Nov 14, 2012

Leaves, Leaves, more Leaves!

Jackson and Ellery have so much fun playing with their neighbor friends! This fall we had lots of fun playing in the leaves in the front yard. Endless entertainment for all the kiddo's!! My neighbor Ashley and I decided it would be a great opportunity to get some cute pictures of all the kids...
 
 Jackson and Ellery preparing the pile while Henry supervises :)
 Ellery and her friend James...they are exactly one year apart and about the same size!!
 All our friends!
 post jump....I missed them while they were in the air :)
Loved the pictures we got while they were throwing the leaves!
 Sooooo fun!!!
 Ashley got nailed with leaves. The kids loved it! It was a fun way to spend the afternoon!

Cider Mill and Soccer

We always look forward to going to a local cider mill in the fall, we were definitely excited to go this year until we got there and it came time to pay for our cider and donuts. Due to the apple shortage prices sky rocketed! We paid $13 for 6 donuts and a 1/2 gallon of cider. Granted they were really good, but our trips were limited this year and we ended up only going twice.
 
Ellery and Jackson both loved the cider!
 

Ellery and Daddy checking out the big wheel at the cider mill.
Jackson and his friend Alaina watching the ducks on the creek
 
This fall Jackson moved up to playing actual games in his soccer league. The first couple games were rough with lots of crying if he missed the ball, the goal, or fell down...lots of crying! But as the weeks went on he did much better and the crying greatly decreased :) He was ALWAYS super excited to go and play!
Gerrad was the main coach and I think he really enjoyed it!
They would do 20 minutes of drills, then have a team huddle and then play for about 30-40 minutes....or until the kids had really had enough and no one wanted to play anymore :)
Jackson on a breakaway!
The last couple weeks were quite cold, but Ellery didn't seem to mind!
Jackson taking a turn inbounding the ball.
The famous pout when he didn't get to kick the ball. oh my....life is rough!
He was super proud of his cool trophy at the end of the season....and of course his snacks :)
Jackson and Coach Daddy :)

Sep 21, 2012

Wiggles/Friends/End of Summer Fun :)

Holy Moly this is going to be a longer post due to all the FUN outings we packed into August! Kim and I took the older boys to the Wiggles concert, we made many trips to the zoo with friends once the weather finally cooled down a bit, went to a local park to feed the ducks left over bread from our Woodward Dream Cruise party, visited Gerrad's Great Aunt and Uncle on their farm, and went to a Wild Animal Park! Definitely a fun filled month as summer was winding down, with lots of great memories created!
 Kim and I took Jackson, Zion and their friend Gabriel to see the Wiggle's. We had these great intentions of eating at a restaurant before the show but those went by the wayside after sitting in HORRIBLE traffic on the way there, so we settled on drive thru mcdonalds. The boys loved it :)
 Jackson is excited for the concert to start!
 Zion and Kim ready to do some singing and dancing!
 So happy!
 All the boys dancing!!
 It was a fun time but we were definitely ready to be done by the end of the show. The boys were exhausted! Looking forward to taking them again and maybe bringing Ellery and Israel this time :)
 Ellery and her friend Dakota playing in the sandbox one night when we got together for dinner
 These four kiddo's always have so much fun together!
 Jackson LOVED riding on this motorcycle! We ended up getting him one with his birthday money that he had yet to spend...it's been a huge hit!
 Ellery and Daddy reading the newspaper and eating breakfast :)
 One of our many zoo trips with the Lemke girls. Such a great way to spend the morning!
 Checking out the grizzly bear who was actually out moving around!
 so cute :)
 LOVE it when the polar bear is in the water...and it doesn't happen that often!! His paws are huge!!
 Ellery looked down right as I took the picture...ugh
 All holding hands after leaving "the farm" at the zoo :)  Could they be any cuter?!?!?
 I neglected to take my camera out during the dream cruise party till the end so not many pictures. We ended up getting a bounce house again so the kids had a great time playing in that again. In the evening they decided to "cook" outside with all the playfood and dishes :)
 We took all the old leftover buns etc from the dream cruise party and turned them into duck food. Jackson and Ellery had a great time feeding the ducks!

 Our last trip to the zoo before Dakota started school.
 a quick picture by the tiger...not easy to get them all smiling and looking the same way!
 We were so thankful the prairie dog lookouts where not busy so Jackson and Dakota were able to climb up and check them out. Jackson thought it was so cool!
 As a special treat we rode the carousel this time....been avoiding all summer cause you have to pay extra only to find out it cost a total of $2 for the three of us to ride....totally worth it :)
 My big girl hanging on all by herself :)
 On one of our trips back to Grand Rapids we stopped at Gerrad's great Aunt and Uncles farm to visit for a bit. Uncle Gordie took Jackson for a tractor ride and he loved it! He even got to "drive" :)
 Ellery didn't ride but she wanted to get a picture with Jackson :)
 We went to the Boulder Ridge Wild Animal park for the first time. What a neat place! They had a lot of cool animals and hands on activities!
 They had some little baby chicks....don't remember their exact name, but they were so soft!
 The Parakeet feeding area sounded like a neat thing to do, but was quite overwhelming because there were so many birds in there and Jackson and Ellery did NOT like it at all!
Jackson and Zion sitting on the Elephant while we waited for the safari bus to take us around the rest of the park.
 
We had such a fun summer and I'm definitely sad that it's over, but I'm sure we'll find plenty of fun things to do this fall :)

Last trip to the cottage this summer

In the beginning of August we made one more trip up to the cottage. My family all came up for the day on Saturday to spend some time on/in the water. It was a beautiful hot sunny day and we all had a great time! The little kids all had a chance to ride the jetski....some liked it some definitely didn't :) A few of the big kids had a chance to go skiing till the boat stopped working...huge bummer! Looking forward to next summer when we can do it again!!
 
 Grandma and Ellery walking down the dock to check out the boats on the water
 Ellery going for her first jetski ride with Daddy!
She didn't cry but not exactly the happiest face :)
 Jackson always has a smile on his face when we are at the cottage!
 Everyone hanging out on by the dock while the kids play in the water
 Ellery decided to try carrots dipped in deviled egg....interesting combo, but she seemed to enjoy it :)
 Rowen's very first boat ride!!
 Ellery had to take a turn at the wheel....guess she thought Grandpa wasn't a good driver :)