Happy 8th Birthday, Ethan!

Our sweet boy turned 8 today! We celebrated by doing lots of nascar playing, soccer playing and basketball. We had a fun family party tonight where these pictures were taken. He got lots of great gifts - he's so excited to play with things that he doesn't want to go to school tomorrow.This is his reaction to his "birthday sundae". He said he "doesn't really care for cake". Oh - great - less work for the mom! We did make-your-own sundaes instead and it was yummy!

Our annual mom/dad/son picture....how sweet! :)

Here is Anna working on her drawings with some reading glasses her mother received as a birthday gift from her own mother. Not funny, mom. They are not needed yet but made for lots of fun for kids playing "office".

Some Spring Fun ....

I cannot figure out how to get lots of pictures on here and keep them all in the right order so I apologize for that. At least there are more than 5 pictures in this entry.

Well - we have survived our spring break and a big part of that survival was our trip up north to Great Wolf Lodge. We went last week Thurs/Friday and we had a great time. Here are Anna and Joel in the shallow "kid" area.

Here is Ethan enjoying the Lazy River. We discovered that if the kids wore life-jackets and didn't use the tubes they flew around in that river super fast - this occupied lots of time and they totally loved it.

And here is Miss Anna relaxing on her tube. She rode around like this for a good 30 + minutes - just taking in the scenery. Ethan and I were racing down the huge tube slides while she was taking it much slower. :)

Ok - here is the "out of order" part. Here is a cute picture of Claire on Easter Sunday eyeing Grandma's cute Easter table decorations. She eventually got her way and got to play with the cute little chicks.

This was taken last weekend when we experienced nice 60 degree weather (for a mere 3 days). We took advantage of it and tried a little tree-climbing.

Anna and Joel were working in the yard while Claire modeled in the tree.

And another picture out of order - this was taken at Frederick Meijer Gardens on Spring Break. We went to visit their butterfly exhibit and Ethan was lucky enough to have one land on his wrist. It looked like a white monarch and just sat on him for awhile.

All in all we had lots of fun. Baseball, T-ball and soccer season is about to begin so keep checking back for updates. :)

I found my Camera!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, it's true. My camera never was really "lost". It was just "put away" in a different spot. :) So glad to have it back!

Here are a few pictures of Ethan and Anna on St. Patrick's Day. We decided that Lucky Charms would be a great after-school snack.

Spring holidays were super close together this year so a few days after all the clover fun we had to do a little egg decorating. We had some very intense egg-dyers at our house. Here is Ethan displaying his colorful eggs.

I tried to get this all done while Claire was napping so I wouldn't have to have a 2 yr old playing with egg dye but she woke up early. :) She loved it, of course, and didn't really make too much of a mess - if you can believe it. We had saved 4 eggs for her to do and then she did those so fast we let her re-dye the eggs that were already done.

That may be why we ended up with such brightly colored eggs. Of course, in Vredevoogd family tradition, you must use 2 Paas color tablets per mug. We do not mess around. :)

My Camera is gone!!!

Seriously, I have misplaced my camera or it has been stolen or one of my children has hidden it from me. I am so bummed! I'm hoping to get a replacement soon so please don't give up on checking this blog.

Knowing my life, it will probably be a week or two before I can update. :)

February Fun!

Anna and I made a Valentine's Day gingerbread house this year. She had a great time decorating and eating. I thought it would be a big pain but it was actually very fun and will probably be a new tradition in our house. Here are the girls eating lunch on Valentine's Day. Heart shaped PB&J's and any other red or pink food I could find. We had a busy day with all the class parties. Claire held up well under the pressure and no nap. Probably b/c of all the candy.

This is taken at Ethan's class party. They had just decorated cookies and were opening goodie bags. Now the cool thing is the two-finger hands. :)

Claire got to decorate a cookie too....she concentrated very hard and ate one 1/2 of a bite. :)

Bubble Bath time!!! Need I say more? They had a great time!

More Florida pictures....

Sweet Anna...she took naps on the beach on a few different days. There's not much cuter than a sacked out kid comfortably sleeping under a beach umbrella. I guess my Grandma and my sister were talking to her minutes before and looked down and she was totally sleeping. :)

Here are our sweet, angelic children....not sure what happened to Ethan's smile.
This was taken outside of our favorite restaurant DaRuMa - a Japanese steakhouse. It's always a highlight of our trip!

Sadly, these three crazy people are related and, worse, related to me.
We do not allow Ethan to spend too much time with his two uncles.

Here is Miss Claire sipping her Japanese soup.

For some reason (thank you Ethan) every time we told Claire to smile on this trip, she decided to pull this "suprised" look. Oh well. :)

Aunt Jesi and Claire were posing for our photographer, Anna.

We had a great sunset photoshoot one night. The girls did not care, they just wanted to build castles. :)

OK, Anna will be happily interrupted to smile for her mom.

Clearly, Ethan will pose too. Look at those muscles!!!

Here is a great picture of the Jesi and Violet, my mom and Claire and I. Apparently, Claire is upset that Violet upstages her at times and gives her a dirty look when she thinks no one will notice.

Would you believe I have even more pictures??? I'm too tired to post them now but more will be coming. :)

Happy New Year.....Better Late than Never!

Well, we survived our drive to Florida and here are the kids the first night down there celebrating their freedom from the van! :) They did great and we had so much fun in Florida. Sunny and warm each day - you can't ask for more.

Ethan and Anna got huge lollipops from our neighbor down there. Of course, Ethan's was gone in a matter of hours while Anna gave up and gave hers to me.

Christmas Eve with Uncle Brett.

This was our typical view every day. Until they "got bored"....who gets bored on the beach??

This picture was taken at Quail Creek right before our fantastic Christmas Brunch. Wow...we all ate way too much!