My first born

Hard to believe, but my first born is 5 today!!

I could write a sentimental blog about how proud of him I am, but don't feel like shedding a few tears over the keyboard. He is maturing into a nice & happy kid, which is all I could ask for.

Happy Birthday Zachary!

Room2Grow

On Thursday we took a trip downtown Chicago with college girlfriends to meet up at Room2Grow, www.room2playchicago.com, which was a fabulous play house for kids of all ages to play & learn. Every suburb/city could definitely use a place like this!
Its safe, fun environment for the kids to run around, play dress up, use their imagination in the kitchen and other numerous areas. It also gave us mom's a chance to catch up while the kids played and we didn't have to worry they were escaping from the play area.
It was a nice change of pace heading to the big city and definitely an activity that I hope we repeat.

This is the best of the group pictures that I was able to get. It was difficult to get 10 kids to look & smile all at the same time...
Somewhat from left to right
Elisabeth & Simon, Sara with Max & Elisabeth, Kris Haartman & Casey,
Jessica & Douwe, Kristin Zandstra with Mica & Meghan and my two boys with Hailey (the sweet little girl that I babysit everyday) thrown in the middle

An astronaut & a mail man

Cameron, Max & Zach up on stage

A perfect Valentines Day!

Forget the roses, romance, paying a babysitter for a fancy dinner out... instead we had a spur of the moment dance party with the Wiegers girls!



Cam & Chloe... ummmm... shall we kiss??


Hats for everyone~ Lauren, Zach, Chloe, & Cam

Veggie Tales dance party

The Florida Keys

I am a bit delinquent with my post, but none the less we had great trip to the Florida Keys last week. We were graciously hosted by our GR friends, Brad & Bradi in Marathon Key and also had the pleasure of Steve & Stacy's company. We enjoyed a stress & kid free long weekend in the warmth (well, not as warm as we had hoped, but still way warmer then at home so that was all that mattered). It was a our first time in the Keys and got to experience two evenings down in Key West, which also was quite an adventure and not necessarily G rated for the blogging friends! :-)

Its funny how when you are away from your kids you somehow forget to take pictures of other experiences in your life. So, these three are about the best of the few I did remember to take.

Mark & Steve's catch of the day for supper

the ladies









the boys and their foo foo drinks...

Thanks again Kreiders for having us, we can't wait to repeat the trip!!

Da Boyz'

My Boys... they are Daddy's boys through and through. Most mornings, first thing Zach says when he comes down, "where's Dad?" First thing Cam says when I walk into his room, "Dada, Dada!"

Whats a Mom to do?
I think its wonderful that they think their Dad is the greatest, as I see it a testament to what a great father Mark is. He has much, much, much more patience then me and is also much better at playing cars, trains, transformers, and superheros. I guess if this is going to be a house of boys & testosterone, there has to be some advantage, right? I love it that they are 'daddy's boys!'

Last few weeks of 2008

We have been pretty busy over break so I have been slacking with blogging lately, so here's a brief summary of what we have been up to during the final two weeks of 2008.
We had Christmas in Sheboygan, Wisconsin with Mark's family, which included both of his brothers. We also managed to do some fun things with friends during Christmas break from school.
Order of pictures are from a weeks ago till most recent

Christmas 2008, Grandkids with Nana & Grandpa Leys

Finally Christmas morning!! Cousins Emily, Charlie and Zach loving the presentsMark & his brothers, Paul & Chuck, Charlie and Zachary sledding in Wisconsin. Perfect weather for a family photo op on the beach at Lake Michigan Much, much snow in Wisconsin. Charlie, Zach & Camers sitting on a huge snow pileWe took a trip down to Navy Pier's Winter Wonderland with book club girls and their kids. We had intended to get a group photo of the kids but of course that never happened. This is the only picture I got of some of the kids playing in a 'ball room', where they could throw balls at each other.

Zach, Cam, Max, Lauren & Chloe. We had a great time and I hope we have started a new tradition. Sledding with Max & Sara. Here are the Snow Angels, Max & Zach Sara & Max having fun going down the hill together.

This picture of Sara makes me laugh so I had to add it. They had a hoot going down the hill together.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!!

We had our first snow day today. We had a lot of fun sledding around the yard. Tomorrow we will be heading for the sledding hill, which I think will be a big hit. I also think Cam would love it, but need to remind myself that 19 months might be a bit too young to go flying down the hill. Despite the fact that he does do a pretty good job keeping up with his big brother.