Happy Birthday, Jeremiah!

After our California trip we were home a total of 2 days, and then we headed to Iowa to help Jeremiah celebrate his 3rd birthday. Wow, this retirement stuff is rough!

We arrived Saturday afternoon during Jeremiah's nap, so we had to be satisfied with an enthusiastic greeting from Molly. (sorry, no picture)  We had to wait a bit to get our hugs from Jeremiah, but well worth the wait. We had dinner at a favorite spot in Ankeny---Pizza Ranch.  Yummy!  And we were glad that we had gone early when we saw the line out the door when we were leaving! 

When we got home Jeremiah opened the presents from us as, well as the ones we had brought back from California for him.  He was VERY excited!!

Building blocks from Uncle Matt and Aunt Cheryl

Opening his card so carefully

A set of "Cars" themed Duplo blocks

And a set of small construction vehicles

 

Can you tell---Jeremiah LOVES construction vehicles!!

And after the presents were opened, it was time for birthday cake! 

What a cool Mickey Mouse cake!

Time for the Happy Birthday song!

Monday, February 18, was the actual birthday.  Jeremiah was very excited to see the balloons and birthday banner that Rachel had put up after he went to bed the night before.

The Birthday Boy!

Another card to open.....

....and read.

 

And more presents---a garbage truck that really works!

 

Grandpa made Jeremiah a special green chocolate chip pancake! 

What could be better than a book about vehicles?

 

Maybe a vehicle-themed Memory Game? (Jeremiah won!)

We went along for Jeremiah's 3-year photo shoot at Target that morning. He was a real star!!! He did absolutely everything that the photographer asked him to do, and she got some great shots of him!  I'm not sure what her secret is---I have trouble getting him to stand still and look at the camera long enough to get a decent shot. 

After lunch and some play time at McDonalds, it was time for us to head back to Wisconsin.  But not before we posed for a picture with the Birthday Boy!

An Experiment

I am being very brave here---I'm going to see if I can upload a couple of videos that I took while we were in CA.  Usually the videos I get are done by mistake, because my camera has somehow gotten into the video mode by mistake.  Those result in videos of the floor, ceiling, people's feet, and lots of movement that would result in motion sickness. These two were actually intentional videos.  There may still be a bit of the motion sickness factor, though, and I apologize for that. We'll see how this goes.

The first video is of the kids playing in the snow at Oak Glen.

And then here's one of the kids enjoying their Valentine lollipops right after breakfast. (With some silly noises provided by Grandpa)

 

So....I just published my post, and did a test to see if I could get the videos to work.  Surprise, surprise!! It worked!!! I continue to amaze myself. :)

Now, really, the next post will be of Jeremiah's birthday.  I decided to try this one first, to stay in chronological order.

February in California

Yes, I have gotten behind in posting once again. So it's time to play catch-up---starting with our trip to California from Feb. 5-13. We had a great time, as we always do when we go there. And we got lots of time with Josie and Evan, which is, of course, the main reason for our visits.

We got a really great air fare this time from Milwaukee to Ontario, and our flights went well. We did have to hustle to catch our connecting flight in Denver, because we left Milwaukee a bit late. But we made it, which is all that matters.  We decided to rent a car this time, so we drove ourselves from Ontario to Redlands. When we got to the house, Josie came running down the sidewalk to greet us and to tell us that she and Mommy were making cupcakes for us. :)

We arrived on a Tuesday, which is normally a work day for Cheryl, but Josie had been sick and so she had switched her days around that week. So she worked Wednesday instead, which gave us an extra day of babysitting---that was fine with us! I had wondered if Evan might be a little shy with us, since he hadn't seen us for a few months.  He was shy......for maybe 5 or 10 minutes. He very quickly bonded with both of us. :) 

Such sweet faces!

Evan really loves Josie's slide. He loves to climb up and then just stand at the top, giving his grandparents great anxiety.  Grandpa tried to stay close by when Evan headed for the slide. He needed a little help to get into a sitting position, and then he'd be off down the slide. He loved it! By the time we left, he was learning to get himself seated at the top (sometimes) and he'll probably soon be going down headfirst on his tummy.  He really does not have much sense of fear! 

