March 9, 2009 - Just Monkeying Around.

Kids get crazy when they are all cooped up during the winter don't they?

Recently, we purchased new beds for the girls. Gabrielle had been using 1/2 of Nicholas' bunk bed - so we moved Sam out of the toddler bed and into the bed Gabrielle had been sleeping in. Therefore, for the first time in 5 1/2 years - I have no children in a toddler bed.
I sold one of the beds to a friend of mine, and the other one I listed as for sale on the Savings Angel website. I got a buyer and brought the bed downstairs to get it cleaned up and disassembled for the new owner. Sam decided the bed was great fun with no mattress on it. I couldn't believe how well he was balancing on those tiny bars. He would steady himself and then slowly stand up like a pro.

(If you didn't notice in the previous picture - we are trying to potty train Sam and for some reason the crazy coot prefers to run around in his underwear than to have pants on)
Anyway, later in the afternoon this is what I walked into the living room to find.

They then proceeded to do somersaults from this pose
and can both successfully land on their feet.

March is Reading Month!!!

ARRR You Reading??

Each year at the kids' school they pick a theme for March is Reading Month. This year's theme is pirates and there catch phrase is ARRR you reading? The kids are challenged to read 15 minutes a day and if they do this they can turn in their reading slip and be entered for a drawing each week. They also have had special days both at school and after school.

Monday, March 2 - Dr Suess' Birthday was READ A HAT DAY!
Nicholas wanted to borrow a hat of Paul's and looked very cute in his cycling hat. We were having a hard time finding a hat that Gabrielle liked, but Monday morning before she went to school we decided to take READ A HAT DAY literally and made her a hat out of newspaper. She loved the idea and was joined by Allison and Sam in the activity.

Paul reading to the kids.

Thursday, March 5 - Dress like a pirate Day!

March 5 was also Family Night. I forgot my camera though and was disappointed that I did.
I got to take the kids to school and they were able to hear a local author read the story he wrote and also see the original artwork from which the book was made. Then we went to the cafeteria for a hot dog supper, followed by MAKE YOUR OWN BOOK. We purchased a kit which contained a sprial bound small scrapbook with about 10 pages, a glue stick, and a whole bag of fun foam, textured and printed papers, googly eyes, and a marker. They worked on their books for about 30 minutes or so and have been working on them periodically every since. After that, we went back to the library for a very eccentric and lively story teller. She was very good and kept the kids attention for about 30 minutes. I hope they get her back next year - she was great.

We have also had:
Read a T-Shirt Day
Read a button pin day

Also coming this month: Bring your stuffed animal to school and read to it day Talk like a pirate day Read a pirate poem day

They also have been given activities to do at home like read to a younger sibling, read to a stuffed animal, have someone read to you, read a newspaper, read a recipe and read a comic book. The kids are having a great time.

February 22, 2009
Three Down - One to Go...

We don't put much pressure on our kids to be potty trained at night. We figure they will eventually out grow it. However, once they start to have occasional dry nights we have a traditional goal that we set with them. When they wake up with a dry pull-up for 7 nights in a row then they get to spend the cost of a package of pull-ups on a toy of their choice. Then, they start going to bed in underwear and we don't buy pull-ups anymore.

Allison achieved success....and as promised, we took her to Toys R Us to pick her toy. My girls are into Snap N Style dolls - which are similar to a Polly Pocket but are made for little girls (bigger parts and pieces). My girls were both thrilled to find that they now have Snap N Style Pets. So... Allison picked Co-Co the dog, complete with doggy dish, doggy bed, hair brush and two outfits.

Way to Go Allison!
(only one left in diapers, and we're working on that one)

February 19, 2009 - Beach Day and Luau Family Night!

Each year at the kids' school they fill the winter with special days, like beach day, pajama day, pirate day, etc. This was beach day at school, following by Luau Family Night at the school. They have carnival games for the kids and pizza and pop for the families to have dinner. The kids had a great time wearing summer clothes during the day and playing the games at night.

Throw the golf ball in the bucket.

Waiting in line for the bean bag toss

Fish Pond

The kids also got entered in the door prize raffle. They announce the winners the following day at school when all the kids are there. Unbelievably - both Nicholas and Gabrielle came home with door prizes the next day. I couldn't believe it and they were very excited to have their names drawn out of all those kids.

