Torn Up Yard

We got a heads up a couple weeks ago, but it was quite a surprise today when our lawn got torn up! Apparently our town is going through and methodically checking all the different water pipes in town to replace any of them that are too old or made of the wrong material. This means that they need to check everyone's pipes to see if they need to be replaced or not. The problem, of course, is that the pipes are underground, so they have to tear up a lot of lawns. Fortunately I don't care at all about the lawn! Tear away, boys! They came to the door to give us a warning that they would be doing it, and then dug right in- literally! They got the crane unloaded and got to it, tearing up about an 8 foot patch, going down five or six feet. After about 20 minutes, we got the 'all clear' and they started refilling the hole. Our pipes do not need to be replaced, but now our lawn does!

Swimming Time

Ledger's school had a special event for all the kids to go to the Allegan Aquatic Center for some free swimming! Now that we no longer have access to the pool at Sandy Pines, this is about the only opportunity he has to swim. He and I headed over to the pool for some watery fun with friends. There were a few classmates that went as well, so he was able to play around with his buddies for a while. They have a couple different pools, so he was going back and forth, having a blast! His favorite, of course, was doing silly dives off the diving board!

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Birthday Pizza

 With all the birthday celebrating over the past week, we had to have a party with my side of the family too! We all met up for a joint celebration of Ledger and Diana at the local Pizza Hut. Jill and the kids came too, which made it extra special! We all chowed down and had a great time chatting. Most of the chatter was about the newest addition to the family, Chad and Myuki's baby, and how we couldn't wait for them to get here at the end of the month.

Egg Hunt

 Easter is here! That means that the eggs getting filled with candy and the boy gets to do a little bit of hunting. Earlier in the week I got a few different types of candy to fill up the plastic eggs for the morning hunt. Loading them up the night before, I snuck around in the dark of night and found good hiding spots for all 35 eggs. They were scattered around the living room, dining room, and kitchen for Ledger to find. I made sure to put some in easy obvious spots as well as a few tricky hiding spots. When we woke him up Sunday morning we reminded him what day it was, and he hopped out of bed (pun intended) and grabbed the Easter basket- the hunt was on! Most of them he found pretty quickly, as intended, but the last couple took him 10+ minutes to find! He kept asking for clues of the last locations, but I refused. He's got to work for his sweets! Later we headed over to Mema & Papa's house for a great time and delicious Easter dinner with Jill, Tim, and the kids.

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Super Ledger Bros!

We didn't have a big party for Ledger's birthday this year, but we still made plans for something special. The Mario Bros. Movie came the Wednesday after his birthday, so we had him pick a few friends to invite to go see it with him! He picked three friends and we talked to their parents and we were all set.

Saturday afternoon we all met up at the theater (we picked up Karson on the way), we were thinking ahead and bought the tickets in advance- and its a good thing we did because the line was huge and the show sold out! We loaded them up with popcorn, drinks, and candy- now we are ready for the show!

We got to see it in 3D, Ledger's first theatrical movie he's ever seen in 3D. Diana wasn't all that interested in going to see this one until she found out it would be in 3D, then she was all about it! Through out the movie I kept looking over at the boys and they were grinning ear to ear and having a blast. Ledger absolutely loved the birthday movie and getting to joke around and laugh with his friends, and the whole event was a big hit with all four of them!

After the movie we stopped at a park in Otsego so the boys to spend a little more time together and get some of that sugared up energy out!

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Yippee!

A while ago Ledger had some of his artwork featured on a TV show! My friend Adam works for a little boutique streaming channel for Christian children's entertainment called Yippee. He is one of the people who works on the different shows that they make. One of the shows was making a series of skits about the Easter story with the actors in front of a green screen. Knowing of Ledger's passion for animating, Adam asked if he would like to create the backgrounds for the five different scenes. Amazed at the opportunity, Ledger was excited for the challenge!

He did the work and send it his different background animations and, after a few slight tweaks, they actually used them! When they were broadcast on Yippee, we got to watch the skids and see his work on TV and everything! Ledger was really proud- and so were we! I tell you what, we are going to have to start writing this kid's resume, because he's already got a ton of impressive projects and showings!

Recently we got a special package from Yippee: Adam had gotten a thank you card signed by all the on-air talent from the show Ledger helped with, and a really cool branded mug as a gift for Ledger's hard work! 

Games With Guests

It's been forever since Josh and his family came over to hang out, so we had to correct that oversight. Josh, Amber, and Skyler arrived in the afternoon bearing gifts: a cute sciencey toy for Ledger's birthday, and a fun game for the adults to play! Oh, and they brought food- some delicious homemade pizza for us all to enjoy.

The boys spent the day running around from Ledger's room to the basement and back again playing with toys and their imaginations. Us adults also got a chance to play with our imaginations- the game they brought was Betrayal at House on the Hill. One we have all played before and really enjoy! We actually got two games in, one before dinner and one after. Everyone had such a great time, and we even gave them a gift to go home with- a really cool plant for Amber!

