Fun in Terre Haute

We went to Terre Haute, IN to visit my grandma and my Aunt Chris over spring break. The weather was beautiful there! We went to the Children's Museum, saw The Lorax, spent some time walking and riding scooters around the neighborhood and enjoyed playing at the park! It was in the 70's and sunny so we tried to spend a lot of time outside enjoying the sunshine. As always, it was great to spend some time with my grandma and my aunt! Here are a few pics from our time in Terre Haute.

My grandma decided not to join in on the silly face picture.

Elyse and Andrew enjoy some time at the park. This park is within walking distance from my aunt's house and the kids love it!

Lunch with Great Grandma.

Elyse in a bubble at the Children's Museum.

Elyse climbs up into the tree house at the Children's Museum.

Andrew liked shooting the nerf balls with the air guns at the Children's Museum.

Our tradition on the way home from Terre Haute is to stop for dinner in Monon, Indiana at The Whistle Stop restaurant. It is a restaurant that has several train tracks mounted from the ceiling with multiple trains that run on the tracks. Plus, the parking lot is full of train cars, railroad crossing signs, etc. The kids love it! Unfortunately, we were traveling home on Monday evening and they close at 3pm on Monday - we were all so bummed! We stopped a little later at a subway and dairy queen that were together in a gas station - so the kids were excited to get some ice cream after dinner.

It was a fun little getaway!

Happy 5th Birthday Andrew!

Well - it's been a while since I've posted anything . . . since the the last time I posted it was around Elyse's bday - guess I'll post about Andrew's bday.

He wanted a dinosaur birthday party. He loves Dinosaurs! When I asked him what kind of cake he wanted - he said he wanted a cake with a Carnataur (a type of dino) on it . . . ok - we'll see what we can do about that. I called my friend Cindy and she delivered! Andrew loved his cake!

It was such a beautiful day when we had his party that we all sat outside while Andrew opened his presents. Here he is opening his Lego City Airport. He loves to play with Legos and will sit for hours and build things.

Waiting to open all his presents!

He has been going to preschool 2 days a week this year and loves it. We just had his preschool conference and he is doing great and is very ready for kindergarten. They tested him on his numbers, colors, letters, letter sounds etc. and he knew almost all of them! He forgot a few letters and a few letter sounds but that is it. And the teacher said he sits and listens when it is time to listen and plays well with the other kids. She had no concerns with him academically or socially - so it's off to kindergarten next year! It will be quite and adjustment as kindergarten will be all day, every day next year! He is excited to ride the bus with Elyse and to go to the same school as her. We'll see how long his excitement lasts once school starts in the fall!

He also just had his 5 year old check up and continues to be a healthy boy. He weighed 42 lbs and was 43 1/2 inches tall - a growing boy for sure!

Video of Elyse getting her kittys

"The Best Day of My Life" - Elyse

We all know how much Elyse LOVES kittys so we finally gave in and got her a real kitty! Actually, we decided to get 2 kittens - then they can play together and keep each other company when we are not home. It was a friend of Misti's whose cat had kittens and we visited the kittens several times but Elyse did not know that one day 2 of the kittens would be coming to our house to stay!

Here is Elyse opening the box, actually the kittens "popped" their heads out of the top of the box before Elyse had a chance to open it.
I think Elyse thought that Uncle Ryan and Aunt Misti had brought them over for a visit. We finally told her that the kittens were ours and they would be staying at our house. Upon hearing this news, Elyse proceded to jump up and down and exclaim - "This is the best day of my life!".


Here is Elyse with Tiara.



And here is Elyse with Princess before heading to the bus stop for her first day of school. She had to get some kitty cuddles before leaving for school!
The kitten are about 8 weeks old. They love to run/roll/jump around and play with each other and then the next minute you look over and they are sleeping next to each other. They are sooo cute and Elyse just adores them. She really wants them to sleep in her room but for now we are keeping them in the laundry room at night until they get used to the house. If you would like to see more pics of the kittys - you can click on this link:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150293005392368.352604.559977367&l=77e07e8ec3&type=1

Tulip Time

We had a fun but busy Tulip Time week! The weather forecast did not look good at the beginning of the week but thankfully it rained mostly at night. We were able to go downtown for the parades on Wednesday and Thursday. Wednesday is when they have street scrubbing before the parade. I took both kids to street scrub and we met up with Tric, Christopher, Jamie, Jacob and Ashlyn. Here is a picture of the kids (minus Andrew) ready to go!
Here is Elyse and Andrew scrubbing the streets.

