February 27, 2010
Day Trip To Cadillac

Paul enjoys spending time on the DNR website looking for new and exciting things to do and places to visit. This time he discovered the State Park in Cadillac was offering free dogsledding for the kids. It was snowy and cold, but a beautiful winter day just the same. So, we loaded up the truck and headed up north. The kids had a great time and would love to do it again sometime.

Allison and Gabrielle wait for the sledding to begin.

Sam and Gabrielle went first

followed by Nicholas and Allison

After the dogsledding - they got a chance to do some computerized skeet shooting.

We also got free hot chocolate and cookies to warm up when we came inside.

February 18, 2010
The Spoiled Brat

Nicholas had to present a Shel Silverstein poem in front of his class. They were supposed to be as creatives as possible in their use of props, etc. At first Nicholas wanted to take the easy way out and just read his poem, but with a little prodding he let his imagination take over. We checked with his teacher and found out that it would be OK to use his sister as one of his props. Allison was the spoiled brat. The more we practiced at home - the Gabrielle and Sam wanted to take turns as well. By the time, he presented it to his class he did the presentation twice - once with Sam and once with Allison. Allison did a wonderful job - but the sound on the video didn't turn out very well. The run through with Sam however, had better sound and ended with a hilarious moment where I actually had tears running down my face from laughing so hard.

The Spoiled Brat by Shel Silverstein
The spoiled brat cut a hole in her hat,
The spoiled brat put a coat on the cat,
The spoiled brat got into a spat
‘Bout whether a rodent’s a mouse or a rat.

The spoiled brat broke a bike with her bat,
The spoiled brat told the policeman to scat,
The spoiled brat told her sister was fat,
And sat on her birthday cake ‘til it was flat.

The spoiled brat, she cusses and she spat,
The spoiled brat pulled the wings off a gnat,
The spoiled brat fell into a vat,
Got cooked up for dinner and that was that.

But in spite of the pepper,
The salt and the sage,
The onions and garlic and oil,
Nobody would touch
A bite of that brat
Because she was so spoiled.

February 1, 2010
Off to Space we go

Allison, Sam and I go to story time at the library every Monday morning.
We read several books, sing a few songs and do a craft.
This week we talked about space and they made a rocket ship.
The rocket ship was made by recycling Crystal Light canisters and adding a cone on the top and fins on the side. Then they decorated their rocket with stickers.
It was such a cute craft that the director gave me extras to take home. When Nicholas and Gabrielle got home from school they were very excited to hear that they could make one too.
Here they are with their finished projects.

January 30, 2010
Sam's 3rd Birthday Party

Diego Cake - the orange frosting was much more
difficult to make than I had thought it would be.

Mater the Greater set from his aunts and uncles and cousins

Diego Adventure Doll from Grandma and Grandpa

What he really wanted - Geo Trax Airport

Blowing out the candles

January 25, 2010

Happy Birthday Sam!
3 years old already

Foldable fire and rescue matchbox car set.
We figured this would be great to keep in the trailer this summer.

Sam kept asking for Diego toys whenever we would walk through the toys department.
His wish finally came true.

He'll have to wait until his birthday party to get his birthday cake.
For today - it's a candle-topped brownie.

January 10, 2010

Kamikaze Sam (as Aunt Catherine likes to call him) strikes again.
This time we escaped stitches but barely.

First - a few days ago he bumped his left eye leaving it nicely bruised. Then he was at Lowe's with Paul and hit his right eye on a metal shelf and split it right open. I was able to pull it back together with some steri-strips and it appears that it will heal up OK.

Apparently, we can't take him anywhere.

January 6, 2010

Once again a crazy kid. You never quite know what Sam will be up to on any given day.
On this particular morning, Sam spent the entire morning walking around the house in his pajamas, his winter hat, and his scarf. When will this child cease to amaze me?

January 3, 2010

Since Gabrielle has been learning how to read,
she if very quick to climb up into Paul's chair with a stack of books and read to Sam.
It doesn't mean every word is correct, but she sure enjoys doing it.
I figure the more she tries, the better she'll get
and she definately isn't getting any complaints out of Sam.

December 31, 2009

My parents have been coming out to our house for New Year's Eve and spending the night the past couple of years. It has sort of become a take off of spending every New Year's Eve with my grandparents when I was growing up.

This year, they brought my grandpa's old carom board.
The kids really enjoyed learning how to play this new game,
and it was a bit fun trying to remember all of the rules.

December 28, 2009

Sam decided today was the day to be Woody from Toy Story.
Don't you love the pink cowboy boots?

December 26, 2009
Koorndyk Christmas

As tradition holds, we get together with my extended family sometime over the holidays. We have outgrown everyone's homes, so we have been meeting at a church. This has been wonderful as it gives the kids the ability to run around and be kids. My best guess is that there were 21 kids under the age of 10. This year they had a great time on the floor scooters.

Even Matthew had to get in on the action.

Aunt Barb has double trouble - Joshua and Eli!

Owen caught taking a break - what a cutie.

A little brother/sister bonding time.

Getting ready for the longest train of the day.

Who can resist that face?

Gabrielle gets a great ride from Papa!

December 25, 2009
Merry Christmas

We had a busy day on Christmas, like many other people.
We started opening a couple remaining gifts at home and then we went to
Aunt Melissa's house to celebrate with the Van Wesep side of the family.

Allison cuddles with Papa before lunch.

Gabrielle opens her present with Aunt Melissa

Allison thanks Uncle Bob for her Christmas money

Sam says thank you too.
Uncle Bob was constantly asking which one was "Samuel Robert".
I think he really loves having a name sake.

After lunch with the Van Weseps, we headed over to my parents house to celebrate again
with the Hager side of the family. We had already done our big Christmas last weekend.
On Christmas day, we have a light supper and exchange the gifts that the cousins bought for
each other after drawing names.

Aiden absolutely LOVES Allison's braids.
He would grab them and just squeal with delight.

The girls showing Aiden how Grandma's bear works.

Opening presents....

....and saying thank you

Van Wesep Christmas

We like to spread out our gift opening for Christmas every year. We usually open one or two presents at a time and then the kids are given the opportunity to play for a while before we open any more. It helps Christmas feel like it lasts longer and at the same time doesn't seem like such a mad house.

This year, we really spread things out. We opened stocking on the 23rd. One or two presents Christmas Eve morning, one in the afternoon, one before bed, and then again Christmas morning.

I took a lot of pictures - but mostly video.
So - here are a few shots of the kids enjoying the holiday

Opening stockings

The tree - when the kids woke up on the 24th.