O Christmas Tree

Casey and I used to always cut live Christmas trees, but when Esther was a baby we bought an artificial Christmas tree and have used that ever since.  This year we decided that the kids were all old enough that it would be fun to go cut our own live tree again.  They've been very excited about it, and we had a beautiful, warm day for it today!

We headed up to Church's Tree Farm in Grant, Casey's old stomping grounds.  We picked out our perfect tree and played on the playground for a few minutes.  Then we toured around a bit to see the farm where Casey's family lived and a few other places like his school and church.

 We found our tree!

Next it was time for lunch at The Grant Depot.  We hadn't been there for a long time, and it was the first time the kids ate there.  We had fun looking at all the antiques and watching the train that circles the dining room.  The food was great as well!

We headed home and got the tree and house all decorated for Christmas.  We can now officially start listening to Christmas music!

The Big Parade

This morning we were watching (on TV) the Santa Claus Parade which takes place in downtown GR every year.  Peter was very excited about all the different floats, vehicles, and other things that he saw in the parade, so he decided to have his own parade.  Many of you know that Peter has a map of Grand Rapids stored in his brain, so he had his little parade all mapped out using downtown streets which were represented by different sides of the table.  He also wanted Christmas trees on some of the vehicles, so we dug some out of our Christmas village decorations and temporarily attached them to the vehicles with Play-doh.

The helicopter was going to fly over the parade route:

After we drove all the vehicles around the table, they ended up in this parking lot.  Apparently some of them were going to camp there for the night. 

I love Peter's creativity and imagination!  He never ceases to amaze me with his ideas.

First Snowfall!

We had weird weather all day... rain, snow, hail, sun... and finally late this afternoon some of the snow stuck!  Of course the kids wanted to go out and play in it...

I'll admit, it is kind of pretty...

Ok, I've had my snow fix.  Spring can come now!

Trick or Treat!

This year we didn't do the Calvin Halloween event because it took place on Saturday, so we opted to do some regular trick-or-treating with the McCaul and Haverdink families tonight.

The kids put their costumes on for Grandpa and Grandma W. after they brought them home from school:

Princess, Artist (minus beret and palette),
and Power Ranger (w/ Tiger hat)

We made a quick stop at Peter's teacher's

house on the way to Daddy's office:

The kids got fun bags full of goodies from Ms. Janis at the office.  They also wanted to make scary faces with Daddy (although Miriam just plain looks scared)...



We quickly ate some pizza at the McCauls' house and then the Haverdinks joined us and off we went.  After a trip around the block, we headed home, with a quick stop at a couple neighbors' houses.

Since it was a school night, we kept the festivities short and sweet, but it was still a lot of fun!

Koetsier's

This afternoon we had been planning to go to Post Family Farm for some fall family fun.  Then this week Esther was invited to a Halloween party with the girls in her class, so she decided to ditch us for her friends.  Just a little taste of what the teenage years will be like, right?

We ended up deciding to try out Koetsier's Greenhouse instead because I had heard they had a lot of fun activities for kids too.  I also knew they had quite a bit to do inside, and since it was a cool day, we thought that might be nice.  Peter and Miriam had a great time there, and we'd definitely recommend it!

We started out with a hayride.  They give you an apple when you get on the wagon, and one of the stops along the way is a place to throw the apple core at a target.  We also saw their beehives, some chickens and goats, and we were able to pick out little pumpkins in the pumpkin patch.

Then we headed inside and the kids had fun doing the hay maze, playing in the inflatables, driving the little pedal tractors, and playing in the corn box.  We also enjoyed some popcorn and cider.

We had a fun fall family (minus Esther) afternoon, and Esther had a great time at her party too!

Making scary faces in the hay maze!

It's always fun to run into a friend from school!  Here is Peter with his friend Elise.

Last Soccer Game!

Today was the last soccer game of the season.  Casey did a great job coaching this fall and I think he had fun.  It was a nice day, but the field was very muddy!  Here are a few pictures from the final game of the season:

Foot Frolic Frenzy!

Today was Foot Frolic Frenzy Friday at the kids' school.  This is their yearly fundraiser, and they do this one event instead of making the kids sell a bunch of different things throughout the year.  It's a fun day and a neat thing to get the kids participating.  They collect pledges for running laps around the track, and then they see how many laps they can run in 30 minutes. 

Miriam and I went to cheer them on, along with Grandpa and Grandma W.  Peter's class ran in the morning, and he ran 7 laps (1.75 miles).  Esther ran 9 laps (2.25 miles) in the afternoon.  We were very proud of both of them!  Apparently we should have had Miriam get pledges as well, because between running some of Peter's laps with him and some of Esther's laps with her, plus doing quite a bit of running around with her friend Mary Kate, I think she did at least 7 laps herself!