More River!

I have more pictures from our trip!  Thanks to Aunt Sue and Matt for taking these!

The kids spent quite a bit of time playing in this great raft!  Since we were at the river, where there is a current and no sandy beach with a gradual walk into the water, this raft was the best thing ever!!  The kids were able to play in the water (the middle was a mesh net thing!), yet they were safe and contained!! 

Faith enjoying the raft!

One of the highlights for me was having the chance to water ski!  I don't think that I have water skied in at least fifteen years!!!  The first day I skied on two skis (and even got up on the first attempt!), and then later tried just one ski!  Here is me attempting that!

And on my fifth attempt I got up!! 

Venturing out of the wake!

And four days later I am still feeling the effects of having water skied!  I guess that shows my age!

River Trip

Our first vacation of the summer was spent in Parker, Arizona at the Colorado River.  While we have often vacationed near Parker, we never actually stayed at the River.  So it was a new twist on a familiar type of trip!  We had high heat (about 110 each day!), lots of time in the water (swimming, boating, and jet skiing), and enjoyed getting to know many very nice people.  The group we went with included Steve's Uncle John and Aunt Sue and some families from their church.  We were thankful to be invited on this annual trip of theirs!

This is Shane the day before we left.  While I was busy packing up, he packed his Buzz Lightyear action figure in his Buzz backpack!  And of course he is wearing Buzz pjs.  He told me, "I'm all ready to go!  I have all I need!"

Faith is relaxing after some fun in the sun! 

On Thursday, the day we left, we took a boat ride to a restaurant right on the river.  Before departing we stopped for a photo op with Uncle John, Aunt Sue and cousin Matt!

Shane man patiently waiting for his French Toast!  Notice the rash guard and trunks?  Yes, they are Buzz Lightyear!  He was so excited when he first wore these that he actually slept in the shirt two nights and refused to wear anything but this shirt and trunks!! 

I thought this was too cute! Father and son ordering an ice cream sandwich!

More pictures are coming!

Ballet Recital

Our morning was spent at Faith's ballet recital!  It was such a delight to watch (yes, it was even nice to watch the dances Faith was not in!!), and just a fun event!  If you had been in our house yesterday, it was doubtful that Faith was going to be able to be in the recital as she was sick!  Friday she woke up with a fever, and she was in bed or on the couch most of the day.  She even took two naps!!  But by the evening her fever had broke, and with a good night of sleep, she awoke today feeling good!  And I conveniently forgot the general rule that a child should be kept at home for 24 hours after their fever is gone!! 

Here she is right before leaving the house.  I had just finished doing her hair and makeup, which of course she loved!!  Then we were off to the recital, where the dancers were backstage the entire time.  It is pretty amazing what a tight ship they run over there at the Ballet Academy!  But it is all very organized and well done!  I had to check her in, and then one of the dance helpers took her back to meet her class backstage.  Faith said they watched two movies, and that that was her favorite part of the whole recital!!  But she did really well and danced great!  I think she must have asked us four or five times on the way home, "did I dance great?!"  It was cute!

After the performance...Faith was glad Grandma Poelstra could come!

At home we took a few more pictures!  The name of the dance that Faith was in was called "Springtime Fairies".

 

The Final Piece!!

The finishing touch of our kitchen remodel was put in place today!  Our window valances arrived!!  It was very exciting to see this final piece of the puzzle, and we LOVE them!!

Window by the sink...

And by the table...

Another view!  Pretty amazing that our big project is finally, completely finished!!  Yeah!!



Silly Shane!

Shane has quite the little personality and can be quite the character!  The things he says and the things he does often leave us laughing!  Like his older sister, he remembers everything!  And for him, that is often displayed in the things he says.  For example, today when I asked him to make his bed, he replied, "Sure mom, piece of cake!"  It surprised me that a boy, not yet three, would say that!  And when I made him a sandwich for lunch, he said it was just perfect!  We're going to have to keep our eyes on that little charmer!  I wanted to share some pictures from the past few days that just made me smile...

This picture is from this past Friday at Faith's preschool graduation celebration.  As a treat the school served popcorn.  And our popcorn loving Shane ate more than any one else!!  Towards the end, he was sitting by the popcorn machine and eating so that as soon as his bowl was empty he could immediately ask for more! 

Saturday night I was giving Faith a shower (yes, she takes showers now!!  She is getting so big!!), and when I went to find Shane to give him the two minute warning until his bath, this is what I found!  He was playing Faith's Leapster Explorer (an educational video game thing).  I though, what a boy!!!

