April 10 with Cal

Wednesday: It was just CAL for a few hours over at the Beach House today, and he was quite pleased to have all the toys to himself! We played with our treehouse for quite a long time today. We took some of our toy animals from other areas of the house and introduced them to our treehouse animals. Cal was quite serious about the entire process.

Cal makes super cool animal sound effects too ...

We played for a long time in the spare room too. This is where most of our cars are parked. Cal was very much into CRASHING all of the cars today ...

He decided to make this Hotwheels vehicle (below) into a dinosaur monster truck today and claimed it wasn't quite stronger than he was because -- see? It's not as TALL as him.

We also did our share of bird watching out my side window while we played with the cars and our toy playground. At one point, Cal was putting our trucks down the playground slide to see what would happen ...

Here is our little man, all finished from his bowl of chocolate ice cream, just before I wiped his face clean.

Cal really likes chocolate ice cream!

We played at my house until about 3:30 and then drove on over to Cal's place. He fell asleep almost immediately after leaving my house. This picture (below) is a very sleepy little Cal after I woke him up and carried him into the house from my car. He can barely hold his head up ...

Here is VERY talkative and EXTREMELY informative Erin, telling me about her day at school. She has OPINIONS and she KNOWS stuff! 

We played in their basement for awhile, mostly watching Aidan play a video game ...

It sure was nice to be with these guys today. We met Dylan and Kelly over at Holy Trinity at 6pm. It's getting easier to transport all four kiddos--it used to be quite stressful with the three little ones all scrunched in the back seat together--but I moved the trash bag from the floor of the back seat and made more room for Aidan legs that way; PLUS, we have a very serious talk before I begin driving--about not screaming at each other while I am driving, etc. They are much better at hearing what I am saying this year than they were last year--so that is very encouraging!

April 8 Bloomin' Butterflies

Monday:  Every year during the months of February, March, and April, "Butterflies are Bloomin" comes to Meijer Gardens. I've gone every single year for many years now. You can never have enough pictures of these beautiful creatures, right? Here are a few of my favorites from today:

 

April 7 Kaity's Adventures

Sunday:  I haven't seen Kaity in more than a week ... because she has been off on an adventure in Florida! A mini-vacation with her dad! She will meet up with her besties, Kenzie and Harper, over at their grandpa's place. Here are two pictures I "stole" from Facebook:

Kaity has never flown before--so this is extra special--PLUS, to go with her dad is very cool too. Look at her happy face, snuggling with Jesse on the plane

And she even got to swim with the dolphins! They are on their way home now, and I can't wait to hear all of her stories when I see her Thursday. 

April 3 Such JOY

Wednesday:  It's Spring break ... SO ... Cal had to do a bit of sharing today over at my house. He was not thrilled about it, but it all worked out!

One of my favorite things in the entire world is watching these kiddos do art. Erin, who early on showed almost no interest in this aspect of life, has really taken off running! She attributes this to her summer art classes (yes!!!). She is a very enthused little sketcher presently ... and look! Doesn't she do a nice job?

You can see Aidan doing an "art evaluation" of her sketch in his artistic brain. He approved of her drawing very much!

I dug up a bunch of LEGO magazines for Brendan to breeze through this morning. He loves LEGOs and was glad to sit and look through them.

Little Cal was LESS than happy to have three siblings vying for grandma's attention ... he is really used to the 1-on-1's we enjoy most Wednesdays. Look at his dear little face ...

Here is Aidan drawing SONIC ... from memory. He is a remarkable artist with an intensity (to actually everything he does!).

Oh my word, Erin. I love this so much. Erin told me this is "Eevie", her favorite Pokemon character.

Little Cal in the playroom with his much-loved cars. The two of us usually spend the majority of our time playing cars on Wednesdays.

This is Erin with "Chirpy", our little stuffed bird. If you squeeze its back in just the right spot, it chirps and sounds like a real bird. Erin is very good at making Chirpy CHIRP.

All of the older kids had fun playing with the Spirograph set. They were able to take turns and have a lot of fun with it. I'm so glad I spent the $19 on it!

Cal was way way less than enthused about Aidan playing with HIS gas station ... I had to intervene and coax Cal into it.

Brendan did a little bit of reading in the top bunk too ... I tried to get him interested in "Dear Mr. Henshaw" but a different book caught his eye instead. Our stuffed red panda (female) sat up there with him. Her name is Massabi. 

And look at wee Cal's haircut! Dylan said he was very pleased about it the day it happened. This little one kills me. 

Here is Brendan looking at the book: "Mr. Popper's Penguins".

Erin wanted me to help her do these four little puzzles. I encouraged her to try it all by herself (since she is now a big girl). She did a really good job and managed to complete all four of them with very minimal assistance.

Since Cal was feeling slightly neglected (after about 3 hours of playing), I agreed to put on a video for the kids. We somewhat watched "Homeward Bound" as we continued playing too. I knew Brendan would like the story because he loves animals. It IS a nice movie to watch! Cal really liked it too.

Here is Erin showing me that she put all four puzzles together!

Aidan has quite an "engineering" mind ... i.e. he is a builder as well as an artist. He is very good at constructing whatever he dreams up in his head. I like watching him build.

Erin finally dragged me into my room to look at "all my jewels". Here she is modeling about 9 bracelets. Isn't she something else?

Erin really liked this birthstone ring of mine. 

After we all ate lunch (and topped it off with chocolate chip cookies and ice cream for dessert),we drove over to their house for the rest of the afternoon. I brought along a bunch of paper airplane stuff. Here is Aidan building a difficult model (having NO difficulty whatsoever in accomplishing it) in less than 5 minutes. I find the instructions in this particular model airplane book to be confusing; but not so to Aidan. I told him before he folded this one that it didn't fly well, which proved to be true. Aidan was okay with it not flying very good. He said he just enjoys making them. We did make several different models, though, that were excellent in flight!

Aidan wasn't bothered about having an audience as he worked ...

Later, we went downstairs and "the littles" beat me up on their huge bean bag chair. Look at their dear faces. These two were super cuddly yesterday. It's been hours since I've seen them and I still feel warm down to my toes from their love. 

Kelly had a tooth infection worked on yesterday, so she was physically miserable. Dylan had a conference until late in the evening. So I stayed and played an extra hour or so. Being a grandma is pretty special. And these kiddos are just what I need.

April 3 Happy News

Tuesday:  I was over at Jesse’s Easter Sunday afternoon to watch a movie he wanted me to see: “Something the Lord Made”. While I was there, Jesse received a call from Larry, requesting him to fly down to FL so that he could drive him back to Michigan (it’s a long story as to why this is necessary). But while they were talking, Larry suggested that Jesse bring Kaity along too—because Kaity’s two good friends are Larry’s granddaughters (who are in Florida with him right now!), and they could enjoy a little mini-vacation together for a few days before they have to go back to school from spring break.

There were a lot of details Jesse would have to work through (with short notice and in quick order) to accomplish this, and he wasn’t really sure he could orchestrate this and have it work out. I immediately WANTED it to happen SO BADLY! Kaity has often said how she wishes SHE could experience flying on an airplane; and I have often told her that “some day it will happen, Kaity!”  I contacted Jesse Tuesday morning to see if anything worked out and … EVERYTHING worked out for Kaity to go! And get this—she will even get to go swimming with dolphins while she is in Florida! Here is a picture of Kaity and her dad waiting for take off. 

I love this picture so much ... I could just burst with happiness! I can't wait to hear all about your trip, dearest Kaity! Proud of you, Jesse, for all you did to make this happen.