Esther's Day with Grandma

Today Esther got to spend the entire day with Grandma W. My mom has been wanting to do this, and since my dad is on his RAGBRAI bike trip across Iowa this week, it seemed like a good time to do it.

Esther's day actually started when Daddy decided to take her and Lacie (her bunny) out for breakfast. They went to the Real Food Cafe for Mickey Mouse pancakes, and had a great time. Then it was on to Grandma's house!

Esther and Grandma had a lot of fun doing stickers and coloring, going to the park, taking a bike ride, watering the flowers (and splashing each other), and going to McDonald's for lunch. They also took a nap together on Grandma's bed, which Esther thought was pretty cool. When I asked Esther what the best part of the day was, she emphatically replied, "It was ALL fun!"


Since Esther was gone all day, Peter and I got to have some special bonding time as well. After a quick trip to the grocery store and a haircut for him, we played for a while and then met Daddy for lunch. Peter had a great time entertaining Daddy's co-workers at SecurAlarm and then saying "Hi!" in his incredibly friendly and boisterous voice to everyone at Culver's. After a good nap, he enjoyed having the kiddie pool all to himself (although I think he missed his splashing partner).

We were planning to end our fun day with everyone meeting up at Russ' for dinner, but unfortunately Casey's fire pager went off just as we sat down, so he missed out on that. The rest of us enjoyed our supper while Esther filled me in on her day and Peter again said "Hi!" many, many, many times to all the people sitting around us.

When I Get Bigger...

This morning while Esther was getting ready, she launched into a very long list of things that she is going to do when she "gets bigger." I can't remember all of them, but here are a few:

"When I get bigger, I'm going to...

• be a firefighter girl
• be a builder girl
• be a police officer
• not be scared of sirens anymore
• put my own pigtails in my hair
• go down the tube slide at the playground"

As you can see, it was somewhat of a random list. She also stated after the first 3, "That's a lot of jobs for me!" She must see how many jobs her Daddy has and assume everyone does that. We'll see if some of her predictions come true!

Baby's First Pictures!

We had our 20-week ultrasound today, and we're very thankful that everything looks good! Even though we had 5 or 6 ultrasounds during our other pregnancies, it's still an awesome experience every time we have one. It's so amazing to see the little heart beating, the 4 chambers of the heart, the limbs and face, and even the tiny kidneys. We're happy that this baby is currently measuring average for this stage of pregnancy, so hopefully this one will not come out toddler-sized like Peter did.

I'll also admit that we were somewhat relieved to see that there is indeed only one baby in there! Most of you know that Casey is a twin, and his parents didn't know they were having twins until they were born!

Just in case you're wondering... no, we didn't change our minds about finding out the gender. It will be a fun surprise for us and everyone else!

A Wedding and Some Family History

This past weekend Casey and I went to Sioux City, Iowa, for my cousin Rachel's wedding. The kids spent one night at Grandpa and Grandma K's, and the next night back at our house with Uncle Jeff and Aunt Renee. They had a great time, and so did we! It was wonderful to have a few days away and to celebrate with Adam and Rachel while also catching up with relatives.

Before the wedding on Saturday afternoon, we took a trip with my parents up to the area where my Dad was born and raised. I hadn't been there since before I can remember, so it was very cool to see all the places that I have heard about, and to hear more stories of my Dad's life while he was growing up.

My Dad was born in Orange City, but spent most of his growing up years in Hull, so that is where we spent most of our time. We stopped at the city park where there is a new Veteran's Memorial, and found my Dad's name on the plaque. Then we walked down the street to the house that my Grandpa and uncles built, where my Dad lived from about age 6 until he left for Calvin. As we stood in front of the house, we could see people inside since just the screen door was open. My Dad walked up and introduced himself to the girls that are renting the house now and explained that he grew up in the house. They invited us in, and we were able to tour the whole house! Only in Iowa, right?

Since my Dad is the youngest of 3 boys, and the second youngest of the 7 children in his family, he always had a special corner in the attic that was just his. He's always talked about playing up there, and it was so neat to see it. The stickers he had put on the wall were even still there! There was also a row of doors along one wall of the attic with the names of some of my Dad's siblings written on them. Apparently they each had their own cabinet, and it was cool to see that the names were still there.

Our next stop was a few blocks away at the house that they rented while they were building the other house. It's a beautiful old house and the owner was outside painting, so we were able to talk to him as well. He has done a lot of research on the history of Hull, and so he was very familiar with my Dad's family and specifically my Grandpa, who was actually the Mayor of the town for a while.

After driving through a couple other towns, we made a stop in Le Mars, the ice cream capital of the world. It is the headquarters for Blue Bunny Ice Cream, so of course we stopped and had some! Then we headed back to Sioux City to get ready for the wedding.


It was a wonderful weekend, and I'm so thankful that we had the chance to celebrate a new marriage, and also learn more about my family's history. Casey also decided that he could move to Northwest Iowa in a heartbeat, but I don't think that will happen!

