brother's back in town

i see him so rarely, so its always a treat when my brother comes in to town!  he took a bunch of time off so that he and his wife, miyuki, could spend some time traveling and enjoying themselves.  one of their first stops before heading into the great north was to spend a few days visiting all of us.  i really want ledger to know his uncle and aunt, so we made sure to take some time and visit with them while they were passing through.  we all had a great time catching up and hearing what has been going on with the two of them over the past few months.  ledge loved checking out chad's motorcycle and even got a little ride on it!
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doggy do

after having so much fun with the dogs last year, my aunt and uncle asked us to dogsit for them again this year- and we jumped at the opportunity!  we had a blast spending the week with their cute dogs and enjoying their beautiful home.  ledge loved the chance to have dogs in the house too- he wishes so bad that we would get a pet.  some day, buddy, some day...  it was also nice this time because i didn't have to run off to work every afternoon so i could actually enjoy the time with my family and those cute pups!  being so close to sandy pines, we also took advantage by stopping over at mema and papa's trailer to help out with rebuilding the deck and going for cart rides!
my aunt and uncle went on vacation and watching their dogs allowed us to go on a sort of vacation ourselves!
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aladdin

for some reason ledger has not been interested in movies lately.  he loves to watch tv show and other videos on tv, but he has recently been putting up a stink if we even mention watching a movie.  well, diana and i were growing quite tired of the shows he watches, so we told him that we were going to sit down and watch 'aladdin'.  he threw a fit and was yelling and crying and just being generally ridiculous.  we told him he was welcome to go to his room and pout it out, but we were watching the movie, with or without him.  after throwing an even bigger fit in his room, he decided to come back out.  he was still trying to talk us out of it when he started looking at the tv.  it took him watching for about 10 seconds- he then forgot what he was saying and sat down.  he stayed there for the rest of the movie!  so, maybe he doesn't hate movies after all...

civil war

as i've written about before, one of the things about allegan that i really love is the regent theatre!  i go as often as possible, and every once in a while i am able to bring friends along too!  well, they were showing 'captain america: civil war' and none of us had seen it yet, so i invited the guys and they took me up on the offer.  the movie was great, and so was spending the evening with these two guys!

allegan walk

with the weather being so beautiful out, the three of us decided to head downtown allegan and do some exploring down on the boardwalk (yes, we did sing that song the whole time...).  ever since we moved here i have a hard time explaining to friends and family why we love it in allegan so much.  its afternoons like this that are the reason why!
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drawing skills

our little guy keeps getting better and better at drawing!  he's gotten over his phase where he would get mad and throw his paper on the floor if he didn't draw something just right.  now, he's been using his easel, doodle pad, and paper to create some impressive drawings (you know, for a 4 year old...).  this one i thought was especially well done, he set up a still life of his toys and then drew them.  there's quite a bit of detail and he included all the little characters and everything!  before you know it he'll be better than his poor old dad!
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life's a picnic

as the weather keeps getting better and better, there are more opportunities to take ledge out and about.  diana recently took ledge out to the woods for a fun picnic!  she planned ahead and packed some fun snacks so they could have lunch out in nature.  ledger had such a blast!  they went hiking for a while, checking out all the fun nature stuff they could explore, and sat down to enjoy a nice picnic lunch too.
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day at the zoo

diana and ledger, visiting south bend while i work, went with barbara and james to the zoo!  ledge really loved seeing all the animals and had a blast playing with one of his favorite aunties.  he was especially fascinated with the tortoise statue, almost more so than the actual real live animals...  yup, he's a bit unusual.
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preschool is coming...

big changes are coming!  ledger is getting to the age where he is going to start going to school!  we signed him up for preschool here in allegan, and we recently got a certificate in the mail letting us know that he has been enrolled at hillside preschool.  we are very excited but also nervous as this means that our little treasure is about to start his journey into the outside world...  so far he's been entrusted to just us, now we have to share him!  good thing we've still got a little while to get him ready...

grandpa allan's rainbow

visiting grandpa allan is always a lot of fun for ledger, he gets to spend some time with his beloved grandpa, and he gets to see some really great art!  diana's dad is a professional artist and has some amazing work.  when we visited him recently ledger had a great time with him and we even convinced him to load us one of his paintings that diana has had her eye on for a while.  we put it up in our living room and it looks amazing!
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