A healthy breakfast?

When I was little we would go to my grandparents in Grand Rapids. I knew that when I woke up on Saturday morning we would either have fruit loops or my favorite (and my dad's) pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream. I have done this a few times before, but this morning was our best yet. Amanda and Joni went and picked berries on Monday and they were great. They made jam and I used the left-overs for pancakes this morning. I also whipped up some fresh whipped cream. It was a great breakfast. Healthy? Probably not.

Molly's berry happy birthday

While at my mom's we began to celebrate Molly Pearl's first birthday. The official date is not until Saturday the 12th, but when she's as sweet as she is, we couldn't help but start a little early. We went with a bit of a Strawberry Shortcake theme. Our present to her was a very fun Strawberry Shortcake tank top. She looked super cute. Gigi got her the "birthday princess" hat pictured above. It is amazing that Molly has been with us for a whole year. But in other ways it is hard to imagine what life was like before she arrived. You can see all of the other pictures here.

Embed music on your blog

I was reading an article today about the Top 10 Hottest Music Sites and the mention the site imeem. They said that you could embed music into your blog posts. This is something that I've wanted to do for a long time. I have written about artists and wanted to give people a taste of their music. Now I think I'll be able to do this.

I have written about Kathleen Edwards before here. Here's a song off of her latest album Asking for Flowers. Enjoy!

Happy Birthday America!

As promised yesterday here are a couple of samples of our fireworks from last night. We lit off a bunch of little stuff and then we got out "The Excalibur". This was the big deal that Alex brought from Indiana. It had two PVC launchers and 24 artillery shells. I was a little nervous that they wouldn't be that great, but when we lit the first one off I was pretty pumped. It was a lot of fun. I think Alex and I enjoyed it more than the kids. And we still have all of our appendages.

Caleb's future?

We went down to the river and saw some tall ships today. There was also a Naval Cadet boat. My mom asked if Caleb wanted to get his picture taken with the cadet that was explaining the boat to us. As you can see above, Caleb thought that was a good idea.

A Hometown 4th of July

What has your 4th of July been like? Well our Independence Day began early this morning when Molly woke up at 4:30 AM. Amanda, Tricia and my mom went into town and walked part of a 5k. They didn't quite finish it which was a pretty funny story.


Around 11:00 we all went into town for our traditional Alpena 4th of July parade. This parade is a great example of small town America. One of my favorite parts every year is when Hal Neiman leads the Neiman's Family Market (formerly Alpena IGA) employees in their shopping cart routines. Alpena IGA was my first job when I was 16. I never got to be in the parade. The video below is a short example. It doesn't capture them in their shopping cart glory though. Another highlight of this year's parade that I hadn't noticed before was the many beauty queens in the back of pickup trucks. A highlight for the boys was the Wildcat Jugglers. The best one was the above pictured unicycle fire juggler. He was awesome. See all of today's photos here.

Tomorrow's post will include highlights from tonight's fireworks. I hope you all are enjoying your Independence Day.

The Al Man Cometh

We (especially Tricia) have been anticipating Alex's arrival all week. He had to work this week and so was not able to come up when everyone else did. One thing I am especially looking forward to about his arrival is that he is bringing the fireworks. When I thought about getting some fireworks for our time in Alpena, I knew that Alex was the man for the job. Alex is the kind of guy that always goes top shelf. If there is a $2 __________ and a $20 ___________, then Alex is going with the $20 __________. This is a fun person to be around. It always makes you feel like you're important. "Why would we spare the $18 when we can celebrate with you." That is how I feel Alex is thinking when he makes these decisions. There's no pretension or showing off. He really thinks that the $20 ________ will be more fun. More often than not, I think he's right!

So, Alex called a few days ago after going to get the fireworks. I won't throw out any dollar figures, but I will say that I think we are going to have quite a bit of fun tomorrow night. Being that we are half way to the North Pole, it doesn't get dark until 10:00 PM. The boys are going to stay up late and we'll put on quite a show. I'll post some pictures of our good times tomorrow.