On Friday Josie goes to Tumble Tots, her gymnastics class. We took her to her class this time, and Cheryl stayed home with Evan. Unfortunately all the pictures I took there are on the i-pad, and I don't know if I can get them onto this blog.  If I figure out how to do that, I'll add them. It's fun to watch Josie doing all her activities---each one ends with a "Ta-daa!!"

Well, I totally amazed myself and figured out how to send a picture from the ipad to the computer, and then figured out how to get it onto this blog. Will wonders never cease!?!?!  So here is Josie doing her balance beam routine at Tumble Tots. Didn't catch the "Ta-daa!" when she was done, though.

On Saturday was the Calvin-Hope basketball game and we all went to watch that at a local restaurant. 

We were decked out in our Calvin shirts, Josie had a pom pom, there were balloons, and lots of cheering for the Knights.  But in the end we went home disappointed---Hope won the game.

On Sunday afternoon we took a little drive up into the mountains so that the kids could play in the snow. The snow was not that much of a novelty for us, but it sure was fun to watch Josie and Evan having fun.

Evan in his froggy hat and mittens--just about the cutest thing ever!

One of the many times Josie had to have her mittens put on.

Checking out someone else's snowman.

Putting the mittens on again.

Oops, she's missing a mitten again.

And so is Evan.

Here are a few random pictures of our last couple of days there.

Evan definitely approves of Grandpa's pancakes!

Josie is off to the park with Grandpa, riding in style!

A little ball game in the front yard. 

A visit to Redlands is not complete without a meal at Chick-fil-A! I love that place! And so do the kids. 

I know they are barely visible, but both Evan and Josie are up in the play structure. We were a little worried about how Evan was going to get down, since he didn't seem to want to try the slide. Fortunately he did come back down the same way he had gone up----very carefully on the steps.

On our last morning there, I invoked "Grandma privileges" and gave the kids their Valentines a day early.

This meant lollipops right after breakfast, followed by baths.

It's a bit of a challenge to get Evan to sit still for a picture!

Such a pretty girl!

And one last group shot before we had to leave. So hard to say good-bye!

Next post, coming soon (hopefully) will feature Jeremiah's 3rd birthday! Stay tuned!

Happy Birthday, Ben!

I don't know if other mothers are like me, but I get rather sentimental on the birthdays of my kids.  Back when I was first writing posts on the "old" family blog, I wrote something on each of their birthdays, reminiscing about the day of their birth. And each year following that I would go back and re-read those posts, sometimes even shedding a tear or two. (silly, sentimental me!)  Of course when that blog mysteriously disappeared, those posts disappeared as well, which made me very sad.

February 8, 1981, was a very special day, because that's the day that Benjamin David joined our family.  I don't think I can come up with another "reminiscing" post, so I'm just going to share some pictures of Ben's early years.  (I couldn't include pictures in those earlier posts, because I didn't know how to scan pictures. Now that I know how to do that, nobody's old pictures are safe!)

Here he is, brand new, all 10 pounds 13 ounces of him!!

All dressed up for Baptism.  Ben couldn't wear the same outfit that Matt had worn for baptism because he was too big.  I think it fit him when he was 2 weeks old, but he was 6 weeks old when he was baptized.

6 months old----what a happy guy!

I think this was taken at Bates Nut Farm.

Spending time with Grandpa on one of our Michigan visits.

Anyone who knew Ben when he was little also knew Woo-woo, Ben's constant companion. He pretty much went everywhere with Ben, and I think he might even have been on our family's picture in the church directory one year. I think it was on Ben's 2nd birthday that I decided to be really creative, and instead of following a pattern for a dog, or a clown, or a rocket ship cake, I would see if I could make a cake that looked like Woo-woo.  And here is the result....

I think Ben may actually be saying "Woo-woo!"

I had to include this picture, because it shows the cake with "Old Woo-woo" on one side and "New Woo-woo" on the other side.  Both of them, and also a larger version that came later, were gifts from Pat and Anita.

Getting a haircut from Aunt Jeanie

This is another Michigan picture, this one with Aunt JoAnne I think. Notice that Woo-woo is there, too.