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A New Nephew

The family grows again! Chad and Myuki welcomed their son into the world, thankfully holding off an extra day so he doesn't have to share his birthday with Ledger. He is such a cute little fella! The whole family is healthy and doing great, unfortunately they are doing great out in Washington state. That means that we are going to have to wait another month or more until they come to town and we get to see and hold this new little bundle of cuteness. Looking forward to meeting my new nephew and giving some parenting advice to my older brother...

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It's Ya Burfday!

 Our little boy turned 11 years old! We didn't go nuts this year with a big birthday party or anything, we are still basking in the fun of last year's arcade party! This year we made plans to take him and his friends to a movie, but that's not until the weekend. For his actual birthday we just had a fun evening as a family. He got to pick where he wanted to go for dinner: Wendy's. We got there and unfortunately they were having some sort of issue and weren't able to serve us. Shoot. His second choice was McDonalds, so off we went. We ordered him what he wanted and doubled up on his favorite part: a giant pile of fries! As you can see, he was quite delighted about it too. Through out the evening he got to open different birthday gifts we had gotten for him, including a trombone! He is going into middle school next year where he has decided he wants to play the trombone in band. I found him a used trombone so he can practice and try it out to make sure that he wants to play it. He was pretty pumped and spend the night tooting away on it! Along with the rest of his different gifts, he was a pretty happy 11 year old.

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Doggy Steps

We tried to stay strong when we got a dog. We were determined to make his sleep in his crate at night. That lasted about six months. We've been letting him sleep in the bed with us ever since. The bed is way too tall for him to jump up on, so we keep having to lift him up and down from the bed. Way too annoying. Last year I went overboard and build a set of steps for Wiggins so he could climb up to the bed. He's super spoiled, I know. He's been using the steps but Diana keeps worrying that he doesn't like the bare wood and could slip, so I finally got a few carpet squares and covered the steps so its easier for him to get up them. It's kind of disgusting how much we spoil this little pooch!

(Don't forget to check out all the cute pictures of him here!)

New Wall Art

Granted, its been quite a while since Christmas, but Ledger finally got his last gift. He got some awesome wall art from his grandpa and grandma at Christmas time, but when Diana and Ledger came back up from South Bend, they forgot to bring it with them! Argh! Mom and David went to Florida a day or two after the Christmas party, so we were out of luck until they came back- which was almost a month later!

They brought the artwork with them when we saw them for dinner, so now we are finally able to hang the art in Ledger's room.

He had an 'Among Us' flag hanging above his bed for quite a while, but he's kind of moved on from that game. Knowing his favorite animal is an octopus, his grandma and grandpa got him this cool three panel artwork of an octopus to put in his room. Ledge helped me measure out the space and figure out where the nails need to go, and we hung it up. Boy, does it look good! A fitting decor for an older, sophisticated, boy!

Cousin Dinner

Its been a while since we got to see Mom and David, and even longer since we've seen Alanna and Tavish! With those two visiting, we made sure to meet up with them. Ledger is in school right now, so he can't go and stay with them overnight. Instead we settled for a meet up in Benton Harbor for dinner.

We got to catch up with them and the boys were silly and loud, of course! For the first time it looks like Ledger is actually bigger than his two years older cousin- by a fraction of an inch! This brought Ledger no small amount of delight, and Tavish an equal amount of annoyance...

Snuggin'

 One of our family's favorite activities is snuggin'. We've been doing it for years. There are, of course, different types of snuggin', but all of them involve us hugging or just being close with each other. Sometimes its laying on the couch, sometimes its laying on the bed, or even laying on the floor. We just kind of lean on each other and enjoy being close. Some of the different types are 'tech snuggin', that means we just snuggle up close to each other and play on our own devices. Diana or I are usually on our phone and Ledger is drawing on his tablet. We do 'reading snugs', which means we get close and each have a book. This one usually leads to me falling asleep... And then there's just plain snuggin', that's where we cuddle up next to each other and have a good chat. I ask him about his day, what he learned, what he liked, what he wants to do better tomorrow. You know, that kind of stuff. It's certainly one of our favorite times of the day! Sometimes the stinky dog even joins us...

This Year's Stan

Every year, as required by my son, we must make a snowman. We have been doing this since he was just a year or two old. When he was little his favorite things in the whole world were ghosties and snowmans (always the plural 'snowmans', never 'snowmen'). Ledger asks every time is snows 'Is it good snow for a snowman?' and usually it isn't. So we wait. Finally this week, with snow on the ground the temperature starting to climb, which of course, makes it perfect weather for a snowman. It was time. I peeked into the living room and sang that familiar song 'Do you want to build a snowman?' from Frozen. His eyes began to sparkle, 'Really?!?' Yup, today's the day! We both suited up into our warm snow gear and headed out to the front yard. We played around in the snow for a bit first, but then got to work rolling the snow so we could make our annual Stan (that's the snowman's name every year).

