July 4th Fun!!

I am a bit behind in my blog post, but today I am committed to catching up. We had such a great 4th of July weekend up north in Boyne City. Boyne City might be a small town, but they sure do a great job with the 4th. We headed up Friday night and arrived just in time to see the end of Friday night stroll the streets. Every Friday night in downtown Boyne City they have different musicians performing on different street corners or in front of certain shops/restaurants. Since we have a music lover (Ryan) stroll the streets is often a fun activity.

We spent a nice day at the beach with our friends the Belands. Their little boy Jace is 3 1/2 and played very well with Kyle and Ryan. Brady again enjoyed the water and the sand and really mastered the eating of the sand on this trip to the beach.

Brady 11 months

Kyle and Chris with some help from the other boys build a pretty impressive sand castle.

We also had fun at the parade. Don complains every year that it is the longest parade ever. It does get a bit much when the fire trucks from I swear from every county in Northern Michigan come through honking their horns, but really it is a great parade and the boys love it.

Kyle (61/2), Ryan (4), Jace Beland (31/2)

After the parade we headed to bounce house village where they have about 7 difference bounce house inflatables and one that is a water slide. It was a very hot day so Kyle loved that one. Ryan was not to fond of the COLD water so he enjoyed the other inflatables. One was a jousting competition. Kyle some how convinced Ryan to joust him. Though it was an uneven battle Ryan held his own and most importantly the brothers fought nice...I am sure someday soon that is going to change.
So you might be thinking well what about 4th of July fireworks? The 4th of July is not the 4th of July without fireworks, or at least that is the line Kyle kept repeating to us. Well for the past few years we have kept everyone up to watch the fireworks and lets say it is more work then it is worth. So this year we decided to skip them and put kids to bed closer to normal bed time. Well, lets just say Kyle was very sad. So Don and I decided when they started we would wake him up and drive if we had to to the end of the street to see them. Well, when the fireworks started we discovered there was perfect viewing right from my parents back yard. So Don went and scooped Kyle out of bed. I think it took Kyle 5 minutes into the fireworks show to fully wake up. It was a very special thing for just Kyle and he was a very happy boy and he did not rub it in to his brother the next morning so we were very proud of him.

Family Reunion

Well the Lopez/Diaz family does not get together very often but my cousin Glenn also turned 50 this year so he and his wife decided to host a birthday/family reunion party this summer. Well guess what I was the only one left in the state this summer to represent the Diaz part of the family. My brother lives in Grand Cayman...so he was not going to make it. My mom and dad were someplace on the east cost being sailing bums (yea for them). So Don and I packed up a crew and off to Detroit we headed.

The party was nice and it was good to see my aunts and uncle and many of my cousins and the kids had a BLAST!

Ryan had a love for music and I found him in the basement with all the girls playing the video game rock band. I asked the musicians, "Is your group called 3 ladies and a dude?" they thought that was a fitting name. The girls were much older than Ryan but they were so nice to him and let him sing (young teen girl songs), play the guitar and the drums. He spent most of the party rocking it out Ryan style.


Kyle on the other hand was scamming his way on the six person bike thing they had. The first person he scammed was his dad who he convinced to ride him and Ryan around the block. Lets just say I think Don was the only one who was peddling.


Over all we had a great day and it was fun to visit with everyone. Maybe next time we get together there will be a few more Diaz's.

Vacation Bible School

Some of you know we attend a fantastic church that really works hard to reach out to kids and show them God's love. Each year our entire church community pulls together and puts on the most amazing VBS. This year there were over 750 kids and more then 500 volunteers. Don and I have volunteered for VBS for the past 4 years and it has been such a joy for us to do. This year we worked with 1st graders again. We had a small group of about 12 kids and they were so great to work with.

Our boys also get to join in the fun and learning. Kyle this year was in the Kindergarten group (VBS is for K-6 graders). Ryan because we volunteer was with the pre-schoolers and Brady in the nursery. VBS is full of dramatic bible lessons, GREAT music, crafts and oh so much fun. The kids learn so much and have such a great time. This years theme was Kids of the Kingdom and the kids learned about the Armor of God (Shield of Faith, Sword of the Spirit, Breastplate of Righteousness, Helmet of Salvation, Belt of Truth). The set design and all the props throughout the church were amazing. It was so real looking you would have thought you had just stepped into a real castle.

This is the main stage set...amazing and so realistic! Was not just a backdrop doors worked and people stood on the upper balcony.