February 18, 2009 Crazy Croc Kid

A couple of weeks ago the girls got new crocs for next summer that Grandma found on clearance. Well - Sam the boy who wouldn't go anywhere last summer without his crocs got a "tad bit" upset, if you can call it that. Trying to figure out how to resolve this issue, I remembered that he is wearing about the same size shoe as Allison wore last summer. Allison had both a pink pair and a red, white and blue pair last year. Being that red, white and blue can be gender neutral I headed to garage to look for them. When found, Sam was thrilled.
A little too thrilled shall we say, this is how he goes to bed now...

He wears his crocs all the time....including to bed!!!

February 13-14, 2009 Trip to Chicago

The long awaited time finally arrived and we were off to Legoland. We rigged up a way for the kids to watch movies on my laptop on the way down and that pacified them for a while - but the last hour or so was still getting to be a bit much. They are not used to be in the car that long and we were trying to put off lunch until we got there.

Once we arrived in Schaumburg, IL we stopped for lunch and Wendy's - only to have our mini-vacation begin with Allison getting sick in the restaurant. It's one thing to clean up after a sick child at home, but having it happen in a public place where others were trying to eat doesn't bode well. Paul took her out to the car and we weren't quite sure what to do next. However, she quickly recovered and we feel she was just suffering from a bit of motion sickness.

We arrived at Legoland to find that the Dragon Ride that the kids had been talking about for weeks was closed for "remodeling". BUMMER! They quickly got over it and we ventured into MiniLand. We had a great time at Legoland. It wasn't quite what we were expecting - a few disappointments here and there but we had a lot of fun.

After spending about 3 hours at Legoland we headed to the hotel and check in. Then we let the kids go swimming and headed off to dinner before the Friday night crowds on Valentine's weekend began. Our hotel was only 5 minutes from Legoland and we could see Woodfield Mall from our window.

Once we got back to the hotel and settled in for the night - the real adventure began. Sam refused to go to sleep and I was quickly wishing for a dose of Benadryl. Every time he started to nod off, he would pop up and say he wanted to sleep with Papa. (Papa was sleeping with Nicholas -closest to the door, the girls were together and I was with Sam). He would walk over there, say 'Hi' to Paul and come back to my bed. We watched Baby Einstein's about 3 times hoping he would finally nod off, but the more tired he got, he started asking to go home. Over and over again -- "home". He wanted nothing to do with this hotel room that had seemed so fun in the afternoon. I finally got him to fall asleep around 11pm (our time) after Paul came and layed in our bed with us. However, Sam woke up around 1:30am and got out of bed, walked over to the window and started repeating "home, home". Thankfully, when I brought him back to bed he did fall back to sleep and slept until 6:30am. Needless to say, he was pretty cranky the rest of the day. We did beat the crowds for breakfast downstairs, but we had to keep distracting Sam until the mall opened at 10:00am - as he was still fixated on going home and not wanting to be in this hotel room anymore.

Once we finally made it to the mall, we waiting a few minutes for Build-A-Bear to open. The kids had a great time building their stuffed animals, picking out clothes, and printing out their birth certificates.

We made a quick stop at the Disney Store and then headed to the Lego store in the mall. This Lego store had a lot more inventory than Legoland and we finally found the girl lego the girls had been hoping for.

After some more Lego purchases, we headed to Rainforest Cafe' for lunch - only to be disappointed as the wait was already more than 30 minutes and these kids were not going to make it. So, we got snacks, loaded up and headed home - stopping for lunch in Michigan City.

We had a great time in Legoland and at Build A Bear and the kids will be talking about it for quite some time.

Click To Play
This video clip is a bit lengthy, as there was so much to include and the video I'm posting also serves as our "home video" for the kids to remember their trip by.

February 11, 2009 From Fits to Fun!

Wednesday morning started out normal. I got Nicholas off to school in the morning and watched him walk to the bus stop as I always do. Well, before he got all the way down there one of the neighbors let us know there was a 2 hour delay due to fog. (I normally do not have the news on in the morning and had no idea it was foggy). So, Nicholas came home - perfectly content to wait the 2 hours to go to school. It was a big day for him at school they were having special celebrations in the morning to celebrate the 100th day of school and then Valentine's Parties in the afternoon AND Grandma was going to babysit so I could be in his class ALL DAY long.

However, the joy did not last long as we found out about an hour later than school was CLOSED for the day. Someone had punctured all the tires on all the buses and they would not be able to get them up on running on time.

Several minutes of true crocodile tears were to follow by both Nicholas and Gabrielle. They had been waiting for this special day for a long time.

