Mommy's Helper!

While I was vacuuming this morning, Elijah said he wanted to help Mommy clean up. So he picked up his whole train track and all his cars, toys, and movies that were strewn around the living room. He even picked up the blankets and pillows that were out of place. All by himself! The only thing I did was vacuum the floor . . . and look at the finished product (the spot on the floor is from the camera flash, not a toy or a stain)!

Eli surveys the clean living room.
Good work, little helper!

Of course, when Mommy asked where all his toys went, Eli replied, "Behind the chair!" Yep, that's where they were!

At least they're all in one place, right?

Mommy appreciates the helping spirit of her little boy though! Next time we'll work on exactly where we should put the toys away. :) When Daddy came home for lunch Eli was so proud to show off the clean living room.

Look at how much space there is in here now, Dad!

And Eli and Daddy put the clean space to good use immediately - with races under the fan (one of Eli's favorite things!). Without the toys in the middle of the floor it's a lot easier to race. Good job cleaning up, Elijah!

Catch me if you can, Daddy!

Spring in West Michigan

Yes it's spring, and yes, we received 3 inches of snow last night. But there's nothing like living in the country on a bright clear morning after a fresh snow, with this view in your backyard . . .

The view out of Eli's window this morning.

My three favorite trees in the backyard.

What a beautiful view out of the living room window!

Peeking through the trees to the pond.
It looks like a private getaway. Gorgeous!

Easter Egg Hunt!

On Saturday night we decided to do an Easter egg hunt for the kids (so it didn't get to crazy and busy on Sunday). Grandma took all the kids for a walk after dinner so the adults could clean up and hide eggs. We hid them all around Jeff and Lori's first floor and had 170+ eggs. Which mean the adults had to get creative in some of their hiding places (underneath a cup on the table, Jon!). We let the little kids come in first and start hunting so they could get the obvious eggs and the older boys had to search a little harder.

Eli understood what he was supposed to do from last year's hunt, but he wanted to open up each egg he found first to see what was inside it before moving on to find another egg. It's find or have someone else find though, so he caught on quickly that he needed to get to the next egg - FAST! He found eggs in the bathroom, under the piano, under the couch, in the kitchen, everywhere. He thought the funniest was when he spotted one in a shoe. He picked it up and said, "Egg in shoe! That's silly, Mommy!"

After making sure that all the kids had equal numbers of eggs (not an easy feat, let me tell you), Eli got down to the business of checking out what was inside of his eggs. He needed to empty EVERY ONE on to the floor (with a few samples of candy along the way), so we let him have fun with his candy for a bit. Then he had to pick 3 candies to eat and we put all the rest back in the eggs. Fortunately he thought it was pretty fun putting the candy back in the eggs too, so he didn't whine or complain at all.

I think this picture sums up what Eli thought of the Easter egg hunt! He LOVED it!

Here's a slideshow of the egg finding fun (I couldn't choose just a few pictures, sorry!).

Easter Egg Dyeing!

On Saturday afternoon the kids were all set to dye Easter eggs (after having them postponed from the evening before because of the snow storm and people getting in later). Elijah wasn't quite sure what he was supposed to do at first, but once Jon got him going (and he saw the other kids), Elijah got really in to it.

Taking out my first egg. Hmm.

This is getting more fun. I'll plop this one in here.

I did it! I'm so proud of myself!

Did you just see what I did? That was great!

So this funny water turns them colors? Cool!

Eli wasn't so good at the waiting for the egg to be dyed part - so one of his eggs he kept moving from one color to the next after about 5 seconds in each one. Turns out that that egg is one of his coolest, with swirls of different colors (though an overall brownish tinge). He forgot about one of his eggs in the red dye though - and as a result got a vibrant red egg which everyone loved! Uncle Scott figured out how to "shrink wrap" the eggs in these little egg sleeves, so we made Eli try that with one of his eggs. He really wasn't sure about that at all, but now he loves that egg and calls it, "my egg Uncle Scott baked!"

Mom said to take this to Uncle Scott . . .

Eli wanted to keep dyeing and re-dyeing his eggs, but eventually it was time to call it quits. He was most upset about that and carried on for quite a while about his eggs being put up on the counter. That led to an early nap for Elijah (which was needed since he had stayed up past 11 the night before!). Eli had so much fun dyeing eggs he didn't want to stop! I think he's all ready to do it again next year!

I never want to stop! Let's keep going!

Eli poses with his masterpieces!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to everyone (a few days later, but you know how it goes!). I took this picture at the mall play area a few weeks ago of Eli on the bunny (and Elijah is really shouting Happy Easter at the top of his lungs, much to the amusement of the other moms!).

Happy Easter!

We had a great Easter weekend with my brother Scott being in town with his family. They stayed with my brother Jeff at his new house and the kids and adults had a great time! The only bummer was the freak snow storm that arrived on Friday - as Scott and Jill were driving in and Jon was driving back from his business trip in Chicago. That complicated the drives a bit, but everyone still made it there safely.

