Gigi’s best friend, Pat and her husband Al came out to the DC area two years ago with two of their grandchildren, Dani and Eric. Rachael and AJ were pretty young, but all of us enjoyed time together. Pat’s crew was able to check out DC and Baltimore during the day, and then they hung out with us in the evenings. This was a great opportunity to get to know everyone better. So last year, Pat invited us up to the lake house for the day, and we had a great time. When the same offer was made for this year, we gladly accepted. The kids were thrilled to get to see Dani and Eric! We spent the day on the lake and got a quick trip down the water slide. AJ, unfortunately for him, went down the slide with me. We picked up a ton of speed at the end and went completely under water (remembering that my kids do not like their faces wet). AJ got out of the pool saying ‘I am just like a dolphin, I blew bubbles and everything’. That being said, it was our only trip down, but Rachael and Dani went down numerous times!! It was a great day filled with smiles. Thanks to everyone for a fantastic day!!! And did I mention how exhausted we were when we got home??
Pop Pop’s Garden July 30, 2009
Pop Pop Woolley has a very cool garden in his back yard! I have always known it was there, but I have never actually walked through it. From what I hear, it is actually smaller than it used to be. But I really enjoyed the tour that he gave to all of us. We saw cabbage, cucumbers, string beans, strawberry plants, broccoli plants, raspberries, strawberry plants, various herbs and corn (Rachael’s favorite). Here are a couple of pictures of our garden experience!
The Garden
Getting some fresch corn
Some fun pickings
Picking raspberries
The Crew
Hitting them all July 29, 2009
Grandpa purchased a family membership for us to the Garden State Children’s Museum. What is great about it is that it has reciprocity with a TON of children’s museums throughout the US. We have used it in NJ, PA, MD and now in MI. On Tuesday, we headed to Grand Rapids, Michigan where we went to the Grand Rapids Children Museum. The museum was great, the kids kept busy from the moment we got there until we dragged (literally) them out! Check out some of the fun things that the kids enjoyed doing!
The Sand Box
The TV Studio
Food Shopping
Puppet Show
Playing in the Garden
Serving Food
Buzzing Around
Exploring Mechanics
Arts n' Crafts
Blowing Bubbles
Being just plain cute...
The museum was just great. The kids made different kinds of music, played with magnets, a post office, trains, saw beehives, and played with an ATM. After we finished at the museum, we were lucky enough to catch up with one of Nate’s 1st cousins, Kim. She met us at the museum and then we headed to Friday’s for lunch! We ended up with a private room (probably something to do with three young kids) which worked out really well for us. We were able to visit and the kids were able to get out a little bit of energy. We loved talking with Kim and wish her safe travels on her next series of adventures! Hopefully she will be making it to MD next summer…. Thanks for a great visit Kim, hope to see you again soon!!!
The Gang at Friday's
A quick glimpse July 29, 2009
Here are some of the pictures that were taken of the three kids at JC Penny’s on Saturday. Hope that you get an idea of how hard it was to choose which to buy!!
Life’s a Beach July 28, 2009
Monday afternoon was beautiful, so we decided to take Pop Pop Woolley with us and head to Lake Michigan. We got onto the beach a little later than planned, but it was perfect. We headed directly to the beach so the kids could play. I love Lake Michigan, it is fresh water and the water happened to be shallow for a good 15 feet, making it easy for the kids to play in the water. Which is exactly what they did!
Whoever would have thought that Rachael would have come so far that she would love going to the beach. The first time we took her to Lake Michigan, she cried the whole time. This time, we could not get her off the beach!!
The kids loved being in the water. Nate, Gigi and I really enjoyed playing with them in the water and on the sand. The kids loved playing with a squirt bottle and some water guns…
This was Kaitlyn’s first trip to the Lake. So we were sure to try and get her to put her feet in the water. I was hoping since the water was pretty warm (70 ish) that she would love it. NO!!! She could not hold her legs up high enough to keep them out of the water!! However, if you were going to hold her in the water, then she was okay with it. The good thing was that she was perfectly content sitting on a blanket in the sand and playing!
Every trip that we take to Lake Michigan is followed by the best ice cream ever, Shermans. Nate grew up eating the Chocolate Malt Ice Cream, which completes a great day at the beach. Have I mentioned how much Kaitlyn loves ice cream?? She would truly carry on until we would feed it to her. I cannot believe how loud she would get between bites! I guessshe already shares our love for ice cream…
Camping in Michigan July 28, 2009
Rachael has been wanting to ‘camp out’ recently. So when the conversation started this past weekend, Nate jumped on the opportunity. Nate headed to Meijer’s to buy a tent to use to sleep in Gigi’s backyard. In addition, Nate found sleeping bags, glow sticks and lanterns for the kids to use. Rachael and AJ were beyond excited!! Nate and AJ set up the tent, at least Nate did while AJ watched.