The day was redeemed however by a trip to the book fair at school before they closed it up followed by a visit from Grandma (even though she didn't need to babysit). We made it a special day with heart shaped homemade pizzas and heart shaped rice krispie treats. They ended up having a great day.

Sam had to use the teddy cookie cutter for his pizza.
He continued to go into the drawer for his "teddy" even a day later.

Grandma helps them cut and shape the dough. Gabrielle spreads the pizza sauce.

Nicholas made a dinosaur and a rocket - and Allison made a bell.

One of the finished products.

Enjoying their creations.

Heart Shaped Rice Krispie treats - they used baggies to keep
their hands from sticking.

Adding Sprinkles

After using the baggies to make their special treat -
Sam walked around with his baggie for about 30 minutes.
He had to carry his Rice Krispy treat in his bag.

What a great day it turned out to be - we are yet to find out if their Valentine Parties will be rescheduled. Thanks for coming out Grandma - you really saved the day!

February 10, 2009 Great Conferences!

Tonight I had conferences for Nicholas and Gabrielle. I was a proud mama.

Gabrielle is "mastering" all of the skills expected of her and I have been told that she is going have no trouble at all transitioning into Kindergarten. She helps her fellow students and is not afraid to try anything. The "not afraid to try anything" is a change from the beginning of the year and show me that she is maturing. It also affirms to me that we made the right decision in sending her to Young 5's this year rather than jumping straight into Kindergarten.

On a sad note, her teacher indicated that right now it looks like funding may be lost to support a Young 5's program in the future. We had planned on sending Allison to this program in 2 years. If I had known the program might not exist we would have made a different decision and sent her to 3 year old preschool this year. We'll have to see how this plays out.

Nicholas is also doing very well. He is particularly excelling in both math and reading and his teacher asked my permission to put him in a GIFTED program for these two subjects. They have about 6 kids in the first grade that they would like to spend in this program. The program involves being pulled out of class 2 days a week for math and 2 days a week for reading. He will be enrolled in both programs. (where some of the students will only be pulled out for one or the other). I was very proud of him, but also glad to hear that the teachers and school are sensitive to the needs of each child and realize when some of the kids need to be a little more challenged. It is important to me that he stay challenged because I believe his study habits are forming now and if everything comes too easily right now, I am afraid he will not have formed the study habits he needs when things start to get more difficult.

I love both of their teachers and had an excellent time hearing that both of our children are doing well.

February 9, 2008 - "A Terror in the middle of the night!"

No I'm not talking about a scary event, or even a child's nightmare. Anyone who knows Sam realizes why he can be referred to as a little terror....

(O.K> rewind >Sam got a great big Tonka dump truck from his aunts and uncles for his birthday. He LOVES to put things in it and tear around the house pushing it. )

Now fast forward>> Sam has been fighting a bad cold and cough and has been sleeping ALOT. Yesterday he took a 4 1/2 hour nap but still went to bed without a problem at night. However, he apparently woke up at 1:30 in the morning, and came downstairs. Paul and I are sound asleep and all of the sudden you hear the pitter patter of little feet and whir of dump truck wheels...

Sam had come downstairs, lovingly placed his blankets in the bed of the dump truck and came tearing into our room pushing it. What a rude awakening!

Thankfully, he was very cooperative about going back to bed and we didn't hear from him the rest of the night.

I obviously did not have my camera out at 1:30am, but here is some footage of Sam when he first got his dump truck at his birthday party.

February 7, 2009 - Sickness, Sickness go away ----

So this week has been full of colds and fevers in the Van Wesep house. The kids have been struggling with colds for the most part, but up and down fevers have been thrown into the mix to make things unpredictable and very difficult to plan what was going on.

In the middle of the night, Sam coughed so hard that he threw up. Well, I think it was about 2 am. So I picked him up, changed his clothes and brought him downstairs and put him in our bed with Paul. I then went up, stripped the bed and brought it into the basement and started a load of laundry. At this point, I just wanted to go back to bed and did not really wish to put the clean sheets on so we just left Sam sleep in our bed.

Once the other kids started to get up, Paul got out of bed and Allison climbed in. This is the sight I saw when I got out of bed as well.



So on that note..... how many parents out there have had that moment when you wish your child/children could just put themselves to bed??


Well, tonight we had that such event. Since Sam has been feeling under the weather the past few days he has actually been asking to take a "napper". To which we willingly obliged. However, tonight we were watching a movie as a family and all of the sudden he just picked up his blankie and teddy and left the room. After a couple of minutes I asked Paul where Sam went, and he thought he may have mumbled "napper" as he left the room. So upon investigating I found my 2 year old son having put himself to bed. Apparently, he was tired....

