No longer a baby

Earlier this month my youngest turned four. He was very excited of course. He was having a birthday. I was not so excited. I had been trying to convince him that he didn't really need to have a birthday. He could just stay three forever. I accompanied these pleadings with sniffs, tears and downright wailing. He wasnt' fazed. He just explained, very sweetly, that he simply had to have a birthday because his older brother and sister were going to keep having them, and it just wouldn't be fair for them to keep getting older and not him. My reply was that I wouldn't have a baby anymore. (My mom has always told me they were still babies at three). He of course had a very easy (for him) solution to this problem. "You can have another baby, mommy." Hmm, well, yes, maybe. We decided that he would just have to give me lots of kisses and hugs so that I wouldn't be so sad that he was getting big. He went along with this! All I had to do was just start to cry that my baby was having a birthday and he would smother me in kisses and hugs. So he got birthday presents, and I got his love and kisses. I think my "presents" will last longer.

Here are a couple pictures of his birthday cake. We had to go with the construction theme. And chocolate cake, with chocolate frosting.

It is hard to tell from the pictures, but the retaining walls are made from candy legos. My kids saw them this summer at the new produce market in our neighborhood. They have been begging for them ever since. They were so happy we could finally get them and use them.

Happy Birthday John. You may be four, but you will always be my baby.

My artsy child

My oldest child is my creative, artsy, imaginative child. Well, actually all of them are, but Clara is now able to read and write, and therefore, express herself in words. She loves to draw comics (she and the boys are currently working on a series called Dorky Dude,) compose songs, and write poetry. She also likes to dance, but with her free spirit, ballet was a little too confining. This year she is doing hip-hop.

This is a poem she wrote that I found on a shopping list. I love it.

Rain

In the rain

I love to dance

And here and there

I prance

In the rain

I love to splash

And around the puddles

I dash

In the rain

I love to hear thunderstorms

And in the distance

Lightning flash.

That's my girl.

Kids' Food Basket

Yesterday I accompanied some of the kids in Clara's class to Kids' Food Basket. This is an organization that provides sack suppers for kids in the Grand Rapids area who otherwise would not get any supper at home. It started out 9 years ago when a principal at a G.R. elementary school noticed some students going through the trash trying to find some food to take home so they could have a supper. Currently, Kids' Food Basket provides over 2,500 sack suppers a day. They rely almost entirely on donations of food, time and money from the community.
This organization does amazing work in our community. I was so impressed by how well organized everything was. They had everything set up for our kids to get to work right away. In the 45 minutes we were there, the kids assembled over 200 sack suppers, and opened probably 1,000 boxes of juice boxes. In the past our GEMS club at church has organized food drives and decorated lunch bags for Kids' Food Basket, but this was the first time I had volunteered there, and really felt the impact that they make in my community. I hope that by seeing the work that Kids' Food Basket does, Clara, her classmates and her school community will not only realize how blessed they are each day, but that they can and should try to pass those blessings on to those around them.

If you want to find out more about Kids' Food Basket, check at their website: kidsfoodbasket.org

Party Pictures

Here are the pictures from the birthday party. Sorry about the delay.

Birthdays

In February we celebrated Ian and Clara's birthdays. Yes, I know their actual birthday's were a couple months earlier, but how many more parties do two kids need around Christmas time?

We celebrated with family - grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins. We always have a fun time.

In order to make Clara and Ian both feel like it is their party, they each get their own cake. They begin thinking the day after their birthday what kind of cake they want for the next year. This year Clara chose Kit Kittredge and Ian wanted a batman cake. Hmm. Those were fun for me to try to create. Here are a few pictures. They tasted pretty good, no matter how they look.

Great Wolf Lodge

In February, we took the kids to Great Wolf Lodge to spend a couple days swimming, relaxing and having fun. It was awesome. The kids loved it, and I loved it too. I also realized it was the first time we have done a vacation with just us and our kids - no other family or friends.

We wanted to surprise the kids (and not have them ask every hour when we were leaving) so we didn't tell the kids we were going anywhere. I was able to pack all our stuff up without the boys realizing what I was doing. They were a bit confused when Mike came home from work early and we went to pick Clara up at school. When everyone was in the car and we were on the expressway, I gave each of the kids a bag with a new bathing suit and new sandals. Then we had them guess where we were going. They didn't guess the right destination, although Clara did guess Disney World and Mexico. They were very excited - which lasted right up to bedtime in their kid cabin; they couldn't go to sleep.

The next morning they were up at 6:30, ready to swim. Too bad they had to wait for the swim area to open at 9:00. We were down there at 9:03 and running under the water buckets. The best part was by far the water slides. I loved them, maybe even more than the kids loved them. (I also love roller coasters, swings, fast boat rides, airplanes, and would love to skydive.) Ian liked swimming and really wants to take more swimming lessons. John loved the hot tub area, the giant bucket of water and everything else.

Clara was my water slide buddy.John did not want to go home.

We had a great weekend, and I am ready for a repeat trip next year.

Christmas

I hope you all had a blessed Christmas season. We had a wonderful couple weeks off school and work. There was snow for the kids to play in, cookies and candies to indulge in, friends to play with, fires in the fireplace and games with the family, Christmas trees at Meijer Gardens and doughnuts at Krispy Kreme (also dentist appts. and flu shots thrown in). It was wonderful to see our families, with mostly good traveling weather. There were also the annual Christmas services at our church, which we have grown to love: the candlelight choir service, the kids' program, and the living nativity.

Through all this we have been trying to emphasize with our kids the reason that we celebrate Christmas. Although we do give presents and we wait expectantly for Santa to fill stockings, we remember that the birth of our Saviour, our Messiah, our Redeemer, is our true joy of Christmas. Even though "Have a Holly, Jolly Christmas" may be their favorite song this year, it is wonderful to hear John sing "Away in a Manger," have Clara ask if she can be an angel next year for living nativity, and see Ian acting out the birth of Christ with our wooden nativity.

I hope that you are able to experience the joy of Christ's birth throughout this whole new year.