Outside

With summer on the horizon, we've been getting in a lot of time outside.

Hannah planted seeds in our garden.  We should start seeing zinnias pop through any day.

The kids have also been making good use of the pool Hannah got for her birthday, although Jack isn't too fond of the spraying dolphin.

I think this will be a common scene this summer.

Kite Festival

The Grand Haven Kite Festival has become a tradition for our family. We've been in the cold and rain as well as the hot sun. In fact, it seems hard to believe that only 2 years ago we went on a very hot day, and I walked and walked hoping to get labor started with no such luck!

This year the weather was perfect! Bright blue skies, high temps (in the 90's!) with a nice, cool lake breeze. It couldn't have been a nicer day! We headed out with Jason's parents right after church, ate lunch at Snug Harbor, and then made our way to the beach to check out the kites.

Of course, with the hot temps and the water right there, the kids couldn't resist getting wet.

Very patriotic, aren't we?  :-)

Beach beauty

The sand man

The kite synchronization always amazes me.

We had one very tired guy by the time we started heading back.

Of course, had to end the day at the Double Dip, our fav ice cream spot!

Birthday Party

Since Jack's birthday fell over Memorial Day weekend, we decided to do a couple of smaller parties with family instead of one big party at our house.  Jason's parents came over the weekend before to celebrate both Jack's birthday as well as Jason's mom's. 

Jack was totally ready to dig into the big cake.  He did manage to swipe a few licks of frosting.

Not sure who opened more of Jack's presents, but he was a happy boy nonetheless.

Jack's favorite present was his new bubble mower.  Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Davis!

2 Years Old!

Over Memorial Day weekend, Jack turned 2!  Here's what our big guy is up to:

*He likes to try to get himself dressed.  He gets very impatient with us if we try to help.  Many times he tells us "go" when he wants to do it himself.  He is very good at putting his sandals on all by himself.

*He can be very stubborn and has some whopper 2-year old tantrums when he doesn't get his way.  We've learned to leave him alone until it passes.

*He is talking so much more!  Seems like overnight he has picked up a ton of words.  He tries to repeat new words after us and before we know it he's saying it regularly. 

*He started to throw a fit when we put him in his high chair, so he's now officially eating at the table with us in a booster seat.

*He seems to have hit a growth spurt and has shot from 18 month to 24/2t clothes overnight!  His feet have also grown to a size 6.

*He loves farm animals.  He points them out to us when we're in the car by making their noises.

*He loves trucks and tractors.  He's quick to point them out whenever he sees them.

*He still takes an afternoon nap, but I'm cutting them short as he's been staying up till 9:30 or 10:00 sometimes when he sleeps much more than an hour and a half.

*He moved to his first big boy bed.  The first night was a bit trying as he made a game of getting out of bed.  However, after closing the door completely (Hannah usually likes it open a crack), he climbed back into bed and fell asleep!  So far he's been sleeping well on it for his nap as well.

Friday nights

For the past couple of Friday nights, we have taken off after dinner for a boat ride around Reed's Lake.

 Afterward, we made a stop at the Double Dip Depot for the kids' favorite rainbow (Superman) ice cream.

I think when we're home, we have a new Friday night tradition!

Mother's Day 2012

We enjoyed a beautiful, relaxing Mother's Day this year.

The day started out with Hannah singing with the Sunday school kids as they led praise singing for church.  A few weeks ahead of time they gave the kids a CD with the songs to practice at home.  Hannah would play it daily and sing along at the top of her lungs.  However, when she got up front she froze.  When I asked her why she didn't sing afterward she told me that she got kind of shy.  Oh my little girl.

After church we had lunch and spent the afternoon in Saugatuck.  It was an absolutely perfect day to walk around and do a little shopping.  We even made a special stop at Cookies on Call in Douglas for some Mother's Day treats.  So good!!

We couldn't let the nice day go by without treating ourselves to some ice cream, too.  Hannah's rainbow ice cream to match her rainbow dress.

Big boy eating (and mostly getting it into his mouth) all by himself.

To end the day, Jason grilled out dinner and then gave the kids a bath, which perfectly wrapped up my relaxing day.

Park

I was going to take the kids to the zoo last week, but when we got there Hannah decided she'd rather go to the park.  Since the park near the zoo is geared toward kids bigger than Jack, we made a detour to nearby to Millennium Park that has play areas for little and bigger kids.

Hannah had as much fun as Jack on the little kids playground.

I have to make a side note about the dress in this picture.  This is her "birthday" dress and she wears it every.single.day.  No joke.  It's also not uncommon for her to strip down at the end of the day only to discover multiple layers of clothes on underneath like her leotard, shorts, and a t-shirt.  No wonder I have a mountain of laundry!

Big sister "helping" brother down the slide.

Jack conquers the playground.

23 months

April was a crazy month around our house.  I think we were gone more than we were home.  Between traveling to visit family, painting, an unexpected hospital visit, new carpet installation, a garage sale, and work the month totally flew by.  Now that we're into May we are finally catching our breath with a mostly open calendar.  All while this was happening, Jack somehow turned 23 months old.  Our little guy just keeps on growing!  Here's what he's up to: 

*He's started singing the Alphabet Song except none of the letters are distinguishable.  He's definitely got the tune down, though.

*He is very musical.  He loves to play both on his toy and our real piano, sing into his microphones, and bounce and dance to music on the radio.

*He has no problem telling us when he's hungry.  It's pretty common for him to tell us "nack" and pull us over to his chair to get something to eat.

*He did have his first overnight hospital visit this month :-(  Hopefully that's something that we won't have to repeat.

*He identifies Jesus in his Bible and those are some of his favorite stories.

*He continues to be our kid who doesn't need much sleep.  Although we get both kids to bed between 7:30-8:00, he typically doesn't fall asleep until awhile after.  He's usually the first one of the two up as well, waking around 7:30 or 8.  However, he does still require an afternoon nap.  If he misses his nap, we have a monster on our hands by dinner time.

*He has started calling "Mom" when he wants something.  Not sure where this came from, but I want "mama" back!

*He is very into choo choo's.

*He loves to draw and color.  Today in church he sat between Jason and I and very intently scribbled the pictures in the children's bulletin.  Sometimes I think he has more patience for this than Hannah!

*He loves to wear hats.  It's very common to see him wearing a hat any time of the day.  No preference to whose hat - Hannah's, Jason's or his own.  Makes it easy for keeping his head protected from the sun!