Pre-Christmas Activities

This year we added some new pre-Christmas activities to our Advent Calendar which the kids really enjoyed.  It also helped that we had pretty decent weather in December so we were able to enjoy the outdoor activities without freezing.   Here are some of our favorites.

The Coopersville Christmas Train

Coopersville and Marne provide train rides with various themes throughout the year.  The Christmas train, as you may have guessed, had elves, Santa, and a surprise visit from a Christmas princess (aka "Miss Coopersville 2012").  Yes, it was as glamorous as you might expect.  The train cars were from the 1950's and I believe our conductor had been conducting since about that time as well.  The scenery left a little to be desired and they could have sped it up a bit to shorten the total time, but overall the kids had fun.

Mia wore her favorite U of M Santa hat.

 

 

Grandpa and Grandma J. joined us as well, the kids LOVED having them with us.

 



Meeting Santa was the highlight for the kids, they were allowed to sit on his lap and tell him what they wanted for Christmas.  Santa also gave every kid a little souvenir present.

Carter trying out the conductor's cap (see, pretty sure he has been doing this a while).

The "princess" also read the book "The Polar Express" which is Carter's favorite book and movie at Christmas, so that was also pretty thrilling.  It was fun and definitely got us in the Christmas spirit!

 

 

 

Ada Bridge Lighting

 

 

We also took the kids to the annual Ada bridge lighting.  For some reason I don't have any pictures of the actual bridge, it was quite beautiful when lit up however!

 

After the bridge was lit, we enjoyed trolley rides and various activities all over downtown Ada.  It was fun walking around and shopping in the cute shops as well as doing a few kid activities.

 

Here are the kids at the Lego exhibit.  They built some cool moving parts to a Christmas tree and train.

 

 

 

 

Christmas Tree Hunt

 



We also did our annual Christmas tree hunt with Grandpa and Grandma J.  It was gorgeous weather for December, barely cold and I think we saw a the sun a few times.  Couldn't have asked for better.  We got a great tree and had tons of fun with Grandpa and Grandma.

 

 

Mia, making her pick.

Everyone loves to get in on the actual chopping.

Carter's favorite part, the wrapping of the tree.  He's obsessed with this machine.

Meijer Gardens Santa Event

We love going to Meijer Gardens at Christmas.  The place is absolutely beautiful and there are so many fun activities for kids.  This year was especially fun because both kids actually SAT and SPOKE to Santa! 

 

 

 

 

"...and I'd like Baby Butterscotch, anything princess, La La Loopsy..."

 

 

Other activities...we also did gingerbread houses, went Christmas light looking, watched favorite Christmas movies, and more!  It was a great build up to the big day.  More pictures to come of the actual present opening and Christmas parties.

Swallowed It!

Carter finally lost his first tooth in December.  The tooth had been loose and wiggly for days, but Carter was hesitant to pull on it.  He finally lost it during a dinner.  Dave was keeping a close eye on him while he was chewing but unfortunately it was swallowed.  No worries, we wrote a note to the Tooth Fairy and she came anyway.  Carter was thrilled!

Here he is before he lost it, I was trying to get him to wiggle it out... 

No such luck this particular time...

 

...but here he is after!  

Milwaukee Thanksgiving

We traveled to Milwaukee this year to celebrate Thanksgiving.  The car ride was great, the kids are getting to much better travel ages.  They keep themselves entertained and they don't need 10 potty breaks for a 5 hour trip!  Heavenly.

We arrived Thanksgiving afternoon and the house smelled like fantastic Thanksgiving food the second we walked in.  While I set out to help Lee in the kitchen, the kids didn't waste one second before hitting the play room with their cousins.

They did a lot of the following:

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving meal (thanks Lee and Bob!), it was super yummy food. 

The only bummer the whole weekend happened the first night.  Everyone was tucked in bed (the little girls took a bit longer than we hoped) and around midnight, Carter woke Dave and I up claiming he "puked all over Elsa's wall."  Just what you want to hear when you are guests in someone's home!

We rushed out of bed to find puke all down the hall carpet.  We got Carter to the bathroom and started hunting for cleaning products.  I was hoping we could do it without waking anyone, but unfortunately I had to wake Lee when I couldn't find any carpet cleaner.  So we set out to clean, and I so appreciate Lee helping (it's bad enough to clean your own child's puke).  I must say, Lee has got to be the fastest puke cleaner ever.  (A hidden talent I wish I had).  She claims it's from all the practice Belle has given her over the years! 

The rest of the weekend Carter seemed absolutely fine.  I'm not really sure what happened, he claims it was the stuffing, but the rest of us ate boat loads of stuffing and were just fine.  I think it was an excuse since I made him eat the stuffing. 

In addition to all the playing we did at the Heinrich's, we also took the kids to a bounce house type gym.  The kids had a blast romping around the gigantic blow up structures.  Here are a few shots (it was hard to get non-blurry shots).

