Some October Fun

Hello! from the Bierma kids!

Peter is getting into puzzles. It's so much fun to watch him work it out and  do the puzzles over and over again!

Cora's class took a field trip to the Calvin Nature Preserve, which is almost in our backyard. I had fun going along as a  chaperon.

Trick or Treating with some of our friends and their kids. Calvin's apartments put together a family friendly candy collecting evening called "Light in the Night."

Addie is a happy baby. She smiles easily and often!

Early this month we went to farm tour and breakfast at a large dairy farm near Allegan. It was a cold, rainy day, but fun anyway! Cora said "You should write 'stinky, too'! From the cows." Our city noses weren't used to the farm smell.

The tracker shuttle from the parking lot (aka cleared corn field) to the farm tour was a highlight !

So was seeing the all the big tractors

Getting so big!

Peter had to get in on Addie's 4 month picture: good perspective 

Addie is rolling herself back and forth from back to tummy. She prefers  to sleep on her tummy, now that she can get herself there! (Cora is helping me edit this post and she said "and write 'Cora loves Addie'")

For some reason Blogger keeps uploading pictures like this...even though I save them correctly on my computer before loading them here. Oh well! Look how big Addie is getting!

At Addie's 4 month checkup last week she weighed in at over 15 lbs and very long -  in the 95 percentile for girls her age! She is doing great and developmentally right on track. She is eating rice and oatmeal baby food and getting the hang of eating from a spoon!

Cora is using quite a bit of Spanish at home. It's fun to hear the phrases or words that she is picking up. It's really nice that I can understand her! She came home from school the other day saying she was thirsty. I asked her what she wanted to drink and she replied, "leche con chocolate" which is Spanish for chocolate milk!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Peter!

Peter, oh, Peter. I have not the words to describe you, little man! I absolutely adore you. You are a bundle of energy and passion, and smarter than I know what to do with. We love your exuberance, and your constant singing brings joy and a song to our hearts, too. You can hardly keep still if there is music playing but just have to dance and wiggle! You adore your big sister, Cora, and get so frustrated when you can't run as fast as her; you're sweet and attentive to your little sister, Addie. We are so blessed to have you in our lives! Thank you, Lord, for our Peter!

Peter helped me bake and decorate his cupcakes for his playdate birthday party. He chose chocolate cupcakes, blue frosting and M&M's as decoration. This boy knows what he likes!

We had a few friends over Friday morning: Alex, Tatyanna, Josiah and Owen. 

Yum!!! Peter ended up mostly just eating the frosting off the cupcakes. Hey, it's his birthday!

This is so sweet: Cora found this toy version of a car ferry on the SS Badger and asked if she could get it for Peter for his birthday. So we secretly bought it and kept it hidden till his birthday and she gave it to him. He loves it!

Peter has been riding hand-me-down bikes his whole life and his little plastic tricycle is on it's last legs (or wheels). He was so excited to uncover this cool boy bike on his birthday and he loves riding it around the basement. We've been working on getting used to breaking so he can ride it more confidently outside on the hills and he's really getting the hang of it.

Peter's Birthday Cake! Just what he wanted. :)

Reading a book with Grandpa S. and Elena while waiting for birthday dinner.

I think one of his favorite parts of birthday (besides the frosting) is the birthday song! He loved watching everyone singing to him.

Peter is growing big and strong! He weighs in at a solid 37 lbs and is 38 1/4 inches tall. He still loves his teddy and paci (I know, I know: we'll give paci a few more months). He often refers to teddy as his baby and puts him down for a nap or puts him on his shoulder and pats his back gently. He loves to sing "I love you, Lord", "Now unto Him who is able", "ABC's", "Jesus Loves Me", "Jesus loves the Little Children" and many others. We sometimes joke about the playlist that runs constantly in his head. We often hear him humming himself to sleep, or when he wakes up in the morning before getting out of bed. Speaking of that, he's still an early bird, but we now use the "OK to Wake" Clock and he has to wait till the green light goes on before getting out of bed. Wonderful! He is a decent eater but has a strong sweet tooth. He prefers to eat grains and fruits and vegetables over meat. 

Some of the funny things he often says: "Once upon a time ago", "I spy with my doo-doo eye" ("doo-doo" is how he pronounces "little", he's not trying to sound dirty, but sometimes he and Cora get goofy and say "poopoo peepee" and crack each other up over it...), "Lookit at dat". He likes to tell knock-knock jokes that often go like this: Peter - "knock, knock", Me - "who's there?", Peter - "Banana. Ha ha ha ha" and that's the end of the joke. I can't help but laugh with him. :) 

Peter is expressive, not only about his frustrations and disappointments, but also about his endearments. He often tells us he loves us, or he takes my hand when we're walking somewhere and says "You're my dest dend" (best friend)! and when one of us returns from being gone he says, "I missed you so much!" It's so sweet to see how happy he and Cora are to see each other when she gets off the school bus. They often hug and he says he missed her and she tells him about some picture she drew for him.

What a blessing this little boy is to our family!

3 month old Addie

We have a happy baby in our house, and she is such a blessing! At 3 months old (a month ago now) Addie was full of smiles and smiles easily at almost anyone who looked at her. She would crane her neck around to watch whatever shenanigans her bigger siblings were up to. She had started going to bed at about 7 pm for the night, but waking up once or twice to eat before getting up for the day at about 7 am. I figured she weighed about 14 lbs and she's plenty long.

