May 15, 2009 First Grade Spring Celebration

Every year the 1st grade class puts on an end of the year program. They make tie-dye shirts to wear and share many songs that they learned throughout the year. They have a "pledge" song that includes The Pledge of Allegiance, a song about learning to read, a song about friends and even one about imaginary friends. They were really cute.

In addition, they review many of the events of the year - and many of the students read a narrative of what they remember of that activity. Nicholas was chosen to be one of those students and shared what he wrote about "100's day" - their celebration of the 100th day of school.

May 11, 2009 - Snap Circuits Jr

As some of you know, as your children get older they start to make birthday and Christmas lists of all the things they want. Of course, we as parents realize that if we only purchase the items on our children's wish list there are many things that they may not experience. Nicholas received one such gift for his birthday this year - called Snap Circuits Jr. Upon opening the gift, Nicholas had no idea what it was - but the next day he had the opportunity to experiment.

Basically, the kit contains many different types of circuits, switches, light bulbs, speakers, motors etc. The manual gives instructions on how to build over 100 different projects such a light, a fan, a flying saucer, a speaker system and many more. It uses different types of switches to open and close the circuits. Some of the switches are sound activated or air movement activated.

Nicholas loves his new gift - and already has hopes of receiving additional Snap Circuit Kits in the future which get more complicated and teach more concepts as they go.

May 10, 2009 Nicholas Birthday, Grandpa's Birthday and Mother's Day

Well, it's hard to believe but Nicholas is has turned 7 years old. I can't believe how time flies and how things change. Sometimes I look at him and realize that he really isn't a little boy anymore and I barely realized it was happening. He is turning into a very intelligent boy. He enjoys reading, science and sometimes math. He loves to draw and write his own stories which he loves to pass on to other people especially his younger nephews. He loves to play the computer so we have to closely monitor the time he is allotted for that activity. He also loves Lego and his new birthday toy called Snap Circuits in which he can follow a blueprint to build his own working "machines". His special interest is outer space and it looks like he will have the opportunity to attend a Galaxy class this summer at the Muskegon Intermediate School District summer program called Wings.

Nicholas chose to go camping on his birthday weekend so we actually spread the activities out through the entire weekend. One of his gifts was a new scooter so we gave it to him at the beginning of the weekend so he could use it as much as possible. Then some presents at the trailer Sunday morning, followed by a few after we got home.






Because Nicholas shares his birthday with Grandpa Hager and it is usually shared by Mother's Day as well. Grandma and Grandpa graciously hosted his party this year as we would be returning from camping that afternoon. All the grandkids bought new stepping stone kits for Grandma's Mother's day gifts and because we know Grandma loves to do things with her grandkids we made the stones themselves WITH her after she opened them.

May 8-10, 2009 - Channel Park and Nicholas' Birthday

We knew we were going to have a busy weekend with Nicholas' Birthday, my dad's birthday and Mother's Day all falling on the same day. However, given the choice Nicholas still wanted to go camping. We spent a wonderful weekend at Channel Campground at Muskegon State Park. Friday night was beautiful weather - we were wearing shorts and t-shirts, however the rest of the weekend we were once again donning our winter coats and hats. What can I say other than that's May in Michigan for you.

(the following video is a bit lengthy - just to warn you up front. It was a very busy weekend at the campground and my blog posts double as my home videos for the years ahead, so I didn't want to leave anything out.)

Click to Play