Speaking of tired....

The other day, I went to tuck the kids in before we went to bed. I couldn't find Sam, but I could hear him breathing. After about 30 seconds or so of investigating I found him.... sound asleep UNDER Nicholas's bed. Silly kid!

January 24-25, 2009

Sam turned 2 on January 25. Can you believe it? I can't! We had his birthday party on Saturday, but unfortunately Uncle Cory, Aunt Catherine and Joshua couldn't make it because Joshua was sick. We had a small crowd but had a good time anyway.

Here is Sam helping to bake his birthday cake.

The finished product

I don't know what it was about it - but Sam was totally convinced that he had to open the big gift from Grandma first. When we told him it was time to open gifts he jumped to the bottom of the pile to get that one. He didn't want anything to do with anything else until after that one.

Happy Birthday Sam!

Punching balloons for all the kids! They are always a hit!

The next day was Sam's actual birthday - so he got to open more presents that we gave him.

The biggest hit was the new Car Wash Lightning McQueen Tent that Paul bought him

Complete with Lightning McQueen sleeping bag that Grandma gave him the night before and every home needs a phone right? So we have a new Elmo Cell Phone to talk on.

I have been watching for new beds for the girls for quite some time. Allison was outgrowing her toddler bed. I finally found some I liked that matched their dressers. So, Sunday afternoon we began the huge tasks of switching all the beds around. Gabrielle had been sleeping on the other portion of Nicholas's bunk beds....so we needed to move that back into the boys room to put up her new bed. We didn't want to put the bunk beds back together because I didn't want Sam crawling up their all the time. So on his 2nd birthday Sam also got his first BIG BOY bed (he's been in a toddler bed for 6 months or so) He adjusted to it very well and didn't give us a hard time about it at all. For the first time, in 6 1/2 years we don't have any cribs OR toddler beds in our house.

Sam's new Big Boy Bed

Nicholas got new bedding for his bed.
Everyone else was getting a new bed, so we wanted him to feel included too.
Wall-E
(I surprised him with it so he was super excited and could hardly
wait for me to finish washing the sheets and put them on).

Gabrielle's new bed. There are 3 storage drawers underneath.
She had gotten the comforter for her birthday.

Allison's new bed and new comforter set.

And of course, the car wash had to go into the boys room.

December 24, 2008 Christmas Eve 2008

After a very snowy trip to the grocery store in the morning, I returned to find some very anxious children. They know we usually open their stockings a little bit at a time throughout the day and they had been waiting patiently.

Their first present was one I hadn't wrapped - GIANT COLORING BOOKS and crayons. What I didn't realize when I bought them was they were actually GIANT MURALS. What a perfect gift to have given them - it kept the older two occupied for 2-3 hours. WOW!.

They also each got a book, a small toy (Nicholas got a small lego set, the girls got mini my little ponies, and Sam got matchbox cars), and a few pieces of candy and candy canes.

After dinner, they exchanged the gifts they had purchased for each other (they drew names).

Christmas is getting more fun every year, as the kids get older and more understanding of what is going on.

December 20, 2008 - Hager Christmas 2008

As is tradition, the Hager family celebrated Christmas together the Saturday before Christmas. It seems to work well this way, as no one has other commitments that day and come ready for our traditional feast of ham, Christmas Bread, and mom's infamous Pretzel Dessert - a hit for many.

After dinner, we opened gifts from Grandma and Grandpa. Everyone had a lot of fun and enjoyed their gifts as well as each other's company.

Dec 6-7, 2008 Winter and Holiday Fun
I decided to take a break from re-living our summer time memories to post a few more current, festive and timely adventures of the season. I figure there will be plenty of blah, cold days this winter when remembering summer activities will be a welcome escape.

Here are some pictures of the kids playing in the snow, decorating the Van Wesep Christmas Tree and our attempts at getting some good Christmas Portraits. Put it this way - the picture below is the best "group" picture we were able to get. To put it bluntly - you won't be seeing a group picture on our Christmas Card this year.