It is so great to be a part of a church that not only is committed to helping lead our kids to Christ but has hundreds of talented volunteers that truly making this a one-of-a-kind week.

Kyle and his friend Carly love VBS!!
Ryan loves the music...knows all the words and motions to all the songs.

Not a Baby Anymore :(

Well in a little less then a month Brady will be one. I can hardly believe he is almost a year old. His is such a nice baby and is very easy going I hate to see this stage end.

He is now very mobile on his feet. Walking is his main mode of transportation. He is managing to get into his brothers things much faster. He has had the stairs mastered (at least the up part) for about a month now and if you are not paying attention he can climb to the top before you know what is going on. He is eating "real" food now. It is such a nice thing when it comes to being out and about but it also leads to some messy situations.

Below is Brady loving his first taste of spaghetti. Don and I were talking and think Kyle did not get to get messy with spaghetti until he might have been 3 or more. Guess things really do change with each kid.


It will be bitter sweet to celebrate Brady's first birthday in a few weeks. Though we will be putting the baby days behind us it will also be so much fun to take our "big" boys on new adventures.

We have a First Grader

Kyle's first day of school!

Kyle's graduation day!!

It has gone so fast but yesterday was Kyle's last day of school. He has had such a great year learning so much, making great friends and becoming a really confident kid. We feel so very blessed for Kyle to have had such a great teacher and aids. A big thank you to Mrs. B, Mrs. Taylor and Mrs. Horrocks, these ladies love our Kyle and Kyle loved them.

He worked very hard this year and has learned so much. He is doing math I would guess at the 2nd grade level. He was sent to 1st grade for reading group at least 3 days a week and is now reading very well. I am so proud of his hard work and achievements.

The last few weeks of school have been very fun for Kyle. His class took a trip to Aunt Tude's farm in Galdwin. Ryan and I joined Kyle's class as a chaperone and special guest. Ryan loved it and the kids in Kyle's class loved him. The kids got to feed animals, take a wagon ride and even milk a cow. Over all it was a fun day at the farm.

There was also Kindergarten graduation. Where Kyle so proudly said he wanted to be an astronaut when he grew up...I thought too bad NASA is done...he will have to move to Russia. They also sang songs and celebrated all the hard work they did this year. We were so proud of Kyle and all the staff commented on what a joy he has been to have in class.

Ryan the Birthday Boy

I can't believe he is 4!! Yes that is right on June 5, a birthday he also shares with his Dee Dee my mom, our little Ryan turned 4. He was so excited and a boy after my own heart he really celebrated his birthday all week.

He took treats to his pre-school and celebrated there. He had a special birthday dinner I think maybe three times. He got to go see Shrek the Final Chapter with Kyle and their friends Carly and Carter. He had a sleep over with Carly and Carter. Then he had the "official" birthday.

I have a tradition of making the kids birthday cakes and always give them a chance to decide what kind of cake they want. This birthday Ryan first said he wanted a surprise birthday. So I was like okay we can have a surprise birthday, but what kind of cake. He responded with "you know mom a surprise kind". Well I pushed on and finally got him to commit to a Shrek cake.


We still decided to do a surprise party. Well a surprise party for a 4 year old, which meant have the party guest hurry in the backyard while Ryan was distracted. Anyways he was at first upset because he did not want a surprise party but a Shrek party. But then he saw his cake and he was happy.

He was so excited to get all the fun toys. He got a number of Battle Force Five cars and so loves them all. He also got a baseball hitting machine and a electronic drum set. No worries before we gave him the drumb set we tested it and made sure it was not too loud.


Over all it was a great birthday celebration and now it is time to get the Birthday boy back in line.

Early Summer

I don't remember a nicer Memorial Day weekend. We headed north to Boyne City for the weekend. The weather was great and we went to the beach, rode bikes to town, had a picnic at the park and played in the hot tub, kiddie pool and slip-n-slide. The weather was great and we all had such a nice weekend spending time together.


I was so much fun to watch the boys swim in the lake and enjoy the sand at the beach. Don so loves all the sand at the beach. When we were getting ready to get in the car and head home Don took one look at Kyle and said you can't get in the car like that....there was sand covering him from head to toe.


Brady was not a big fan of the sand so we decided to try the water. He loves water and yes he did enjoy it but I think he felt it was still a bit to cold for his taste. I can assure you it was to cold for Don's taste and I am not sure he let more then his big toe get wet.


94 degrees for Memorial Day weekend was a great start to the summer and we are looking forward to many more fun summer weekends. Did I mention how nice it is to not be pregnant or have a new born this summer.