Schurman Family Christmas

We had everyone over to our house for the Schurman Family Christmas. We had a nice dinner and Andrew enjoyed eating the "drumstick"!

Then it was present time. Kailey got matching boots and gloves from us and her new hat from Grandma and Grandpa matches too!

The boys being cute.

 

Elyse got Kaya - the American Girl Doll she has been wanting for a long time! She was so excited!

I got a Keurig for Christmas - which will be so nice to have when we have company over. Jeff got a step for the boat - even though he isn't the one that needs the step! It is more for the kids and I so we don't have to step on the seat when we are getting in and out of the boat.

After opening presents the kids played with some of their new toys and we had fun playing with different apps on our smartphones - taking pictures of everyone and making them look old, fat, etc.  The kids thought it was hilarious and we all had a good time laughing at everyone's pictures!

 

Veteran's Day Assembly

There was a Veteran's Day Assembly at the kids school on Thursday morning. They were told to invite a veteran and Elyse was so excited to invite Grandpa Lindholm!  

 

Here is Elyse and Grandpa walking in together.

The kids sang several songs for the veterans - it was so cute and very moving. My mom and I both had to dig in our purses for some kleenex. They did a great job!

Elyse and Grandpa wait in line for the microphone.

Elyse did a great job introducing grandpa.

Grandpa tells about where he served.

Grandpa with both kids after the assembly.

 

It was a great assembly and I think it meant a lot to my dad and the other veterans that were able to attend. Thanks Dad! 

Halloween

We had a fun Halloween night, despite the chilly weather. We had everyone over at our house again and I had chili and pizza for dinner along with other snacks. After eating, all the kids got ready to go on our annual leaf ride and when we got back from that we went trick or treating around the neighborhood. We had hot apple cider (and wine!) to warm us up when we got back home.

 

Here is a picture of Elyse and Andrew at their school Halloween parade.  A leopard and a clone trooper.

Clone Trooper vs. Katniss Everdeen!

Having fun on the leaf ride despite the cold.

My little clone trooper with his R2D2 pumpkin.

My cute leopard with her kitty pumpkin.

What a fun night!

Summer Recap

So - I didn't blog all summer long!  I always have such good intentions to keep up with it but I guess life just gets in the way.  I will do a quick recap of our summer.

June - We went to Terre Haute to celebrate my grandma's 93rd birthday. It was such a fun time with family!  Here is a picture of grandma with the great-grandkids.

July - We spent a night on the boat in Saugatuck with our friends Josh and Jenine. Unfortunately, Josh and Jenine's daughter Sara broke her wrist at the playground and so Jenine and Sara had to go home early. It was such a bummer!  We did enjoy just hanging out while the kids swam off the back of the boats and then had a nice dinner together.  Here are the kids swimming.

We also went camping for a long weekend in Ludington with friends. Our camping weekend started off a little rainy but after the first day - it was beautiful! We had lots of fun swimming in the pool, going for boat rides, playing at the playground, hiking the trails at the state park and of course enjoyed some Chuck Wagon pizza and House of Flavors ice cream! We even got Elyse to jump off the side of the pool with her tube. It still baffles me that we have 2 kids afraid of going under water when they have literally grown up on the boat and at the lake!?!  So - getting her to jump off the side of the pool with the tube was a big step. Here she is showing off her new skill.

And a cute picture of the 2 of them sleeping in the tent.

August - We had a girls day to the American Girl Store in Chicago. My mom, Misti, Grace and Abby joined us and my cousin Sarah even met us for lunch!  The girls had so much fun shopping and thanks to Great Grandma - they all had a little extra money to spend.  Here is a pic of all of us at lunch.

Then I surprised Jeff with an anniversary getaway!  Our friends Kevin and Christie celebrated their 10 year anniversary this summer so Christie and I decided to surprise the guys. We booked a Canopy Tour/Zipline in Boyne City. It was so much fun and we even went upside down on the last zipline!!! Here we are ready for an adventure.

I had 2 weeks off in August and during the 2nd week that I had off we planned to stay on the boat and our friends Kevin and Christie were camping at the state park. Unfortunately - this week was probably the coldest and rainest week of the whole summer!  But we still had fun - went to the movies, went to crazy bounce, hung out around the campfire and went to the beach a couple of times.

My last day off we decided to take the kids to Michigan's Adventure - they loved it!! Jeff's parents went with us and Tric and Christopher.  They were both pretty brave when it came to the rides and the water slides. We had a great time! This picture is a little blurry but I love that they have their hands up and are having a great time.

Andrew got a little turned around on this water slide.

Elyse on a water slide.

And any other "free" time that we had was spent at the boat, the beach and hanging out at the marina.  Elyse shows off her new skill of jumping off the swim platform. 

Elyse hanging out on her boogie board at the marina.

And Andrew is just relaxin in the lake.

It was a beautiful summer to enjoy living by the lake!

Poetry and Plays

Elyse's class did a Poetry and Plays presentation. Here is Elyse reciting one of her poems. She did a great job!

Weekend Fun

We a fun and relaxing weekend.  The weather was beautiful and we enjoyed our first overnight on the boat of the season!  Andrew had a soccer game saturday morning and then we packed everything up and headed out to the marina.  Once I had everything put away the kids and I headed to the beach.  The kids were so excited to see all the beach that we have this year at the marina!  It is so nice not to have to walk as far and it stays shallow so it's nice for the kids to play in the water.  We spent all afternoon at the beach, grilled out for dinner and then got some ice cream at The General Store.

On Sunday the kids and I were at the beach by about 10:30am!  They love to play and build in the sand!  We took a break to eat some lunch and then we were back at the beach until we went to small group.  Jeff went home and got the Sea-doo out so we took turns riding that while the kids played.  Elyse went for a ride with Jeff but Andrew was content to just play in the sand.

We are ready for more lazy, summer weekends!!!

Tulip Time

We had a fun Tulip Time week.  I was dancing again this year so that makes things busy but I also took some time off of work.  We had the boat in the water for the fireworks so we took some friend and their kids out on the boat to watch the fireworks.  It was a little chilly but so fun to be on the boat again!

On Wednesday Andrew and I spend the day downtown. I had to dance at 10am and then we put a blanket and chairs down to save a spot to watch the parade later on.  We even got our picture taken by the paper when we were putting our chairs down!  It wasn't in the print addition - only the on-line addition.  Here is the link to see it online:

http://www.hollandsentinel.com/news/x1310206156/Volksparade-is-this-afternoon?photo=0

We watched a puppet show downtown and had a picnic lunch. Then we met up with Tric and Christopher to scrub the streets! The boys had fun and when we got to our seats we sat down and waited for the parade to start.

Thursday I was able to march with Elyse's class in the Kinderparade.  The weather was perfect - unlike last year when it was soooo hot!  The kids did great and it was fun to be with Elyse.

Friday night I had to dance for the last time and it was so busy downtown!  I had so many friends and family that came to watch me that night - I felt like I had a huge cheering section just for me - so fun!

We went to the Saturday parade too, despite the rain.  My mom came with me and we really had a fun time even though it was raining  =( 

Here are some pics from the week.

My cute dutch girl and her AG doll.

And by cute dutch boy.

My mom got this cute pic of the 3 of us.

Andrew's favorite part of scrubbing the streets -- the water!

Having a snack at the parade - good to the last crumb!

Getting ready to march with Elyse's class.

Another fun Tulip time week!