Ice Skating for the 2nd Time Ever...

Today we were able to go ice skating at the Edge - the kids 2nd time ice skating ever. This time Andy was able to join us since he took the day off work. I'm glad he did because he was able to teach them that the most important thing about ice skating is.... balance!

Here are some shots from today:

Lots of fun - we will definitely be back :)

Go, Geckos! :)

Today marked Mikaela's first day of soccer for the fall season. We chose a league up in Allendale since most leagues around here were full or only play in the spring. Thankfully, a spot opened up and we got off the waiting list. She is now a Gecko! :)

We played the Cheetahs today. Final score 4-4. Beautiful day for a game too!

Moving!

We moved! Andy got a new job so we high-tailed it from the east side of the state and returned to the west side where we met and started our family.

The kids had a blast checking out the moving truck. When asked if they thought we could fit all of our stuff in there, the answer they gave was "No way!" (That was also what I was thinking!) But we managed to get just about everything with only a few little trips to pick up the rest.

Below are pictures of the two major projects and one minor project that we had to finish before our renters moved in: the dining room, bathroom, and living room respectively. They looked so nice, we had to remind ourselves why we were moving! :) We don't recommend the "remodel right before you move" method and plan on never repeating that again.

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I plan on adding a post later with scenes from our adventures since moving back to Holland... I've obviously been a little busy lately! ;)

New Old Friends

One of the first get-togethers we got a chance to take part in was a little birthday party for one of our "old" friends 4 year old little boy named Ben. Old friends for us, new friends for the kiddos! :)

Mikaela taking a turn at "Put a Band-aid on the Dinosaur's Owie"

Aiden's turn!

The cake!

Dinosaur Footprint Cakewalk

Take Me Out to the Ball Game!

One of the perks of Andy's new job included a trip to Fifth Third Ballpark to see the Whitecaps play some baseball. Since Mikaela was not feeling well, the girls stayed home and the guys got a night out at the ball park. Aiden was one happy dude :)





Hopefully, next time the girls can join them!

And with that...

...it's July! Many things have happened over these last few months. Here's a recap:

Aiden turned four and had a monster truck cake!

We took a visit with friends to Greenfield Village.







Soccer season ended with popsicles in the park.

Mikaela learned to ride her bike without training wheels, and lost her 6th tooth.



You can hear very clearly how anxious little brother is about when his turn is going to be:



The original videos were taken on the 4th of July. These were taken on July 10th:

And.... we also finished our living room...

Just in time to move! We are moving back to Holland in a couple weeks! New adventure coming our way soon :)

Animals in a Tub - PBS KIDS GO! Writers Contest

Mikaela has been hard at work writing a story for a contest through the local PBS station. We finally mailed it off today, but thought we should make a copy of it so everyone could see it. Hope you enjoy! :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCyDT8TiAoA

Dinosaur Interview

Hopefully, this works! The other day our neighbor dropped off a great toy for Aiden that his girls weren't really thrilled about. Just needed some batteries and it was good to go. Andy decided to "interview" Aiden about the toy and how it works - enjoy!

(If the video doesn't work on this page, click the links below them to view it directly from the YouTube site.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3so-S_kQOA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0aoRRLJTCM

Field Trip Friday II - Henry Ford Museum w/ the Kreigers

We had another "Field Trip Friday" today, but this time we went along with our friends the Kreigers, Elena & Eshton. Erik was able to join us for lunch as well. Since they are members at the Henry Ford Museum, they were able to take us along with them for free to see a bunch of very cool stuff. We will definitely have to go back sometime because one whole section of the museum was under construction for a future exhibit about some more automobiles. But what we did see was very interesting:

Kiddos in front of the Weinermobile.

Eshton pretending to be hot dog.

Mikaela's turn.

Look at my cute little Aiden hot dog...

Apparently Trevor Bayne had been to the museum recently - I believe this is his actual trophy (not sure though).

Off to the Model T area...

This is where the kids could help put together an actual Model T car. They assemble the car every day. The guide explained it's easy to make because children put it together every day ;)

This is the bus made famous by Rosa Parks:

These are two ski runners for an airplane.

Replica(?) of Wright brothers' plane.

Check this out - a cross between a helicopter and a plane :)

This train is absolutely massive...

Kids were able to pull the whistle and other levers.

I just thought this looked so cool :)

Aren't they cute?

They looked so small sitting up in the cab of that monster...

Next off to the K'nex area where they each got to build/race cars down some slopes.

The K'nex area was part of a Travelling through Time exhibit where they also included some music from the past. Here Aiden and Eshton are getting down to some old school Dire Straits:

There was a whole section on engines, generators, power, etc. but I didn't get too many pictures of that area because the motors and things were so large that I could not capture it properly with our camera.

Not sure what we will do for our next field trip, but we have been enjoying the ones we have done throughout the year. And I loved that Andy was able to join us on this one too!