First Sun Equals First Trip to Meijer Gardens

We made our first trip to Meijer Gardens this week. We have had some beautiful sun and used the opportunity to get out and walk and enjoy the sculptures and the butterflies.
We had a lot of fun with the Meijers' family. We sat on their laps and tickled them and basically acted stupid.
I thought I would tell Fred thank you for all of the good times we have had there over the years.
Lydia and Watson had a nice time too.
Watson, in his young life, does not realize how much time we will spend there this spring and summer. Anna and Owen know it- they call it 'the place they go with Noah and Seth'.
I love the look on Owen's face here. He adores his big sister.
Here he is in the tunnel. Anna reminded me that we came here last year with Justin and Miss Moes (it was on their anniversary I believe).
I caught one of those butterflies. You are not supposed to; but he landed on my pants.

Here is Lydia and Owen at the 'Grand Rapids Arch'.

We look forward to many days at the Gardens. We look forward to you all coming too!

In the Meadow We Can Build a PC Snowperson

Here is a picture that I snagged from Mrs. P's vacation from her vacation pics. It was taken at Paige's house a bit before Christmas. Paige made us all a wonderful soup and salad lunch. The wine was flowing and the laughter was abundant.

Behind Bill and Paige's house is the perfect hill for toddlers and pre-schoolers. We had a great time sledding and it helped Tammy to feel at home (she is from British Columbia... notice this snowman drinks Tim Horton's).

In the picture from the left: Owen, Lydia, Marion, George, Snowthing, Tammy, Paige, Anna's head, Nathan, Anna's body. Shawn was taking the picture and Watson was asleep in the house.

I am glad that Mrs. P brought her camera, because it may be the only outdoor activity for me until the golf courses open! (Notice I am in my winter clogs).

Klackel Farms

I have been meaning to post these for a couple of days and Blogger was not cooperating. Tante Heidi came up last weekend and we had an awesome time. It was very low key- a lot of hanging out time, watching Planet Earth (which comes highly recommended), and playing with the kids. Of course, she brought a boat load of toys and gifts for the kids. They loved it!

On Saturday we could not decided to break out the lederhosen or the flannels. We chose the flannels and headed out to Klackel Farm for some autumn fun. It was a nice trip to Greenville, very sunny and bright- and windy.
We were greeted by the mayor of Greenville who welcomed us to the Farms. He assured us that there was plenty to do: hay rides, apple picking, cider mill tours, races, games, and tons of fun!
Watson was less than impressed. He thought that sleeping through most of it would be the appropriate thing for a 6 week old to do.
Anna and Owen raced around the track. They needed a lot of help. These little tractors are steel and VERY heavy. I am not sure how a 4 year-old could peddle them.
Here is Lydia and Watson picking apples. We picked Jonagolds which were so tasty. Owen and I both ate two while picking.
Here is Owen with his little treat. Notice he does not fool around- one in each hand! Let me assure you that we were given permission to eat as we gleaned. The only rules were no throwing apples and don't abandon your children in the orchard and pick them up at the end of November.
For some reason, Anna was able to stuff the most apples into her 1/2 pint bag. I bet she got 3 or 4 more than the rest of us!

Here the kids are petting a donkey. There was this 'petting farm' there that a bunch of strange-o types were running. They had giant cockroaches and beetles and spiders- all the things needed for a petting zoo! They even had those giant African cockroaches for sale at $5 a head. That is all anyone would ever need- an epidemic of roaches bigger than the dog for the price of a venti latte with an extra shot of espresso!
They also had these little barrel rides there. One of the Klackel boys was pulling this train around on his tractor. Anna did not want anything to do with this! Owen thought that it was the coolest thing ever.
Here is Heidi again. She is trying to escape from the children. I guess she was trying to get them lost in the maze. We were going to try the corn maze as well- but it was like 5 acres of maze. No thanks.
As we headed back to Grand Rapids we stopped at the famous Rosie's diner for an olive burger and a shake. No body told the new owners, but 'homemade olive dressing' is not sliced olives. It was good anyways. It is always interesting to go to a diner and see what the future was supposed to look like 50 years ago. Lots of steel- too bad the future was all plastic.
We all rested on the way home... except me.... I drove instead.

