The end of Christmas

We finally feel like Christmas is really over now.  The kids finally went back to school on Wednesday, so the girls brought home the gifts that they had made for us at school before break. 

Miriam made an adorable book
about the Christmas story and everyone
who was searching for Baby Jesus.
She also made a beautiful clay
angel ornament (which sort of blends in
with her shirt in the picture and is hard to see!)

Esther made a perpetual calendar.
Many Dutch people put these in their
bathrooms or other places where they
will see them.  They list birthdays and
anniversaries so that they can keep using
it year after year to remember those
important dates.  She decorated each month's
page with beautiful pictures!

Today we finally got to have Miriam's class Christmas party.  I helped since I am the room parent for her class and we had a lot of fun.  They had some snacks and Mrs. Sytsma opened the gifts from the students.  Then we did a craft and the students did a little gift exchange with each other.

I think Christmas is now officially over for the 2013 season!

Snow ice cream!

On our second snow day after break, we decided to jump on the bandwagon after seeing multiple people post on Facebook about making snow ice cream with milk, sugar and vanilla.  It was actually quite good and a fun thing to try!

Welcome to 2014!

Here is what we've been up to since the new year started last week:

January 1:  Casey and his mom continued the New Year's Day tradition of making Ollie Bolen...

January 2:  Somebody got braces!  I also had to work because my school went back for Thursday and Friday.  The kids got to hang out with Grandpa and Grandma W.

January 3 was my 39th birthday.  It was probably the best birthday I've ever had!  It started with these 3 sweeties bringing me breakfast in bed (Grape Nuts and orange juice), along with cards and a special homemade gift that Esther made.  They did this on their own since Casey was already at work!

Later in the morning we went to Tim Horton's for donuts with my parents and Karen.

On the way back, my sister took her car through the car wash.  Peter and Miriam pretended to be scared.  These pictures cracked me up!

In the afternoon, Karen, Peter, Miriam and I hung out and played some games.  I thought Esther had gone with Casey to his office because they told me his boss had some filing for her to do to earn some extra money.  In reality, she was helping him prepare for my surprise party for later that night!

We had planned to go out for dinner with my parents and Karen, and that did go as expected.  We had a nice dinner Twisted Rooster and then I thought we were going to go back to my parents' house for cake.  When we left the restaurant, Casey pulled into a Meijer parking lot and made me get out of the car for a minute so he could fill Peter and Miriam in on what was happening.  Then he blindfolded me and drove me around for about 35 minutes (apparently dinner went too quickly and we were going to be too early!)  I got completely lost as to where we were, other than that I knew we were mostly on highways.  I didn't know which direction we were going or have any clue as to where we were.

We finally arrived and I still didn't know where we were until I heard the sound of a familiar door closing behind me.  Just as I said that I knew where we were (my parents' house), Casey pulled the blindfold off and everyone yelled, "Surprise!"  I was completely shocked and overwhelmed by all the people that were there.  Neighbors and friends who are all special people in our lives had come for the celebration.  It was so much fun to have all those people there, and I'm so thankful to Casey, my family, Casey's family and some good friends who did a lot of work to make it all happen.

There was plenty of delicious food!

Chocolate fountain and cake!

Casey's mom's cake--yum!

The kids got to hang out for a while, and then my parents took them home and put them to bed so that we could relax and visit with our guests.  I just think it's so funny that Casey did this for my 39th birthday--he totally caught me off guard by NOT doing it on a milestone year!

The next day we played "Trading Post" which is a game the girls made up where we bring our rainbow loom bracelets and trade them with each other.

We also went bowling with some friends and had them over for pizza afterwards.

On Sunday, we went to Casey's parents' house for lunch after church to celebrate my birthday (again!)  My niece Cassie picked out this awesome necklace for me which says, "Another year of fabulous" on the pendant. 