Yesterday at lunch Shane/Buzz Light Year insisted on having lunch with all of the Buzz Light Years we have in the house!  It was pretty funny!  And he took them all to take a nap with him as well! 



Preschool Graduation

Today was an exciting day as it was not only the last day of school, but Faith also graduated from preschool!!  While I don't seem to remember "graduating" from preschool, it seems to be the norm these days!!  So the morning started out in chapel, and all the graduates were able to go to the front to sing "This Little Light of Mine."

You can't miss Faith - in the front middle and wearing bright yellow!!  Her teacher actually told me that since Faith has an enthusiastic singing voice, they intentionally put her front and center!

Posing for pictures afterwards

After chapel the families went back to each of the classrooms.  There, the teachers presented each child with a graduation certificate!

The class also sang "Skinamarinky Dinky Do, I love you!" Sp??  It was cute!

This is Faith receiving her certificate from her teacher's Shannon (who she is hugging!) and Eleanor!  Faith really enjoyed these teachers and learned many things from them!

And while it was a bit emotional thinking that my oldest is already finished with preschool, I am glad that Shane will be starting there in the the fall as we have really enjoyed CPC Preschool!  

Happy Birthday Steve!!

It is a very special day as it is Steve's birthday!!  Since he had to work, the kids and I tried to make Sunday special for him (he worked Monday as well!) and had lunch with him today!  It's always exciting to go to the fire station, but especially to celebrate Daddy!!  We are so thankful for the wonderful, hard working, loving man that he is!!  He does so much for our family, and we appreciate him deeply!  We pray that God would continue to bless him with many, many more years! 

Our special breakfast Sunday - homemade French Toast! 

Birthday Daddy and little man at the fire station!! 

The kids were preparing themselves as Steve said he was going to turn on the sirens!!

Aren't they all so cute?!?!

That's about as close to the fire engine as they kids would get!! 

Driving home we were stuck in some traffic, but it's hard to complain too much with a view like that!

At home Shane was wanting Coco, our cat, to play in the playhouse with him!

Little Ballerina

As Faith is nearing the end of her first year of real ballet, the culmination of the year is a recital!  Even though the recital is still two weeks away, she had the chance today to get her picture taken in her recital costume!!  It was really fun.  She even had her hair and makeup done by some of the older girls at the ballet academy!  The look on her face as she sat and was all done up by these girls was just priceless!  She felt so special!!  Here are some pictures from our girly afternoon.

Simultaneous hair and makeup!

Ready to get on the costume!!

Posing - funny that the photographer didn't have her pose exactly like that!

the sweet little ballerina!

Days at the beach

After our event filled weekend, we had more fun awaiting us as one of Steve's good friends from high school and his family came up to camp near us.  They camped at one of our favorite places to walk in the Ventura area - Emma Wood State Beach.  Even though the weather wasn't as warm as we would normally like, we still had two fun afternoons playing at the beach!!

Steve took the kids down by the ocean to put their feet it!  That was about all that Shane did!

Of course Faith wanted to surf on her boogie board!

Here is her attempt at "surfing"!  What is funny is that she actually thought she was surfing!!

Shane enjoyed the sand!!

And he was thrilled to have two older boys - the sons of Steve's friend - to play with!  And they were so nice to both our kids!!

more "surfing"

After quite a while, Faith finally decided she was cold and changed to play in the sand!

Memorial Day Weekend

It was a great Memorial Day weekend for our family!  Steve was home from work for both Sunday and Monday, so we took full advantage of that!  While we always love having him home from work, it is especially nice on holidays!!  Sunday, after going to church, we had Steve's sister, her husband, and Steve's dad over for a barbecue.  It was a beautiful afternoon, and we enjoyed relaxing, visiting, and just being with family.  Shane ended up missing most of the festivities as he asked to go to bed at 5pm!!  And the highlight for Faith was being able to stay up late to sit by the fire pit!!

As of late the kids have been into sleeping in their sleeping bags...on their beds!  It really is pretty cute.  And I figure if it makes them excited to go to bed at night, all the better!!

On Monday we enjoyed yet another barbecue.  We enjoyed spending the day at our friends the Taylor's house with four other families.  The kids ran and played all day!  It was yet another day of good food, good company, and tired kids at the end of the day!

Some of the older kids started playing baseball, and it was pretty funny to watch Shane attempt to try to join in!  Steve took the chance to work with him and it was fun to see Shane make some progress!