Party in the USA!

The West Ottawa Competitive Dance Team held a clinic on a Saturday for K-5th grade girls. They learned a dance and then they performed at half-time of the basketball game this past Friday night. Elyse had a great time at the clinic. Here she is performing at the basketball game.

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!