No Ice Cream Please

Well, we've all known Michael was a routine kid, but I never thought it would stretch this far.  Saturday we had a lazy afternoon that ended with Mom not wanting to cook dinner.  So at 6:00 I announced "Ice Cream for dinner tonight!"  (Note: We have never done this before and it sounded fun, but please don't think we do this on a regular basis.)  :)  Instant approval from Jon and Becca full of cheers.  Michael just laughed and insisted I was joking because ice cream is a treat NOT a meal.  We talked about how we thought it might be fun, but Michael was not budging.  So for dinner it was:
Jon - ice cream sundae
Becca - ice cream sundae
Michael - crackers, cheese, carrots, orange



However, before you think Michael is the strangest child ever, he did have a large ice cream sundae for dessert.

A Whole Family of Pumpkins

Last weekend we had the Michigan contingent of the DeJong family over to our house for some pumpkin fun.  We had a great time eating and talking together and watching the kids fill every square inch of floor space with toys, but the main event was the carving of the pumpkins.

I think all of the kids' favorite part of the process was drawing faces on the pumpkins.  After that, most of the kids 6 and under kept wandering away from the actual carving process and were constantly called back to "help."







Jon was extremely weirded out by removing the insides of the pumpkin.  In fact, today when he saw me post this picture he commented on how he didn't like it when I made him use his hand.  I had him try his hand after a few minutes of removing one seed at a time with a spoon.


Becca was so excited for this day.  She was very insistent that she was going to carve her pumpkin with Grandpa because he knew how to make the right scary face.  I think they had read a jack-o-lantern book the week before together and she was planning for this day after that.


Michael went Mine Craft and wanted a creeper face on his pumpkin.  He did the whole thing by himself and was proudly working on it for a full hour I think.


And before the day was up, in an effort to top this great picture we took 3 years ago at a similar gathering...


We got a picture with all the cousins!

Tulip Time

The tulips arrived just in time this year.  Jon and Becca and I joined some friends for a picnic lunch for Tulip Time.



And then we went and watched Michael walk in the parade.

Happy Easter 2

Easter morning I picked out some nice and fairly coordinating clothes for the kids to wear for their Easter pictures.  Becca was thrilled about putting on a new dress.  The boys whined and complained about shirts they don't like.  (Notice it's just a polo shirt - no vests, no kaki pants, no fancy shoes - I don't think I'm asking too much really.)

After they were dressed, though, they had a fun time posing for pictures.





After church we came home, ate lunch, and then the kids were all sent out to play (after a change of clothes you will notice).  By the way it was almost 70 degrees here on Sunday - fabulous!  When they came in we did an egg hunt.















This year we mixed up a bunch of different eggs.  We had the 12 resurrection eggs to tell the Easter story about Jesus.  Then we had some mini chocolate eggs.  And then we had some plastic eggs that were fill with either candy or pieces of a new lego set.

Happy Easter 1

Last weekend we got together with cousins and decorated eggs.



While I still do this project each year with my kids, I always wonder later if it is worth it.  :)  It takes quite a long time to set up.  Then the kids go crazy for a couple of minutes.  Then it takes me forever to clean up.  And then I end up eating a dozen hard boiled eggs because the dutch in me balks at throwing them away.

But this year with cousins it was a lot of fun, and I'm sure next year I will get it all together to dye eggs again, because what is Easter without this fun activity?!

Snow Days

So with all of the snow we've had an amazing run of snow days.  Back at Christmas our Christmas break was bookended by one snow day before and two after.  Then last week we finished a string of a full week of snow days.  We had snow days on Thursday, Friday, (the weekend), Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

The first Thursday we had a friend from our church small group come and play so her parents could still go to work.  I was so excited to get them all outside, but it only lasted about 10 minutes before they were too cold to come in.



Come in for a snack and a movie. :)



So with the cold temperatures we did a lot of inside playing.  One day we got out a bunch of legos and duplos and did some fun creative play.



The boys also did a lot of stacking getting ready for this coming season.



And Becca has been into doing her "homework" which is workbooks I've picked up for her.



Tim spent much of the break rebuilding his computer.  For his birthday we had order a bunch of parts for our super old Windows XP computer and they arrived just in time for some snow day fun.  My wonderfully gifted husband (with the help of youtube videos) took apart and rebuilt the computer and I'm happy to say that it turned on and worked great the first time!  So he and the kids have been spending a lot of time playing minecraft and starting some minecraft video recording on it.



I did get the boys to forgo the new machine for the old video games once.  The last time they played MarioKart together Jon didn't do so well.  This time I smiled when I heard Michael say, "Wow, Jon, your actually pretty good."



As you can imagine things soon got a little crazy all cooped up in the house.  Finally, when the weather got up to a balmy 8 degrees we forced the kids outside.









A couple of minutes later I found Jon wading through the snow to get to the back door to let me know that ....


Becca's boot and sock had come off and gotten stuck in the snow.

New Year's Eve

While the kids are still too young to stay up until midnight to celebrate the New Year, we did do something fun on the 31st.  We went to a New Year's Eve bowling party!  The bowling alley near us was hosting a special where you could rent a lane and they'd put on the neon lights and play fun family music.  Even though we were there at like 2 in the afternoon, they even had a count down.

Sorry for the horrible pictures, but the lighting wasn't good at all for pics, but you can still see the fun:

Hot Chocolate and Settlers

Over Thanksgiving weekend we tried to get the kids out to play a couple of times but it was pretty cold.  And of course, every time they go out in the cold they want Hot Chocolate - Michael's and Becca's with marshmallows in it and Jon's on the side.  Since we have had Aunt Katherine with us for the weekend we were also playing a lot of games.  So what could be better than having both hot chocolate and a game of Settlers on a cold day?!

Mine Craft

As an early Christmas present we bought the kids a second Mine Craft account so two people can play together in the same world.  So over the weekend, this is what I find:



Tim and Michael are playing in a world together.  Jon is on the iPad playing mine craft and taking breaks to watch Michael.  Becca is cheering on her dad!

Photo Time

Jon and Becca love having their pictures taken.  Today they wanted me take all sorts of pictures and then they'd rush around to see themselves behind the camera in the review.

When we were at the second hand store, Becca picked out all the pairs of jeans that had fun stitching and designs on them.  Here she is showing off a pair.




Jon rolled up some paper and starting making all kinds of music.













Aren't they just adorable?