GRCM

Emerson, Jayce, and I took at trip to the Grand Rapids Children Museum last week.  It was Emmie's first visit and she LOVED it!  They currently have a Curious George exhibit going on plus their regular activites: bubbles, musical instruments, a beehive, dress-up clothes, magnets, mirrors, a post office, bank, grocery store, farm, fishing pond, etc.  Everything is hands-on and we had a great time!

Emmie got her picture taken in the Curious George rocket photo booth.  She's holding his hand!

She was a big fan of the ATM machine...this may not be a good thing!

I love this shot in the mirrored tunnel!

They have a classroom in the museum where they offer different special activities each day.  The day we visited, they were helping kids make shadow puppets.  Emerson (and Mom) made a fish, of course!  Jayce made an octopus and they got to try them out before we left.

Summer Pictures

I know I haven't been very dilligent about blogging this summer, so here are some random "summer fun" pictures I've compiled.  Enjoy!

Emerson NEVER lets me paint her nails, so this was a very exciting event.  However, she only sat still long enough for me to paint one hand.  But she told everyone we saw (for weeks!) to look at her pretty purple nails.

We spent lots of time at the park this summer!

This beautiful picture of Emerson with her cousins Madison and Mackenzie was taken when we all went school shopping together.  We needed to take a break to go on the "c-ameri-sel" (Emerson's version of a carousel)

Remember seeing pictures of her "ski jumping" when she was younger?  Uncle Steve gave it a try again this summer!  I can't believe she can still do it but she was a little nervous about it!

We took a trip to Michigan's Adventure with our friend Jayce and my friend Kelly, her mom Carol, and her 2 kids, Alex and Emma.  We all had a great time together!

We were nearing the end of our day.  Emerson was exhausted, but Emma was still going strong!

FMG with friends

Emerson and I went to Frederik Meijer Gardens again this week with our friends Katie, Aiden, and Emily.  We spent most of our time in the kids' area, which we didn't see much of on our last visit.  The kids really liked the "farm garden" where they saw a full size farmhouse and barn, water pump, and huge vegetable gardens.  We had a lovely picnic by the waterfall then fed the fish in the pond.  Emerson took bits of bread and tried feeding them by hand.  She kept saying over and over "they are so cute!"  Our trip ended with a visit to the water area, where the kids got thoroughly soaked, but loved every minute of it. 

I asked for "big cheesy smiles"...Emily obliged, but what is Emerson doing???

Here is what she looked like when it was time to go home...glad we took along a change of clothes!

Whitecaps Game

We took a family outing to a West Michigan Whitecaps game last Saturday.  It was quite hot and humid, but we had a wonderful time!  We weren't sure how long a baseball game could hold a 2 year old's attention, but Emerson did great!  We took a few breaks from the game to go visit the playground, bounce in the inflatable house and get some snacks, but other than that, she sat for the whole game.  The home games are followed by fireworks, which Emerson has never seen, so she had some motivation to hang in there.  She LOVED the fireworks!  She had a huge smile on her face the whole time.  As the gold-colored fireworks were falling in the sky, she said "they look like bananas!" which made us (and the people around us) laugh.  She has never stayed up so late and got a little goofy...the whole walk back to the car, she just kept looking around and whispering "wow, it's so dark"!  Great memories :-)

Waiting anxiously for the fireworks to begin

Emerson's big souvenir

Counting!

Emerson has been practicing her counting skills...she can count in Chinese, English, and Spanish!  However, this is the first time I've uploaded a video from my phone and I'm not sure how to rotate it.  Sorry--you'll just have to tilt your head!

4th of July Weekend at the Cottage

Better late than never, right???  We had a wonderful Independence Day weekend at the cottage in Spring Lake last month.  Grandma Lisa and Grandpa Mike were here from China, Great-Grandma Glo was here from the UP, Uncle Rich, Aunt Nina, Aunt Lyn, and Uncle Doug all came over for a day, Uncle Jeff, Aunt Lesley, Noah, and Koen were here from Chicago, as well as the whole Richardson gang...it was a wonderful time!  The kids all had so much fun together...playing in the hammock, digging in the sand, jumping on the trampoline!  It was a terrific weekend!

Not really sure about this sparkler thing...

Fishing lessons with Daddy

The kids had a "shuttle" out to the trampoline

Snuggle time with Grandma Glo