The costumes!!

Abby the artist (with her amazing dog painting from her after school art class) Sophie the Princess Leia
Noah the earth
It's been an amazing few days of school parties, Halloween hikes at the nature preserve, and trick or treating! Such fun!!!

Happy Halloween!!

Costume photos to come.....so much fun!

Fall with our cousins!

We had a great time last weekend with the McDaniel family in town! We had perfect fall weather for a morning at Post Family Farm! It was so amazing to show our Florida cousins a real Michigan pumpkin patch! So fun!!

Ice Cream for Breakfast!

This morning before school the kids and I joined my parents, Laura and her family, and my aunt and uncle at Hudsonville Ice Cream Factory for a private tour. My mom won this tour last fall along with 4 FREE half gallons of ice cream a month for a year! We had a blast learning about how ice cream is made, flavors are selected, and how much science and math is involved! It was a blast (of cold air as we visited a freezer kept at -20!)! The highlight for the kids was the GIANT bowl of vanilla ice cream that was taken right off the line and served to us! GIANT!! Nothing like Ice Cream for breakfast as a great way to start a Friday! Hopefully the kids could sit still in school the rest of the day!!

Weekend update

We had a wonderful fall weekend!

First, a shot of our art wall in the kitchen. L-R: 1. Noah's tree from art class 2. Noah's self portrait from art class. 3. Abby 4. Sophie (all three have favorite things and stats in Spanish...I had to ask for translations!) 5. Abby's dog done in her after school art class 6. Abby's tree 7. Sophie's tree 8. Abby's flowers from after school art class 9. Abby's bird on 'bark' from after school art class
I love this art wall! I love their creativity!

Note the picture on the side bar, taken UM/MSU game many years ago. I thought it was time for a new one. On a victory day too!

Big wind at the beach Saturday!

Crazy kids getting sandblasted!!

PS the true highlight of the weekend was not the MSU victory, but Noah's first touchdown at his last flag football game of the season. He received the hand off, looked and found a hole, and ran pretty much the full length of the field to score. It was amazing. I did not capture it on film, but enjoyed watching the entire thing (and jumping up and down and screaming!). As for Noah, he loved his whole team running up to congratulate him (and even a chest bump!) Ha!!

I wish you laughter this week!!

Brotherly Love!

Sophie was home sick from school today and missed her class trip to Hemlock Crossing Nature Preserve. Noah was so sad for her that he literally took notes so he could report all the details back to Sophie when they got home. It was precious.

On the drive to school today during our morning prayer Sophie exclaimed, "Wow!!". I stopped praying and asked her what was going on. We had been working on not interrupting during our prayers. She said, "look at that beautiful tree mom!" I paused, then asked her who made that amazing tree. "God" We then talked about how much God wants us to notice, appreciate, and love the beautiful gifts he gives us everyday. Sophie thought for a moment and asked, "even during a prayer?" I answered honestly, "yes Sophie, even during a prayer. And I bet that prayer even made God smile."
This was one of my favorite faith conversations ever. How often do I stop what I'm doing to exclaim, "Wow!" when I notice an amazing gift? Not as much as I should. Thank you sweet Sophie.

Wednesday Tradition

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"Wednesday at the beach"

Wacky Tacky Day!

Football, Apples, and Art

We kicked off October with a true fall weekend! Starting with Noah's flag football game. He has so much fun playing, and having his dad for a coach. It's so fun to watch him play hard, with a big smile! From there Tom headed up north for a weekend with friends and we went to Crane's with Bill and Joan. We enjoyed perfect fall weather to pick apples and have a great lunch! Sunday the kids and I visited 'ArtPrize' in GR for the afternoon. It was amazing!

I decided on the drive home from GR Sunday that we needed a 'fall list'. We love our summer list, when the days are long and we have no school. But, fall is great too, and even though our days are full of work and school we still have time to make wonderful memories. (Drumroll please....) Fall List 2011 was born. It's not as long as the summer list, and Noah isn't sure we'll find the time, but I am looking forward to making fall memories in every free moment we can. Savoring. Treasuring.