Peter's Special Outing

At the school auction this spring, many of the teachers offered special outings that could be purchased.  We bought the one with Peter's teacher, so today he got to spend a special afternoon with her and 2 of his friends from school.  He had a lot of buddies in his class this year, but he chose to invite Mace and Cam to go with him today.  They went to Cam's house and had lunch, and then Mrs. Vander Sluis picked up the 3 boys and took them to the Children's Museum and out for ice cream at Jersey Junction.  They had a great time together!

Afternoon with the Girls

Peter had a special outing today (see next post), so Esther, Miriam and I enjoyed a wonderful girls afternoon together.  We packed a picnic and took it to the Meijer Gardens.  After our lovely picnic, we ventured to the horse, walked out to the farm, and spent some time in the children's garden.  The weather was beautiful, and we had a fun afternoon together!

Esther had fun taking pictures with the new camera that she got for her birthday from Aunt Karen!

Sleepover and Pillowcases

Yesterday Esther cashed in one of her birthday coupons and had her special day and sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa K's house.  We dropped her off in the morning, and she and Grandma went shopping for material to make a pillowcase for her bed.  They also went out for lunch and Grandma bought Esther an adorable new outfit. 

In the afternoon they made 3 pillowcases--for her, Peter and Miriam.  Grandma still had leftover material from Peter and Miriam's quilts, so their pillowcases match their quilts.  According to Grandma, Esther did very well learning to sew and was patient throughout the process. 

They went out for dinner with Grandpa, and then Grandma brought her home this morning and she was very excited to present Peter and Miriam with their pillowcases!

Party Time!

Tonight we celebrated Esther's birthday again at her family party.  It was a beautiful night so the kids were able to play outside and Esther opened her gifts outside too.  She was given some very special gifts that perfectly fit her interests!

Unfortunately the McCauls weren't able to join us, so Casey and the kids stopped by there earlier today and they gave Esther her gifts.  She got an adorable Hello Kitty shirt and some very sparkly earrings!

We decorated the house to get ready.  This year Esther chose a general "birthday girl" theme instead of a character theme for her party.  She had fun choosing where to put the banner and streamers, and she picked out the balloon bouquet with all the color coordinated balloons!

We had our normal pizza supper and then played outside for a while.  Then Esther opened her gifts:

More pretty earrings and a certificate to go out for lunch with Grandma K. and shopping for material to sew her own pillow case with Grandma (this will be paid for by Grandpa since he doesn't like to go shopping).

A paint-by-number kit and a perler

bead kit from Uncle Nick.

Certificates from Aunt Karen,

including one for going out for lunch.

A camera and some candy from

Aunt Karen and "Future" Uncle Juan.

A very cute mermaid card picked out by Anna.

A sticker mosaic kit and a paint-your-own frame and

magnet set from Jeff, Erin, Anna and Elizabeth.

Esther is laughing as she reads the certificate from Grandpa and Grandma W. which says that she gets to go out for lunch!  Casey said we'll have to get her a smart phone to keep track of all her lunch dates!

Grandpa and Grandma also gave her piano lessons,

a drawing book and some flip flops to decorate.



It's so fun how everyone knows her so well, and now she has crafts to do and fun outings to look forward to over the summer!

After all the gift opening, it was time for cake!  Grandma K. made the cake to order... chocolate cake with chocolate filling (must be my daughter!) and it was beautiful and delicious as usual.

She's Got Earrings!

Today Esther got her ears pierced!  She was very excited and a little nervous.  Once we got to Claire's and it was actually time to do it, she got really nervous.  She started to cry a little bit just before they were ready to do it, so I asked if she wanted to just wait until another time.  She was adamant (through her tears) that she wanted to do it, and she did!  We were very glad that she was able to get both ears done at the same time (1 person doing each ear).  She cried for a couple minutes, but after sitting with Casey for a bit, she was ready to pick out some earrings.  After about 10 minutes, she declared that it didn't even hurt anymore! 

Casey had to head back to work, but Esther and I celebrated with some ice cream.  She is very proud and very excited about her new birthstone earrings.  She also told me several times later today that she is glad that it is over with!

Sandy

Gotta love Sandy the pony at Meijer.  Where else can you entertain your child for a penny?

Happy 7th Birthday Esther!

How did this little 4-year-old...



Grow up to be this 7-year-old?

Yes, this is the same shirt and crown.  It was quite big on her at age 4, and now it just fits, but she was determined to wear it one more year!

We had a great day celebrating Esther's 7th birthday.  We started the day with chocolate chip and sprinkle pancakes before heading to VBS at Brookside Church.  Esther and Peter are going all week and are having a lot of fun there!

We told Esther that she could invite one friend to do something special with us today.  She thought about it and decided to choose her friend Julia, whose family used to go to our church.  She explained that she gets to see her friends from church and school all the time, but she doesn't get to see Julia very often, so she thought it would be fun to invite her.  Since Julia is also at VBS this week, we all left together from there and headed straight for lunch at McDonald's, where Casey was able to meet us. 

Esther had originally wanted to go swimming at the pool this afternoon, but the weather looked somewhat unpredictable, so she chose going to For the Kidz for open gym instead.  Since there was a torrential downpour of rain along with thunder while we were there, that ended up being a good choice!  Esther, Julia, Peter and Miriam all had a great time at open gym and worked up quite a sweat. 

Of course they needed ice cream to cool off, so we went to Steak 'n Shake for shakes afterward.

We took Julia home, played outside for a bit and watched a video.  Then when Casey got home we went out for dinner to Esther's restaurant of choice, Olga's Kitchen (yum!).

When we got home, she opened her gifts. Miriam picked out craft foam stickers and a coloring craft for Esther, and from Peter she received water balloons and glow bracelets. Esther had already received her bike from us a while back. We also gave her a couple little games, a Bible, and a certificate to get her ears pierced and pick out some earrings. We're hoping to do that this week, so stay tuned for a post on that!

We ended our wonderful day by eating the yummy chocolate cupcakes filled with white cream that Casey had made.  Then we put 3 tired kiddos to bed!

Happy birthday to our sweet, special girl!