Fun in Rockford

This morning the kids and I went to Rockford with Karen and my mom.  We usually go up there and bike the White Pine trial, but my dad had an appointment and couldn't come, so we decided to just go hang out without the biking part.

We started by checking out a couple of the parks/playgrounds.  Then we walked to the dam and had hot dogs from Corner Bar for lunch.  We finished with ice cream!  It was a nice morning to be outside.

Not surprisingly, Miriam was the only
one who wanted to wade in the water

Karen captured this string of pictures... crazy kids!

Peter's Statue of Liberty
ice cream cone pose

After that we headed to Schuler Books.  They have a summer reading program that allows the kids to earn up to $15 in gift cards to the store.  The kids love that store and there are so many fun things to shop for there, so they worked hard to get their reading logs all filled out before the end of summer.  They had fun perusing the store and choosing their items!

Esther got this mustache pen,
a crayon pencil, a Mad Lib book,
and a stuffed animal raccoon.
I forgot to get a picture of
the other items!

Miriam got these cute elephants!

Peter got a fire rescue Lego set
to add to his collection.

Neighborhood Art Show

Our neighbor Katie is great and getting the neighborhood kids engaged in fun and creative activities.  A week or 2 ago the kids were all creating magnificent works of art on her deck, and then they talked about how they should do an art show.  We finally made it work today and it was a great success.  Katie had the kids bake little cookies so they could make ice cream sandwiches for the guests and we invited some of the other neighbors to come and look at their art.  The dads even judged the artwork and gave prizes in each age category (fortunately the only 2 kids who are the same age are Peter and one of the neighbor girls, so they did a female and male award in that age category).  :)

The girls weren't sure if Peter was going to participate,
so his name is not on the signs.

Dutch Village

Today we ventured to Nelis' Dutch Village in Holland.  I don't think I'd been there since I was in elementary school and I went there on a field trip.  I had heard several people say that it was fun, so I had it on our bucket list for the summer.  We were originally planning to go to the beach today, but it was too cool, so this was a good alternative.  We had a lot of fun doing the rides, exploring the little shops, seeing the Dutch dancers, watching how wooden shoes are made, and eating lunch.  On the way home we stopped at Captain Sundae in Zeeland for ice cream.  What a fun day!

Racing ducks by pumping water

Adorable Dutch school children

Teacher Miriam

Hand pump train cars

Learning how wooden shoes were made
in "the old days"

Dutch shuffleboard... just like we play
at Grandpa and Grandma K's house!

There were only 2 horses left when we got on
the carousel, so Peter kindly agreed to ride on
the bench with me.

Pigs in a Blanket--yum!

Captain Sundae!

We had to get a picture with the Captain!