My "big" little brother

My brother Dylan is seven years younger than I am, and despite the fact that he is now half a foot taller than I am... he's always going to be my baby brother. Last week I had one of those moments where I realized that he's definitely not a little guy anymore- he's grown up significantly, extremely mature and we found out he's a pretty great public speaker as well!

Last year Meijer put on a national contest called "Great Choices Student Film Festival". In order to participate, Dylan had to create a 30 second public service announcement on Healthy Choices, Promoting Character or Celebrating Diversity. Dylan made two different videos (To see them go to Dylanmalburg.com/PSA) and his video on texting while driving won the second place prize in the age group 7-12 grades, which was $1000.

Last week, the Forest Hills Board of Education wanted to recognize Dylan for his outstanding achievement in being a positive face for the Forest Hills School District. At this month's Board of Education meeting he was recognized and gave a little presentation on what he did. John was sick, but the rest of the family went to watch him be awarded and I think we were all a bit blown away by how well he did speaking in front of everyone! I was so proud of how well he did, but again, it was one of those moments where I realized he's not really my baby brother anymore :) Here are a few pictures of the event.

The Family with Dylan's girlfriend, Courtney

Afternoon with Monreau

It got a bit colder for Labor Day weekend than I'm sure most of us were praying for, but because the weather was no good for swimming, I got an afternoon of some one-on-one time with my niece Monreau. The new thing for all of the little girls around the cottage this summer has been Bead Art or what they call "Melting Beads". Monreau and I spent a couple hours doing melting beads this past weekend! She would place all of them and create the patterns she wanted and just tell me which color bead I needed to pick out for her. :) She's the middle child in her family so it's not very often that I get to spend time with just her. She's usually in the group with her older sister that's doing fun things or in the group with her younger brother who can't do as many things. It was fun to hear the way that her mind works and how she interpreted things. She spent a lot of time telling me how someday I was going to be a mommy and when I'm a mommy, then Uncle John would be a daddy. John came in to check on us late in the afternoon and asked Monreau if she was going to be a mommy one day and without hesitation she replied "First, I have to work at Wendy's." There really isn't a way to not smile when you look at her- especially in these pictures. I gave each of the little girls a tiara I had won in a pageant so Monreau was wearing her new tiara and "my wedding dress" doing melting beads :)