June 20, 2013

One of the activities we did at the book club Tuesday night was to design a zoo exhibit.  The kids learned about the words 'habitat' and 'enrichment' and created wonderful exhibits for their animals.  Needless to say, 2 days later, my kitchen table is still totally covered with zoo exhibits and the materials for enrichment.  We had to go buy more animals today!  If you can imagine it, we ate a family dinner tonight....around this creative mess!  The kids are having a blast coming up with creative ways to design these habitats.  I love their creativity and enthusiasm!  They can have my kitchen table as long as they are having fun!!

June 19, 2013

One reason why I love spring and summer is I get to play baseball (little league).  This picture was taken at my last game of the season.  It was a play off game and we were playing against the Tigers who had beat us twice and we had beaten them once.  If we lost we would be done, and if we won we would play the next day in the championship.  The Tigers were really good and they played hard and had some really good hits.  This photo was taken when they hit the ball down the 1st base line while I was playing 1st base.  I got to the base and got the guy out.  Thanks to my dad because he coaches me every year.  We lost the game but I had 3 RBI's, 1 walk, 2 hits, scored twice (out of 6 points for my team), and made two outs at 1st base.  I also played catcher for the first few innings.  I was sad to see the season end, but the Tigers played good and I learned a lot and had a ton of fun.
(Photo by Mom, written by Noah)

June 18, 2013

Today we hosted our very first mother-daughter book club of the summer.  You may not know this about me, but I'm a bit of a stressed entertainer, but Abby and Sophie are not.  They thought this was SOOO fun to prepare for...which in turn erased all of my stress as well.  If you have never read the 2013 Newbery winner, "The One and Only Ivan" you should.  It is a phenomenal book.  We had about 13 people at our house and we explored the book through two awesome art projects, banana cupcakes, and lively discussion.  It was so fun to hear the girls' insights about the book. 

June 17, 2013

Abby (pink hat) and Sophie (red hat) had their first softball game last night.  They have not played since t-ball and they were really excited to be back on the field!  Noah has been playing little league and loves having a catch.  Abby and Sophie have joined in often, and there have been family trips to the baseball diamond.  At the game, they both did great!  They had hits both times they were at bat and even had a pitcher (Abby) to 1st base (Sophie) play that resulted in an out!  Driving home I told the girls how well they had done and Abby said, "It's because of all the practice daddy has done with me."  Sigh. 

June 16, 2013

Happy Father's Day Dad.  My dad is my hero and one of my very best friends.  Having him 3 miles away (when he and my mom aren't travelling the country) has been a dream come true.  I love saying, "see you tomorrow dad" and a long running joke, "You should just stay (in Holland vs returning 'home' to Livonia for the past 14 years....well mostly 9 years since we had kiddos and my parents hated to leave each Sunday night).  Watching my dad play with my kids fills my heart with joy.  My eyes were filled with tears last week when Noah was giving my dad 'signs' as my dad pitched the ball to him in the front yard.  The kids love to curl up on grandpa's lap almost as much as I do....still.  Thank you dad, I love you. 

June 15, 2013

We enjoyed another weekend at the cottage.  This time the entire 'Bonnema' family was there at one point.  Including all of the cousins, nieces, nephews, aunts and uncles!  It was amazing to see the kids playing with cousins they had not seen in months, and cousins from just down the road.  It was fun to catch up and laugh together.  I love this picture because as Noah and Joan come in from the dock you can see the wonderful evidence of a big family having fun in the sun (and clouds):  life jackets, towels, water shoes, shirts....  "We must be at the cottage...."

June 14, 2013

Today we started out by riding our bikes to a  garage sale somewhere on our block. Noah biked home afterward we looked around at the garage sale so we had to go and pick him up before going to the farmer's market. We biked there too by the way. We got snap peas and sadly we did not get any strawberries because there were none left!:(  We biked back to our house to get in the car to go to a park. On the way to the park we stopped at a garage sale and I said,"Do we havvvvveeee to stop?!" We stoped at another garage sale and this time I got out of the car. Luckily we got a globe. When we got to the park we played for a few minutes and then out of the blue came my friend Anna. We played with her for a few more minutes and then went to the other park across the field that separated the two parks. We played there until we had to leave. What a day!
Photo selected, edited, and written by Abby