Cruisin'

I know pretty much nada about cars.  And living in the Detroit area, that kind of puts me behind the eight ball.  But that doesn't mean that I don't appreciate cars and think that they can be pretty neat to look at.

So last year when we were first exposed to the Woodward Dream Cruise even that happens in the area every August, I don't think we fully appreciated it.  Woodward, which runs through downtown Detroit, is actually the oldest highway in the nation.  And every August for a full weekend, it relives its glory days and is overrun with the coolest of all the cool cars for the whole weekend.  There are actually four or five different towns in the area that run events all weekend and part of Woodward is literally shut down for a good chunk of the weekend.  If you like cars, check it out here.

Tonight if officially kicked off in Berkley with the Classic Car Parade.  Grant and the kiddos had caught part of it last year and said it was definitely worth checking out again.  So we packed up dinner and cruised ourselves about 25 minutes to Berkley.  The Classic Car Cruise actually takes place on a mile long strip of 12 Mile through downtown Berkley.  Like I said, I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to cars, but it was so much fun!  Mom, there were enough Mustangs there to satisfy even you.  And as Noah put it "Only the old cars are cool.  I wish all cars looked like the old ones"  It was a fun night out checking out something different.

This morning the kiddos and I met up with some friends at the park for a pizza picnic and some play time.  It was great for the kids to have some fun playing with friends and I got to catch up with my friend, Jen, for awhile which was fabulous.  I got to tell her again how much Noah LOVED the Ninja Turtle party she threw.  I am in awe of her awesome mom skills :)

When we got home, I went to check the mail, and ended up happy dancing most of the afternoon - my very first state packet came!  Kudos Georgia, I think I only requested a packet on Monday, you are way on top of things!  I am so stinkin' excited about this project and all the offers of help and input that I have gotten.  Keep it coming!

And of course, busy as my day has been, I didn't forget about our celebrations.  Happy National Brat Day and Happy National Rum Day.  For dinner we had Cheddar Bratzenkraut which was quite the experiment.  A bed of sauerkraut is mixed up with brown sugar, celery salt and brown mustard, topped with slice cheddar brats, baked and then topped with shoe string (yep, these again) french fries.  I let the kiddos pass on this one (they just had brats and french fries) and Grant and I would classify the dish as 'interesting'  Probably not something I'll be making again anytime soon, but still fun.  And to go with dinner I made rum balls.  Wow do these little babies pack a punch!  One was definitely the limit.  And as we speak Grant has mixed himself a rum cocktail of some kind while we cheer on the Tigers.  I'm thinking we can consider both brats and rum sufficiently celebrated.

As if the Cruise wasn't enough fun tonight, we're at another adventure again tomorrow - we're off to Howell for the Melon Festival.  Grant and I are both really excited about this, as we learned they are doing a sandcastle building exhibition.  Not sure how that relates to melons, but it should be tons of fun regardless.  And on Sunday Mom and Dad are coming in to do some back to school shopping with us (got official word today - Noah will have his first day on Tuesday the 3rd (they do a rolling start so he will be off Wed and Thur) and then full time starting the 6th).  Then Monday we head to Toledo to meet up with Scott and Cassandra at the Mud Hens game.  Phew, it's going to be hopping as usual!  So until then...

Kayla at the park

 Pizza Lunch

 My first packet - yay Georgia!

 Rum ball

 Cheddar Bratzenkraut

 Topped off with the fries

 Arriving at the parade location

 Dinner pre-parade

What follows are the cars that the kids deemed their 'favorites'  I will repeat - ignorant about cars so I am not going to even try to tell you what they are.  But they still look cool ;-)