Our week...

It's been a good week here.  On Tuesday Peter lost a front tooth and we made apple smiles:

Peter also made a pigeon hat at school (if you have not read the pigeon books by Mo Willems, you must go to your library and get them)!

On Thursday the kids had a 1:30 dismissal and spring break started!  Esther had piano lessons and since we were driving by Sweet Mellisa's on the way home, we figured eating ice cream would be a good way to kick off spring break!

On Friday morning Peter and Esther got haircuts.

Very exciting.

Yesterday Esther's friend from school (whose parents own SkyZone) gave her 3 passes for a free hour of jumping.  SkyZone is a relatively new thing in Grand Rapids.  It's an indoor trampoline park with a huge area of trampolines, dodgeball and basketball on trampolines, and a foam pit.  Since she got the passes, we decided to use them this afternoon.  It was really fun and a great workout!

We came home and played outside with our neighbors for a couple hours.  It was actually in the 50's and we'll take it after the last few cold and snowy few months we've had.

Fun with chalk!

Peter drew a big NASCAR racetrack.

Then Jimmie Johnson and Denny Hamlin 

had a race on the track.

Tonight after dinner we dyed eggs.  The kids get more creative every year and it is fun to see how they turn out!

Esther's Egypt Project

BY:ESTHER
This is my finished Egypt project. In school we are studying Ancient Egypt and we each had to make an Egypt project. Some kids are doing mummies, one or two are doing Egyptian drawings, one or two are doing chariots, there are a lot of different things kids are doing. But I really wanted to do a diorama of the Nile River. As you can probably see, in the middle we (daddy helped me with it) made the Nile river. We took drywall mud and blue food coloring and mixed it together. We made the three pyramids out of Styrofoam and then spray painted them brown. The yellow is wheat that they grew, and the green string is watermelon vines. The house is made out of clay. I made a little clay boat too but I decided to do that after the picture. Daddy wants you to know that it was made and kept safe in daddy's "Man Cave" :)


This is just a close up of the whole project!

This is a close up of his house!



This is a close up of the wheat and watermelon vines!

A close up of one of the pyramids!

Me with my project!



I also had to make report about my topic. This is it! You can read it too!

GEMS Mother-Daughter Tea

BY:ESTHER
On Wednesday night mommy and I went to a special GEMS night. It was called the mother tea night. We had to get dressed up really fancy. At the beginning Miss Kaitlyn (our main leader) told us a bunch of facts about tea. Then after we had our picture taken and played a game we got to have snack. It was Oreos dipped in dark chocolate with sprinkles. During that each mom and daughter had to take a quiz with the questions about the facts we heard in the beginning plus a bonus question. The question was "Who said this quote?" The quote was "A woman is like a tea bag- you can't tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water."  Can you guess who it was? It was Eleanor Roosevelt. After that we did a craft. It was the bracelet you see in one of the pictures below. At the end they had some prizes to give out. One was for the people that got all the questions right on the quiz. The other was for the best dressed mother-daughter team. Mommy and I got all the questions right on the quiz even the bonus question so we got to pick a prize from the front table. My friend Clara and her mom got them all right too! Mommy and I got the same thing. We got a big box of sweet tart chewy candies. I had a good night, and a fun night too!


I wore my father daughter banquet dress from last year and Mommy wore her dress from Aunt Karen's wedding (Aunt Karen).

 The game we played while waiting for our picture this game. We had to balance marshmallows on a popsicle stick and walk between some chairs!

That was the picture we got taken!

This is me working on my bracelet!

 This was the finished product!

That was the teapot that was on our table!

Mother-Son Date Night!

By Peter:

Today I went to the Kroc Center with mommy.  It was a mother-son date night!  The theme was all sports.  When we got there, I did a little basketball thing.  Then we watched the magic show.  And then we had dinner.  After that, I made a flag that said, "Go Tigers!" with a baseball in the corner.  Then I got my face painted.  I got a Spartan on one cheek for Michigan State and the Michigan State "S" on the other cheek.  Then I got a balloon.  It was a green sword.  And then I did the baseball thing.  It was this blow-up thing where there was this round triangle thing pointing up and they used colored balls and they were floating because of the air blowing out.  And then, I did the golf thing.  While I was doing it, my balloon popped.  Then I got another balloon.  The guy started to make a green sword again, but then the kid behind me asked if the guy could make a light saber and then the guy made me one!  Then I got dessert.  You could have strawberry ice cream or chocolate ice cream.  I had strawberry.  It was super duper good!!!  I did a little bit of sword fighting with my friend Caden and his little brother Evan.  And then we left.

But we didn't go home right away!  :)  Then we went to Schuler's.  I got a Lego fire motorcycle with a recycling dumpster that was on fire.  Then mommy got some coffee and I got some root beer.  And while we drank our drinks, we played checkers on mommy's phone.  I beat her because no matter where she moved, I would be able to jump her.  At the end, I had 2 checkers left and mommy had zero (obviously).  And then we went home and I built my Lego set.  And then I went beddie-bye.

The end of the wonderful date!

Disney on Ice and Sledding!

By Miriam:

Today Daddy and I went on a date to the Disney on Ice!  And it was at the Van Andel Arena.  And I had so much fun!!!  My favorite part was when the princesses came out and they did every princess except for Aurora.  I saw Minnie and Mickey and Goofy and I saw Donald Duck and Pinocchio and his nose grew longer and longer every time he said a lie, but he only said a lie once.  And then there was a big whale and his Dad got swallowed by the whale and then Pinocchio he got swallowed by the whale, but then he hit the whale inside him and the whale felt a little tickle and then the whale's mouth grew wider and wider and wider until Pinocchio and his Dad flew right out of the whale's mouth!

In the princesses I saw Ariel and Belle and there was one that I didn't know her name, but her name is Pocahontas.  And Ariel and Belle were my favorite, favorite princesses.  And Ariel had shorts or capris (I don't remember what they are), but they did look like her tail.  And she had her regular shirt that was purple!

I got a crown with Mickey Mouse ears on it and I got cotton candy.  I saw a hat that did look exactly like Cassie's hat and her grandma made it, and I was like "what?  why would someone make a hat that looks exactly like the hat that Cassie has?"  So then we saw that it was Cassie and Tyler and Uncle Jeff!  But not their mom.  And then went out for dinner to a pizza place called Big O's and the McCauls came with us.

The End

By Peter:

While Daddy and Miriam were on their date, me, Esther, and Mommy went sledding at Mulick Park.  We saw my friend Jacob there with his dad and sister.  On the first time down that Jacob's dad and his sister went, they went flying off the sled and Jacob's sister was crying.  Then I went down and I went over their sled and when I got to the bottom, I fell off and my face hit the icy snow.  I got a scrape below my lip and a worse one above my lip and my lip was bleeding.  I wanted to go home, but then I felt better and we stayed.  Then we went on a different part where it was smoother and smaller.  There was a jump, and I went over it.  It was awesome!!!  After we went sledding, we went to McDonald's and we got McFlurries.  I got an Oreo one and Esther got an M&M one.  Mommy got nothing.

By Esther:

As Peter said we went sledding and when we got to Mulick there were a lot of Calvin students sledding too. When we were about to leave Peter's friend Jacob found a student ID with a dorm room key on a lanyard.  Mommy called the office at Calvin we brought it to the security office.