A MORNING OFF

So nice to have a long weekend.  The kids have off Friday and Monday and we are loving just relaxing together....although being someplace a little less hot would be nice!  Becca has been into baking, so many/most all the books she gets from the library are kids baking books.  This week she came home with another one, so we decided to pick a recipe and give it a try-yogurt pops.  She made her little shopping list-I never thought a trip to the grocery store could be so exciting along with  to cutting up fruit and useing a blender...all with the help of many little hands-including our neighbor friends.  We needed a bigger counter!  Turned out the pops actually tasted pretty good-especially when everyone was super hot!  

    We continued our baking with cinnamon rolls.  The kids keep telling me the store bought ones are not very good so with some extra time on our hands we tackled making home made rolls....turned out super yummy!  Hopefully we can save some from Ron who is out tackling the road/heat for another long bike ride with Young Life.

Funny how each kids has a favorite part in the baking process.  Becca loves to punch down the dough and best of all rub the butter all over the rolled dough.  Brayden was all about rolling out the dough, and sprinkling cinnamon.  Andrea was the champion raw dough eater along with using her baking gloves to help with the oven.  James just tags along and enjoys eating the most!

Another Week Almost Gone By!

With a short week this week due to a nice long break for Labor Day the kids are almost finished with their second week of school.  This seems crazy to me!  We have fallen back into our routine, kind of nice.  The first week of school was friend over load.  With hardly any homework the days were filled with the excitement of seeing and meeting friends.  We don't do a whole lot of play dates through-out the year but last week I gave in, the kids were super excited, bonus that we could use the neighbors pool seeing as the temperatures have decided to soar.  Slowly the homework is coming, spelling tests and math are the push this week.  Brayden's teacher is pretty tough on penmanship...not sure how we are going to survive, thankfully he has science twice a week that he is pretty excited about.  Turned out that Brayden's class is going to be reading Buddy's with Andrea's K5 class-both kids were pretty excited.  So our school year begins.  I know our schedule will slowly fill up but the goal is to spend some more down time at home this year together...we will see how long we can hold out.  It is amazing to me how easily guilt creeps in spending time with other families loaded down with activities...and yes football season/cheer season is in full swing out year ( totally craziness!).  I am loving the fact that we do not have to go to School three nights a week for practice!

This is Andrea's K5 class.  There are a lot of type A mom's in this group which I have found makes for a great year.  There is always something going on and seems like a lot of work but I find these moms love it.  I love it because there is a lot of  special memories and  I have no problem letting those moms take over!  We already had a welcome party for Miss Stone-Andrea's teacher (first year at Metro).

Many of the kids are also the oldest in their family-first child going through K5...so lots of pictures from parents.  Great for me as my camera rarely makes it to school these days.

 Andrea's reading buddy has a sister who she loves to play with also in K5

 This is what the girls have been doing in there free time-packing backpacks and going on little trips with their dolls.  This day it was an adventure outside-although the dolls had to watch from the window...no longer allowed outside, after their hospital adventure!

 We are back into Piano lessons.  Becca is starting this year-such a struggle and reminder of how little patience I have.  Also a lesson in humility as God decided to give me a child that seems tone deaf-so frustrating to me!  Slowly she is learning , although this week she struggled in using her thumb (funny I remember this same problem-so much shorter than my other fingers)

And this is what the boys have been doing-coming in pouring down with sweat.  Ron and I have made a huge effort to put a soccer team together for Brayden but what does he spend his time practicing??...along with our neighbor boy (also deep into soccer)  Trying to do endless jumps-using terms I have never heard of.

How time just flys by-James is my only at home buddy.  After a week of chores and errands I am remembering to spend some kid down time with him-funny how fast we move out of the "playing trucks, hanging out in the play-room" stage.

MICHIGAN VACATION

We have had cold water, rain, fly's....but for the most part our MI vacations have been sunny and warm-beach weather.  This year was the year for cold and rain.  It is hard to imagine going just a couple days without the sun after living in OK let alone a week...or more!  Regardless of weather we enjoyed plenty of time with family.  The kids were never lacking for activity.  Sleepovers...inside and outside!  Lots of playing at cousins homes, exploring the hills/woods, fishing, hunting. The kids loved all the animals-chickens (fresh eggs), bunny's, kitty's, pony's...so much fun.  We had fun going to the Conference Grounds, the kids loved all the activies-Brayden got in on some ball games and of course everyone loved the store, ice-cream and candy, and spent a lot of time at the playground.  This year was special seeing as my sister's kids were around for the week.  So fun for the kids to go to Bible school together and spend time together-yeah for saying goodbye to CA and hello to WI!!  Ron and I planned on biking a 100mile ride.  Actually looking forward to riding in cool temps-turned out we rode in 50 degree weather and pouring rain.  We accomplished the ride-three flats along the way.  Guess we need to be careful what we wish for!  The kids did get some time on the beach, although the water was freezing all week.  Ron had fun getting the Hobie Cat up and sailing-thankfully there was some wind and time to sail.  It was a full week, never a dull moment...boat rides, climbing sand dunes, picking blueberries.  Crazy how many things kept us busy even with the weather not being very nice.

Click here to see more MI vacation pictures

Happy Day!

So you might think happy day because it's Saturday and there is no school...no lunches to be made....no schedule, lots of cartoons.  But not really, today is a happy day because a fed ex truck made an early stop at the house with some long awaited dolls.

I am still not sold on these dolls..especially after having to dish out more money for hair issues.  But the girls do love them.  Most excited to dress them up in their hard earned summer chore money.

