Special Person of the Day

Yesterday was Austin's special Person of the Day in Preschool. There are special thng they get to do on that day. Starting with bring Tembo the Elephant back to school. We had Tembo since Tuesday and only had one fight between Austin and Lucas, I thought that was good.

When Austin got to school he had to dress the Weather Bear, basically a Build-A-Bear type of bear with lots of different clothes they can dress the bear depending on the weather. Austin decided the bear needed his rain coat, hat and boots....go figure on the nicest day in October so far. Other things Austin got to do was being line leader, sit on the heart rug, and bring snack, which was popcorn and apple juice, yummy!!!

Austin showing me the Weather Bear Austin with Tembo the Elephant.
Austin with his teacher, Mrs Deppe.
Austin writing his name. Great Job buddy!!!!!
Austin enjoying his popcorn and apple juice

Austin playing on the playground.

Field Trip to Moelker's Orchard

On Thursday Brendan's 1st grade class went to Moelker's Orchard for a field trip. I got to go along. The kids learn how to tell which type of fruit tree was which by the size of the leaf. They saw apple, peach, pear, plum and cherry trees. Then the kids learned how they pick apples on the orchard, how the bags are soft so that the apples don't get damaged and that the bag of the apple pickers bag has a hole in it so they can gently put the apples in the big wooden boxes, which by the way hold 18 bushels of apples.

Brendan and his buddy, Austin Jelsma following the path through the orchard.
Drew
Mrs Moelker explained the different types of leaves to the kids.
Mrs Moelker explaining to the kids how to pick apples from the trees, and that a new apple or next year is already beginning to developing from where the apple was just picked
Brendan was disappointed that they couldn't pick a apple from the tree, but at least they each got an apple for eating. Yummy!!!!

Brendan in the apple cooler, which was 32 degrees cold.
Faith playing some of the games they had there for the kids.
Brendan enjoying his sack lunch and apple cider.

Class Picture

caught red handed.....literally

I am being eaten out of my house.

I have found ice cream bar wrappers hidden in the cabinets under the sink in the boy's bathroom. I think there was a total of 10 wrappers before I discovered it.
I have had whole boxes of Fruit Snack completely missing...2 in one day!!!!
I find the boys outside chugging down cans of Hawaiian Punch and Pop....and freeze pops, I find those wrappers all over the yard
I never have church candy for Sundays and that stored on the highest shelf in my dishes cabinet.
They have even got so far as to take a couple bites of every apple in a new bag of apples. I know that's healthy but seriously who wants to take a bite into an apple that has a huge brown spot on it.

You would think I never feed my kids with all the food that goes missing and the number of times I get asked in a day "Is it lunch/snack time yet?" The Solution... put a lock on every food cabinet and the refridgerator.....that right, the fridge. And I do feed them, honestly.

As you can see from the pictures Austin has gone so far as to eat a packet of Kool Aid powder, you know the stuff you mix in a bottle of water. The stuff completely stained his hands, unfortunately the camera doesn't show them as red as they were.

Any ideas of what I can be to get food off the minds of my children??????

Become a Prayer Warrior with me.

Since I started using google reader (which I love!!!!) there have been a number of blogs that have been reccomended to me. Some of them I quickly glance over and never think about again and others I have subscribed to and keep updated on even though I don't know the people.

Here's one that has touched my heart and I am asking each of you to say lots of extra prayers today and in the future for this family.

A quick overview of the situation....it's a pregnant couple(Spencer & Stacy) who found out around week 16 that their little boy was some problems including omphalocele, which is a umbilical/abdominal hernia (his intestine and liver have been growing outside of his body) and cysitc hygroma.

So anyway they will be having a c-section tommorrow and there are so many unanswered questions for them. Please prayer for this couple, that they will have a sense of peace and comfort. Please prayer for the doctors, nurses and other medical staff, that they will know the right course of action to take on Little Isaac's behalf. I know that God can still work a miracle.

If you want to read their story, click here. You will truly be touch.

Frederink Meijer Gardens

This past Tuesday, Austin and Lucas' preschool class visited Frederick Meijer Gardens. It wasn't the best of days to go, but we still have fun. The kids got to hear a story about all different kinds of seeds, play in the TreeHouse, navigate their way through the butterfly maze and play in the Great Lakes water.

They loved every moment....even when it was raining and the moms needed to take cover.

As you can see, my kids do not obey the rules. ' No climbing on statues'
Austin and Lucas ringing the bell at the end of the butterfly maze

the kids hearing a story about seeds

Austin and Lucas helping put the different kinds of seeds back in the basket
Lucas running around in the Tree House


Class Photo

Enjoying a snack
the kids playing in the great lakes

Laughter IS the best medicine

Connor has so much fun of this bouncing zebra.

He spins so fast that he looses his balance and falls off,

of course I missed the fallin off part.

It makes me laugh.

Dairy Discovery at Swisslane

Saturday night we were invited to Swisslane's Neighborhood Party. For those of you who don't know Swisslane is a Dairy Farm that located just down the road from us. We arrived around 6:00. We first had supper; Pork BBQ sandwiches, scalloped potatoes, baked beans, watermelon, chips & JD fruit snacks for the boys. The food was so good, definitely will need to go back next year.

After dinner, we went on a guided tour of their farm. So you may be thinking, why would we go on a tour of a farm seeing how we leave on a farm. Well, we did it for the boys, do you know I don't have any pictures of Austin, Lucas or Connor by any cows. I don't think the twins or Connor have ever been inside the cow barns. I think it was exciting for the boys to see inside the milking parlor and to see how close they could get to a cow. After the tour, Mike took the boys on a hayride and then we had ice cream. Over all is was a fun night.

If any one is interested is visiting, Swisslane has what they call Dairy Discovery tours. Mostly they do this for school groups, but on Oct 18 and Oct 25 they are having Family Days and you can go and visit their farm. For more information see their website.

The twins getting a upclose look at how they milk the cows.

Lucas trying the hand feed the cows their feed, a couple brave cows came pretty close until the flash went off on the camera.
Connor letting the baby calf lick his hand
Austin by the cows
Brendan checking out the calves


Lucas keeping his distance from these cows


Connor getting friendly with the farm dog

so friendly, that the dog finished up Connor's ice cream cone.

School Pictures

This past Friday, school pictures were taken and I'm too cheap to buy some pictures that will most likely not turn out. So on Friday night when Mike was out with the twins, I took Brendan out and we had a photo shoot. Here are the one's I like, but I'm not sure which one to use for the "school trading" picture. Any suggestions?????