Rachael and AJ enjoyed testing out the new tent… it had raived reviews!!
Now was the real test. Gigi and I got the kids ready for bed, and then it was time. Nate and the kids went to the tent. They started their evening outside watching ‘Cars’ on the portable DVD player while eating some good popcorn. The glow sticks were not far behind. Much to my surprise the kids were still outside with Nate at 10 pm, when Gigi and I got back from shopping. AJ was still awake but laying very quietly. I was sure the kids were going to come in, but when I woke up at 3 am, they were still out there. In fact, I went outside to check on them at 8 am the next day. AJ was up, but Rachael was passed out!!
I think that camping is in our future…. They loved it!! But I will have to say that I think Nate was glad to sleep in a real bed the next night. And I should add that Kaitlyn and I enjoyed a good night sleep that night!!
Visit with Grandma Van July 27, 2009
Friday night, we loaded up the car and we headed to Michigan for the week. Although it is a long ride we did all survive. A little tired, we hung out around the house on Saturday. We had Grandpa Woolley (pictures to come) and then we headed to church Sunday morning. During nap time, Gigi and Rachael made some fun jewelry, to stay in the spirit of Rachael’s love for arts n crafts.
After naptime, we went to Penny’s to get the kids pictures taken, wich turned out adorable (pictures to come as well).
On Sunday evening, we had Grandma Van over for dinner. It has been a while since we have visited, so it was really nice to catch up. She could not get over how adorable Kaitlyn is!!!! Here are a couple of pictures of the quick visit.
And since we just keep adding the the number of people in the picture, here is one that has Nate and I as well!!
It is Official!! July 22, 2009
Kaitlyn decided that today was the day to start crawling while she was hanging out with Nate this morning!!! She was all over the room and I was thrilled to see it for myself. She was getting around just fine before, but it is great to see her up on all four. Now the real fun begins….
One of the Best things to do in Baltimore July 20, 2009
Sherry promised Rachael a long time ago, that they would come and sleep over our house one day. This past week seemed perfect because the next few weeks will be busy. So Wednesday night after work, Grandpa and Sherry came to our house and slept over. After the kids went to bed, Sherry and I were talking about the differnet things that we could do the next day. I looked on the internet about things to do in Baltimore and the first thing listed was the National Aquarium. Rachael and AJ have been wanting to see the dolphin show for some time and Grandpa had never been. So we got up and out (by 8:45 am) to head to Baltimore.
The kids loved the aquarium… and of course there are always certain things that really capture their interest. One of the things the kids loved looking at was Nemo, even though they have never watched the movie (all the way through).
Rachael really enjoyed watching the seahorses as they wrapped their tales around the seaweed. It was fun to watch the kids show an interest in the different tanks.
AJ and Rachael also really enjoyed watching the divers feed the turtles and the stingrays. Unfortunately, the picture did not turn out that great. After we finished the main part of the aquarium, we headed to the dolphin show. Rachael’s favorite part was when the dolphin jumped out of the water and reached the ball up in the air. AJ’s favorite part was watching the dolphin play with the ball in the water. The kids were pretty glued to the action. And have I mentioned how much I personally love dolphins?
And Kaitlyn took the whole day as a trooper, like always. She slept on me for the bulk of the Aquarium and then woke up to watch the dolphin show. I think she liked trying to attack my camera more than she enjoyed watching the dolphins.
AJ was thrilled to see the Puffin on our way out of the museum! He ran right up to him and gave him a high five followed by a hug. I was glad to see that he has started to move past some of his fears.
We had a wonderful time at the aquarium!! I was very impressed that the kids held in there the way that they did. We then headed to the food court in the Galleria where we ate a tasty lunch. We came home and hung out together before heading to dinner! We had such a fantastic day together and really look forward to another sleep over some time soon! Thanks for everything Grandpa and Sherry!!!!
Just another day July 18, 2009
I have been spending some time on the Internet looking at different blogs about cooking and baking. There have been some really good recipes that I have wanted to try. There was one recipe that looked really good which called for homemade chocolate chip cookie dough. I thought that I should get started while AJ was taking a shower. When he came downstairs he was very interested to see what I was doing, and all he wanted to was to help.
Which means that AJ wanted to lick the beater… Nothing new.
Not too long later the same day, our friendly squirrel returned to see what we put in the trash. He was happy to dig a hole in the trash bag and help himself, at least until we released Noah.
Kaitlyn enjoyed her lunch in the high chair. One of our favorite ’safe’ places to put her. She loves trying all sorts of new foods and typically does it with a smile.
And Rachael filled her afternoon with her daily arts and crafts time. It amazes me that she can keep herself entertained for hours with all of her projects!
