The Saturday 7

1. Quick camping recap: It was pretty much what I expected. We all "slept" in the tent on the first night. Levi woke up after a couple hours crying inconsolably and ended up on the air mattress with Justin and me for the rest of the night. Lucy woke up crying inconsolably for no apparent reason. And I was freezing. The second night, Levi and I went to a family member's house down the road and slept in their basement. It was so much better. During the day, Levi just wanted to run. We had a group site, and everyone helped watch out for him, but I felt like I couldn't take my eyes off him. It rained for about an hour one evening, but our tent stayed nice and dry. Overall, it was a great time. I'll never enjoy cooking outside or trekking to the bathroom or trying to keep my kids away from the fire, but I love spending time with family, swimming in the heated pool, and watching my kids enjoy everything.

2. Levi had his 18 month check-up this week. He weighs 22 lbs (20th percentile) and is 30.5" tall (3rd percentile). We left with a referral to an ENT because of his recurring ear infections (I think he has another one already if pulling on his ears and waking up 6 times last night is any indication), which means he'll probably need tubes. I know tube insertion is no big deal and it'll probably be better for him in the long run since apparently he can't have Amoxicillin anymore!

3. I haven't been keeping you very updated on the books I've been reading. Probably because I haven't been devouring them with my usual gusto. Recently, I've read The Thorn Keeper and The Thorn Healer by Pepper Basham. Loved them both. And this week I read The Mark of the King by Jocelyn Green. That one was amazing as well. I'm up to 71 books read for this year. My goal is 75 so it's pretty safe to say that I'm going to make it. (It's also safe to say that I need to get a life . . . and more sleep.)

4. I spent most of this week getting ready for the baby shower my sister and I threw today for our nephew and his girlfriend. Our great-niece is due in less than a month!!! I've always wanted to throw a book-themed shower and never had an excuse until now. So with much help from Pinterest and my own creative juices, we put together a fun bookish shower.

The food was appetizer-ish and largely planned based on children's books with food in the titles. Haha.

2 different kinds of meatballs. (Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs)

Fruit (The Very Hungry Caterpillar)

Dyed deviled eggs (Green Eggs and Ham)

Rolls. I don't know why I didn't take the towel off for the picture! Lol. (Trucks Roll)

Veggie Pizza (Pete's a Pizza and How Many Veggies?)

Pigs in a Blanket (The Three Little Pigs)

Pink Lemonade (Pinkalicious and the Pink Drink)

Donuts - with binkies for fun. Haha. (If You Give a Dog a Donut)

And Strawberry Shortcake (whatever Strawberry Shortcake books I could find on the girls' shelves)

Decorations were pretty easy thanks to my obsession with children's books. Anything specific that I didn't own I got from the library or borrowed from fellow mom-friends. And I did buy a couple from a thrift store with the purpose of tearing them apart.

I'm so proud of this book-page wreath. Pinterest win!

I also cut triangles out of old book pages for the banner.

Roo's Best Gift at the gift table.

More books on the fireplace.

I also put potty books in the bathroom, but forgot to get a picture.

We played two games. One where I took quotes from children's books and guests had to guess what book they were from. And another one called "Name that Disney Baby." One point for naming the movie, one point for naming the baby.

The prize for the book quote game was this awesome mug from Michael's:

I should've taken a picture with something next to it so you can see how huge it is. It is way bigger than an ordinary mug.

And "Bookworm" gummy worms of course!

We had a great turn-out (lots more people not pictured here) and a great time!

Getting my teacher face on during the game.

5. We actually chose a terrible day to host the shower because our town's festival was today and our neighboring town (where the shower was held) was hosting a Gus Macker tournament so streets were blocked off and the whole town was craziness. Also, Justin was playing in an alumni soccer game this morning at our high school alma mater (where the girls currently go). Lucy wanted to watch soccer, but the game started an hour before the shower, and I had to be there early to set up. So we shuffled her around to do both. Then Lena wanted to go to the church carnival that was taking place before the shower ended. So we shuffled her around from the shower to the carnival. Poor Levi was stuck with me the whole time. Like I said before, I think he has another ear infection because he was not his usual happy self. He clung to me and cried much of the day. I really don't want to take him to Urgent Care again. Whyyyyy do these things always happen on the weekend??

6. To close out our day of craziness, Justin and I left the kids with my parents and went on a hot date. We had a gift card to Chili's and decided to go to a different location than usual - the one on the lakeshore instead of in Grand Rapids. We stuffed ourselves to the brim then headed to the beach to watch the sunset. I have lived 40 minutes from "the big lake" all 31.75 years of my life and I don't think I've ever watched the sun set over it. Shameful! We finally remedied that tonight. It was beautiful.

Selfie or it didn't happen

Part of our reason for going out tonight was to celebrate a big piece of news for our family: Justin got a new job! After 7 years with his current company, the opportunity arose to try something new and he took it. He'll be starting an apprenticeship with a local Tool and Die company on Monday. This is something totally different for him, so prayers are appreciated for a smooth transition, but I have every confidence that he'll excel!

7. A few more pics:

A better picture from the football game last week.

I gave Levi this book to look at while we were shopping and he seriously stared at the pages like this for the longest time. I bought him the book because he was so cute!

Lena made a bunch of different crafts then brought them to me one by one and told me to take her picture. Haha.

Trying to get a picture of his adorable shoes.

Lena did my hair one day. I was surprised by how good it looked! (Like the flower crown? Haha.)