Hummm

Kev recorded this at his parents house. We had flying visitors throughout the day, everyday. Pretty cool huh?

A to the Z

Here are some pictures of the family together in Tucson. It was so great to see everyone. Hopefully it won't be that long until we get to visit again.

The other "D"... Dallas

We just got back from our adventures to Dallas, and Arizona. It has been a busy ten days, but also filled with fun times. Here we are at a 3D movie (cool glasses, right?) and I love this picture of Taylor with her Mimi.

Camp Creation

During the week of July 20th, we held Camp Creation at church. It was a great week, filled with tons of fun. Here are some fun pics.

Cleveland Crew

Recently we ran to Ohio for the day to see our niece in a performance. It was so great to see the family!

This is a cool video, that also has a cameo of Taylor and I.

Greenfield Village

Today, we visited Greenfield Village, which is a part of the Henry Ford Museum. It is a historical museum, with people dressed in early 1900's time period clothing. We had a perfect day, not to hot or cold. Everyone was super nice and included Taylor as much as possible. She learned how to shape tin (and got a fun souvenir) and worked an old printing press. The place was beautiful, and decorated for the Fourth. They also had 'old time' games to play all on the big lawn (I'm sure there is a name for it). We played the game of graces, which was very popular in the early 1900's. Each player is given two long pointy sticks and a hoop to pass to one another. Kevin of course became the master at it, although boys didn't typically play (it was for girls to learn how to be more graceful). There was also stilts, puppet shows, and the hula hoop game that you play with a stick. We also got to ride a Model T around town! If you look close enough you can see a guy riding a bike.

Catching Dreams

Last Weekend our friend Abe came to visit from Kentucky. He was a good sport and drove around town with us on Saturday, with a stop for lunch at the Sheikh restaurant in Canton. It was so good, tons of food and the best baklava ever. Another stop was to the Ypsilanti District Library on Michigan Ave. Taylor had an art piece displayed there from school. She made a dream catcher out of wire, feathers and beads. It turned out great! We are very proud parents!

It's Twins!!!

So after our sneak peek of the baby squirrel, we haven't seen them. Then today...ta-da! The mom returns with not one but two babies. How exciting! The pictures aren't the greatest because I had to take them from inside the house (every time I tried outside the mom got mad).

our little camper

Here is Taylor leaving for 5th grade camp. For three days this week they went to Independence Lake all day having fun hiking, swimming and making crafts. She really had a lot of fun!

Our little new neighbor

So, in our front yard, we have a huge maple tree. I'm almost sure it is the biggest on the block. For the last few years, there have been birds living in a hole on the tree. Cute right? Well, last year, squirrels took over, which had me wondering exactly how big is this hole? When they run in, they run full speed in there so I'm thinking there most be a bit of room. Well, this week I saw a squirrel trying to take a branch with green leaves in the hole. A funny sight. When Ann and Adam left Friday evening the squirrel started barking at them. Is that what squirrels do??? Bark? Anyways, it was a little weird, but not unusual for our neighborhood squirrels. (You might know where I am going with this.) On Saturday as we were driving away we see a tiny head peeking out of the hole! Yup, a baby squirrel, and pretty cute I might add. So, that's why she was so mad the evening before...so Kev and I 'carefully' got some pics of him. I think he has his mothers eyes!

No Soup for You!

This past Wednesday (Or Friday in real time) we hosted Soup Nite. The menu was chicken noodle, tomato and alphabet soups. Along with oyster and saltine crackers, and french bread. Ann and Adam also brought animal crackers for dessert which was a big hit! With aprons on, Ann and I kept yelling the line from the Seinfield episode, with the Soup Nazi. So, whenever anyone said anything we yelled, "No soup for you!" There aren't many opportunities where you can do that, so we had a lot of fun with it. The picture is pretty cute, Ann pointed out the Trin (our dog) seems to be smiling to. She definitely likes it when the Hilberrys are here!

