Aaron & Jen, Kayla, Madeline, Savannah, Sophia
We’ve had gorgeous spring weather here in Grand Rapids lately! Most days have been in the low 70′s, though we’ve had a few days that have reached 80 and some days in the 60′s. This past Tuesday evening, April 30, we spent some time enjoying the Frederik Meijer Gardens.
Who doesn’t love the classic book Green Eggs & Ham? Even Sophie loves it. I found a recipe for Green Egg & Ham on 100 Days of Real Food and wanted to make it for the girls. Basically you combine eggs, milk, spinach, chopped onion, salt and pepper in the blender and then scramble them in a frying pan. In addition to a Creamsicle Green Smoothie, it made for a perfect St. Patrick’s Day breakfast.
(I used natural turkey instead of ham.)
Lesson learned: Don’t give a green smoothie to a toddler recovering from a stomach virus, even if she really wants it. It didn’t settle well in Sophie’s tummy.
Kayla was sweet this morning. She helped Sophie get ready for our annual St. Patrick’s Day photo.
She even picked out Sophie’s outfit, dressed her, helped her brush her teeth, and combed her hair.
You’ll notice Sophie is wearing a different outfit for the photo below. The aforementioned stomach virus was the cause of the outfit change. Poor thing. Hope she’s feeling better soon.
Love these girls.
At the end of January our family had a chance to visit The Great Wolf Lodge in Traverse City for the first time (thanks to a great Groupon deal). Our girls had such a great time, though poor Sophie got really tired out! Overall it was a great experience, and we’d love to go again sometime.
The sun was shining through the window this morning, which created the perfect opportunity to introduce Sophie to shadows. It was hard to get her to hold still, but I managed to get this shadow photo of the little sweetheart.
December was a great month getting ready to celebrate Christmas. We had a few months of good health and were hoping it would last through the holidays. Unfortunately I started coming down with the flu (influenza, not stomach flu) on Christmas Eve while making these cinnamon rolls.
But they still turned out super delicious! Thanks, Pioneer Woman!
Here are a couple pictures of our family on Christmas morning.
The girls came down with the flu next, and finally Aaron. After four years of being sick over the holidays, I think we’ll just expect it next year. Despite the illness, we did have a great Christmas and are thankful to all be healthy again.
We continued our tradition this October of selecting pumpkins from the pumpkin patch, guessing how many seeds were inside, carving the pumpkins and roasting the seeds. We also made a few fun Halloween crafts and desserts this year.
What a gorgeous fall day for a visit to the pumpkin patch:
Getting ready to carve and count:
Mmm … roasted seeds:
Seed guesses and the actual counts:
Boo-Nilla shakes:
Giant Halloween Cookie:
Ghost pancakes:
Ghost balloons:
Sparkly pumpkin:
October 25–Getting ready to go trick-or-treating at the Children’s Museum:
October 31–Getting ready to go trick-or-treating in the neighborhood:
Jack-o-lanterns:
What a fun and beautiful fall we’ve had! Sometimes if feels like the weather in Michigan goes from summer to winter with only about two weeks of fall in between. This year, however, we had lots of sunny days in the 50′s and 60′s. There were, of course, some cold, yucky days and a few really hot ones, but overall I think it was one of the best falls we’ve had in a long time.
At the Frederik Meijer Gardens:
Walking the trails at Blandford Nature Center:
What the girls found under one of our bushes and have played with for hours since:
At Orchard Hill Farm (on one of the cold, yucky days):
Rag curls, just like the Little House girls had:
A High Five craft the girls did by themselves
Face and hand painting by Mommy:
This one got a little wet before we took a picture:
So did this one:
Just after Kayla’s fourth birthday, we started reading the Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Kayla quickly fell in love with Laura and her stories about pioneer life. In 2009 we visited the Little House homesite in Pepin, Wisconsin and learned about the annual Laura Days festival. Each September girls ages 8, 9, 10, and 11 can compete for the title of “Pepin Laura” based on their knowledge of the Little House books. Kayla learned of the festival when she was five and waited patiently for three years before entering the competition. On September 6, 2012, we began our journey to Pepin.
These are some photos from Ella’s Deli, a restaurant in Madison, Wisconsin that Aaron used to go to when he was growing up:
Swimming at the hotel in Madison:
At Laura Days: (Special thanks to Grandma Kerr for making the dresses!)
Though she didn’t win, Kayla was definitely our favorite Laura:
At the Mall of America in Minneapolis:
The beautiful lake we stayed on in St. Germaine, Wisconsin:
If you look closely, you’ll see Aaron getting ready to take the girls canoeing:
As we drove across the Mackinaw Bridge, we saw this rainbow. This a view from our hotel room:
We made a last-minute decision to take the ferry to Mackinaw Island. We’re so glad we did!
I’m a bit behind on posting this, but I still wanted to share some sweet photos of Sophie on her first birthday.
First thing in the morning …
Ready for the day now …
Chocolate Chip Pancakes made by Daddy …
The birthday cake …
Mmm …
This is so fun …
These last two aren’t from her birthday, but I couldn’t resist posting them.
