Quarterly Catsup?!

Boy... WHO has been a bad family blogger?

When last we joined our protagonists... Xavi was giving a good presentation on his ancestor. Since then was Easter, finishing the school year, Xavi's 5th grade graduation, putting on a fundraiser to help bring the Korye Dance Theatre to the area, Vacation Bible School, and the kids heading off to camp whilst the adults finally attacked the basement.  We've little to no pictures to show for any of this, so I'll just share what we've got.

Maybe Audrey's parents should reconsider leaving her with us...?

Pocket review: 3/4 Houses. Better than we feared, yet inexplicable changes from the book. King's Cross - excellent. Final battle - meh.











 Karen's amazing Imperial Cookies.

The returning from camp sequence.

Back to normal! They were wiped out from the hottest week in 15 years.  Bela is heat sensitive and Xavier has the allergy issues, yet both survived. We are so grateful for all the prayer support they had.  Xavi's written a brief bit about camp. Maybe more or Bela's take later.

February Catsup

Who's been a bad, bad blogger?

OK.  I've accepted that I'll never get the holiday travel post that I wanted up here.  So... here's the slideshow.  It goes quickly through Christmas, Georgia - including our great, quick visit with the Bickerstaffs, and Florida - Disney, cousins and Femminineos.  It was a great trip, planned to precision by Karen.  Ysabela has a pretty thorough account.  Xavi has a brief introduction to the friends we visited.

Bickerstaff bounty, with great goat greeting.

Hotton Happening at a hotel with wacky wildlife.

 Kids were suckers for Disney.

 We definitely had high Hogwarts hopes.









Universal was super Seussy...

...and sort of wet.

 But the Butterbeer earned 2 thumbs up, the wizarding world was wonderful.


Bela's birthday spanned two states.  Part the first, with the dramatic dragon dessert.

Of course, Baby Audrey was a prompt priority on our return, which also saw some part the second with peach pie of Y's B-day-2.

But we were definitely back in Michigan.

August Catsup

Why have things seemed so crazy?  Well there was Coast Guard Festival.  It started off with a surprisish visit from my cousin Mary Pat Dunlap nee Pfundstein.  (Of the Minnesota Pfundsteins.)

We had a great day at the rides with the best weather in ages.  Brandon and Kaitlyn joined us.  (Be sure to check out the movie as well.)

B & K were fearless, riding almost anything.

And Brandon even got a chance to sit in with some drummers.  He an Bela made plans for busking in the future.




We had Mason and the Minnebos for the parade.  Good eats from Grapes and Grain with lots of fresh veggies.































One of the favorite post parade traditions has become a show of Anna's latest animations.  Great stuff.

Finally, we got another visit from Baby Audrey.  Maybe more anticipated than the whole Coast Guard Festival.

July Catsup

Bad blogger!  Bad!  Good bloggers update more often than every two months.

So... what you been doing?

Ysabela graduated from elementary.  To her credit, she said, "It's not a big deal.  If I was like going to go get a job or go to college maybe."

Xavier sang with a 4th grade group.

Mr. Z gave all the grads parting hugs.  He graduated, too.  Er, retired.

Y and Ashley

Bela's awesome teacher Mr. Schiller 

- hopefully we'll see him next year for X!

Xavier's great teacher, Mrs. Bruckbauer.  But maybe secretly Amanda Peet.  (Ms. Peet probably is nowhere near as good a teacher though.)

Been trying to get out in nice weather and hide from the heat.  Smashball, tennis even, chalk drawings, sprinkler action, etc.


These pictures really don't do the chalk drawings justice.


Father's Day brought some great swag, but even better cards.  Bela made an Avatar style dragon and Xavier's had a heap of heroes.  The coolest gift was a family set of purple Batman shirts.  Karen's and mine were a size too small to encourage weight loss.  Good idea.

 We had a rare visit from Carmen here in GH.  Highlight might have been the great Mia & Grace dinner.  Everyone must go there.

Don't make me give you the mean face.  I mean, this was to my own mother.

Carmen had a bag of photos someone sent to Michael, which I greedily scanned before delivering.  Great stuff like this one of Oliver and Carmen at my Aunt Jean's marriage to Uncle Gil Dunning.

This might have been HS graduation.  Had the note: 6' 1/2" and really applying himself.

Xavi keeping his head down.

Ysabela with the follow through.

Last week was a neat thing, the kids got to try golf lessons.  Randy White, also director of our local First Priority, gave lessons at a club for four days.  The kids did well and looked marvelous.




But wait!  We REALLY want to hear from you about your fantasy dinner party.  We've got a simple new cooperative game you can play over dinner, where you make up a guest list and pick a restaurant for a great dinner party.  It has it's own dedicated blog, guys!  Guess Who's Coming For Dinner?  But wherever you go in your fantasy dinner, I'm sure they won't have cinnamon rolls like these:

Thank goodness.