Operator

Charlie has taken to talking endlessly on the phone during the day. Unfortunately, when it comes to talking for real on the phone, to real people, he shies up and doesn't talk... but he will talk away on his imaginary phone conversations. He usually tells me he's on the phone with Grandpa and Grandma, and the conversation usually sounds like this:

"Hi, Grandpa. Hi, Grandma. Are you there? We go get a muffin tomorrow? Ok. Bye."

Other times, when Pete is traveling, he likes to call Daddy to tell him he loves him. He's also called his buddy, Jameson, to see if he wanted to play tractors, and he wondered where Jameson's brother, Liam, was. I've tried many times to capture his conversations on video, but he stops right when I get the camera fired up. It's too cute!

Harvesting the Garden

When we got home from Ludington, many things in our garden were ready for us! I took Charlie out with me to see how everything had grown. He really enjoyed picking the green beans with me. He also liked seeing all the veggies starting to grow bigger. We had a ton of green beans to pick so we froze half of them, and we are going to can some dilly beans with the rest. The sugar snap peas are starting to come in, but there aren't as many as I would have hoped for. They are REALLY good though. The tomatoes are all starting to ripen too, but Pete's the only one in our family who eats them =). We've used the cilantro to make a sauce for our fish tacos, and we even made a salad one night with our lettuce we grew! We have zucchini and squash growing like crazy, so we made veggies burritos last night, and I am planning on making a bunch of zucchini bread. A watermelon is starting to grow, and so is a cucumber. I am really hoping our pumpkins start to grow because it would be so much fun for Charlie to grow his own pumpkin (the plants are flowering like crazy, so that's a good sign).

Overall, this garden experience has been great! A whole lot more turned out than we thought would, and it's been a great learning experience. Our corn and peppers didn't do much, so we'll have to change our plan a bit next year. We also planted a little too late, so hopefully we'll have that down next year! I can't wait for Charlie to be able to help more in the future... it seems like he enjoys it already!

Squash

Green Beans

Zucchini

Tomatoes

Sugar Snap Peas

Charlie picking peas.

Proud of his little bucket of peas (he wouldn't eat any though).

Blueberry Picking

We decided to take the boys blueberry picking one morning when they both were a little finicky. There's a great little spot by the cottage that Pete's grandma used to go to all of the time. We have the best picture of Pete as a kid sitting on the cottage steps with a big bowl of blueberries. Hopefully we can do a matching picture of Charlie when he gets a little older!

Overall, the blueberry picking was a great experience. Drew ate his fair share of blueberries right off the trees, then he became the official "take the bucket to Grandma and dump it in hers" kid. Charlie did great at the beginning picking berries, but lost interest after awhile. He was very good at knowing not to pick the green ones; it started to be his mantra while we were there. We ended up being there for about an hour and got a bucket and a half of blueberries. The blueberries are SOOO good, but unfortunately my son has not eaten one of them. I did freeze some though so I can make him some of his favorite blueberry muffins.

Finding the BIG, blue berries... not the little green ones.

Drew and Aunt Kelly doing their share.

Helping Grandma dump the blueberries into the group bucket.

A quick pose with Grandma.

Starting to lose interest in picking.

The best picture I could get of these two monkeys with the blueberries.

Fishing off the Pier

One morning we took the boys out to the pier to watch Dad/Uncle Pete fishing. Charlie has his own fishing pole, but really likes to use Daddy's instead. Pete caught a ton of perch, and he even caught one when Drew and Charlie were watching! The biggest hurdle right now with Charlie is that he wants to do everything on his own. He would hold Pete's fishing pole, Pete would try to help him, and he just kept saying, "No! I do it, I do it!" We also got to see the Badger leaving for the morning, and the boys really enjoyed that. It was a good little start to the day!

Getting a lesson from Dad.

Trying it out on his own!

Aunt Kelly, Drew and Uncle Mark joined in the fun.

Charlie watching the Badger leave port.

Charlie got a timeout for throwing one of Daddy's bobbers in the water. I just had to take a picture of the pouty face.

Fun at the Beach!

We had many fun days at the beach while we were in Ludington. One day there were no waves, the next time the waves were big, and the last time the waves were huge! I had my camera the day the waves were big, and Charlie & Drew had a blast playing in them. Charlie also enjoyed chasing the sea gulls, digging in the sand, and playing in the shallow water. Pete, Mark and I tackled the HUGE waves one day. It was so much fun, but super tiring. The weather was a little overcast, but that was perfect for us. We couldn't have asked for better!

Drew was all smiles the whole time!

Enjoying some down time with Grandma and Aunt Kelly on the beach.

Daddy and Charlie waiting for the big waves...

... Watch out! Here they come!

Playing in the waves with Grandpa.

Baptism Picnic

After Charlie's baptism, we headed to a gazebo on the lake to have a little picnic. It was right next to the playground, so the kiddos were able to run out some energy after lunch and before bedtime. It turned out to be a great afternoon, and it was nice to celebrate in the beautiful weather with everyone. We even got some good group shots!

Charlie's Baptism

Our main purpose for our trip to Ludington last week was to finally get Charlie baptized. We had plans to do it much earlier, but unfortunately Pastor Jim's father had a heart attack the day before, so we had to postpone. So, the day finally came when he was 2.5! We couldn't have asked for a more perfect day! Pete's parents, Mark, Kelly, & Drew, my parents, Dan, Mary, Matt & Gwen, and Pete's Aunt Carol were all able to make it to Ludington. The church service was in the morning, and Charlie was the only one being baptized. He did awesome! The only funny was when he asked Pastor Jim if he was all done as he was talking to him. It was a wonderful service, and we followed it up with a picnic by Lake Michigan. Charlie is very lucky to have so many people supporting him in his adventure of life. A big thank you to the family for making the trip for Charlie's special day, and an ever bigger thank you to Mary for snapping some pictures for us!

Photo Shoot

I was playing with my camera one day, so I got some action shots of Charlie playing the Wii and posing a bit. He loves to play the speed slice game on the Wii Fit game. It's so much fun to watch him play!

I just love these pictures of him! They totally capture his personality. I did have to bribe him with a Hershey Kiss to get him to sit still, but it was worth it!