Christmas Fun

We had a fun-filled Christmas season! Both kids loved helping set up the Christmas tree and Andrew continued to rearrange the ornaments frequently.

One highlight of our Christmas season was a Happy Birthday Jesus party with our small group. We rented a building at a local farm and invited several other families to join us. We had lunch together and some birthday cake, went for a horse-drawn hay ride (not quite enough snow for the sleigh) while the snow fell and then got to feed some animals in the barn. The kids had a great time! Here is a link to some pics from the Happy Birthday Jesus party and some other Christmas fun.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=129795&id=559977367&l=cbca38f7f2

Another highlight was going on the North Pole Express with my family. We headed to the Steam Railroading Institute where the 1225 Engine from the Polar Express movie is stationed. In fact - all the "engine" sounds in The Polar Express movie are from this exact engine! This engine was supposed to take us to the north pole - but on it's first trip this season had some problems and therefore a different engine took us. We did get to sit in the engine - which the kids thought was fun. The train ride to the north pole was only about 45 min. or so and then we were able to enjoy some rides, see Santa and eat dinner before getting back on the train. The kids wore their jammies (just like in the movie) and we were served Hot Chocolate on the way to the north pole. It was another fun day! Here is a picture of Elyse and Andrew sitting on Santa's lap.



Here is a link to some pics from the North Pole Express.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=132315&id=559977367&l=6665ca8666

We celebrated Christmas with Jeff's family on Christmas Eve and my family on Christmas day. We enjoyed spending time with both family's and watching the kids open their presents. The kids have really played well together the past couple of days - sharing their new toys, most of the time. Elyse's favorite is her FurReal kitty. Not sure what Andrew's favorite new toy is - either his Tool Bench or his Disney Cars stuff. To see more of our Christmas fun click on the link below.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=132323&id=559977367&l=9c30aa04da
Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas surrounded by family and friends!

Christmas Memories and Traditions

A friend of mine did a post on some of her favorite memories/traditions of Christmas. I thought I would steal the idea and do a similar post.

The Christmas tree: We always had a real tree growing up and Jeff and I continued this tradition up until a few years ago. I love walking through the woods looking for the perfect Christmas tree - but they are much more work. So - not only do we have a fake tree now - it is even pre-lit - it is wonderful! One of my favorite ornaments that I still have from when I was little is one that I made in sunday school. Here is a picture of it:

Presents: My favorite Christmas present was my Cabbage Patch Doll that I got when I was in 3rd grade. My wonderful grandparents risked life and limb to get one for me! I was so excited when I woke up Christmas morning and saw the box with the slightly slanted front and I knew it was my Cabbage Patch Doll!!! The other thing I must mention about presents - my brother and I were terrible because the minute my parents would leave the house - we would begin searching everywhere to find our Christmas presents! My parents thought we were so great at guessing what we were getting - but it was because we were such good hunters (or my mom wasn't so good at hiding things!). I must say - I did not find my Cabbage Patch Doll prior to Christmas morning - it really was a surprise!

Traditions: We started a new family tradition the year that Elyse was born. I wanted to do something "giving" during this season when it is so easy to focus on what we want. So - even though Elyse didn't know what was going on (she was only 3 months old) - I took her shopping for Toys for Tots. This has been our yearly tradition ever since. We took the kids shopping Thursday night and filled a cart full of fun toys. The kids each picked out a toy to put in the Toys for Tots box at the store and the rest of the toys Jeff took to school to add to the school's Toys for Tots collection. I hope this is a tradition that we keep for many years to come and that it is something that will help the kids think of others during the Christmas season.

We are so blessed and have much to be thankful for during this time of year - friends, family, food to eat, a warm house and most of all the gift of Baby Jesus! May He fill your hearts and homes with his love this Christmas season!

Locks of Love

Back in the summer - I talked to Elyse about getting her hair cut and donating it to Locks of Love. I had several reasons why I thought this would be a good idea. It took a long time to comb her hair and it was usually accompanied by whining and crying. Also - everywhere we went people would always say "She has the most beautiful hair!". So why not give another little girl the chance to have such beautiful hair -right?! After reading in the paper about a little girl who donated her hair to Locks of Love - I looked on-line to find out the requirements for donating. I also asked the gal who normally cuts Elyse's hair if she had ever cut someones hair for Locks of Love and she said yes and that Elyse would get a free haircut for donating! So - I talked to Elyse more about it - showed her pictures on the Locks of Love website of kids who needed wigs etc. Elyse loves her curls and she was worried that she wouldn't have any curls if she got her hair cut. I assured her that her hair would still be curly - it would just be shorter. We talked about the reasons why some kids don't have hair and what a wig was etc. Elyse asked if once the kids got a wig if that made them all better - oh if only it were that easy! I told her that it wouldn't make them better but it would make them feel better inside. So - Elyse said she was ok with getting her haircut. I decided to wait until after Halloween (since she was Sleeping Beauty for Halloween - I figured she needed to have long hair!). Friday was the big day. Here is the before picture - look at those long beautiful curls!!!