Family Update

Things have been quite busy around here. We are preparing for a new baby, our AC was out this past weekend, we had company for a week, and I have a lot of behind the scenes work being done as a part of my internship.

Some things seem to never change though, such as Owen wanting to nap with his vacuum cleaner tucked in next to him.
Since our visitors left we have cleaned out some of the things left behind in the refrigerator. Shawn and Tammy are organic-naturalpathics who do not use man made food-products. The result of this was some heavy whipping cream left which was unopened. Owen, Anna and I had a great time turning this into butter. I made them guess what the cream would be when it was done, but of course, they had no clue. When it turned to whipped cream, Anna exclaimed, "it's turning into a mocha!"

She loved the moment when it went from whipping cream to separated butter and water. It was like magic, minus the Harry Potter action.
Owen liked it on a cracker. He could not wait to eat more. We told him no.
Anna thought that it was really a great thing as well. Homemade butter.. what could be finer? Well, homemade bread on which to spread it!
We also went to Johnson Park for lunch today. The kids played and Lydia and I went through baby names. We may have one.... who knows. Lydia is quite excited about being delivered from this burden... I mean child. We are very excited to have three little ones. What a blessing and an honor to raise children unto the glory of God!
Owen and Anna are always telling * * * * * * * * * what the outside world is like... spankings and all. Here they are giving a pre-kiss.
I am sure that the next few weeks will be filled with pictures of our little guy. I will give a precondition now... we do not think that new borns are cute... this is a myth. But we do love them.

Dangerous Book For Boys

Every once in a while there comes along a book that is a must have. I think that this year's must have book is The Dangerous Book For Boys. This book is filled with great tips for boys on everything from tying knots to making batteries. It is also a book that deals with a lot of people, places, and things that boys should know. It discusses the presidents, wonders of the ancient world, and even gives a nice explanation of the 10 commandments. There are also some indoor rainy day things that boys can do, including some cool art projects.

These 'boys books' were quite popular in the 1920s-1950s but they have gone out of fashion. It seems that the popular things for boys to do no longer include adventure and intelligence. Boys are trained to watch TV, play video games, and when they are allowed to ride bikes and do fun things, they are required, by law, to be padded from head to toe 'for their own safety'. I hope that this book challenges parents to turn off the TV and PS3 (or whatever it is called) and to do something.

We have noticed that the book is found wherever books are sold. We have seen it at Barnes and Noble for 30% off, but the cheapest that we have found it is at Costco for $13.00. That is a good price for a great book full of colorful graphics. It even has a gold leafed cloth cover and marbleized book boards... in classic early 1900s fashion.

Get it.

We Are Going on A Bear Hunt...

Yesterday we watched Noah and Seth so that Adam and Emily could go out for some dinner with friends. We had a great time with them. They are always so fun and adventurous. Very much 'boys boys'. We took them to Saint Joseph Seminary across the street to play ball in the field. When they were done kicking and running we decided to go on a Bear Hunt with some of our time together.
We began walking through the strip of woods that surrounds the acreage of the Seminary. We could see the street at all times, of course, but to the kids we were deep in the woods looking for bears. Seth and Noah 'climbed' a tree to see if they could see any signs of bears anywhere (we saw lots of signs of very large dogs)... no bear.
Anna and Owen decided to give it a try. They were not able to locate a bear either.
We continued to look and seek. We saw a lot of places where the neighborhood skunks and opossum live- but no bears.
Anna found a bright orange stick that she was able to poke and prod with in her search for wild-life.
Owen thought that he found a bear, but alas, it was just an old Jack Daniels bottle that had been heaved over the fence into the woods.
The woods got thick in some places. Lydia and I were not able to make it into some of the smaller areas, but with Owen at the charge, the kids were sure to find their way through.
Noah decided to take the lead for awhile and lead the kids towards the killing of a giant black bear.
There was no bear this time. I am sure that we will have plenty of time to go on other bear hunts. We walked back to our home and had some cookies that Emily made and some nice water to wash it down.
What a group of hunters!
* * * If you do not have the book that is linked above- our children LOVE it!