Once we made a good stack of snow balls, we went into the garage to find our ol' snowman kit. A gift from Grandma years ago, it's got all the parts needed to make the snowman just right. We smoothed him out and shaped the snow so it looked perfect. We walked into the woods in the back yard to find just the right arms for him, and then assembled all the different parts. And voila! Stan lives another day!

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First Sleepover

This is a big one: Ledger had his first sleepover! Ledger had one of his friends over this weekend to hang out for the day- and the night! He's been asking for a while if he could have a friend stay over for the night and finally we had a weekend that would work. So Diana contacted his friend's parents and asked if he would like to come over for the night. They were good with it and said he was super excited! We've had him over to the house a bunch, coming over after school and the boys playing together, but the possibility of spending the night was very exciting to both of them.

Diana and I discussed how we should have them sleep. We've got an extra guest room with a bed that he could sleep in, but that totally destroys the fun of a sleep over if we separated them! So instead we pulled up the sleeping bag from the basement and the two of them camped out in the living room on the couch. They thought this was perfect, that way they could spend all night together and stay up late watching TV! We made them snacks and played some games, but as it got late, Diana and I shut ourselves in our room so the two boys could have some time chatting and being silly together. They ended up staying up late, but not as late as I would have expected.

In the morning they got up and had a bunch more fun. Finally his parents picked him up in the afternoon, both of them exhausted from all the fun they had!

Florida Without Me

Mom and David went back down to Florida this year right after Christmas. Just down the street from where they went last year, they invited us down again this year to come and visit them for a week. Unfortunately, I was unable to get that much time off, but Diana and Ledger took them up on the offer. Instead of me, Lissa was able to join them!

They had an amazing time down there and kept me updated on all the fun and frivolity they were up to. I was stuck at home working, but I made the most of it by watching movies to fill the time while they were gone. I watched 30!

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Finally, The Cabin

Finally! After a couple years off, we finally get to go back to the cabin! The guys were just as pumped as I was to finally get together again and visit that blessed land up in Baldwin! Two years ago we skipped due to the pandemic, and last year we had to miss out because of an infestation, but this year we are going no matter what!

We bypassed the usual stop for lunch and just went straight through to the cabin. It didn't look much different, but we basked in it's beauty once again, and that was enough. Aaron drove us up there, Dusty, Jon, and I. We got up there and found the place looking nice, and pumped to be back where we love to be! After our celebratory tradition as we pull in, we made it back to the cabin. It was crazy how little snow there was up there- it had all melted so quickly! 

We whooped it up a bit all afternoon and then headed over to the ol' Baldwin favorite: Sporties! A delicious meal as always, filled with a great time being silly with friends. When we got back we stoked up the fire, the drinks, and the fun. We pulled out Cards Against Humanity, and got to work having a blast! Soon after the game Jon called it quits. Dusty held on a bit longer, having some good talking time with the three of us. Eventually, as usually happens, it was just me and Aaron. We got pretty deep and honest, which is the real point of the cabin trip, if I'm being honest...

In the morning we hung out for a bit, ran to the gas station for our morning constitution, cleaned up, and were on our way. Another successful cabin trip! What started as a silly little night away all those years ago has become the cornerstone of our friendship.

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Keenan Christmas

Unfortunately I wasn't able to join Diana and Ledger for her family's Christmas. I had to work, of course, so the two of them went down for a couple days to spend time with the family during Christmas break. Everyone had a great time and Ledger was excited to get a bunch more gifts, and honestly who wouldn't? Dad, Barbara, and James came as well to celebrate.
I wish I could have been there, but I'm sure I'll make it next year!

Christmas Morn

The beautiful sight we woke up to on Christmas morning! Our tree was filled with presents underneath it! Diana always says I get the boy too many gifts. She talks about how when she was growing up they only got two or three gifts for Christmas and the gifts weren't even wrapped, they were in paper bags. That always makes me so sad to hear! I grew up with a tree overflowing with gifts- my parents couldn't even fit them all under the tree, they overflowed into the middle of the living room! Granted, there were three of us kids, so it makes sense that there would be more, but we were always really spoiled at Christmas with too many gifts. I always loved those mornings, getting all those gifts, and I want Ledger to have the same experience. Spoiled? Yes, but that's my prerogative as his daddy!

He was obviously pumped to open his prizes! Once breakfast was done, we dug right in and got to work unwrapping all them gifts. First things first, we turned the TV on to one of those fireplace videos, specifically the Frozen one on Disney+. That, of course, set just the right mood for the whole event. We took our time unwrapping, taking time to play with each new gift. Diana had a couple gifts as well- and so did the dog! We finally finished up with the festivities by noon and spend the rest of the afternoon playing with our new loot!
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