May 29-31, 2009
Ionia State Park

School's out and our first "summer" camping trip has arrived. The kids had 1/2 for their last day of school so we were able to head out at a decent hour. We had never been to Ionia State Park but found we liked it very much. Most of the campsites are surrounded by bushes, trees and long grasses that separate you from your neighbor so you don't feel like you are right on top of them. There is a small man made lake surrounded by some beautiful scenery. You have to drive from the campground to the lake (within the park) but there is a nice beach house with bathrooms right there.

We headed down to the lake on the first night to see what is was like.

On Saturday we went for a hike. Their was a trail that went all the way around the lake. The very first part was wooded and brought us down to a look out deck on the lake. Then we had to walk across the bridge on the road and the trail continued for quite some time through the fields on a nicely mowed pathway. We enjoyed finding many different types of flowers.

Nicholas' favorite part of camping is hiking. Just past the halfway portion of the trail, it became wooded again and we saw signs that told of the Tall Creek Bridge being down. Paul and I wanted to turn back because we didn't want to walk another mile or so only to find we needed to turn around. Of course, Nicholas wanted no part of turning back - so even though he was told if the bridge was down we would have to turn around and walk all the way back he wanted to continue. Nicholas and I continued alone while Paul headed back with the other kids.

This is what was left of the bridge. I originally decided we could take off our socks and shoes and cross the creek in the water (as I am no gymnast to try that balance beam), but just before we tried to cross a couple of fisherman who had done the same thing as us came and helped us across.

Although, the water was still quite cold - the kids did have a little fun playing in the water for a short time and enjoying the beach.

Because we don't actually go on a public road from the beach to the campground, we let the kids ride in the back of the truck on the way back. The thought it was pretty cool.

Sam learned how to pedal his bike on his own, on this trip.

They also enjoyed the swings.

May 26, 2009 Kindergarten All Day Field Trip

Being a part-time working mom and also having young kids at home, I am unable to go on some of the kids field trips. However, I am trying to work it out so I can go on the All Day Field Trip for each of the kids when they are in Kindergarten. (Gabrielle gets to go twice because the Young 5s class is included in this event). Each year this field trip consists of a morning at the Grand Rapids Children's Museum, followed by lunch and playground at a township park right by their next destination, which is an afternoon at the Fredrick Meijer Gardens Children's Park.
It was cool, but dry and a wonderful time was had by all.

They had enough parent volunteers that I was responsible for just Gabrielle and her friend Emily for the day. They had a great time together.

The bus ride to the museum.

This was a big hit with Gabrielle, following the pattern to build her creation.

Gabrielle and Emily

Can any child spend a day at the museum without doing some grocery shopping?

Gabrielle and Emily by the fountain

Playing with the boats.

Rolling down the big hill...

May 24, 2009 - Family Day of Fun in Greenville

If you haven't figured it out by now we absolutely LOVE camping and biking. However,we are unable to camp EVERY weekend - so we have been trying to find fun things to do on the weekends we are home.

This particular weekend we decided to head out to find the Heartland Bike Trail near Greenville for a nice bike ride. We packed a lunch and found a cute neighborhood park in the city of Greenville to eat and play a little before finding the bike trail.

Veteran's Memorial Park
Greenville, MI

Well, we had trouble locating the trailhead for the Heartland Trail, so we stopped at a gas station and asked for directions. She gave us directions - but to the wrong trail. She sent us to the trail head of the Flat River Trail. We were not disappointed however, because it was beautiful. The entire trail ran right alongside the river. We saw many flowers and trees, and were even able to see people kayaking and canoeing down the river. It was an absolutely perfect day. (After our ride, we did drive around and finally found the Heartland Trail and hope to go back there sometime)

May 22, 2009 - Tandem, Child Style

When we first got married, Paul and I had a tandem bike and we loved to head out together for a ride. However, the kids came around and we sold it. However, lately Gabrielle has started to express interest in getting out of the bike trailer when we go for family bike rides but can't keep up with us on her own bike. Paul and I had just recently started talking about looking into a Tag-A-Along bike for her. Low and behold, our neighbor across the street was selling one at her garage sale and we picked it up. Gabrielle loves the bike and we are looking forward to using it for several years to come.

May 18, 2009 Kindergarten Visitation Day

Even though, Gabrielle's Young 5's class was considered a Kindergarten class in many ways (like field trips, etc) she will actually go to Kindergarten next year. Ravenna has an All Day Every Day Kindergarten program that was part of our decision to send her to Young 5's this year.

Each year, the school cancels class for the current Kindergarteners for a day - and next year's Kindergarteners visit their class rooms. It gives the kids a chance to see the class rooms and meet the teachers, interact with other kids and they do some activities that help the teachers assess the children's readiness for Kindergarten and make recommendations to parents if needed.

Cutting out and coloring an elephant after reading a book about the elephant with Mrs. DeBoer.

Musical numbers in Mrs. Oleson's class

Playing a name game and a shape game with Ms. Doane

May 21, 2009 - Young 5's Class Picnic

Gabrielle's class had their class picnic on a beautiful day. I had a meeting at work that evening and needed a babysitter for a few hours in the afternoon, as well as help setting up a garage sale that afternoon, so.... Grandma happy obliged to help with the babysitting and garage sale and since she was already heading out to Ravenna, she was able to join us for Gabrielle's fun day.

Gabrielle and her friend Emily having lunch

Sam and Allison thought they were pretty cool getting t have lunch with the big kids too.

One of the parents arranged for each of the kids to make a Creative Memories scrapbook page for Mrs. Carroll, their teacher. She then bound the pages into a book and they gave it to her at the picnic. They had a starter sentence on each page that the kids finished including memories they had of their school year and of their teacher. It turned out really cute and Mrs. Carroll loved her gift.

Mrs. Wagner has a double role. She not only volunteers in the library at school and did their story time each week - but she is also the grandmother of one of Gabrielle's classmates. She gladly joined the celebration and brought a few books about picnics to read to the kids on the lawn.

Sam and Allison did not want story time to end. They didn't want to leave - so Mrs. Wagner happily reached into her bag and read the 2 of them another book.

May 15-17, 2009 White River Campground
Montague, Michigan

One of the kids' favorite parts of White River is the great playground. They have a great play gym, a wooden train set, swings, and monkey bars. Then in another part of the campground, they have a few slides and a wooden bus they love to play on. In addition, they have a Noah's Ark playset near the store and pool.

I distinctly remember that last year, we were so impressed with Sam being able to climb up the gangplank walkway (lower right of the photo below). This year, that wasn't enough of a challenge for him - he needed to climb the rock wall.

A trip to the store for some ice cream and candy.

Our annual hike around the little island at the campground.

This year, we drove into Whitehall/Montague to check out the Hart-Montague Bike Trail. We were also able to check out the world's largest weathervane.

Sunday morning before we went home, Paul and Nicholas left the campground to go mountain biking at a nearby township nature center. The girls and Sam and I went for a walk/hike through the campground. We met some people who had brand new collie puppies.

A short stop for a photo op.

**In case you didn't happen to notice - Sam was on a hat kick over the weekend. His Bob the Builder hat happened to catch his eye at home that afternoon before we left, and he basically wore it the entire weekend. It was quite comical.

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.)

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