fishes

Looks like we have some fishes in our house!
Both of the boys are loving the water.



Zach still using his armbands, but hopefully after graduating from his 1st round of swimming classes in a few weeks he will feel comfortable to swim without them.

Cam following in his brother footsteps who loves to be tossed up in to the air

small steps

Two big things happened around here this week (in addition to Cam walking on his 13 month b-day), Zach attended his first T-Ball practice/game and he participated for the first time in Vacation Bible School at our church.

This is Zach and his little friend Emma that we carpool to school with. He was so excited to see her again, as we haven't seen her since school finished. He loved T-Ball and learned all about the running the bases. How cute!

Even though he cried 3 out of the 4 mornings when I dropped him off at VBS, I think he secretly enjoyed his week of learning. His latest line as to why he cries at most separations and new activities, "Mom, I am just a little shy." I wonder where he has heard that line?

They also had an evening program to conclude the spectacular week. As you can see here in the picture, he is singing his little heart out (with Max VD Berg in the orange behind him)! Makes Mama so proud.

We got a walker!!

Cam's walking! yippee!!
He is getting braver and walking further and further every day. This great news, as several of you know, its a bit challenging having a crawler outside in the summer time. As they get into every little thing and in my case, Cam trys to explore many foreign things in his mouth too. Not too mention how filthy they are from just a few minutes outside. What a joyous event!!

Fathers Day (a tad bit belated)

Post from Sunday that I forgot to post... oops

Happy Belated Fathers day to all the Dads.
We celebrated with my Mom & Dad and Mark who returned home from a fun boys weekend away. We enjoyed a nice BBQ in the backyard.

Single Moms

Since Mark was away in Michigan for the weekend enjoying a bachelor party for his friend, Jon Kok, my friend Bradi, came down with her girls to keep the boys and I company.

As Bradi and I kept saying, "misery loves company."

We actually had a great weekend despite the fact we were on full time mommy duty. We managed to squeeze in lots of activities in between naps and meals. We walked Naperville's Riverwalk, went to a park, visited the Morton Arboretum, and a quick trip to the mall (although with 4 kids no real shopping took place :-(

We also had a few girls over Saturday evening for a 'girls night in.'

All the decent pictures I managed to capture were of the kids eating. I guess that was the theme of the weekend, as Bradi & I also managed to consume a great deal of junk food! Yummy!

Girls weekend

Despite the so called 'crisis' at home and Mark feeling the need to share it with the blogging world, all turned out well at the house and no major flooding to report.

Regardless, I managed to thoroughly enjoy another Calvin girls weekend. Its always a relaxing (but too short) weekend away from home and we continued to be blessed with perfect weather. We once again spent Saturday on the boat in Saugatuk.

We have been blessed for many years now to enjoy the use of both the Van Der Aa's home and boat in Holland, which we are so thankful for.
However we decided that in the year 2011, for our 10 year reunion (not from college graduation, but the 1st year we started this tradition), we will be taking it to a whole new level by going somewhere warm & south in the winter/spring for a long girls weekend. This of course might take a little bit of planning and co-ordination, but we have several years to get it all sorted out.
So for the girls (Sara VDB, Sandi, Jane, JJ, Steph, and Roxi) who weren't able to be part of this years reunion, hopefully you too are on board, so start stashing away your pennies for 2011!

All alone

The power goes out for 8 hours, both kids go nuts, all the food needs to be moved downstairs to the fridge, which along with the pump, is hooked into the neighbors generator, thanks to 100 feet of extension chords that I managed to gather while the kids screamed. The muggy humid summer weather here in the Chicago area (aka America's Armpit) has created temps indoors over 85 degrees (remember, no power, no a/c). Upstairs, it was probably almost 100, and the baby clearly enjoyed his night of sleep (not). Thanks to all the chaos, I didn't eat dinner.

At least Sara is enjoying her relaxing weekend in Holland, socializing with old friends, sitting on a boat, enjoying the cool summer breezes....

Just because

Enjoying the warm days outside.







Cam's one and only present for his 1st birthday was a new water table.
He absolutely loves it (even though it doesn't necessarily look like it in this picture) and it is a perfect time-occupying toy for this age.

I am sure he will be spending a lot of time there this weekend as his Mama is off to Michigan for her annual college girls weekend... yippee!
Have fun in my absence boys!