Miss Robin (our hairstylist, yes her name is Robin) - put Elyse's hair into 2 pigtails. When you donate, your hair has to be 10 inches and it has to be in ponytails or braids when it is cut.

Elyse holds one of the pigtails while Miss Robin cuts the other one.

2 pigtails for some other special little girl!

Miss Robin wet down Elyse's hair to get it to curl more after she got it cut. Here is Elyse under the dryer with the magazine she picked out to "read" - good thing she can't actually read!!

Looking through the magazine.

The new look - she looks so cute!!! She is so proud of her new haircut!!!

The last reason why I decided to have Elyse donate her hair to Locks of Love is in honor of my Aunt Mary. She was diagnosed with breast cancer this past summer and is currently undergoing chemotherapy. Aunt Mary - this Locks of Love donation is dedicated to you - We love you very much!!!

First Day of Kindergarten

Elyse's first day of kingergarten was bittersweet. She was so excited to go to school and ride the bus. We walked to the bus stop and I told her to go stand by the other kids and she made a spot for herself right inbetween 2 older girls. The other moms at the bus stop laughed and thought it was so cute. It's too bad that Elyse is so shy =)

She said she had a good first day at school, sat on the bus with Morgan on the way to school and sat with a new friend Rachel (who is in her class and she shares a locker with her) on the way home from school. She talked about a book they read at school and she had to tell me that she didn't get a chance to play in the kitchen at school (she was so excited about the toy kitchen in her classroom when we went to the open house!).

Still so hard to believe that she is in kindergarten!

A few pics from the first day:

Walking to the bus stop.


So excited for school and to ride the bus!!

Getting off the bus after her first day.

Lakewood Open House

Wednesday night we were all able to go to Elyse's school for the school open house. We met Elyse's teacher (who we know from when we went to Fellowship Church) and Elyse got to spend time looking around the classroom. Her favorite part of the classroom is the "playhouse" that Mrs. Kleinheksel has set up - it has a play kitchen and stuff inside - Elyse didn't want to stop playing. I hope she realizes that she doesn't get to just play all day! Here are a couple of pics of Elyse playing in the playhouse.




We found her "cubby" in her classroom and also her locker. She is actually sharing a locker with a girl who went to Tot Time with Elyse last year. Here she is by her locker.

We found out that there is another boy in her class from Tot Time and 2 of our friends have a son in Elyse's class too. So - there will be several familiar faces for Elyse - although I don't think she will have any problem making new friends! Already at the open house she went right up to a girl in the playhouse and said - "do you want to play with me"?

We have heard nothing but wonderful things about Mrs. Kleinheksel and are sure that Elyse is going to have a great year! Here is a picture of the 2 of them at the open house.

Kalahari Resort

We took a somewhat unexpected road trip last weekend. We had ordered a trailer for the boat from a place in Toledo, OH and Jeff was planning on driving there and back on Friday to pick it up. We decided to go as a family and after checking the weather forecast for our area - decided to stay overnight somewhere near Toledo. We thought about going to Cedar Point - but the weather looked a little iffy for that - so we thought an indoor waterpark would be fun. So - at 10pm Thursday night we booked a room at the Kalahari Resort in Sandusky, OH for Friday night. The kids were already asleep and so we packed our bags while they were sleeping and decided that it was going to be a surprise. Elyse was so excited when we pulled up to the resort and told her that we were staying there for the night. Here is a pic of the outside of the resort.

Andrew and Elyse waiting to cross over the bridge to the resort.

The resort had a small petting zoo area. Here we are face to face with 2 giraffes - so cool!! Although Andrew was a little scared of the giraffes.


Feeding some goats.

On Saturday we spent a short amount of time at the outdoor pool area (it was still a little chilly out!). Here we are standing next a waterfall in the kids area.

Elyse's favorite spot in the indoor kid area - next to the "kitty's".

The water park inside the resort was huge - with so much to do - we could have easily spent another night. We spent several hours in the waterpark on Friday night and then again on Saturday afternoon. There was also a huge indoor play area too. Andrew played in there for a while on Saturday. Jeff and I took turns watching the kids so we could each go on a few of the bigger water slides - although we both said it would be fun to go back when the kids are older and braver and want to go on the bigger water slides with us! It was a very spontaneous but fun getaway!

