For Ladies Fun night in August we are planning to go bowling at Airway Lanes...more information will follow.

Moms & Tots is a playgroup for women and their children to get together to enjoy the fun activities Kalamazoo has to offer. It’s also a good chance for moms to socialize and children to play together. It meets twice a month. Times will vary.

Thursday, August 7th, 12:00-1:00PM

Lunch and Learn: Arts and Crafts Day Millennium Park (on Romence across from Ritters)

Let the artist in you shine as Millennium Park is transformed into a mini art show. Create a craft of your choosing and take it home with you. Free event.

Thursday, August 14th 11:00 AM

Ramona Park @ 11:00 8601 Sprinkle Road Portage, MI 49024

Join us for a relaxing day at the beach. Pack a picnic and your sunscreen and let’s enjoy the last of summer! Cost $5 per car for City of Portage residents, $10 for non-city residents

Thursday, August 21st, 12:00-1:00PM

Lunch and Learn: Peter Rabbit Millennium Park (on Romence across from Ritters)

Peter Rabbit is stopping by to meet and greet all of his friends in Portage after story time and other fun activities. After story time be sure to take your picture with Peter Rabbit! (Please note that sometimes their characters get stuck at the airport (this happened last year with Clifford).

Wednesday, August 27th, 10:00AM

Binder Park Zoo 7400 Division Dr. Battle Creek, MI 49014 www.binderparkzoo.org

Binder Park Zoo is located off exit 100 on Interstate 94. It’s well signed from there. Let’s meet at the Kiosk before the entrance to the zoo. Please RSVP to Bobbi Jo at bjdonley@yahoo.com or 231.631.0291 by Tuesday, August 26th.

Book Club will meet on Thursday, August 7th. The book is Marley and Me by John Grogan. Grogan, a columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer, and his wife, Jenny, were newly married and living in West Palm Beach when they decided that owning a dog would give them a foretaste of the parenthood they anticipated. Marley was a sweet, affectionate puppy who grew into a lovably naughty, hyperactive dog. With a light touch, the author details how Marley was kicked out of obedience school after humiliating his instructor (whom Grogan calls Miss Dominatrix) and swallowed an 18-karat solid gold necklace (Grogan describes his gross but hilarious "recovery operation"). With the arrival of children in the family, Marley became so incorrigible that Jenny, stressed out by a new baby, ordered her husband to get rid of him; she eventually recovered her equilibrium and relented. Grogan's chronicle of the adventures parents and children (eventually three) enjoyed with the overly energetic but endearing dog is delivered with great humor.

Book Club will meet on Saturday, September 6th A field trip to the Michigan Renaissance Festive in Holly, Michigan. We’re tentatively planning on leaving around 9:30 and being back by 6:00. We will be discussing the book Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett on the drive to the festival. Feel free to come to this event even if you choose not to read the book.

Book Club will meet on Thursday, October 2nd at 7:00 p.m. at the Full City Café located at 7878 Oakland Drive (near Centre St.) in Portage. The book is Mao’s Last Dancer by Li Cunxin. From a desperately poor village in northeast China, at age eleven, Li Cunxin was chosen by Madame Mao's cultural delegates to be taken from his rural home and brought to Beijing, where he would study ballet. In 1979, the young dancer arrived in Texas as part of a cultural exchange, only to fall in love with America-and with an American woman. Two years later, through a series of events worthy of the most exciting cloak-and-dagger fiction, he defected to the United States, where he quickly became known as one of the greatest ballet dancers in the world. This is his story, told in his own inimitable voice. I have this book (one of my favorites,) let me know if you want to borrow it.

Saturday, August 16th, 7:00PM

Let's meet for supper, live music and drinks at Bell's Brewery Beer Garden. Please RSVP by August 1 to Betsey at keithbetsey@charter.net