Thursday, August 27, 2009

Summer Fun!

The 'Field Trip Friday' gang outside the Gerald R. Ford Museum in GR


Admiring a picture of one of Caroline Kennedy's dolls from her days in the White House. It was a wonderful exhibit!! Go see it if you get the chance!


Raising triplets is a zoo sometimes!! A visit from our friends the Pylman triplets!!


The kids passion of the moment...drawing out of drawing books. I kid you not, they sit for an hour at a time (yes, Noah too)


We are trying to get every last second out of summer vacation this month!! We've been to the beach, watermelon spitting contests, parks, bike rides... The kids are very excited to start school, I keep trying to remind them to enjoy the moment and Noah even told his sister yesterday to "Be Present" (my 34th year mantra!). Of course, I'm thrilled that they are so excited to start school!! They had 'kindergarten assessment' yesterday and were able to meet their teacher. Sigh. My babies!!
Here are a few pictures from our past week of fun!
I hope you are all savoring every moment, and "Being Present".

Monday, August 17, 2009

More Art!!






Last Friday we got back together with our 'Field Trip Friday' group. One of our friends is an amazing artist and art teacher in Holland. She did a lesson with acrylic paints for the kids. They loved it so much!! She had them paint a 'magical forest' with beautiful trees that had 'xoxo' and other letters for leaves. They also enjoyed driving matchbox cars through the paint and all over another canvas. It was so amazing to see their creativity blossom. It was also hilarious to see 7 kids under the age of 5 1/2 painting with acrylic paints on a drop cloth in Amy's garage (bless her heart!). The kids could not stop talking about how much fun they had!! We can't wait to hang up their masterpieces.

Try to picture the arrangement in the van....7 wet acrylic canvases and 3 kids :) I love my mini van!

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Our imaginary garden



Here is the finished 'imaginary garden' project we have been working on. I highly recommend the book! It's wonderful. I love the finished product, almost as much as working on it with my kids :)

Our Friends!





Yesterday we visited our friends the Landrigan's at their wonderful home. The kids enjoyed hearing the story of how we had met in the hospital and have been friends ever since. They enjoyed hearing stories of the first 'group picture' taken when we visited with 7- 6 month olds. Yesterday was as wonderful as ever, and we were excited to see our kids crossing family lines to play with each other for one of the first times. They have a wonderful piece of property that allowed the kids to run and play and drive jeeps :) It was fabulous! Again, we are so thankful for our blessings. They sure don't look like 7 preemies do they?

Camping!

The Bonnema family had another memorable camping weekend in Pentwater!! This one was made more special by having Laura, Gavin, and Nathan there for the weekend too. It's always wonderful to be in Pentwater, the site of our childhood cottage and many family memories! Memories was the theme of the weekend, we decided when we were sitting in the parked van downtown Pentwater Saturday morning after the 16+ straight hour of rain..... "We're making memories" we said. The kids were watching a movie, we were drinking coffee and reading. Waiting for the rain to let up. Yep, it started raining around dinner time Friday night and with the exception of a 2 hour break it did not stop until afternoon on Saturday. This was no ordinary rain, it was hard, steady, rain combined often with thunder and lightning. We "slept" Friday night partly in our tent and partly snuggled in beds with the kids in my parents pop up camper. Their camper had been invaded by mice where they store it, and so as I "slept" with the girls often I would receive some sort of water torture...a drop directly between my eyes that would slowly slide to the back of my head. We put the kids in my parents camper, but because I worried about them in the storms, as soon as thunder clapped, I flew out of my tent in to the dark woods to my parents site. The kids actually did great, no crying and a fair amount of sleeping. Everything was wet, inside and out. Saturday afternoon we were blessed with the sun for most of the day. It was so wonderful, we almost forgot about the nights events. The kids had a blast swimming in the pool, playing in the woods, and 'camping'. We enjoyed a wonderful extended family dinner, shopping, and playing at the park. The kids stayed up until 10:30 playing with glow sticks in the woods next to the campsite. It was magical! Unfortunately, that night brought two more storms, wind and rain. The kids blissfully slept in the tent through it all. I did not...nothing like a thin piece of fabric separating my family from the lightning. The kids slept in wet sleeping bags all night from the tent leaks. Did I mention we forgot our tent zipper broke last year and it was shut with duct tape for the weekend. Whew! Again, Sunday came with sunshine and wind to dry everything out. We were a little tired, but the kids woke with the joy that only comes from camping. They swam some more and we ate ice cream for the third day in a row. We were saddened to say goodbye to Laura, Gavin, and Nathan after an amazing 8 days with them. It was so wonderful to get to know Nathan and spend such wonderful time with them. Another camping weekend in Pentwater full of memories, some funny, some not so great, but mostly wonderful.
Did I mention we threw the tent in the trash at the end of the weekend???? but, I'm sure it will not be the end of our camping days...perhaps the end of our tent camping days however.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

A day at the zoo!
















Today we took baby Nathan to the zoo in GR. We hadn't been there all summer either, and we all had a wonderful time!! Each kiddo enjoyed finding a favorite animal!! My kids loved touching the sting rays too! What a wonderful day!!





Monday, August 3, 2009

A visit from Laura, Gavin, and Nathan!!












Laura, Gavin, and Nathan flew in on Saturday and will be around until next week Sunday!! We are loving every minute of it!! Nathan is amazing, and such a happy, fun baby!! We did a great hike Saturday night up 200+ steps to the top of Mt. Piskah, overlooking Lake Michigan and Lake Mac. it was beautiful!! We are looking forward to the rest of the week!!


**An aside: Jump over to http://www.wildolivetees.com/ to check out the new kids line they are launching later this month!! ADORABLE!!**

Craft time :)







We were quite crafty last week too....I finally sewed these darling dolls for the girls. I found the pattern online, let me know if you want the link. I have to admit I sewed it all by hand...my sewing machine and I don't get along very well.



We have also been in love with the kids book, "Imaginary Garden" and used it for instruction/inspiration to create our own imaginary garden on canvas. All 4 of us worked together, and it's not quite done but I LOVE it so much!! I highly recommend the book!!

The Fair
















The Ottawa county fair was in town last week (practically in our front yard)! The kids wait all year for this week, and could hardly wait to go. Noah LOVED the rides, even riding a "big kid ride" with daddy! The girls loved the carousel, and the giant slide. Everyone loved the animals and the elephant ear! Abby was ecstatic to find a donkey (one of her favorite animals...since she was one in the preschool Christmas play) named Abbie :) They could hardly believe it when grandma and grandpa B came to town Friday night and took us all BACK to the fair for a second time!! It doesn't get any better than that!!