Our weekend

Our friends and Matt are out of town serving others with Mission of Mercy. Its a weekend of free dental care. While they are away, our house is full and busy.
This pretty much sums up the weekend.

maggie

Maize

Marley

Midge

MCS Talent Show

Every other year, the school offers a talent show, and on the 'other' year there is an all school musical. This year was talent show year and we got geared up for some fun.
I decided to treat it similar to a night they have at their school in Minnesota, where everyone gets up and recites a poem, verse, etc.
Jessica and Maria acted out the book "I am a frog" by Mo Willems. Its an Elephant and Piggie book. If you don't know what they are, you must check it out!

Brandon and Anika acted out Abbot and Costello's 'Who's on First'.

Both did a great job. But I am a bit biased.
Jessica's class also performed their bucket brigade - think drum sticks on 5 gallon buckets.

And of course, we celebrated by hitting our favorite ice cream place!
I also learned how to minimize and upload video, so it was progress for me, too!

puppies and rockets

they're growing! the puppies I mean.

It was a rocket weekend Memorial Day! We got lots done at home - including waxing both vehicles - but we went out to shoot off rockets on both Sunday and Monday.  Its hard to see, but the kid's last names have changed - that is why I had them hold up their name badges. You had to have a badge to shoot off a rocket, so our friend bought a family pass and made the kids his for the weekend!= )
One of Brandon's rockets is the little red, white and blue one, and Jessica's is the purple and yellow one.

 On Monday, our friend set off this big one. We are known as Team Wolverine Retrieval Team.  Brandon went to work to bring this one back. Our friend won a trophy for this one and gave it to Brandon who is proudly displaying the rocket trophy in his room!

The middle part is right above Brandon's head, the tail to the left. The nose cone was in a different tree. He got that down first.

Girls on the Run

Anika and Jessica both completed their first 5 K this month. I couldn't be more proud. Aunt Kathy and I ran a race a few weeks ago, and there was a dad that kept yelling at his kid to catch up and run faster. I didn't like it, so I took it to heart to let them run their race.  Jessica was completely overwhelmed by all the people and held my or Aunt Kathy's hand almost the whole race. She was very afraid of getting lost, and she often does. She knows this, and has taken to holding hands or taking someone with her whenever she goes away from a group. Its funny, sometimes.

It was a brisk morning, so we had plenty of layers on. And we got rained on a bit during the run.

But, they ran, most of the way. Anika started with us but quickly found a friend's mom that was going just a bit slower and stuck with them. We took our time, walked and ran. There were so many people that we often were forced to walk as that was the pace of the group.  She wasn't sure we could finish, so I picked a spot and said we were going to run from the flags in - and she did it. In true Jessica fashion, she was even singing at the end. (Veggie Tales 'Keep Walking' to the beat of our steps).  The girls cross the finish line on their own, so Aunt Kathy and I split off and met her at the finish.  I'm not sure she'll do this race again, but she is willing to run again. I think Anika would be game to give it a whirl again, too. 

Girls on the Run is a national program to give girls some exercise and empowerment. They practiced after school two days a week. She loved the practices, just not the CROWD at the race.  Anika didn't really train, but with a full size soccer field, you do plenty of running, so it wasn't such an issue.

oddly enough, she isn't holding my hand in this picture

She just split off, a friend took this pic for me. I'm guessing she is watching Aunt Kathy and I jog to the finish line to meet her.

Band concerts and grandparents

Brandon had a band concert last Thursday and Jessica and Maria had a live music class on Friday afternoon. Anika had a grandparents morning at school on Friday morning. Both sets of grandparents showed up for the occasion. Thanks for coming!

Soccer, soccer and more soccer with a bit of track and baseball thrown in

I admit it, I am a soccer mom. I LOVE to watch my kids play anything they enjoy doing, and I love watching them play soccer. I often have to tell myself (and those around me) how old they are, and to just clap your hands and say 'good job'. I can get pretty into it sometimes. Anika's team only lost one game. She played for school. She played forward almost the whole season which was a totally new adventure for her. She had decided she wanted to be a goalie and ended up scoring 3 goals in the last game. Who knew.  Jessica and Maria are playing on the same team again this year. They are playing in the U10 division, even though just about everyone on the team is 8 (except Jessica (9) and Maria (7) and one other girl that is 7). And they are doing quite well. I think they are 2- 2 on the season. Jessica LOVES goalie.  They play for the city rec team. Brandon plays for a select/travel team with a bunch of boys he is used to playing with. No pics of his team yet. They will come, I promise. I think they are 2- 2 as well. He plays forward pretty much all the time, which is new for him. He used to switch it up with defense and goalie from time to time, but not the case here.

Matt got to ref two of her games!

Brandon plays in a city rec league for baseball as well. Two boys on the team are in his class at school. It makes for some crazy nights, but he enjoys both sports.

Brandon plays catcher or first base

Anika had a track and field day last week. It was bitter sweet for me. Again, I love watching my kid play, and she had lots of fun. She got 2nd out of maybe 15 in the long jump (11'10.5"), 6th out of 9 in the high jump (3'8"), 8th out of 12 in the 200 (35.47 secs), and 4th out of 6 in the 55M hurdles. We have said before, Anika is not the star athlete, but she can hold her own, as these scores show.

But there were still moments, for both of us, that it just didn't feel quite right. She was sitting next to me in the stands - instead of with the team - and mentioned she wanted to go and sit by some of the team. I encouraged her to go, but it took some pushing. Sometimes we still just don't quite fit. She went and all was well. I've learned not to push her until she brings it up. There are many times where she is quite content to just sit by Matt or I and take it all in. It was crazy for me in that the last time I was at a middle school track meet, I was somewhat in charge of it, knew where all 75 of my students had to be, and coached just about every aspect of it. I followed Anika around and helped the girls at each of her events - long jump and high jump, and put my two cents worth of advice in at the shot put. Believe me, that's all its worth.  At this event, I knew two moms by name, and the teacher. Seriously - the only adults I knew in the whole place. I had to chuckle to myself; in MN, I intentionally hung out with another teacher most of the time - and quite happily I might add, and sometimes this was to avoid others. Here, was almost the exact opposite, there was only 1 - 2 adults with which to hang! Part of the situation: the middle school is part of the high school here, so track is considered a sport - after school practices, etc. Where as in MN, it was part of the PE program and everyone participated. There were maybe 20 kids total from WMC that participated.

It was a beautiful day, and totally worth missing a day of work to make some memories watching her compete.

picking up those knees in long jump

ready for high jump

hurdles

200 m dash

New puppies

Meet Marlee and Maggie. No, they aren't ours, but I'm sure they will spend some time at our house at some point in the future. Our friends got two new puppies. They are so cute and growing SOOOOO fast!

5K adventure

We did it!!!!!  Aunt Kathy and I ran a 5K at Calvin College together. It was a bit chilly, but the sun was shining, we had fun, got to spend some time together, exercise, and snacks and a t-shirt!  WAHOO!

Easter

The annual Robin Bird Egg lipstick picture!

Easter afternoon was spent with our friends down by the beach. We flew kites, enjoyed the sunshine and some good food and even better company. Its always wonderful to relax and sit by the water!  Then we came home and had the annual Easter egg hunt in the back yard. Mind you they had one at our youth group church, our church, and at our friends, so this was #4 for the weekend!

Easter morning!

Spring Break Stay cation fun

We stayed put this spring break, but we found something fun to do each day.

dye easter eggs

Holland Aquatic Center

They had this inflatable, a slide, a zip line, a diving board, a water log, a playground with a tire swing, and a circle pool that had whirlpool action in it - you literally floated around in a circle.

Easter cut out cookies

feeding the baby goat at Critter Barn

Critter Barn - Its a family owned farm that allows people to come and visit, complete with sack swings from the trees. There were peacocks, horses, kittens, rabbits, goats...... and so much more. But oh the goats. 19 baby goats that all needed to be fed, so have the visitors do it. It was a riot to watch them jump and play. They are penned up during the day and let out at feeding time, and they make the most of it. We watched for a long time and then help herd them all back to their pens. The farm is set very much in a residential area of Zeeland. I laughed when I looked at the other houses and wondered what the reasoning was behind putting a residential development in an area where a large farm is literally your back yard, but each to his own!

The baby duck pen

We spent a few hours at the Grand Rapids Childrens museum making bubbles, forts, music, legos and other things!

And then we went swimming and wall climbing at the Grand Rapids YMCA!

The final day was a few hours at a water park called JJ resort.  Lots of trips up and down stairs, and some time in the hot tub!  But a great week all in all!

Jessica's art work

Jessica's art work was chosen to represent our school at the local art museum. There are 16 different school districts in our county (don't even get me started) and for one month, they choose art work from each school to be displayed at the Muskegon art museum.  Jessica's was one of four chose from MCS. We had a fun night there as a family. They had a reception for artists, including juice and cookies, and a scavenger hunt for kids that took us through the whole museum.  The art work is back at school and its next stop will be Grandpa and Grandma's fair this summer!

Indoor Soccer

Indoor soccer is done and gone, but I found these pictures and decided to post them! Both Brandon and Maria's teams played indoor and now they are off to the grass outside!