First Day of School!

Our kids started school before Labor Day again this year.  Here they are on their first day... 4th grade, 2nd grade, and kindergarten!

End of Summer Fun

This is a post of some random things from the last couple weeks of summer vacation...

Peter and Tyler had a sleepover at Grandpa and Grandma K's house.  They got to go see Uncle Myles' trucks and had fun going for a ride and sounding the air horn.

Miriam had her sleepover at Grandpa and Grandma W's the same night.  They biked around Reeds Lake and had ice cream at Jersey Junction.

 

My sister was here all week for the week before school started.  Each kid had a special one-on-one date with Aunt Karen.

 

Esther chose TCBY

Peter's date was at IHOP

Miriam went to Sweet Mellisa's

 

We also did some hanging out with friends, including seeing Esther's pen pal Megan who lives in London.

 

 

The final weekend before school started was a busy one.  The kids spent most of the weekend with my parents and Karen because Casey and I were the master and mistress of ceremonies for our friends Jake and RaeAnne's wedding!

 

And just like that, summer is over!



Fun at the Fair!

Today was our 4th annual trip to the Hudsonville Fair, where we get treated by Grandma K.  The first year it was just the kids and me.  In 2011 Grandma and Aunt Renee took the 5 kids by themselves because it was the day before my sister's wedding, so I was busy with bridesmaid fun.  Last year we all went together and had a great time, and this year's trip was also lots of fun!

It was a hot day, but we still enjoyed walking through the barns to see the animals and going on some rides!

Ferris Wheel!

We've learned that a good part of the tradition
is going somewhere air conditioned
to cool off with a treat!

 

 

We look forward to continuing our tradition next year.  Thanks to Grandma K. for a fun day!

Uncle Carl's Train

I have been riding Uncle Carl's train since I was a kid.  It was always running when we had family gatherings and I have great memories of riding it with my cousins.  Esther and Peter have ridden it before and Esther even had a field trip to ride the train in preschool, but Miriam had never ridden it.  The other day my cousin's son James was going to have the train out for a daycare field trip, so they invited us to come over too.  It was great fun! 

Listening intently to the safety rules

Lying down to watch the sky!

Chicago, Day 2

If you stay with Aunt Karen, this is what you have for breakfast?!  In case you can't tell, that is a scoop of ice cream.  It was served after pancakes, so I guess it's really breakfast dessert.  Somehow Karen started this tradition when Esther was younger, and it has continued...

Friday morning, the rest of us ate breakfast at the hotel and then we checked out and brought our stuff back to Karen's.  Then it was time to take the bus downtown to Navy Pier and the Chicago Children's Museum!  The kids really like this museum and there is so much to explore.  We spent almost 3 hours there and still didn't do everything.

This bus driver looks a little scary!

This one looks safer.

In one of the rooms they have these cool shadow screens.  With one of them you stand behind it and it shows your silhouette and it looks like butterflies are flying all around you.  These silhouette pictures turned out pretty cool!

Mommy and her girls

Sweet sisters!

The 3 kiddos

With this screen you can "catch" the falling things.
I don't get how it works, but it's really cool!

Another room was for creating.  On one side they had piles of material and glue and scissors.  The girls made collages out of the material, and then the workers were going to sew them together and add them to a huge mosaic/collage that would be displayed in the museum.

The other side was where Peter and Casey spent some time.  They made a wooden car.  The idea was that it would stay there to be on display, but Peter really wanted to take it home.

We finished in the water room.  The kids always enjoy this area.

Miriam scooped and dumped water.

Peter built some dams.

Esther painted a tile wall with water.

After lunch at McDonald's on Navy Pier, we took the trolley
back to Michigan Ave. for the next part of our day!

The girls have the Our Generation dolls from Target (basically a knock-off of the American Girl dolls).  They wanted to take some of their spending money and get something from the American Girl Store.  Peter was very excited to explore the Lego Store.  Somebody was very smart, and planted those 2 stores right next to each other in Water Tower Place.  We wondered how many mom/daughter sets were in one store while the dad/son group was in the other!

Aunt Karen surprised the kids by giving them some spending money from her and Juan, so they were very excited to spend their money.  The girls each got 3 accessories for their dolls (Esther bought glasses, a shirt and shoes, and Miriam bought glasses, shoes and a purse).  Peter found a very cool Lego creator set which can be made into 3 different large vehicles.

This giant Woody character from Toy Story
is all made of Legos--amazing!

The girls thought the Lego Friend Olivia made
of Legos was very neat too.

Here they are at home with their purchases:

Casey and Peter spent a couple hours putting
this together Saturday morning!

It was a great mini-vacation and we're thankful for good weather, safe travels, and fun with our wonderful hostess, Karen!  Now we have a couple weeks of vacation left and then we start back to school!