Late Summer Fun

There is a great park in Jenison, a small town close to Grand Rapids where we try to take the kids at least once a year. The entire playground is constructed from wood in the shape of a large ship (we think it is a pirate ship!). There are tons of places throughout the structure to explore, hide or climb. Even the grownups can't resist a little play time on the pirate ship! Here are some pics of the kids finding great adventures within the ship (hidden tire swing under the hull - yes sir!!) Enjoy!

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day (here is what the kids made for Gary for his office)

Baby Birds

A little while ago the kids found a birds nest in our swing set clubhouse. After the discovery they began checking the next regularly to see if any eggs had been laid. Sure enough a few weeks after our discovery the kids found two robin blue eggs in the little nest. They were excited! The girls researched robin eggs and how long it would take for the eggs to hatch. They learned that it took about 12-14 days for the eggs to hatch then after that the baby birds would live in the nest for over 4 weeks. They decided as a "team" to leave the clubhouse (which includes climbing wall and slide) alone until the baby birds flew the coop.

One afternoon while busying myself around the house I heard an ear piercing scream from the backyard from the kids. Scared someone was hurt (aka Drew), I raced to the backyard to find all three kids with huge smiles shrieking "the eggs hatched". Kami quickly grabbed the camera and cautiously ventured into the clubhouse to record what she found. Here is a video of the findings.(1st video shows newly hatched birds - 2nd & 3rd video shows little bit older baby birds)

Daddy Daughter Dance

The girls were treated to a Daddy/Daughter dance and a Grandpa (Papa)/Granddaughter Dance all in one weekend! Gary took the girls on Saturday night along with our good friends, the Knolls to a great event at Sunshine Community Church. The kids had fun dancing, crafting and hanging out with their cool dad! Here are a few pics from this first event: (scroll down for the second dance pics)

On Sunday we brought the kids to Fremont so they could attend the Grandpa/Granddaughter (daddy/daughter) dance at Camp Newaygo. We kept this a secret from the girls who were totally surprised to get their first wrist corsages and told they were going somewhere special with Papa O'Brien. Once they pulled into the Camp Newaygo drive way they knew exactly where their final destination was! They danced, had cookies and got manicures. It was a well attended and fun event! Thanks Camp Newaygo!

Rian's Birthday

Better late than never, right? Well since it has been almost a month since Rian's 5th birthday I thought I'd post some pics from her party. She has a great birthday and enjoyed many great gifts, a cool cake and some great time with family and friends. Thanks to all who came to the party or send her a card/gift! Here is our sweet 5 year old in action! Oh, and by the way if you look closely at the last two pictures you can see Drew blowing out Rian's candles! We had to relight them and cover his mouth so she could blow out her birthday candles!! Silly little brother.

Mom & Me Camp 2011

The girls and I just returned from a great weekend at Camp Newaygo where we participated in the Mommy & Me weekend camp program. My cousin Meg O'Brien and her daughter Claire joined us for the second year. Meg and Claire drove to Grand Rapids on Friday to spend the night and then on Saturday morning we packed up and headed to camp! The "excitement meter" was OFF THE CHARTS and the girls were ready to get to camp. Our weekend was packed with so many activities - tye dying, rock climbing, archery, swimming, water wonder (study of the lake), canoe trip, GaGa Court (hand ball type of game), shelter building, scavenger hunt, bonfire, cookout, hiking, nature trail exploration, zoo school, fencing, singing camp songs...WOW I think I covered most of the activities but I'm sure there were more that I left out. Anyway I think you get the picture and can see that we were busy and having a ton of fun! Here are some pictures and short videos highlighting our experiences:

Hip Hop Ballet

Rian just completed a five week ballet & hip hop class for 4 & 5 year olds. She really enjoyed the portion of the class dedicated to the hip hop dancing. Here she is in action! (sorry you have to tilt your head to watch these!)

Gymnastics

The girls just completed a 5 week beginners gymnastics class that they took together. It was a great way for them to experience gymnastics without a lengthy commitment and have a whole lot of fun trying out the equipment! Here are some pictures from their class.

Substitute Teacher

I'm a little behind with my blog postings but this one I thought needed to be done. In early November I had a wisdom tooth pulled out which required Gary to take a day off from work and stay home with the kids as well as be the teacher for the day. Before his first day of teaching school I made sure the kids' school work was in order and easy to follow as well as some science experiments. My kids just love doing science experiments - usually because they are messy and totally hands on! This would be no different. The object of this experiment was to show how some fairly "weak" materials, uncooked spaghetti noodles and marshmallows could be used to build a stable/strong structure. Here are the results and the scientists (prior to the demolition and eating of the marshmallows). Ok, well Drew had to be bribed with a few marshmallows before construction was completed hence the sticky face.