Happy Mother's Day!

A Happy Mother's Day to my Mom and Mother-in-law today! We wish we could be spending it with both of you.


Uncle Dave brought over colossal size donuts Saturday morning and they disappeared immediately.


The last piece of the deck railing went on this week! Hurray!!

And we planted a little garden.

Lately, it seems like we've been eating, sleeping and watching baseball. At least this is a little more exciting than the Mariner's!



Since Mia's games usually go a couple hours, there's usually a trip to the concession stand somewhere during the game.

And this warmer, sunny weather has made watching the games way more enjoyable!

Mia and Ellie got their signals crossed on what face they were going to make for the picture.

Take me out to the ball game

This is what it looked like at the beginning of Mia's game the other night...yuck!

And then this happened!

It ended up being a beautiful night for a ball game!

Tonight was the first of many double headers.



After the boys wrapped up a stellar first game, we switched fields over to Holly's. By this time I was FREEZING so the camera stayed tucked closely by my side most of the time. But there will be many more opportunities to come! I'm sure you'll all stay tuned for more! :)

Happy Birthday, Mia!

Day #7 Week of Mia

Thumbs Up!  It's her birthday!!


Torturing your brother deserves a thumbs up, too.

And if you look closely, Holly's got another thumbs up in this pic.

We hit Outback Steakhouse for dinner tonight, Joey really thought they had a cool kids menu.

Mia and Holly had to Klompen Dance in Oak Harbor this afternoon. Which for any of you who were in Lynden today enjoying downpour after downpour, Oak Harbor was BEAUTIFUL!


Mia had a great birthday. She was a little disappointed that her fast pitch game was cancelled due to the rain and the fields looking like lakes. And I successfully blogged for 7 days in a row, that's got to be a record. I might have to just try it again for Holly's birthday.

It's Almost Here!

Day #6 Week of Mia

Finishing up lots of stuff tonight for tomorrow...

(and Mom, the Bosco sticks were a HIT!  They even thought they were waaaaay better than Little Ceasars.)  :)

She doesn't forget much

Day #5 Week of Mia

My Mom introduced Mia to Bosco sticks about 2 years ago at the CRC Conference Grounds in MI and she (Mia) hasn't stopped talking about them since! I asked her what she wanted me to bring for hot lunch on Friday for her class and she said "Bosco Sticks". The only problem was I had no idea where they sold them locally. After a little searching, we found them!

She's also an inventor. She had to come up with an invention for a 5th grade project and she (and Eric) came up with this little number. It's a Guinea Pig feeder. It's actually rather clever and we don't have to remind them near as often to feed the Guinea Pigs, too!

It's creative arts week at school and we went to the open house tonight so everyone could show us what they've been up to. In 2nd grade they do a unit on Native Americans and Holly chose to study the Sioux tribe. Here's her clothes pin doll she had to make and below is part of the village that her and some class mates had to put together using the information they learned.


To continue the 100th year celebration theme, all the elementary kids had to do a drawing and incorporate the numbers 1, 0, 0. Here are the boys creative creations.

Looking back

Day #4 in the Week of Mia


She's been programmed since she was a baby that she will play soccer.  (read that with total sarcasm!)  We've been on track for almost, ALMOST 11 years.  Then enters fast pitch softball, which she hesitantly signed up for.  She admits to me the other night that she still likes soccer the best BUT she REALLY likes fast pitch.   WHAT!!  Good thing she knows we could care less what sport she's playing, we just love it that she's out there having a good time.


And because I was digging through some old photos (actually I didn't have to dig, thanks to my Dad, who scanned tons of photos for me and put them on a disk for labeled "MIA") I thought I'd add this one. Especially since she's good friends with ERVV (sweet baby girl on the right) and because Sam (adorable little guy on the left) is a 5th grade boy who would love to see his baby picture on my blog.  And sweet Carson is sandwiched in between the ladies.  AND one more fun tidbid of fun in this photo.  Can you FIND it?!?

Smiley, Silly and a little bit of Sass

Week of Mia  Day #3



Staring contest with Dad.


Square Dancing
It was Grandparents Day at school today and the 5th graders performed some of the square dances they've been learning. The music teacher and p.e teacher have teamed up over the last few weeks to teach this. What a FUN unit!!

Creativity

Day #2 of the "Week of Mia"

(she's really not in love with the fact that she'll be the center of attention all week, but I'm doing it anyways!)

She is a girl with the gift of creativity! Saturday night I might have been whining a little about not wanting to cook dinner and didn't know what I wanted to make.  That's when she chimed in "Can Holly and I have a restuaunt?" Of course my first question was "Is it going to make a huge mess?" She assured me it would not be a huge mess and I wouldn't have to do a thing (accept maybe a little cutting)

After a while she asked me to come downstairs to check it out.  They have a table set, complete with table cloth, coloring pages and colored pencils and background music and drink refills were even FREE!

I'm guessing the waitress' got free refills, too, and got to drink whenever they were thirsty. (that is Holly, she looks a lot like Mia in her "uniform".

Then I hear Mia taking Eric's order, asking if he'd like to dine alone tonight or with his family.  He says "I want to dine right here."  (on the couch)

When it was time for me to order, I told her I wasn't sure what I wanted yet so she told me Mia they're open 24/7 and whenever I'm ready to order I can let them know. However, if it's midnight and they're sleeping I won't get anything then.

Well done girls!  I think you're almost ready for Russ'!

The week of Mia

I thought, since Mia's birthday closes out the week, that we'd spend this week celebrating her (at home and on the blog!)  Everyday I'll share a little tidbit or photo about her. 

While she did wish at first that she was playing soccer this spring, we encouraged her to try something new.So she's playing on her first fastpitch team and so far loves it!    One thing she was a little intimidated by at first was if you steal home you have to slide.  After some good coaching from her dad and some practice at home she's getting it figured out.  It's been so great to watch you trying something new, Mia!

Spring Break

Destination:Arches National Park, Utah

We were ALMOST there (9 miles to go to Moab) and our fuel pump goes out on the Suburban.  Although it made for a very memorable start to the trip it wasn't exactly what we had planned.  But in the end, it all worked out and we were able to enjoy the rest of our week.


Our campground, tucked right again the hill. Can you find us?

We were able to enjoy the week with my sisters family and some friends from college.


We ended our trip with a stop at the Mouw's dairy in Boise. Holly and Ranger had fun playing together again and we all had fun visiting with their whole family. Thanks for the hospitality, Ruthann, Rocky and Co. It was great to see you all again!

I won't fill up all the space here boring you with more photos.  If you are interested, just click on any of the above images and it should take you to the gallery.

Easter Weekend

Found this in Lucas' backpack after school.  Found 2 similar ones in Joey and Tyler's, too.

And this little guy is a new addition to our home along with one other one.  The 2nd graders have been watching the incubators at school for a few weeks and they finally got some chicks this week.  Great stuff happening at school!