More fun with gifts!

For the girl who loves Popsicles, receiving an at home Popsicle maker was a dream come true!  In a matter of minutes, she can now create her own flavor Popsicles!  And so easily!  This was our first attempt, and they turned out really well!  Excuse the bad hair in the picture as this was right after swim lessons!

She also has been enjoying the books she received that came with these neat play mats and figures!  Faith loves to make up stories and play with the little dolls, so she has lots of fun with these!

Another gift enhancing her creativity is the set of Legos!  Those new girl Lego sets are absolutely adorable!  Faith has spent hours working on putting together the house.  And the details included are amazing! 

This is the inside of the house.  Too too cute!  Since she doesn't have a doll house, this is kind of like her first one!  She loves it!

The view from the front!  And she actually still needs to finish part of the yard that includes a swing and a BBQ!

The New Bike!

While Faith is loving all of the birthday gifts she received, she has been spending quite a bit of time riding her new bike!  She loves it, and loves to practice her balancing, getting on and off, and just riding around in circles!

After her party last Sunday, we went to an empty parking lot near our house for Faith to practice on her bike.  She soon realized that just having two wheels is pretty challenging!  So, she asked for some training wheels!  And poor little Shane now desperately wants a bike!  As you can see from the picture, he is never far behind when she is riding!  I think he may need a small bike for his birthday!

She has been practicing every day, and each day she makes great progress.  She is feeling more confident on the bike, and is enjoying the stability those training wheels provide!  Again, Shane is right behind her!!

Happy Birthday Faith!!

I have found myself needing to catch up once again!  So, even though Faith's birthday was a week ago, I still wanted to post some pictures from her Tinkerbell party that we had with our family. 

Of course one of the highlights is opening gifts!  And what amazing gifts she received this year!  She has loved them ALL, and has been playing with each thing quite a bit! 

One of her "Big Deal of the Day" gifts included a Wii from Uncle Russ!  She was beyond excited!!  The kids both have a love for Mario Kart, thanks to playing Uncle Dave's Wii in Michigan at Grandpa and Grandma Bruinsma's house! 

Another "Big Deal of the Day" was her very first bike!  She has been asking for a bike with just two wheels and brakes for a long time!  After doing a little practicing, she did ask for training wheels!

Even though our kids were the only kids at the party, Faith really wanted a Pinata like she sees at so many of her friends' parties.  So, we got one!

It was so cute to watch them try so hard to break that pinata!!

Finally time for some cake and ice cream!  A Tinkerbell cake to go with the party's theme!  It was a fun day, and Faith loved being the center of attention!

It's been a while!

Yes, I know, I have been totally slacking lately in my blog postings!  We haven't been doing anything too exciting or thrilling lately, and while I am still looking for things each day to be thankful, I just have not been posting them!  What can I say?  I need summer!  But here are a few pictures from the last week...

Steve bought Faith some new gardening tools since she likes to help him in the yard.  She is such a great helper!

Last Saturday the kids wanted to play Halloween!  So we had cowgirl Faith and Shane as Buzz - surprise, surprise!  They had a great time playing, and they even wore them out while we picked up some dinner!

Monday night Faith had her American Heritage Girls.  Right now her class is studying our country and learning a little about it, including some of the Presidents our country has had.  For a craft, the girls made Abraham Lincoln's log cabin out of frosting, graham crackers, and pretzels.  For Faith, the highlight was eating as she created!  And then eating after she finished the project!

The kids have been a bit under the weather this week, so we have spent more time at home than usual.  So we pulled out the bubbles for something fun to do the other day!

We did make it to swim lessons.  Since Faith listened well, we all celebrated with some frozen yogurt!

Again, since we have been home quite a bit, today the play dough made an appearance and the kids made me all sorts of different flavored ice cream cones!

Happy Easter

Happy Easter!  A day late!!  Here the kids are in their new Easter clothes before heading to church in the morning.  We had a very nice day celebrating ther resurrection of our Lord.  After church (and watching of The Master's golf tournament!), we went to a friends house for Easter dinner.  It was quite the crew for dinner - 12 kids and 12 adults!! 

This was the kids table.  Thankfully Cara (standing) was able to moniter the kids very well, showing what a responsible 12 year old she is!

And the adult table!  We had a wonderful feast, including lamb, which Faith discovered she really likes!  What a blessing it is to have friends who open up their home to so many to celebrate the wonderful day!

Havasu Part 2

The rest of our mini-vacation at Lake Havasu was very nice!  The kids did more of the same - a bit of swimming and playing in the sand.  It was so great to have a slower paced few days to just enjoy each other and the time together!

Faith and Shane enjoyed playing Frisbee together on the beach! 

Diver Shane spent quite a bit of time looking for "cool rocks" in the water!

One new thing that we enjoyed was seeing some boat races right in front of where we stayed.  The boats were unique in that they were flat-bottomed, wide, single passenger boats.  It kind of reminded me of an Indy style race car.  Of course, they were very fast and loud!!  The kids thought it was fun to watch them!  And there were many other people on the beach just sitting and watching the races. 

Havasu Part 1

We are in the middle of our first lake trip of the year!  Since it has been six months since we have been at Lake Havasu, the kids were beyond excited to get here!  Everything to them seems new and exciting - the pool, the sand, the lake, and the boat!! 

The water, both in the lake and the pool, was a little chilly, but it didn't stop the kids from swimming!  The wet suits helped!

Showing the camera his scary face!

Faith tested the water a bit before jumping in! 

They quickly got used to the water and were having a blast!  I think they enjoyed having the pool to themselves too!

This morning the weather was a bit overcast, so the kids enjoyed playing in the sand with some friends from Michigan!  After meeting them out here four years ago, we have now met them here two more times! 

The kids took turns wearing the mask and snorkel and being the "diver."  While it was not clear what they were diving for (maybe rocks?), they sure had fun doing it!

Faith's smile says it all...vacation is a wonderful thing! We are so grateful for time to get away as a family and just enjoy relaxing and having fun together!