Klompen Dancing through Tulip Time

The Eshelman's proper, came up from Pennsylvania for a variety of reasons. One of the things that they wanted to do was to go to Holland and visit Tulip Time. They had never done this, and frankly, Pella Iowa's Tulip Time is much more ethnocentric. Holland had NO Dutch food that we could try and most of the stores displayed racist signs on the doors that read, "NO WOODEN SHOES". When will the racism end against the humble Dutch?
Here Anna was helping to weed their gardens. I informed her that they wanted those tulips there. She was wanting to replace them with edelweiss, but I reminded her that our Reformed heritage honors the TULIP and we should be nice to the Dutch for their silly ways of remembering the doctrines of Grace. Owen was showing me all of the various parts of the tulip. "Papa, that is the stamen", "that is the ovary", "that is the anther and filament", "that is the receptacle and pedicel"!

Ummm... okay Owen... whatever.

And here we have the famous Holland Klompen Dancers. 1400 women dressed as men and women on Saturday and on the Sabbath day dressed as the gender that God intended them to be.

We had a great time!

Tante Heidi and a Tuesday Visit

Aunt Heidi came to visit us this week. It seems that her place of employment has left the Chicago area and she is between jobs. This gave us the benefit of seeing her since we are always so busy and our paths rarely cross. We were glad she could come up. We took her to Meijer Gardens to see the butterflies before they are all dead. We also took her for dinner at Johnny Carino's across from the Gardens. Good times!
Here Anna is smelling the Orchids. She knows that Orchid walls are a great part of Malysa tradition. It is alleged that Oma has an Orchid wall in Naples. We have yet to see it, but that is the story. Anna loves Orchids and she claims that the tiny ones are the prettiest.
Owen thought that smelling them would get him some attention as well. He is cute, but does not look like he is really in the Orchid spirit.

Here Lydia and Anna were snuggling at the Michigan Farm. Anna received this new pink monkey from Tante Heidi. The poor thing has the unfortunate name of Jungle Love... we will call him the pink monkey in our house.
Here Tante Heidi and the kids were playing in the hay. The Gardens has a great barn that was built in 1910 and then moved to the Gardens to be placed at the Farm. I had to share a story of throwing hay onto the bailer at grandpa's farm. When you do that for an afternoon your arms are as cut as a teenage girl on Lifetime.

The koi pond was pretty, but there was only a half dozen koi in the whole thing. Last summer we at lunch at it and there were well over 100! Where are all the fish?
Here is one of Anna's notorious power hugs. They look cute, but Owen hates it! It is unfortunate when ones face turns blue.

Thanks for coming Tante Heidi! Too bad about the Italian butter container getting broken at Carino's though. It was fun to watch that little guy clean it up for 40 minutes though. Good thing we tip well!

Butterflies are in bloom

We got to go to the Meijer Gardens for the first time of the new season. We love to kick off Spring with the butterflies at the Gardens. They have a really cool clear butterfly this year.
Lydia enjoyed the sun...for one minute.

This butterfly was really pretty. It was blue-green and the texture looked like velvet.
There were a lot of this one. They seemed to fly in groups. Click on the picture and you can read his expression, "I've got two weeks to live and I have to be on display for you!"
I edited a paper while we walked to the 'Michigan Farm". This year they have added a lot of great sculptures to the farm.

Here is Anna in the backyard garden. It smelled great in there- tons of bulbs in full bloom!
Here is on of the sculptures at the farm. Owen tried to feed it grass. He was not interested in eating.
Here is the famous Alexander Calder mobile that my dad tried to spin. I laugh every time I walk by it. I have never seen so many security guards! And the sirens! Wow!

I would suggest getting a membership this year if you have not in the past. Remember that the Tuesday night music series is coming up in August! What a great place to visit!