Elyse's dance class

Elyse took a kinderballet class this summer for 8 weeks. There were only 2 girls in the class but they really had a fun time together! They had prepared a special dance for us for the last day of class. Here are a couple of pics from the last day.

Here is a video of the special dance they did for us on the last day of class. Elyse said her favorite part was when she got to hold hands with the other girl and dance in a circle. Enjoy watching our little girl!

Vacation Fun

We took the boat to Grand Haven on Friday evening. We anchored for the night and enjoyed watching the musical fountain. On saturday Jeff's parents came to stay with us for a couple of nights. We took the dinghy to shore and Elyse had a ton of fun riding the rides at the carnival for Coast Guard festival. Even Andrew went on a ride - he was grinning from ear to ear the whole time - it was so cute! Unfortunately - I didn't bring my camera to shore - so no pics of the kids on the rides. Jeff and I took Andrew on the tour of the Mackinaw (the big ship as Andrew called it!). They were both very tired out when we got back to the boat and fell asleep together watching a movie. Andrew was cuddled up so cute next to Elyse that I had to take a picture.


The fireworks on Saturday night were amazing!!! We really had a front row seat as they were literally right over our boat. They were HUGE and LOUD!! Andrew wasn't scared at all but Elyse was a little bit. She was cuddled up with me and I had to keep my hands over her ears. They had some different things going off closer to the ground too - it almost looked like a bunch of glitter the way it sparkled - it was really cool!

We thought we would just stay put there for the night but after the fireworks were done the Coast Guard boat came around to all the boats anchored out and said that we had to move because a freighter was coming in to port? Now who schedules a freighter to come into the GH port the night of Coast Guard fireworks? It was not the best night weather wise - but there were still a ton of boats anchored out for the fireworks - many of which probably would have stayed where they were all night - if not for the freighter. So - we headed up to Spring Lake and anchored there for the night.

On Sunday we had a reservation at the municipal marina. It's such a fun place to stay. We can sit on the back of our boat and watch all the people go by, close to the ice cream shop etc. We plan to stay here for rest of the week. It is very windy - so hopefully the wind starts to lay down tonight. The kids had fun flying kites last night and today. Here are a few pics of the kite flying adventures.

Andrew runs to get his kite up in the air.


Elyse keeps a close eye on her kite . . .

but she didn't hold on tight enough and the kite got away from her. The handle was stuck in this tree and Jeff is trying to hook it with the boat hook taped to a stick - but he wasn't quite tall enough.
I think we were the evenings entertainment as everyone was watching us trying to get the kite back. Here is a picture of her kite flying high when it was stuck in the tree.

The kite eventually took a nose dive and we got the kite back and quite a bit of the string too. And then today - with all the wind - we found the handle with the rest of the string on the ground! Elyse was so happy! That's it for now.

Fun with Friends at Tunnel Park

We met my friend Jamie and her kids at Tunnel Park for a picnic lunch and some fun at the beach. The kids played on the playground and had fun climbing up the sand dune and running back down. Here they are on the way down . . .


Climbing back up again - Jamie and I thought it was especially cute when Ashlyn reached out for Andrew's hand!

After lunch we headed to the water. It was a bit wavy and the kids had so much fun running, jumping and splashing in the waves! Andrew kept running into the waves and back out again.

Jacob having fun in the waves.

Elyse is not as brave as her brother. She just liked to get her feet wet. Andrew would run in up to his waist - while I watched and hoped he didn't get knocked down. He did get knocked down a few times - but that didn't bother him - he went right back into the water.

Jamie and I were even able to relax for a bit while the kids played in the sand. We love that they play so well together (once I convinced Andrew that throwing sand was not acceptable)!


Ashlyn

More sand time.

Elyse smiles for the camera.

Ashlyn is surprised by the cool water when it splashes up on her! What a great expression!

Say Cheese Andrew!

Jacob smiles for the camera.

I love this picture of Ashlyn playing in the sand.

It was such a great day for the beach - and great that we got to spend it with friends!

Kmart Crazy

I visited Kmart more times this past week then I have in the past year! They were doing double coupons (up to and including a $2 coupon) so I was hoping to get some good deals this week. I love shopping for bargins. So - Elyse and I headed out to Kmart on Sunday - hoping for well-stocked shelves. Some of my best deals from Sunday were shave gel for .49, 2-pack of Venus Spa Breeze disposable razors $1, box of bandaids .49, can of Oust .19, and 5 boxes of cereal for a little over a $1 each. I think Elyse's favorite thing was the Tinkerbell pillowcase that I "splurged" on since it wasn't on sale and I didn't have a coupon.