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See Sam Sit! ....OR NOT!
August 15 and 20, 2008

Sam kept stealing Allison's saucer chair and making her quite angry. He apparently liked having "a seat of his own". So, I thought I would bring up Nicholas' old rocking chair. (This rocking chair used to be his cousin Micah's and maybe even a generation before that and was recovered by his Grandpa and Grandma Van Wesep and given to Nicholas as a gift when he was younger.) Initially, Sam thought this was great as he loves to "rock, rock". Well, apparently this old rocking chair is not equipped to handle Sam's rocking as you can see below.



A couple of days later, I went to get something out of the freezer and Sam refused to let me close the door. This is why.... he needed a place to sit to drink his juice. The desire to drink his juice in the freezer lasted for about a week, before he moved onto something else.

August 8-11, 2008
River Farm Campground

We thought it would be fun to camp near Pentwater. We could visit Uncle Bruce and Aunt Judy, take a day trip down to Silver Lake and another possible day trip up to Ludington. Because these were both locations we wanted to spend time at and camping sites are either hard to find or expensive in the actual areas themselves- we found this nice little campground just outside Pentwater.

What we didn't anticipate happening was the breakdown of our vehicle in route. Thankfully, mom and dad had arrived earlier in the afternoon and were completely set up. I was able to call them to come retrieve myself, the kids and the trailer from the side of the freeway. Paul stayed with the vehicle. Graciously, Aunt Judy (and a visiting Aunt Nancy) rode over the Hart to pick him up at the garage and bring him back to the campground.

The loss of our vehicle - also meant the loss of our ability to do the day trips we had planned. Our suburban was an 8 passenger, where the Durango is only a 7 passenger. We did manage to squeeze an adult between two car seats a couple of times to drive as far as Pentwater for some shopping and some mini-golf at Hill and Hollow.

We were pleasantly surprised and how busy we were able to stay at the campground. It was very small and the main part of the playground was the swings. I don't think my kids have spent that much time on a swingset their entire life. (thankfully there were 4 swings). They had several games available for campers to use free of charge so we played the washer game, etc. We hiked. Paul and Nicholas did some mountain biking at a nearby trail, and the catch and release fishing pond was a great opportunity for the kids to catch their first fish EVER.

We will most likely make a return visit to River Farm next year - and hopefully get our day trips in as well.

August 3, 2008
A Day At the Beach

We decided that with all of the camping we had been doing, we hadn't had the opportunity to do very many "day" trips during the summer. We were home for this particular weekend and the weather was supposed to be gorgeous. We decided to head to the beach after church. Given the fact, that the kids would be all dressed up I thought it would be fun to get some pictures of the kids on the beach.

Unfortunately, the sun was bright and hot. The kids were doing a lot of squinting in the sun, and they were unhappy with how hot the sand was, so the photo session didn't last long. I did manage to get some good, some interesting, and some crazy shots.

After changing our clothes, we had a picnic lunch and headed back to the beach for some swimming fun.

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July 25 - 27, 2008
Cran Hill Ranch Park II

Well, after much searching for our next family/extended family adventure we decided that CranHill was the place to be. Lots to do, and a great cottage for Aunt Barb's crew to be able to join the festivities. As usual, we had a great time together.

This time, we purchased an Buckaroo Package (at least that is what my memory recalls it being called). The package included a pony ride, 2 ice cream cones, free water activity rentals, and a tie-dyed t-shirt. The kids loved the experience and it was great to have the additional activites to make things different than when we were here over the 4th of July.

Gabrielle and Allison really enjoyed having "the girls": Tori and Lexi there to play with. (the twins are only 2 days older than Gabrielle).

We went on a hike with all the kids, rented row boats and kayaks (which I didn't get any pictures of) and all of the kids rode a pony. Nicholas wasn't all that interested in the pony ride, so he did the first lap and generously let Sam take the other, as Sam LOVED THE HORSES.

It was also Christmas in July - so the Grandma's all got together and spoiled the kids with little presents each day.

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July 23, 2008 First Haircuts

Despite my affinity for Sam's super cute baby curls, he was starting to look a bit more "surfer dude" than needed. So it was decided that he needed his first haircut. All of the other kids have needed to have their bangs cut by his age, but Sam's hair seemed to be growing much more in the back than in the front. I had yet to take a scissors to his hair at all.

Allison has had her bangs trimmed many times, but the bulk of her hair has never been touched.

So...it was 2 first haircuts in one.

My neighbor cuts hair at a beauty salon here in Ravenna, so I gave her a call and she graciously agreed to come by one morning and give Sam, Allison and Gabrielle all a haircut right here at the house. It was so convenient to have them in their own surroundings and be able to keep them busy while they waited for their turn.