Swing set!

This is a motherhood dream come true. Our kids have their own swing set in the backyard and I can watch them playing from the kitchen while preparing dinner! This was a great craigslist find and Brad is so awesome that he a) knows how to take it apart, move it and set it up here, b) is able to and c) is not only willing but enthusiastic to do it. It required some new bolts and boards but it's secured in the ground and sturdy. Plus a slide is coming soon (shhh!). 

Addie is certainly the monkey of the family!

July 2014

If June was Crazy, I don't even know how to describe July. It was wonderful, horrible, amazing, exhausting...all at the same time. We were not homeless: as the saying goes, "Home is where the heart is" and we were blessed to have the entire month together as a family of 5 but also with many of our close and extended relatives. We enjoyed lots of visits with cousins and aunts and uncles on both sides of our families. We especially savored a week when Mike and Rach, Gideon and Anneke visited from Oregon and another two weeks that we got to spend with Mom and Dad Bierma in Colorado. So while our hearts always had a home, our heads slept on many different pillows over the course of July. We also said more good-byes and made our final departure from Michigan. The roller coaster of emotions during those weeks left me feeling whip-lashed by the time August rolled around.

An informal snapshot of the Schippers tribe together in Holland

Great Gram and Herb with 8 of their great grand-kids

We loved swimming in a neigbor's pool and also at the beach in Holland as much as we could!

Peter really found is comfort level in the water this year

Cousins are the best! A special bond happens with young cousins and I miss seeing these guys playing together!

A fun day a Michigan's Adventure - first rollercoaster ride for Cora. She did them all! What a brave girl! Peter even tried the ones he was big enough to ride and loved it, too.

On a wilderness hike by the cabin in Colorado. How fun that all 3 could do a lot more walking than last year!

Our attempt at a family-self-portrait in the woods

Picnic lunch in Ouray. We love Ouray! The views, the pool, the climate. It's just lovely.

Grandma Bierma and Addie on "Grandpa's" boat at Ridgeway. No bears this year! But fun times fishing and boating and being together.

We hiked to the "Hole in the Rock" with Grandma and Grandpa Bierma and snapped this fun picture together while we rested.

I'm thankful for all the wonderful memories we made during the month of July! And glad we have some pictures to help us remember the special moments!

April Fun

Addie likes to play in the big kids' beds

We witnessed the birth of a lamb at the Critter Barn during spring break

Thanks to our GRChildren's Museum membership we got free entry to the USS Silversides Museum in Muskegeon. Cora is hiding inside an old torpedo.

In front of the submarine in Muskegon. Cora is taking the picture for us and Peter was being tickled as he tried to get away!

Monkey faces!

Cora's chalk art

Tea party with our new neighbors from Ethiopia on a rare sunny day

Easter picture with the Gritter cousins

Hide and Seek - Addie hid here in the closet for about 20 minutes, quiet and still! She was found multiple times during the multiple rounds of the game but she never left her special hiding spot!

Frederik Meijer Gardens

It's been a few weeks again already since the last post of pictures! We did this back in March, too. The Frederik Meijer Gardens fills their botanical garden with butterflies each March and April. Our favorites are always the large Blue Morpho butterflies. I particularly love seeing them because it reminds me of being in Costa Rica and seeing them in the "wild", along with the clusters of orchids blooming from in the crooks of tree branches.  

Friends Cole and Moriah with Addie and Peter being goofy - yes, that is snow in the background. We were glad to be in the warm garden greenhouse!

Sem wives Cassidy, me and Jen

In one room they had catepillars - the kids had fun trying to find them amongst the plants. 

Well, by this point they were not excited to sit and take a "nice" picture with mom...oh well!

No pics of butterflies - I didn't have my good camera along so the ones I did take were pretty blurry.

But didn't this one turn out great! We got to play outside in the relative warmth (it must have gotten into the 40's that day and felt like spring) and explore the sculptures and children's garden. I caught Peter mid-air as he jumped to give the horse a high-five!

Children's Museum

The Grand Rapids Children's Museum membership is the way to go! After 2-3 visits with our family the membership has more than paid for itself, and we have been over a dozen times this winter. I can't even begin to explain how wonderful this place is. But here are a few pictures of a recent visit on a members only day so you can get a glimpse of it yourself. 

Arts and crafts table

Lego table

Bubble bath - blow giant bubbles

Rainbow balls in slots thingy

Make a giant bubble tube (I love Peter's expression here - he can tell it's about to pop!)

Members only day - snacks provided by local smoothie and frozen yogurt restaurant

Dental health exhibit: brush the puppets' teeth and use a realistic sounding squirter tool

Construction zone exhibit slide

Everything is designed for the exploration, play-learning and safety of children

The gravel/dirt is recycled rubber from tires. 

Great Wolf Lodge in Traverse City

First, a hilarious picture to show you one of Addie's recent quirks. She frequently undresses herself and finds some of her siblings clothes and does her best job dressing herself in their clothes. She is pretty good at it but the shirt usually confuses her so she comes asking for help. I admit, I put the shirt on her in this picture. It makes her so happy I don't see why not satisfy her, even though it's a little weird seeing her in boy clothes. So after she put on Peter's pants and I helped her with the shirt, she went and found his shoes and put them on, and then donned the hard hat. Too cute! She really looks a lot like Peter !! 

 During a few days of Reading Break we had the privilege to spend two nights in Traverse City at the Great Wolf Lodge with my parents and sister and brother-in-law and their kids. It is a great place for a family-friendly getaway. It's a hotel with an indoor water park, plus a ton of other activities, too. It was a really fun couple of days.

Each night one of the characters comes and helps read a bedtime story to all the kids in the lobby. Our kids loved meeting the big fuzzy animals. Well, maybe Addie didn't love it?

 There really was something for everyone to enjoy at the water park. Plenty of fun to be had by all! It was super nice having a one-to-one adult to child ratio: the kids ages are 7, 5, 4, 3, 1 1/2, and 5 months!

One of the perks of the water park at GWL is that the air and water temperatures are luxuriously warm!  Even so, the hot tub was a still a treat for young and old.

 Grandma S with Cora and Leyton (in the back) enjoying the lazy river.

 Cora got to take a special "Jr. Lifeguard" training class. Behind her in the picture you can see some of the water park attractions.

 The time went so fast but it gave us great memories to enjoy for a long time afterward! 

Click HERE for a short video at YouTube of Addie and Peter going down the kiddie sized water slides. (Thanks, Deb, for taking it!) They did this over and over for probably a whole hour straight one evening! They were really loving it! Too bad we didn't get any videos of the big slides. Let's face it: cameras and water don't mix!