I found myself back at Kmart on Tuesday because on Sunday I got a coupon that printed out with my receipt (a catalina - for my fellow coupon moms) for $2 off 5 boxes of GM cereal. Well - GM cereal was on sale 5 boxes for $10 - so I would get 5 boxes of cereal for $6 - just like on Sunday - so I couldn't pass the deal up. Some other deals from Tuesday included some snuggle fabric softner for .50, 2 more boxes of bandaids for .49 each, and 2 boxes of Huggies washcloths (love these for travel and on the boat) and 1 bottle of huggies soap/shampoo - all 3 for $4.

It was brought to my attention that there was also a deal with certain products (Huggies products being one of them) - that if you spent $50 - you got $14 off your next shopping trip to Kmart. I had a ton of Huggies coupons for diapers and wipes - so I had to go back one last time to take advantage of this deal. I got 160 diapers and 1 box of wipes for $44 - plus $14 off my next shopping trip to Kmart - so really that makes it $30 for the diapers and wipes. I'll be visiting Kmart once again in the next couple of weeks to spend my $14! Oh - I had another coupon for $2 off 5 boxes of cereal - I was so tempted to buy another 5 boxes - but I wasn't sure where I was going to store a total of 15 boxes of cereal?!?!? I really wanted to get 2 more Venus Spa Breeze razors (as I had acquired 2 more coupons!) but they were all out - bummer.

So - that has been my excitement for the week. I am also excited because I found the perfect dance class for Elyse this summer. Ever since we went to Grace and Abby's dance recital, Elyse has been asking to take a dance class. I wanted to find a dance class that would be once a week for about 6 weeks - to let Elyse try it out and see if she liked it or not. She is signed up for Kinderballet at Avalon. It is on Mondays at 4:30pm for 8 weeks. Monday is a great day since I am always off on Monday and looking at our summer schedule - she shouldn't have to miss any classes except maybe the last one. So - we'll give it a try and see if it is something Elyse will want to sign up for again in the fall.

Time for bed - gotta get up early tomorrow for garage sale #2 - hopefully the rain doesn't deter everyone from heading out to garage sales tomorrow!

Tot Time - a year in review

Elyse's final day of Tot Time was Monday. On Wednesday they had a year end picnic for all the family's at Tot Time. Elyse had a great year at Tot Time. Not only did she learn a lot but she had a lot of fun too! Here are a few of my favorite pics from the year.

Here she is on the first day of preschool with her teacher Mrs. Monhollen.

I had to help in the classroom twice each semester and on those days - Elyse was the special helper and got to bring something for show and tell. Here she is getting ready to do the calendar at the beginning of class time on her first day as special helper.

And of course the first thing she chose to bring for show and tell . . .soccer blankie and kitty!

They had music about once a month at Tot Time. Elyse loved music days. She loves to sing!! They did a really cute Christmas program and we laughed so hard because we could hear Elyse over all the other kids! I thought it was just us being able to pick her voice out until Mrs. Monhollen came up to us afterwards saying that she thought we had a singer on our hands! Mrs. Monhollen chose Elyse to be the sun in the program because of her "sunny" personality. She did a great job as the sun - moving down the line as they sang a song about melting snowmen. It was a really cute program and I'm so glad that we have it on video. Here are a couple of pics from the program.

What would a kids Christmas program be without them singing Away in a Manger?!?

The second time that Elyse was the special helper she chose to bring a lump of coal for show and tell! I know that sounds odd - but we had just been on the North Pole Express the day before and she got a lump of coal from the conductor of the train - which apparently she thought was show and tell worthy! Show and tell time #3 - she decided to take her kitty keyboard that she got for Christmas. She even took the microphone that is hooked up to the keyboard and sang a song for the whole class - it was so cute!! Here she is with the kitty keyboard at show and tell time.

They did various field trips throughout the year: Teusinks Farm, the fire station, Meijer, roller-skating on-site, gymnastics, dance, etc. Here are a couple of pics from the gymnastics field trip. Here she is getting ready to jump into the pit.

Here she is jumping along the trampoline. I love this pic with her hair going straight up in the air and her tongue sticking out!

Last day to be special helper. Here she is being the calendar girl.

Field trip to Miss Jodi's dance. They had so much fun this day!!!

Their last field trip was to Dutch Village. Of course her favorite part was riding the swings and the carousel.

Here she is with Mrs. Monhollen at the picnic.

She had a great teacher and a great year at Tot Time. I was a little sad to think that her year of preschool was already done. Where did the time go? But I am excited for her as she looks forward to going to Lakewood School next year. She is really excited to start kindergarten and of course - to ride the bus! I am excited to continue to watch her learn and grow in school. For now - we will enjoy the freedom that summer brings and as excited as she is about the fall - I hope it doesn't come too quickly!