My mom took our chairs and blankets and saved a spot for us along the parade route. Once we got to her the kids were tired and ready to sit down. So, we sat down with my mom and watched the parade. Jamie, Jacob and Ashlyn sat by us too.

Thursday is the kids parade. This was the first year that Elyse could march in the parade and I volunteered to march with her class. It was a very hot day but the kids did really good. They were so tired by the end of the parade!! Here is Elyse and I waiting for the parade to start.


My dutch dance group opted not to dance this year but a friend of mine needed a sub in her group a couple of nights. So, I volunteered to dance with their group a few times. Jeff took this picture of the kids and I Friday night when we all went downtown and I had to dance.

My friend Melissa met me downtown this past week to take a few pics of the kids in the park with the tulips. Here is my favorite of the 2 kids.

To see my other pics from tulip time - follow this link.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150180453912368.319141.559977367&l=bd40e850bd

More Spring Break Fun!

We are having a great time in Florida with the Klaasens. Tuesday was a rainy, cloudy, windy day. We walked to downtown Clearwater to have some lunch, did some shopping and the kids played at the playground for a while. Wednesday we went to Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa. We had a great time!! Got to see lots of animals and the kids got to ride some rides. Elyse and Jordyn loved the Tiger roller coaster! They were both a little hesitant the first time they rode it (I rode with Elyse and Christie rode with Jordyn) but they decided they were brave enough to go just the 2 of them. Here they are one of the first times riding by themselves. They are having a ball but notice they are hanging on!

But it wasn't long until it was hands up all the way!!!

When we got back to our condo - Jeff and I went out to dinner just the 2 of us, while Kevin and Christie watched all the kids. They took them down to the beach and Elyse was so excited when she found this starfish but she was quite surprised when Kevin told her it was still alive!!! They took this picture of Elyse with her starfish before throwing the starfish back into the water.

Today we took the boat to Caladesi State Park. It is an island that you can only get to by boat. We saw some dolphin on the way there. We set up "camp" for the day and had a great time!! The girls had fun looking for shells and I even found a whole sand dollar!! It was such a beautiful day! When we got back - it was Kevin and Christie's turn for a kid-free dinner and we stayed with all the kids. Can't believe there is only 1 more day left - even the kids all got a little sad when we told them we only have 1 more day in Florida. Here is a link to more pics on facebook - enjoy! http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=297200&id=559977367&l=a06619366f

Spring Break - the first few days

Our spring break did not get off to a smooth start. We ended up with a flat tire about 2 1/2 hours into our trip. Thankfully our spare tire on the trailblazer is a full size tire - so Jeff (and a guy who saw we were from out of town and stopped to help us) changed the tire and we were on our way again. We stopped in Kokomo for dinner and Jeff checked to make sure the spare tire was doing ok. We kept driving and decided to drive through the night. The kids did great, although a couple times in the night Elyse woke up and asked if we could stop and stay in a hotel because she couldn't sleep (even though she had just been sleeping!). We had a major traffic jam around 2am, Jeff and I actually switched drivers during the traffic jam, since he was getting tired and I was awake. The rest of our trip was uneventful - thankfully!

Since we arrived, we have gone to the beach several times, went on the boat several times, watched dolphin swim by our "backyard" and saw some dolphin up close on our boat ride. The kids have enjoyed the pool and we took a walk down to Pier 60 - where they have vendors, street performers, etc. every night and they also have a nice playground. Andrew went fishing with Jeff and they caught a couple of Spanish Mackerel. We hope to catch a couple of more, so we can have a fish dinner. Andrew was so proud to hold them up for a picture!

The house we are renting is beautiful!!!! It is on the intracoastal, so our boat is right in our backyard and it also within walking distance to the beach. They have tons of beach and pool toys at the house for us to use and the best thing is they have a wagon to help haul all our stuff to the beach! Here is a link to some pictures on facebook of our spring break so far.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=297200&id=559977367&l=a06619366f