kid's meal!). Their lake perch is yummy! Yes, real Lake Michigan perch. Not as good as my bro-in-law makes, but a close second.

If you ever find yourself in South Haven, the above places are good and family-friendly. We also ate at a place called Captain Nemo's. You can take your family there, but calling it friendly would be a stretch.

After a belly full of fish from Jake's, we took a walk along the harbor. The kids liked looking at all the boats. But it was feeding the 100s of ducks that they really got a kick out of.

And what fun is vacation if you don't snack a lot? Here in South Haven, a kids cone is a double scoop and a "single" is really 3 scoops! You get your dollar's worth here. A big calorie bang for your buck.

Good thing we did a lot of walking. So much so that Keira slept through the ice-cream-a-palooza. And K falling asleep in her stroller is really a rare sight, so we had to capture that on film. It's almost as rare as Quinn not being able to finish an ice cream cone!

Lastly, to cap off each day of sun, sand, and snacks, the kiddos got to watch a video before bedtime (guess what Q picked?....see above reference to annoying theme song we couldn't get out of our heads!).

Thanks, South Haven, for a lot of fun. We'll see you again soon!