But eventually Woo-woo was replaced by a real, live puppy.  Wasn't Muffin just the cutest puppy you've ever seen?  Actually, they're a pretty cute pair, I think.

And this is my all-time favorite school picture of Ben.  I love the toothless smile! According to the note on the back it was 2nd grade.

So that's my trip down Memory Lane, revisiting Ben's childhood.  Don't worry---the rest of you will get your turns. :)

January

Well, January is over, and it pretty much lived up to the title of this blog--Life in the Slow Lane.  It was a pretty quiet month here on Evergreen Court---no visits from kids and grandkids, no long trips, not a whole lot of excitement.  But somehow we managed to keep fairly busy and the month went by quite quickly.

We did make one trip down to Chicago on the 3rd. We stopped first at Abby's apartment and had a little visit with her and her friends, Ashly and Lauren.  Ben also stopped by for a a few minutes.  I delivered some olie bollen and other treats to them.  We then went on to spend some time with Roger and Sheryl.  We had a wonderful, relaxing day with them.  Sheryl humored  me and got a puzzle out, which kept me occupied for the whole afternoon (while visiting, of course.)  We got to spend a little time with Anna, Will and Charlie, who came over for dinner and a sleep-over.  We hadn't seen them for a long time, so that was a treat. We also talked quite a bit with Roger and Sheryl about taking a little trip together in the fall, when they will both be retired as well.

Dad has added a couple of new activities to his schedule.  He is doing some work for Dordt (yes, Dordt---can you believe it?) and is supervising a girl who is doing her student teaching in the Milwaukee area.  So he has made a few visits to her school, to meet with her and to observe her teaching. He has also started volunteering at Cross Trainers, which is the Christian School that meets at the Milwaukee Rescue Mission.  He goes two mornings a week, and tutors kids one-on-one in reading and math.  He is really enjoying that!  He has also been going with me to help out in the nursery during MOPS at our church, if he isn't busy with one of his other activities.

And we continue to enjoy our time with little Erin Dooyema who I take care of two days a week.  She and Dad have become quite good buddies.  In fact, her Grandma may be a bit jealous because last Sunday Dad got bigger smiles from her at church than her Grandma did! We think she might be starting to say "Bob," but it might be "ball" or "book."

We've also been attending some basketball games to see the Jeninga kids play.  Maddy plays at Brookfield Christian and James is on the JV at Milwaukee Lutheran. 

Panera continues to be a big part of our Fridays.  A group of senior citizens from our church meets there for coffee on Friday mornings, and we usually go for that.  I sometimes have to miss that if it's a day when I have Erin.  And the group has been getting smaller and smaller as more and more of the people had to Florda. And then Friday evenings we are there again for dinner with the Brassers.  The last two Fridays, though, we've gone to see James play basketball instead.  His games are at 5:45, so then we have gone somewhere closer to his school after the game.
 
I've been doing a lot of puzzling. I started out with the one that Abby gave me for Christmas, and since then I've done 4 others. As you all probably know, this is definitely MY project--Dad pretty much considers it a waste of time. I kind of figure that if I do it while I watch TV in the evening, my two time-wasting activities kind of cancel each other out.  I will probably start another one this evening while Dad watches the Super Bowl and I watch the commercials.

We've been having kind of a strange winter, weather-wise.  We've had a couple of cold spells, but also a couple of stretches with unusually warm temperatures.  I think last week we had 60+ degrees and then two days later it was below zero, with the wind chill. We also have not had very much snow---we've gotten just a few inches at a time, and of course with that 60 degree weather we lost what we had then.  We now have maybe 3 to 4 inches on the ground.

February looks to be a busier month. We actually started it out with another drive to Chicago yesterday. We went down to have lunch with Ben and Abby to celebrate Ben's birthday a bit early.  Then we're flying to CA this Tuesday and will be back on Wed. the 13th.  And then on the 16th we'll be going to Iowa for the week-end to celebrate Jeremiah's 3rd birthday.  I sure hope the weather doesn't interfere with any of these plans! 

So....no pictures to accompany this post. I'm sure there will be pictures in the next couple of posts.