Adventure Sprint Race

Ron still does some mapping for races in town, something he really enjoys.   One of the races was this Sunday-a sprint adventure race.  It is a race that has some fun activities/tasks to complete and then a Bike/Run/Bike section and it is set up for teams of two.  Ron and Brayden decided it would be a fun race to do together.  I think Brayden was a little nervous for the beginning as no one really knew what the tasks were going to be.  It was pretty funny to watch their faces when they were told one of the tasks to complete was to jump in a pool to get a dive ring from the bottom.  

 And they are off!  About 30 teams competed.

 The first dive Brayden found no dive sticks....turned out not enough were in the pool and more needed to be thrown in.  He ended up diving in again and beating a bunch of adults treading water looking as well.

 Off and running to find more of the hidden five locations needed before starting the biking portion of the race.  Every team had a punch card...need to collect punching along the entire race route to complete/finish.

 The pool, and sling shot were among the initial tasks to be completed.  A zip line was also a task  but they had advised teams that they could complete this task after the first biking leg...to prevent back-up.  Sad to say they closed a bit early and Ron and Brayden were unable to ride the zip line.

 The kids and I had fun finding them along the trail at Turkey MT.  Thankfully Ron had mapped the route making it a little easier.  We were their aid station along the trails-although I think James drank more Gatorade than Ron and Brayden combined!

 It was a beautiful Sunny Sunday, not too bad spending most of it outdoors.  The kids had fun playing around at the YMCA-the start/finish.

 Brayden was all smiles-I think Ron looked more warn out, although he did his share of work on the trails..pulling up both bikes when they couldn't ride up.

 Out of the woods and off to the finish together...what a great team!

Five hours total, 20miles combined biking/running!  Way to go boys!!

How A Family Grows

As the kids grow our vacations to MI spend more and more time focused on spending time with cousins.  It has been fun  looking over past pictures..... how life changes!

 Most current- summer 2013

 Summer 2012

 Summer 2011

 Summer 2010-Birth of James, missing Machiela family

These two are from summer 2009-no big  beach group kid shot that I can find that year, second DeWitt Pic

Summer 2008

Summer 2007, not many pics...Andrea just born!

Summer 2006

Summer 2005

Summer 2004..First DeWitt Photo

First Day of School

The summer days just flew by and Friday the kids were once again back at school.  We were ready for a change of pace and the kids were definitively needing a little time apart.  They were excited to meet their teachers earlier in the week-even Brayden was happy to find his classroom, which was a little hard for us.  Friday morning was an early one for us-we loved our slow mornings this summer!  Having to get up, dressed, breakfast all before 7:45 was a change...seeing as most of us were still in bed at that time earlier in the week.  Everyone was up, minimal whining-Andrea still had some trouble tying her shoes and of course Becca complained about having to wear shoes no matter what kind/fit they were.
    We just love Metro and walking back in to school we all just feel at home.  The teachers were all out lining the walkway into the school, cheering for the kids as they walked in-embarrassed but happy grins were on all the kids faces, especially when they spotted their teacher in the line of cheering adults.
    School started with an opening chapel-full of exciting and smiling parents and lots of kids not so sure about what they were doing, I always think the parents are more excited about this whole process.  Singing, prayer and reminders about working hard to continue Rachel's Challenge this year were all part of the quick intro, before we were dismissed to class.
  The kids just jump right in.  Lots of clinging kids and excited parents in Andrea's K5 class-hard to even make it in the classroom.  Andrea just wiggled her way in gave her teacher Miss Stone a quick hug, found her seat and started coloring...not even a look goodbye!  She was ready to roll.  Her favorite moment from her first day was getting to go so a Spanish special.
  Becca's class was a bit quieter, her desk is in the back but she told me that she could see great when we talked after school.  A little goodbye, more shy and quiet.  She loved playing games during her first day with Mrs Schooley.
  I was off to find Brayden who had ventured off with a friend.  I found his third grade class quiet with most students just sitting quietly.  I love that I still get a big smile from Brayden when I walk in the room.  He was the only one wanting a picture with his teacher.  He was most excited to tell me that they get to have science twice a week, and as usually PE, and that they might have a student come from South Africa.
  James and I missed the kids but enjoyed a much quieter slower day that our past couple!  James was my little helper, slowly tackling the jobs that got put on hold with the kids home for the summer.    My favorite part of the day-Nap time...an hour of quiet in the house, rare these days.

Metro Christian is celebrating 30 years this year.  We are so thankful for this school!

Happy Birthday Andrea

The kids are always excited to go to MI but Andrea always has a little more urgency to visit MI.  Mainly because she knows that it means it is time to celebrate her birthday.  She is so cute, I forget at times her birthday was coming up because she wouldn't talk about it except before bed.  After listening to her a couple nights it was quite obvious her thoughts were consumed with celebration.  Our visit this year was full of cold weather-not beach playing, water swimming fun.  But we did manage to find some time pleasant enough to be down in the sand.  We celebrated a couple times so that all the cousins were able to celebrate with Andrea.  She had so much fun and just loves being loved on so much by everyone.  All the extra attention she receives just makes her glow...finally a day just for her!

All the cousins on the Haveman side minus Sam all together singing Happy Birthday-pretty special for Andrea.  Double good with Grandma's Chocolate cake to eat.

 Such goofy grins all day long-even more silly because Andrea woke up with her front tooth pretty loose.

 Second celebration on her actual Birthday with most of the Mulder relation in town.  Dinner was made special with our first MI sweet corn-Delicious!!

 Cousin Zöe was hard to resist and loved talking to the girls

Special days spent with Grandparents.  Not a home made cake but Andrea didn't seem to mind, seeing Hello Kitty was on the cake as requested.

The day was full of smiles-including ones resulting from fun phone calls especially for the birthday girl.