3rd Grade Field Trip

Today Esther and I spent a drizzly morning with her class exploring the history of Grand Rapids.  We started out at the old city cemetery and found the grave of John Ball's family (John Ball of the zoo fame).  We walked around the Heritage Hill area and looked at houses, playing an "I spy" game of finding different types of architecture on the houses and hearing some of the history of them.

Then we went to the City Archives and Museum Storage building.  It was very interesting!  The city archivist is the only one Grand Rapids has had, and he is very knowledgeable.  He is retiring this year, so it was neat that we could meet him.  He showed the students a book of criminal records from the early part of the city's history (late 1800's) and explained how and why they preserve documents.  We then rode a huge elevator and visited the public museum storage.  The curator told us that only 5% of the inventory is actually on display at a time, and that they rotate things regularly so that they will be preserved longer.  There were some very interesting and unusual items there, and he made it fun for the students by showing them some unusual things.

Our final stop was St. Mark's Episcopal Church, which is Grand Rapids' oldest church.  It is a beautiful church, and the pastor did a nice job of explaining the history and also talking about some things that the church currently does to serve the community.

We covered a lot of ground in 3-1/2 hours, but it was a lot of fun and I learned many new things even though I've lived here almost my whole life!

Happy Mother's Day!

This morning I was awakened at 7:00 sharp by 3 excited kiddos bearing gifts.  They had made cards and gifts.  They also each had a beautiful hand painted item from Naked Plates.  Casey's boss Janis babysat them last month and took them there to paint and pick out little gifts to put inside.  It was so sweet of her to do that and they loved presenting me with their gifts.  They also did a great job of keeping the secret!



Esther made a candy dish and had dark chocolate mint M&Ms to put in it. She also gave me a little bear and a beautiful card that she made on her own one night when I was gone.

Peter painted a mug with a bunny on the side, and it was filled with hot cocoa mixes.  He made a pretty clay flower in art class at school and also made a really cool card with special things about me written insde.

Miriam also painted a mug that had a heart shaped handle, and it had coffee with it.  She made a flower out of perler beads at school that she had been hiding in her room for a few weeks.  She also made a little card secretly one day at home.

Casey made French toast for breakfast and then we went to church at Shawnee Park with my parents and Karen and Juan.  Then we had steak for lunch and spent the afternoon at my parents' house with them and my Aunt Elaine.  It was a great, relaxing mother's day!

On a side note, Casey went to Canada for a couple days for work and came back last night.  Janis bought the kids these Canadian Mountie stuffed animals.  So cute!

Sergeant Bucky Beaver, Sergeant Bull Moose, Sergeant Snow Bear

Peter insisted that I take a picture of him saluting his Moose!

Preschool Mothers' Tea

Today was the preschool mothers' tea for Miriam's class.  We had a great time hearing devotions, singing some praise songs (and dancing of course!), exploring the room together, and having cookies and lemonade.  At the end, the kids presented us with their gifts, a beautiful checkbook cover and a stepping stone.  It was a fun and special morning!

 

Singing, Soccer, Sunday and Ballet

This is a summary post about this past week.  Last week Esther and Peter had their spring program for school.  It was a beautiful time of praise and worship and all the kids did a great job.

Peter had 2 soccer games on Saturday because they made up one of the earlier games that was rained out.  It was a beautiful day, but he was very tired by the end of the second game!

Sunday church pictures... new outfits courtesy of Grandpa and Grandma when they came back from Florida!  So cute...

We spent a lot of Sunday afternoon outside.  The kids and their neighbor friends built umbrella forts!

Today Miriam had her final ballet class.  At the end of the class they did a little show.  Miriam had a big audience made up of Mom, Dad, Grandpa and Grandma W. and Grandma K.  The girls did a great job!  They each demonstrated something and then they did one dance to a song for us.

With Ms. Brooke

Reward for a job well done!

Grandma K. brought flowers for Miriam!
So sweet and Miriam loved them.

My First 5K Race!

By Esther:

During this spring I did a running program through school. Our school partnered up with the Calvin Collage volleyball girls to make a running program for third graders through sixth graders. Some of the girls get on a bus Monday and Wednesday after school to go to Calvin, but there was not enough room for everybody. Some of the girls had to have parents drive them. We did running and a little bit of volleyball. One time we got to swim in the pool and we got to do the rock climbing wall. At the end of the program (this Saturday) we all did the Calvin Spring Classic 5K. I ran with my group and leader but mommy ran with me too. My time was 36:28 and mommy's was 36:29.

This is all the GIT girls before the race.



At the finish line!
 

My leader Megan and one of my friends that was in my group.Her name is Ellie.

Afterwards we all went in the gym and got snacks. One of them was obviously oranges.



Our school won the school challenge prize. We got a big trophy.
My teacher Mrs.Pluymert walked the race.

School picture!



Peter the Soccer Player

Today Peter was FINALLY able to play his first soccer game of the season.  The first 2 were cancelled due to rain and flooded soccer fields.  It was a beautiful day today for soccer, and Peter did a great job.  He was disappointed that his team lost 5-4, but they played well and had fun.

Here he is while resting during the 4th quarter, after playing the first 3 quarters straight.  He was one tired kid!

Esther the Runner

Today Esther ran her first 5K race!  She allowed me to run with her, and it was such a fun experience to do that together.  I'll admit that I was getting a little choked up as we crossed the finish line because I was so proud of her!  We ran it in 36:28, which I thought was a pretty awesome time for an 8 year old running her first 5K!  It was great seeing Casey, Peter, Miriam and Grandma K. near the finish line cheering us on to the end.

I will have her write another post about her experience and the program that led up to the 5K.  She can put some more pictures on there as well.  Here we are just after we finished: