Thanksgiving in California--Part 2

Evan's birthday celebration continued into the next week, with the arrival of a gift that I had ordered for him.

Lots of pieces!

A project for Grandpa!

One more birthday gift

I somehow only ended up with 2 Thanksgiving-related pictures.  Cheryl and the kids made some cute little edible turkeys---using yummy things like oreo cookies and candy. 

Evan and his turkey

My contribution to the Thanksgiving dinner at Elgersmas?  A couple of pies.  Of course making pies always involves pie crust cookies.

Our visits in Redlands usually involve some visits to a nearby park.  This time I think we only made it there one time.

 A couple pictures of hanging out at home:

Very intent on his Play-do

Chillin' out!

 The Saturday after Thanksgiving we went to the Holiday Lights Festival in Riverside.  This was a really nice event, and obviously very popular.  We were happy that we got their early enough so that we beat some of the crowds, and were able to find a place to eat dinner (outdoors!) without a long wait. There is a historic hotel, The Mission Inn, that occupies an entire city block, and it is decorated beautifully for the holidays.  We walked around the whole block enjoying all the lighted displays.  The balconies are also decorated, with carolers, toy soldiers and nutcrackers.

2 silly kids and a snowman

There was also a display in the courtyard of the hotel, and we intended to walk through that as well.......until we discovered that the line to get in was about two blocks long.  We decided to skip that and went to meet the reindeer instead.

By the end of the evening, Josie was ready for a little ride on Dad's shoulders.

And the next day was Sunday....which means more pancakes!  Evan was right on hand to help out again.

And an intense game of Zingo before we had to head to the airport for our trip home:

Grandpa looks a bit puzzled!

And that's it for the California report!

Thanksgiving in California---Part 1

Well, here I go again---way behind with posting on the blog. My excuse is that, now that I take more pictures with my phone than with my camera, it is a painstaking process for me to get my pictures from the phone to the computer so that I can use them.  I am sure there is an easy way way to do it, but I haven't figured it out yet.  I think I need some instruction from soneone.  Any volunteers? 

Anyway, we made a trip to California in November and were there for almost 2 weeks.  We missed Evan's 3rd birthday by one day, but we did get in on some celebrating.  The first evening we were there we went to a trampoline place (I don't remember the name of it) where they also had some arcade games.  And we topped off the evening with pizza in the restaurant there.

There was lots of movement going on, 

causing blurry pictures.

The only arcade game that I got a picture of

Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the biggest kid on the trampolines, or of him playing the arcade games.  I think that most of the tickets that were won, came from Matt shooting baskets. :)  Josie and Evan loved pulling out the long strings of tickets that he won.

Our first full day there was the last day of school before Thanksgiving break. There were some special things going on in the pre-school that morning, and I got to enjoy some of those.  There was a special Thanksgiving chapel for all the pre-school classes, which was very nice.  

Listening attentively to the story

I also got to spend some time in Josie's classroom and enjoyed their morning routines, and also got in on some special Thanksgiving crafts.  I'm so glad that I got to do that.

There was a special holiday festival in downtown Redlands the first week-end we were there.  There was a bouncy house which was a big hit with the kids.  No pictures, though, because they were moving too fast. A big hit with all of us was the funnel cake!  I can't even remember the last time I had one of those. 

We had to wait in line a while for this, but we got to have a ride in a horse-drawn chariot---sort of a Cinderella type of chariot.  That was a big hit as well!  We felt like princes and princesses!

Of course, if it's Sunday morning, there will be pancakes, even if we aren't at home. And Grandpa had a very willing assistant!

We took a drive up to Oak Glen on Sunday afternoon, and they took us to a place where we had some really delicious apple cider donuts!  And they could not have been any fresher---we could watch them being made!  This place also claims to have the oldest tree of its kind--not sure if it's the oldest in the state, or the oldest in the area, or what.  And I don't remember the kind of tree either---maybe chestnut?  (That's one of the problems with being so slow about doing my posts.) Anyway, we got a picture of Josie and Evan in front of a very old, and very large tree.

And I think that I'm going to make this the first installment.  More California pictures to come!

Grandparents' Day

November 6 was a big day for us---our first "real" Grandparents' Day! Of course, Bob has been through many of them as principal, and we have both had the opportunity to fill in as substitute grandparents at BCS.  But this was our first time to be at Grandparents' Day with our own grandchild.  And it was pretty special!

When we got there we all found seats and waited for the program to begin.  When the kids came walking in, it was so cute to see them all searching for their grandparents and there was much waving of hands and lots of big smiles as they spotted them. Jeremiah was no exception---very vigorous waving and his face just lit up!! They sang some songs, complete with actions and some serious "air guitar" by Jeremiah. They also recited some Bible verses and a couple of poems about apples and pumpkins.

After the program we went into the classroom and there were three activities for the kids to do with their grandparents. They strung beads and leaves on yarn to make a necklace, made a leaf booklet, and decorated a page for their memory books.

Making the leaf booklet with Grandma Wissink.

Modeling his necklace.

Jeremiah also showed us some of his favorite things to play with at pre-school.  He showed us the "orbies," which are soft, squishy little marble-type things. He also showed us the tractors (of course--this is Jeremiah we're talking about!)

He showed us how to use the "stompers."

Not as easy as it looks.

And a photo op with Grandma and Grandpa.

And of course our visit gave us a chance to spend some time with Hope again. We got in on bath time---not a "dunk in the sink" type of bath, but it did involve shampooing her beautiful hair!

She's keeping an eye on Big Brother!

Hair all combed--and it stays like that until it's dry. :)

Could she be an cuter?

And there is never enough "snuggle time" as far as Grandma is concerned.  I could sit and hold her all day long. :)  She is such a precious bundle!

This visit was a rather short one.  We drove over on Wednesday afternoon, had Grandparents' Day on Thursday, and then left for home again after dinner that evening.  We had a plumber coming on Friday morning to take care of a kitchen sink problem, so we had to be home for that.

Next big event for us is our trip to California, from Nov. 20 to Dec. 3.  No new posts until we're back home again.

October.....The Main Event!

October 18 is the date that I had circled on my calendar, because it was Rachel's due date.  In the days leading up to the 18th we were just sort of "on hold" waiting for a call telling us that Rachel was in labor.  Our plan was to leave as soon as we could once that call came, so that we could take over Jeremiah's care.  At Rachel's appointment the week before her due date, the doctor mentioned that he thought things might happen quite quickly once labor started and he also seemed to think that it would be quite soon.  So on the 16th, after texting back and forth with Rachel and Adam, we all decided that it might be a good idea for us to just head to Michigan.  That way we would be there for Jeremiah whenever things started to happen.  Rachel was a bit concerned that we might be sitting around waiting for a long time, but we figured we didn't have anything more important to do.

And as it turned out we did wait for about a week before little Miss Wissink decided to put in her appearance.  It definitely reminded me of Rachel's birth---we had just moved to California, and my niece Jean came to stay with us and help out. She spent the first week of her two week stay waiting around, too, before Rachel put in her appearance 11 days late.

Just a few pictures from our "waiting" days.  We had dinner one evening at Crane's in Fennville.  They have apple orchards, but also have a restaurant that serves great chili (among other things) and also has really great pies. (I'm a bit of a pie snob, and I thought the raspeberry pie was delicious!)      

Checking out the little tractor at Crane's. 

That's an apple cider popsicle in his hand.

Watching the workmen replace some 

windows at the library. Much more 

interesting than looking for books!

Pumpkin-carving time!

Jeremiah's is on the left, the one on the 

right is for Baby Sister.

J and Grandpa watching them 

unload some lumber for the new

house being built across the street. 

Our waiting came to an end on Friday, October 24.  Well, we still had some waiting to do.  Rachel and Adam left for the hospital at 3 a.m. when her water broke. (she had been scheduled for an induction at 7 a.m.)  So it seemed like a long morning of waiting for news.  We went to meet Abby and Neil for lunch after their CEA Convention was over, and while we were having lunch we got the big news----Hope Caroline had been born at 12:24, weighing 9 lb. 5 oz. Such wonderful news!!  And then we had just a bit more waiting to do, before we could head over to the hospital to meet Hope.  So we spent some time downtown, and also walked to a park and walked around the Hope College campus. (appropriate, wasn't it?) 

Jeremiah loved running around in the leaves.

Finally it was time to go to the hospital!  We could not wait to see that precious baby girl!  It was so nice that Rachel and Hope cooperated on the timing of the birth so that Abby and Neil could see her before they went back to Chicago. We all got to hold her.....

Proud Big Brother,,,,,,,

Grandma.....

Grandpa.....

Auntie Abby....

and Uncle Neil.

On Saturday we brought Jeremiah to the hospital for another visit. But sitting in a hospital room isn't all that exciting for a 4-year-old boy, even when you have a brand new baby sister.  So we decided to take him to Grand Rapids and pay a visit to the Sinkes, hoping that their might be a train ride for him. And he was not disappointed!!

Chuck gave him a few rides on the train.

And he even let him drive the train!

And he even got to help Chuck with some other work. 

Notice he's wearing work gloves. 

I think Chuck is his new hero.

We stopped at Panera for dinner when we got back to Holland, and we picked up food for Adam and Rachel. Rachel wasn't a fan of the hospital cuisine. 

A little more Grandma time with Hope

On Sunday Grandpa went back to Wisconsin in the morning, and Adam and Rachel came home with Hope shortly after noon.  I had decided to stay a few extra days, and took the train back to Milwaukee on Wednesday.

We had quite an excited boy one evening, because there was some night time field work going on in the field right across from their house. I think the farmer was trying to get the work done before the rain arrived later that night.

Of course he brought his own farm 

equipment out, too.

Just a few more pictures of Hope to finish off this post.  

Snooze time in the swing.

She looks really tiny in this picture.

 

 Sporting her "Little Sister" shirt

This is my favorite!  Look at those bright eyes!!
 

 I was pretty sure that this was Hope's favorite spot to hang out,
or maybe it was just MY favorite place for her to be.:)

We're back home now, but will be heading back to Michigan in a couple days for Grandparents Day at Jeremiah's pre-school! And for more of that special Grandma time with Hope.