Pioneer Picnic

Wednesday evening was the night of the annual second grade Pioneer Picnic. Unfortunately the weather stunk. We have been under cloud cover for a couple of days here in Michigan now. (Can I just say that the weather here STINKS!) We all ate our dinner on the grass while the mist came down on us. After a long day of teaching this was not high on my list of fun activities. The second graders performed some square dances, but the games had to be cancelled. We then went inside to listen to presentations on the kids' projects. Kam did a great job!The kids square dancing. Kamryn refused to wear her cute pioneer dress again!

Kamryn making her presentation with her teacher.

Sunday Snapshots

I thought I would take some updated pictures of the kids before church this morning.

Troy William-4 years
Kamryn Elise-8 and a half
Katelyn Joy-13 (almost 14!)
These are some pictures from Meijer Garden today. These pools are in the shape of the Great Lakes. Kids can play with boats and get a bit wet in the process.
Troy and Kam like to dig in the sand and climb the rocks there too.

Week Number 2 Finished

Well, we survived another week without Scott. It actually went quite quickly because we are so busy. I continue to teach third grade and the kids are busy with school, soccer practice, graduation dinners at church, playing at Grandma's house, homework, etc. Here are some highlights of the week.

Kam and Troy enjoying afterschool popscicles on the deck.
Go, Go Speed Racer! Troy received a special birthday gift from the Denver cousins. (Aunt Sarah always gives the best gifts!!) This is right up Troy's alley and he is loving watching these cars shoot around the track. (Kamryn patiently read all of the instructions and pieced it all together for him. I was thankful I didn't have to do it!)
Kamryn's class spent Friday morning at a one room school house in the country by us. They had class there and a picnic lunch. Everyone dressed in "pioneer" clothing for the occasion. Thankfully the teachers had a donated supply of dresses to borrow. Here's Kam in the one she chose to wear. She actually enjoyed wearing it!
Her basket lunch completes the look.
Kamryn with her covered wagon project.

On Friday night we all went to see the movie, "Speed Racer." We ended up looking at the wrong time, so we had to go to the Imax version where the screen is 3 stories high! It was pretty cool.

Scott update: Scott continues to enjoy ministry in the Chicago area. He has been invited to dinner at church people's homes every night this week! His first sermon went well last week and he is all set for two more tomorrow. We are thankful things are going well, but are anxious to be all together as a family again!..One more week!!

Memorial Day

We had a wonderful weekend because Scott returned home after his first week in Chicago. (Everything there went great, by the way.) We hit a favorite ice cream spot with the Borsts Sunday evening. Monday was spent doing some things around the house, seeing a movie and a bit of shopping. We BBQed and were able to eat outside on the deck because it was finally warm enough!! After dinner Troy requested a family baseball game, so that's what happened.

Troy and Anna making a mess of themselves and everything around them!
We have a bunch of lilies (or whatever they are) behind our house.
Troy can even hit with his eyes closed! Yes, he is playing in his socks. Oh well!

Kam in action.

A Saturday at the Lake

Some friends of ours from our small group invited us out to Lake Macatawa for the day today. We had a wonderful time of just relaxing and getting some sunshine. Here are some shots of the day.Katie and baby Kelly.

Playing in the sand at Holland State Park.Katie mid-swing.
The group hiking back to the condo.
We promised the kids a stop at the General Store for a treat.
The highlight of the day was a ride on the boat out to the Big Lake.
Yes, Troy did actually drive us out of the channel. Pete loved it! These are some pictures of the Lighthouse by Holland beach. (These are for you, Sharon!)

Preschool Picnic

Troy finished preschool this week. He's been going to a small Lutheran School since January. They had a picnic in a local park. These are some pictures with his friends.

These are Troy's teachers. This reminds me of some highlights of the preschool conference we had with his teacher a couple of months ago.

1. Troy knew all of the letters of the alphabet very well, except the letter "K". (All the female members of our family have names beginning with K!)

2. Troy had to be told that the boys could not play pirates at recess anymore because all of the girls were scared to have recess because the boys were chasing them all the time.

3. Troy was very worried during calendar time because they were never able to put up the sunshine on the weather chart. (We had to explain to the teacher that talk about sunshine-or the lack thereof is a big topic of conversation at our house.)

Troy did have a successful first year of preschool and will be headed back in the fall. He is definitely "all boy" as they say, and seems to still enjoy a good ball game outside over school work.

Palos Heights

Yesterday we drove to Chicago and stayed the night in a hotel. This morning Scott was "commissioned" at Palos Heights CRC in Chicago where he'll be interning this summer. We had to laugh when we drove up to the church and read the sign. We had a great time at the church. The people are very welcoming and appreciative of us coming there. It makes us excited for what's ahead.