Mother's Day

Yesterday was a great day! At church my friend Laura gave me a beautiful pink tulip. Then when I arrived home from work, there were the biggest white tulips ever (really, like 3 feet) plus Kev and Tay were making my favorite meal veggie pita with grilled veggies and pasta salad. Then, each gave wonderful mother's day cards, (check out Tay's drawings, future working with Courtney???) Taylor made me an animal print coin purse, and I got the double brown jacket that I have been wanting so bad even since I saw it (there may have been happy dancing going on here). Sweet! Plus, my friend Ann dropped off huge blueberry muffins and a hilarious card with Steve Carrell on it talking about motherhood. Ha! He is seriously so funny, I am huge fan. It was so nice feeling loved and important. Thank you everyone for making it such a special day!

Cinco de Mayo!

So, last week for food nite we celebrated Cinco de Mayo. How fun! Tay and I arrived to Ann's house with music blasting and Adam running around with maracas, can it get any better? For dinner Ann grilled carne asada, had spanish rice, taquitos, chips and dip, lime banana chips, and spicy peanuts. She also had this drink that was carbonated apple juice. Yum, what a special treat. Later when we were playing Wii, the ice cream truck drove by with Adam and Taylor running behind it. If was pretty funny. So we all had a good laugh along with some BlueBunny. Magnifico!

The Wall

Remember that Pink Floyd album? Well this has nothing to do with that, I just think about it every time Kev and I are talking about our wall. We are building flower boxes in the front yard with retaining wall stones. This is very exciting because ever since we moved in we have needed to give the front some tlc, so after years of taking out trees and bushes, along with stomps, we are adding to it. You can see the old border we had was the red curvy bricks. We really like the multiple colors in the new brick that make it feel a little like old stone. We have been working the last two saturdays (this week had to stop because of rain), but we should be done by this weekend, then I will post the finished product. Yeah!

Proud to be an American...

For food nite two weeks ago it was American food. Ann grilled some yummy bbq chicken, and had chips and more! Here is the gang looking patriotic. If you look close enough, you can see Toby's head on the tv. As part of our nite, we watch an episode of the Office with dinner, and play Mario Party 8 on Wii. Ann always seems to win though...interesting. Some nights there may be a race or two on Mario Cart.

frenchie

Taylor's school is known around town here for their yearly performances. Last year they did Annie, which was great...perhaps a little to great. The fire marshall was called, and well lets just say that the high school auditorium wasn't big enough. So this year they held it at Pease Auditorium on Eastern Michigan University's campus. Such a beautiful building. The performance this year was a collection of acts that the kids wrote, so there was a wide variety of material. Taylor and a bunch of friends did three songs with some acting in between from Grease. Tay was Frenchie with the pink hair, although the updated version I decided was with a bob, not curly (because that's what we had!). Here are some pics from that night. Kevin worked some magic and was in town to see it, along with Aunt Nadia, and our Lake with Grandma Ann. Taylor of course did a terrific job.

Laura and crew

I found some fun pictures of our friends Laura, Jake, Lake and Tate when they drove down to visit us in Chicago. This day we went to Shedd's Aquarium and Thai for dinner. It was a great time!

Food Nite

So for the past couple months on Wednesday nights, Taylor and I have had 'Food Nite" with our friends from the neighborhood, Ann and Adam. We alternate hosting, and both bring some type of food, which has worked great (for me, maybe not for Ann!) So far, we have had 2 'brenners' which is fancy talk meaning breakfast for dinner. 2 italian nites, 1 mexican, 1 mediterranean, 1 chinese, and 1 american. We are getting really excited for Cinco de Mayo this week (Tay and I bought sombreros at the dollar store). Here are some pics so far with a fun video.

"Pucky Power"

Here are some pics from my beautiful daughter's performance in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" with the Ypsilanti Youth Theater. She really worked hard learning lines, and getting to know her character. She did a terrific job, and that's not just because she is my kid because several strangers said so to! Ha! Enjoy!