Beach Bums

This morning we went to Millennium Park with our friends Rachel, Anna, and Kaitlyn. The water there is warm and shallow and there's a nice beach, so it's a great place to go with kids. It was perfect beach weather and the kids had a blast! Peter of course spent a lot of his time digging in the sand, but they both also enjoyed the water. We briefly checked out the splash pad water park, but they weren't too thrilled with the water spraying at them from all directions, so we just headed back down to the beach!

Trip to the Gardens

Thursday we made a trip to the Meijer Gardens with my mom, my sister Karen, and Karen's longtime friends Joy and Mary, as well as Joy's daughters Megan and Elsie. Joy lives in England, so we don't get to see her very often. It was very fun to get together several times this week and watch Esther and Megan (only a couple months apart in age) play together. Esther especially likes the way Megan says the names "Estah" and "Petah" in her English accent! We spent all morning at the Gardens and made sure to do just about everything. We explored the tree house, played in the log cabin, dug in the sand, played dress-up, splashed in the water, walked through the garden of senses and even took a stroll out to see The Thinker statue.

Happy Independence Day!

Esther's last birthday present didn't come in time for her birthday party, but it came yesterday, just in time for the Kentwood July 4th parade. Here she is showing it off (37 is Daddy's number on the fire department):

We have started a fun July 4th tradition. This is the 3rd year we have gone to our friends Jeff and Erin's house and walked to the Kentwood parade, and then had brunch afterwards. Each year has been a little different. The first year, we had 1 child in a stroller, and 2 on the way. This year there were 3 in the strollers and another one on the way! The first two years, Casey walked with us. This year he was driving one of the fire vehicles in the parade!

Here is a glimpse of the changes over the last couple years...wow does time fly!

2005

2006

2007

My parents and my Aunt Elaine also met us at the parade this year and got there early to claim a spot for us, which was great. Esther was very excited about wearing her fire helmet and seeing Daddy drive the fire truck, and she kept talking about how she wasn't going to be scared of the sirens. Unfortunately reality hit when the sirens started, and she was quite scared. I had to hold my hands over her ears and she kind of hid under her helmet, so I'm not even sure how much she saw of Daddy or the fire trucks. Peter on the other hand thought it was the coolest thing ever and just kept saying "truck!" This is the vehicle Casey drove:

After the parade we walked back to Jeff and Erin's house and Casey joined us there for brunch. We took a few pictures of the kids when we got back. Again, I just had to share these pictures of Peter and Anna last year and this year...too cute!

After brunch we headed home for naps. We finished the day by having supper and playing outside at my parents' house, and Casey's parents joined us there as well. It was a very busy, but very fun 4th of July!

Superman!

Esther discovered Superman ice cream yesterday. There's something about all those colors that kids just seem to love! The kids and I went with my mom and sister to Olga's in East Grand Rapids for lunch and then played in the fountain. Afterward we walked over to Jersey Junction for some ice cream. Esther kept saying she wanted chocolate ice cream, but then she got up on a stool to look at the selections and shouted, "I want the colored kind!" I think it was the fact that it was mostly pink, but that's just a guess. Anyway, as you can see from the pictures, she loved it and happily shared it with Peter as well. It was a rainbow of a mess, but they sure were happy! Thank goodness for Oxi Clean. Thanks to Karen for taking her camera everywhere so that we have some great pictures of our very fun outing!

Party Time!

Last night we had Esther's birthday party since we were camping last weekend. We celebrated with the grandparents, aunts and uncles, and our friends Jeff, Erin and Anna. We had pizza along with grapes and strawberries (Esther's request), played on the swing set, opened gifts, and ate cake and ice cream. Esther got some really cool gifts that she's very excited about! We were also amazed at Grandma K's creativity when it came to the cake again this year. Esther wanted a "doll cake" and this is what she got:

Grandma has been asked to just plan on making the kids' cakes every year--I wouldn't even want to attempt to live up to her talent! Esther seemed a little overwhelmed when we sang Happy Birthday to her, and she didn't want to blow out her candles, so she had a little help. She may have been too scared after hearing the story of my hair catching on fire while blowing out the candles at one of my birthday parties when I was younger.

Here are some other pictures from the evening:

Trip to the Zoo!

A few days ago I saw the forecast for today and it looked like the perfect day for a trip to the zoo. I e-mailed a few friends to see if they could go, and we were joined by Carrie and Nora; Erin and Anna; and Beth, Addie, and Holden. We had a great time seeing the animals, playing in the train, and spending time with good friends.

It's always so fun to watch Esther and Peter interact with other kids. Esther and Addie (the cool girls in the sunglasses) had a great time running around and chasing each other when we stopped to eat our snacks. When Holden (8 months old) got a little fussy in his stroller, Esther sang him some Bible songs to make him feel better. I wondered to Beth whether Esther will be that sweet with her new sibling. Probably not.

We ended our visit with the obligatory photo at the statue of John Ball. Esther and Peter seem quite in awe of Mr. John Ball! Obviously getting 6 children ages three and under to pose is impossible, so we just snapped some of them walking around. After that, everyone was ready to head home for lunch and long naps!