Sunday (yesterday) afternoon/evening a major winter storm moved in and we have had lots of snow, blowing, drifting and crazy cold temperatures and windchills.  All the schools were cancelled by last night, so it was nice to know ahead of time that Christmas break would be extended!  We decided to have a neighbor coffee time/play date at our house this morning.

The moms and some of the kids left by lunch time,
but a couple girls stayed into the afternoon
and they had fun building a fort under the kitchen table.

Peter was excited to have a couple boys to play with!
They built a fort with couch cushions.

School was already cancelled for tomorrow by this afternoon, so we get one more day to sleep in and relax before reality hits and we have to go back to school!  This is definitely the longest Christmas break we've ever had!

Peter's birthday date

Yesterday Peter had his special birthday date with Aunt Karen.  He also chose Culver's!

Peter's Sleepover Party

Since we have allowed our kids to have a friend birthday party at ages 5 and 8 (so far), it was Peter's turn this year.  He decided to have a sleepover, which is also what Esther did when she turned 8.  We invited all the boys in his class, but a few were out of town or unable to come, and 1 of his buddies was sick.  We ended up with 5 boys for the evening part of the party, and 3 of them slept over, which was a great number.  It was a lot of fun and it was neat to get to know some of his friends better.

We started with pizza and then went to Mulick Park to sled (hoping that if we tired them out, they would actually sleep!)  It was a perfect night for sledding and we had a great time and thankfully no injuries.  Miriam joined in the sledding fun, but Esther opted to hang out with Aunt Karen instead.

When we got home, we had cupcakes and ice cream and Peter opened his gifts.  He received some very cool gifts from his friends and has already had a lot of fun with them.

It's hard to get a picture in the dark,
but you get the idea!

Cupcakes, decorated by the birthday boy himself!

Toys 'r Us Gift Card

Rush Hour logic game and NASCAR bashers car

Despicable Me 2 Movie

Mouse Trap game

Nerf Gun with laser

Next it was time for a game.  Peter came up with "pin the checkered flag on the car" so we used a car cutout that was part of the party decorations and printed out little checkered flags.  Then it was on to a Lego building contest.  Peter had specific rules and guidelines, which he explained very thoroughly to the boys.  They each received wheels, a steering wheel, and a windshield and they had to create some type of vehicle.  We put all the Lego drawers in the middle of the floor and they went to town.  They were down there for a long time, and probably would have stayed down there all night if we had let them!  It was so fun to see the variety of creations that they made and the creativity and ideas that each one put into his vehicle.  Peter wanted Casey to be the judge, so he came up with 6 different categories so that each kid won first place in a different category.  :)

Two of the boys were picked up around 10:00 and then the other boys got into pj's and watched Despicable Me 2.  They were very quiet and apparently fell asleep quickly after the movie ended.  In the morning they stayed quiet and watched the first Despicable Me movie until Casey had waffles ready for breakfast.  Then they played Legos again for a while and Casey took them home.

Peter had a great time, and we are thankful for the nice friends that he has.  Now his birthday is officially over until next year!

Skiing and Meijer Gardens

We enjoyed another fun day of Christmas break today!  After a couple errands this morning and a special date for Miriam with Aunt Karen, we spent some time outside at my parents' house so that the kids could try their new sleds and also try cross country skiing for the first time.  They were all naturals at it and loved it!

New Christmas sleds from Grandpa and Grandma K.

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Late this afternoon we went to Meijer Gardens to see the Christmas trees from around the world and the trains.  Esther took a lot of great pictures:

We always enjoy the trains and trolleys and looking at the replicas of landmarks from around West Michigan.  They are all made from natural materials and it's neat to see the creativity of the items from nature that are used to create different parts of the buildings.

Meijer Gardens

Civic Theater

Fifth Third Ballpark

Holland Lighthouse

Fish Ladder

We went late in the afternoon hoping that it would be getting dark while we were there.  We had never been there in the evening, but had heard that the outdoor areas and children's gardens were decorated with lights.  It was very pretty!