 

It was sad to say goodbye after such a fun weekend.  The kids were mopey the entire ride home.  But it cheered them up to know we would see them again at Christmas!

 

 

We're very thankful for the wonderful Milwaukee Thanksgiving!! 

Scary Sweet

 

 

We had a fantastic Halloween despite the cold, wet weather.  Carter chose to dress up as the Transformer, Bumblebee, this year.  He did not waiver on that choice.  Mia on the other hand went through about every Princess (twice) before finally settling on Ariel.  She's really into swimming lately so I think Ariel appealed to her on that level (that and the awesome red wig).

 

We carved pumpkins the weekend before Halloween.  The kids were excited to pick out the look for their faces.  Carter wanted "super scary" and Mia wanted "gloomy."  (She got that from a Halloween book we have). 

 

Here they are carving (Mia mainly watched Dave do it).

 

 

 Carter loved using the little saw tools.

 

 

The finished pumpkins.

 

 

 

On Halloween, Dave's work did an indoor trick-or-treating event for all the kids of Fishbeck employees.  Dave picked them up from daycare/school early and they went around to various desks throughout his work and came home with buckets full of candy. 

 

We then headed over to our favorite trick-or-treat starting point, the Slobodnik house.  Since we don't have many houses around us, it's nice to have a really close neighborhood with a familiar house. 

 

We were greeted by a silly cow (Juliet) and a spooky skeleton (Ruth).  We only did around 20 houses in the neighborhood due to weather and time, but the kids still got a ton of candy and were definitely ready for bed by the time we were done. 

 

 

 

Happy Halloween everyone!

Kindergarten

Carter started Kindergarten this fall and he is loving every minute! 

We had a bit of a head start since he did Young 5's at this same school last year.  He was already comfortable with the before/after school teachers, knew the layout of the school, what to expect when riding the bus, and was used to a longer day.  It was nice for Dave and me too, we definitely had less anxiety about what to expect.  What a breeze!

Here is Carter waiting for the bus on his first day.

We think it's important for him to ride the bus the very first day.  Gets him used to being independent right away (and apparently the drop off area that first week is mass chaos).  Carter typically only rides the bus on Fridays, however.

Here are Carter and Mia waiting for the bus on the first Friday (when Mia and I are home to "walk" him to the bus stop - or - end of our driveway).

Mia gets sad every time we put him on the bus (and a bit jealous).  It's crazy to think that next year she will be in preschool!  Oh how time flies.

We had our first parent-teacher conference for the year (November).  Carter is doing extremely well and we are so proud.  He can read well beyond the level expected and she told us she just ordered some new books, specifically for Carter, to keep him "challenged."  (He is currently reading chapter books at home).  She said he is really good at math too (thank you Dave!) and counts well beyond expectations.  She showed us an exercise where the kids were supposed to fill in numbers on a grid, Carter did his grid so quickly that he created his own grid on the back of the paper because he was bored.  Carter's only area to work on is staying focused and be less chatty.  He tends to "gab" with friends and gets off track.  She said this includes eating lunch in a more timely fashion as well.  Hmmmmm, didn't see that one coming at all.  :)

We're VERY proud of Carter.  He is so smart and grown up!

Deck

As most of you know, this summer was our deck project summer.  We launched it on Memorial Day weekend and Dave worked on it pretty much every weekend the entire summer.  You might be wondering how it could possibly take an entire summer (and then some) to build a deck...the answer is, we built a large deck with many levels and built-ins, plus when Dave does a project, he does it to perfection.  It is the coolest deck we could have imagined.  Well beyond my expectations and definitely my favorite project to date (easy for me to say since Dave did 99.9% of the work). 

Here are some before, during, and now shots. 

Demolition of the tiny existing deck.

 

The area cleaned up and ready for building.

Dug around 15 holes to support the frame.  Luckily Dave had help from his brothers for this phase.

Checking out the depth.

 

Here was the concrete that would later fill the holes.  Just a few 80 lb. bags to lift.

Framing.

Dave always had a helper, eager to help measure or just nail something together.

 

 

The first deck boards!

 



Here you see the metal framed fire pit (and lots more progress on the deck boards!).

And here is what it looked like at the beginning of September.  About 95% done at this point. 

 

 

The triangle areas will be planter boxes next summer.

 



 

The fire pit is covered in this shot, we plan to tile the outside next spring.

The kids and I couldn't be luckier to have such a wonderful builder/Dad/Husband.  The deck is absolutely beautiful, couldn't have asked for anything better.  Thank you also to Josh and Mark, Grandpa Jernstadt, and Grandpa Baldwin for all of their help as well (and Grandma Baldwin for painting the trim on the barn windows)!  We couldn't have done it without all the support from everyone.