Spring Break, Days 1-4

Well today was the first day I remembered to take any pictures since spring break started.  Last Friday we went to the library to load up on books to read in anticipation of the dreary forecast for this week.  We also spent a few hours at Playworld burning off some energy.  Saturday and Sunday were low-key days and we just did a few errands, and hung out at home. 

Today we went to the Children's Museum.  We met Renee and Tyler there (thanks to Grandpa and Grandma K. for watching Cassie so that Renee didn't have to chase her around amongst the crowds of people!)  Tyler's Grandpa and Grandma M. also came with their other 2 granddaughters who are close to Esther and Miriam's ages, so it was fun to play with them too.  Here are some pictures from our morning at the museum:

Everyone in the bug car

Tyler loved the train table!

Esther and Elise

Little Dentists

Spin Table!

Craft time



Meijer Gardens

This morning we made a family trip to the Meijer Gardens to see the butterflies.  We saw a lot of different types and Esther kept using the guide book to tell us the names.  It was a beautiful, sunny day so we ventured out to the big horse and the children's garden for a while too.  It feels like spring is finally really coming!

Father - Daughter Banquet

Every year one of the local Christian radio stations (WCSG) hosts a Father Daughter Banquet. It's grown to be quite the event over the years, selling out two nights in a row at the Pinnacle Center.

This year I thought it would be fun to take Esther. We invited our friends, Rob and Ally to join us as well. (I mean, Dad is cool, but it's still nice to have a friend along.)

Last weekend Esther and I went shopping for a new dress for the occassion.....a first for Daddy. Esther and I stood in the little girl dress area at Kohls for quite a while, having a discussion over what color shirts I have and what would match with a dress. It was quite the planning event for a guy that stands in his closet every morning and simply chooses the least wrinkled shirt and tie he can find. I am also hoping that Esther's fine conservative taste carries over well into her teens and twenties.....I'm sure they will, right?

We had a great time at the dinner, this was Esther's first formal dinner. Esther was quite impressed with the fact that she had three forks to use and that the wait staff kept taking her empty plates. When Don Michael (the MC and radio DJ) took the stage, Esther whispered to me "He sounds just like the guy on the radio!"

The last part of the evening included a concert by Heather Williams. It was wonderful.

The evening ended with one tired little girl falling asleep in the car on the ride home.....we'll be putting it on our calendar again for next year!

Butterflies!

Today I took Peter, Miriam, and Peter's friend Simon to see the butterflies at the Meijer Gardens.  Despite the gloomy, rainy weather, there were a lot of very active butterflies flying around.  We also walked out to the children's garden to do some of the indoor activities that they had.  The kids built butterflies out of wooden pieces, dressed up as butterflies, and heard a story about monarchs.  Hopefully we'll get a chance to go back a couple times in the next 2 months!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Renee made one of these adorable shirts with the matching hair clip for Cassie, so she decided to make them for Esther and Miriam too.  They looked so cute and loved it that they were made by Aunt Renee.  We will have to get a picture of all 3 cute girls together in their matching outfits sometime soon!

Silly shot!

Showing off the hair clips!



Snow Day Triple Play

This was a crazy week full of unexpected surprises.  My parents are home from Florida this week (picked a great week to come back!) and originally I was planning to take advantage of their babysitting services to work my regular days and also go on a field trip to Blandford Nature Center with Peter, and another one to the Children's Museum with Esther.

By early in the week, we knew (from all the weather media hype) that we were in for some major snow.  Tuesday night it was pretty obvious that Wednesday would be a snow day, so I didn't pack lunches, prepare backpacks or anything like that.  By the end of Wednesday, the snow had stopped.  Although many roads weren't plowed well, I assumed we'd be back to school and work on Thursday and did the necessary preparations.  By 10:00 p.m., I learned that both the kids and I had another snow day for Thursday.  On Thursday, I was sure that Esther would go back to school on Friday and we'd have the field trip.  Again, I had everything ready, but around 9:45 p.m. the Grand Rapids Public Schools closed.  They stated that too many sidewalks and side roads remained unshoveled and unplowed.  I figured that our school would follow suit because they typically do, and it turned out they cancelled as well.

So, what did we do with our 3 snow days?  We had lots of wonderful, relaxing time with no schedules.  It was so great to spend 3 days straight with the kids and just have fun being together.  We read books, played games, colored, did crafts, played with dolls and Legos, and baked muffins.  We spent Wednesday at home, playing games and reading and watching a movie.  We also played outside in the big snow piles in the afternoon.  Thursday we spent most of the day at my parents' house and also went sledding there.  Today we ventured out to For the Kidz gymnastics for their open gym time.  The kids got lots of energy out and loved playing there.  We ended our week by meeting Casey for dinner at Applebee's since we had a gift card to use.

Now we still have the whole weekend ahead of us!  It will be good to get back to the normal routine on Monday, but I am definitely thankful for these last 3 wonderful days. 

A Party for Peter

Today Peter got to have his friends from school over for a birthday party.  We did this for Esther when she turned 5, and Peter has been looking forward to this for a while.  He was so cute about it all.  As we'd get the RSVPs, he was so excited that all of his friends were going to be coming over.  Three of the boys couldn't come, so we had 8 boys here including Peter.  Originally we were going to have Esther and Miriam go somewhere else during the party, but Peter wanted them to be here.  He told us that he wanted them to be here to meet his friends and to play the games with them.  So sweet. 

Casey was convinced that we could just dump a bunch of cars and trucks on the floor and they would play for 2 hours.  His other idea was to just put in the Cars movie since it was a Cars-themed party.  I of course had to plan some things, so we did play a few organized games including "pin the hammer on Bob the Builder" (those drawings Casey did on the basement wall come in handy sometimes!), a basketball competition, a relay race, a few games of Hullabaloo, and a Cars bingo game.  We ate cupcakes, opened gifts, and the rest of the time they played cars and played with Peter's geo trax and hot wheels track in his room.  It is a really nice bunch of boys, and they played very nicely together and were all kind and polite.  The girls also did a great job hanging with the boys, although when Casey asked Esther if she'd like having 8 brothers, she didn't seem too keen on that idea.

Here are a few pictures of the fun afternoon:

Playing cars

Hullabaloo

Do a funky dance!

The birthday boy (with a crown he made in school)

Cupcakes and ice cream!

The whole crew... plus Miriam!



Trains!

My school often seems to have different breaks and days off than all the other districts in the area.  Sometimes it's a pain, but today it is great!  While everyone else is going back to school, I am enjoying one more day off.  This morning we went to the Meijer Gardens with Renee, Ty and Cassie to see the trains one more time before they take them down for the season.  It wasn't busy at all, so it was a good time to go.  Ty hadn't seem them yet, and he was definitely enthralled with them!  It was fun to watch him.  We also checked out the turtles before we left.

Dutch kids in front of the Netherlands tree

Waiting for the train to come out of the tunnel...

We love Cassie!