Hello, Miss Joyful!

The arms and legs are going wild.

Peter playing pee-a-boo with Addie: she's intrigued.

The Badger Boat

This summer was wonderful but we didn't get much of a chance to get away on vacation as a family together, so when a Groupon came up for a round trip on the S.S. Badger we decided to make a weekend getaway. The Badger is a car ferry that crosses Lake Michigan between Ludington, MI, and Manitowoc, WI.  We left Friday evening, Sept. 8, and stayed in Ludington. Mom and Dad S. came with us and we enjoyed a night in a hotel with a fun pool and water slide. The kids are getting to an age where it's really exciting for them to sleep in a hotel. Cora said the funniest thing when we were anticipating the trip. She said she was so excited to sleep in the hotel and when I asked her why she said because she loves hotel breakfast food! 

Saturday morning we had to board the ferry before the 9 am departure. We did not bring the car along, but once we boarded the boat we were able to stand above the loading dock and watch all the cars, campers and even semi-trucks drive onto the boat! Our tickets included a state room which was wonderful for nursing Addie, studying Hebrew, and taking naps (me and Peter)! There were lots of amenities on board the boat and tons of room to walk around and explore. Check out the SS Badger website to see what all there is. The trip across takes 4 hours and we were easily entertained the whole time. 

The boat in the background is a retired ferry, identical to the Badger.

Watching all the cars load on the ferry.

Saturday's trip across was windy, cold and choppy, with a little rain. 3-5 foot waves. Even though the ferry is huge it was a little rocky and we definitely had to have our "sea legs" to walk around. It was pretty funny when we were coloring because the crayons would roll back and forth the table as the boat rocked back and forth. We had to catch them often to keep them from rolling off the table! Thankfully none of us got sea sick, and it seemed that the shorter the person, the easier to walk around! (Interesting note: we asked the attendant in the gift shop what the biggest waves were that she had ever sailed on and she said 12 foot waves: everything was falling off the shelves in the shop that day!)

We spent the night in Manitowoc, and explored the nearby main street for dinner. We stumbled upon their annual festival commemorating when part of the space station fell from space and landed in the middle of Main Street, leaving a pothole in the road! The festival had an alien theme so it was quite bizarre and entertaining. Nonetheless, we found some really good BBQ pork sandwiches and enjoyed seeing the locals out and about. 

Sunday we toured the Wisconsin Maritime Museum and the submarine USS Cobia. We were very impressed with the museum and enjoyed the tour of the submarine, even the kids. 

There was a water works exploration station in the museum.

Catching fish coming over the waterfall.

Fun for adults, even! 

Sunday afternoon we walked back to the SS Badger, cruised across the lake and drove home. It was a much nicer day and a smoother ride on the boat.

We had a great time together and made some wonderful memories. Cora and Peter fondly recall our trip by talking about "The Badger Boat". 

Another cute story...after the trip I mentioned one day that Daddy was a soldier and Peter corrected me saying, "Daddy was a submarine!" He must have heard before that daddy was a marine, but he confused it with submarine after going on the SS Cobia!

We would highly recommend taking the SS Badger across the lake for anyone interested in big boats or just looking for a unique day trip. It is possible to go to WI and return back to MI on the same day, if you don't want to spend anytime in Manitowoc. There was so much more we could have explored, but it was a great weekend!

Good-bye Summer

Brad and I have a secret favorite beach in the Holland area: Laketown Township beach. It starts with driving off of a main road, down a quiet residential street that is so heavily forested you can only tell that there are homes there because of the occasional driveways cutting off to the right and left with mailboxes marking their locations. The road dead ends at the base of a sand dune. Years ago the township built stairs up and over the dune to provide public access to Lake Michigan and the beach and to protect the dune from erosion from foot traffic. I read an article in the local paper this spring that this year the township didn't have enough money to pay employees to uncover the stairs from the sand that gets blown over them during the winter months, so a local man drummed up support and with 30 volunteers spent the spring months clearing the sand off the stairs. 

Brad and I loved coming here when we were dating, but we hadn't come here with the kids yet for a number of reasons: there's no bathroom or place to change or clean off after swimming and there are about 300 steps you've got to climb to get to the  beach...and back to your car! 

But on Labor Day we decided it was time to give it a try. We invited my parents to come and join us, too, and we're so glad they took us up on it!

As you can see, Cora and Peter were in a great mood and the daunting stairs didn't intimidate them one bit.

Taking a goofy break at a platform part way up the dune. 

Peter and Cora were real troopers and just kept going, up, up, up!

Finally on the way down! The view of Lake Michigan from the top of the dune is wonderful. What a blessing to live so close to the Lake! We've really loved having lots of time to go to the beach this year and have taken full advantage of the warm summer days.

Finally at the base of the stairs you still have to trek through the sand down to the water. Don't leave your shoes at the car: the sand is usually really hot!

Digging holes makes boys happy

Swimming makes this girl happy!

Addie's first feel of the fresh lake water and sand. It was a nice warm temperature that day!

 We were so glad we took this last chance to enjoy the lake before the school year started for Brad and me. It was a blessing of a day - the perfect last summer outing: clear blue skies and warm sunshine and a not-too-cold water temperature and gentle waves. We soaked it all in! It was one of those days I wished I could bottle up and remember all the smells, sounds, sights and feelings, along with the happiness and contentedness we all felt together. Thank you, God, for happy summer days!