Fall

We have tried to enjoy the end of the nice weather as much as possible this season.

29 Months

Jack is 29 months old.  Here's what he's up to:

 

*He is now my shopping buddy while Hannah's at school, but he hates to sit in the seat of the grocery cart.  I've let him ride on the end of the cart once until he kept hopping off mid-ride and getting hit by the cart.  Now I bribe him to sit in the seat with a cookie from the bakery (free for kids at Meijer!)

 

*He loves to paint and color (clothes optional). 

*Speaking of clothes optional, I have found him naked more than once now that he can undress himself. 

 

*We have been so blessed to have borrowed almost all of Jack's clothes from good friends of ours.  Whenever Jack puts anything on, he is very proud to tell us several times that it's Jake's.  Hope he continues to think hand-me-downs are so cool as he gets older!

 

*He likes to try to get himself dressed.  The whole process takes quite awhile, so I have to remember to give him LOTS of time to do it before we have to leave.  Quite often a shirt or pants will end up on backwards, but they're on.

 

*His favorite cartoons are Curious George and Caillou.

 

*He has very little interest in potty training.  I think after Halloween we're going to start with the candy bribes to see if that sparks some interest.

 

*He continues to love hats.  He even asks for his hat when we leave the house.  I think this will be a blessing this winter. 

 

*Some of his trains have a hitch on them to hook up with their train cars.  Jack has started pointing them out and saying boat.  For awhile we thought he was referring to the train as a boat, but we figured out that he's referring to the hitch and that it's used to pull a boat, just like our car pulls Daddy's boat!

Air Zoo

For quite awhile Jason has wanted to visit the Air Zoo in Kalamazoo.  This weekend was finally open, so we took advantage and headed down.  It was well worth the drive!

I was afraid it was just going to be a museum full of planes, but much to our surprise there were plenty of things for the kids to do as well.  They had a fun little kids play area with mini-rides and flight activities.

Jack couldn't get enough of this "Harold".

We got to talk through the clouds.

They had bigger rides that we could all ride.  The kids loved this hot air balloon ride. 

This ride was for kids but since our kids weren't tall enough Jason had to ride with them.  I still don't know how he actually fit in it.  He had to do quite the maneuvering to squeeze in.

They had all kinds of neat simulators, examples, and models that you could climb into which the kids loved as well.  When we were about to leave, Hannah told me that it was her best afternoon ever.  I think it's safe to say it was a definitely hit!

Family

Saturday morning we tucked the kids into the car and headed for Frankenmuth.

We were so excited to see Jack!  Shortly after we arrived in Muth we headed into town to visit with the great-grandparents.  Jack had a lot of fun with Grandma and Grandpa, but after 2 days of no naps the poor guy fell asleep as soon as he got in the car.

One tired lion.

Once we got into Grandma's room, he came alive, showing off his roar!

 

We also had a chance to do some family pics while we were in town (photos courtesy of M B Designs).  Unfortunately, the morning started off very wet, so we had to find someplace inside to pose.

The rain did let up enough for us to get a few pics outside.  Just getting all 4 of the grandkids to sit, look in the same general direction, and smile was worth it!

Hannah's Day

Hannah's class had their first real field trip a couple of weeks ago (we went to the zoo in Sept. but that was very informal).  We went to Robinette's Orchard.

I thought it would be fun to spend some 1-on-1 time with Hannah, so Jack went to visit Grandma and Grandpa Cramer for a few days.  We had a few jealousy issues but on Thursday but Friday was so full that Hannah barely even mentioned Jack!

We got to go on a wagon ride through the orchard.  Due to the warm March weather we had this year and frost in April, they only had 2 apples from their entire orchard this fall!  Very sad.

They actually bought their apples from an orchard in Sparta, so there were still apples to buy, and of course we got cider and donuts along with a coloring book and a gourd.

Since it was just the two of us, we stayed and enjoyed a tasty lunch after tour.

 

Jason took the afternoon off of work, so Hannah and Daddy had a date out on the boat for the afternoon.  It was a bit chilly but neither seemed to mind.  They then invited me to dinner with them at Ucello's.

Orchards on the Ridge

Here in West Michigan we are so blessed to have so many wonderful apple orchards.  Sadly, many of them lost most of their crop this year due to hard frosts last April.  We set out on our annual orchard tour today hoping to find some apples, and we were pleasantly surprised that yes, there were apples available after all!

Our first stop at Ed Dunneback and Girls for donuts and apples.

Jack feeding the cow.

Our next stop was at Steffans Family Orchard where we picked our own apples, pumpkins, and squash.

The colors are really starting to turn.  Up on the ridge, this is a pretty common scene - apples and forest.  God's beauty!

Our last stop was at Fruit Ridge Hayrides.  Sadly, they ran out of 1/2 gallons of cider right before we got there, but we were still able to get a glass of it.  They have the absolute BEST donuts and cider ever!!!

After all of that fresh air, and a tummy full of donuts, we had one tired little boy when we got home.

28 Months

*He loves to wear his backpack.  He has to be like the other big kids and wear it every time we drop Hannah off and pick her up from school.

*He has taken a liking to one of Hannah's baby dolls.  He calls her doll, hugs her, rocks her, and often sleeps with her (when Hannah will let him).

*He is very quiet and plays great by himself when Hannah is at school.  I'm starting to see who really drags all of the toys out at our house because when he's the only one home our house stays much neater.

*He likes to call people on my phone.  Most of the time my phone is locked, and he can't dial out.  However, he did once manage to somehow successfully dial Jason.  If you ever get a strange phone call from my house, it's probably just Jack.

*He continues to test his boundaries and ignore us when we tell him to stop as he runs away from us.  He's learned the unpleasant consequences of his actions more than once.   

*He loves to color and paint.

*He's really started to play with legos and is quite good at putting things together.

*He likes to play restaurant with Hannah.  He's usually the cook while she's the waitress.

September 2012 Projects

I am amazed and a bit overwhelmed by all of the projects that Hannah has been bringing home this month between pre-school and Happy Heart City at church with the Life Action Ministries Summit (amazing, amazing work they are doing with every age at our church right now!!)  To try to manage all of the papers while still capturing the memory of each project, I'm trying to take pictures of her projects as she brings them home.  Here's a sample from this month:

Learning about obedience at Happy Heart City

Our family and house (with the apple tree that doesn't exist in our backyard).

Another Happy Heart City project

Hannah and Mama :-)

Thumb prints

Family photo book

Art Prize 2012

We've once again made it downtown to check out Art Prize this year.  As in years' past, there's lots to see and do.

Eating popcorn and watching...

this guy play, sing, and even kind of dance at the Gerald R. Ford Museum.

One of our favorites, horses in the river.

The kids and I met up with my friend Jaime and her parents another afternoon and again made it to the Ford Museum to check out another one of our favorites, the penguins.

Of course, Hannah had to be a mermaid.

Jason and I went to some of the more adult-friendly venues on a date night and were particularly fascinated by the musical birds at the UICA.