We had a fun weekend together playing games, dyeing Easter eggs, having an egg hunt, and of course all going to church together on Easter morning (pictures and posts to follow of course). :) Before you knew it it was time for Scott and Jill to head home though - the weekend was too short. On Easter Sunday in the evening Jon and I had tickets for a play (which I bought a month ago, never thinking that March 23rd was Easter Sunday!). We saw Twelve Angry Men, and it was great. Our tickets were in the third row which made the play even better (those seats close up really do have a better view, go figure). :) It was a relaxing way to cap off a family weekend, and nice to be with Jon as just a couple after having him gone all week. An unconventional way to finish Easter Sunday though!

I do have to share that when we got home from Jeff and Lori's on Sunday afternoon, Elijah was playing at the table and singing, "hallelujah!" over and over to his cars. At church the choir sang the Hallelujah Chorus and I guess that made an impression on him! In all the hustle and fun of the weekend together, it's easy to lose focus on what the day truly is about - celebrating Jesus and his resurrection. I'm glad Elijah heard the choir, soaked in what they were singing, and helped me remember to focus on Christ. Happy Easter everyone!

Outside! Finally!

It was just beautiful on Friday afternoon, so Eli and I headed to the park that is near Jon’s office, and he met us there after work.

I'm outside! I've been waiting for this for a while!

Eli had fun running as usual, but also surprised us with going down all the slides at the park, even the very big twisty slide that is completely enclosed. Last year at the same park Eli didn’t really go on the slides until the end of the summer and then only one of the slides and only if Mommy was at the bottom. And Eli went right to the fire pole this time, which he rarely wanted to do last year, and could barely wait for Daddy to get there before he jumped off. Guess Eli’s become more adventuresome over the winter!

Trying the little slide out first . . .

Time for the MEGA SLIDE!
(And the mega drop too! Eli caught himself, thank goodness,
since Mommy was busy taking a picture.) :)

Catch me, Daddy!

Eli found the caterpillar to climb at the park as well and climbed right to the top, and then yelled, “Daddy help!” to get down.

I'm climbing the bug!

I'm at the top. Now what?

The Eli spotted the swings and did that for a while – but I think that his days of the smaller swings are almost over. He is so big in them now and it’s hard to get him in and out! Eli wanted us to push him for a bit and make sounds but then said, “Mommy be quiet now. Just swing!” He wanted some peace and quiet to enjoy his time outside, thank you very much! What fun it was to be outside again after winter! I’m ready for spring to arrive in full force!

Here I go! My first swings in months!

A swing, a park, a beautiful day.
What more could a boy ask for?

I'm getting underdogs and losing my tummy! Yay!

Sorry for all the pictures, but we just had too many cute ones to not post them. And here's one more that Jon thinks is pretty nice . . .

Mommy had a good time at the park with her boys too!

Our little Bible scholar

Elijah and I were listening to one of our music cds while driving to the mall last week, and a song with the chorus, "Sing hosanna, sing hosanna, sing hosanna to the king of kings," came on (referring to Jesus' entry into Jerusalem, which coincidentally was our lesson this week in BSF from Matthew 21). Elijah shouted from the back seat, "Just like in my Bible!" I thought for a second and remembered this page from his toddler Bible:


Eli was right and remembered the story and the word "hosanna" that was in his Bible!

Later that same day as we were reading Eli's Bible and the story of the Last Supper, the Bible mentioned Peter getting the food ready. Eli said, "Peter with Jesus in the boat! Story at BSF!" Three weeks before at BSF the Bible story the kids heard was about Peter and Jesus in the boat and Jesus and Peter walking on water. I was shocked that Eli remembered that story so many weeks later! Especially since that story isn't in his little illustrated toddler Bible. And he even remembered and recognized Peter's name! Eli's turning in to my little Bible scholar!

Art, art, everywhere!

Lately Elijah has been getting more in to arts and crafts. We hadn’t been doing as much because every time we would color or play Play-doh, etc., Eli would play for about a minute or two and then be done. It’s a lot of work to get out stuff for two minutes of fun, so I’ve been reluctant to do much. At BSF during my Monday morning leader’s meetings, Eli and other leaders’ children are watched by volunteers, and one of the times of the morning that they have is art time. Since the beginning of the year, I’ve noticed that the things Eli has been bringing home have been getting more advanced and he’s been participating more (things are actually almost completely colored instead of just a few scribbles). Talking with my cousin Stacy, who has a very artistic older son, Tyler, and a very active not-going-to-slow-down-to-color-two year old, Joshua, she suggested that I try having Eli glue things, since Joshua enjoys that. So Eli and I went out to Michael’s two weeks ago to stock up our art tub with things to glue and stick and all those good things. And when Lexi and Tori were over we gave it all a try. We did drawing dough, recipe courtesy of Catherine and Family Fun magazine, which was a minor hit with the kids, and then we glued and made pictures. And we discovered that Elijah absolutely loves gluing things!!

Trying out the drawing dough!

Tori was a big fan of the dough.

Sweet Lexi poses with her creations
(she's the only one who would!)
Let the gluing begin!

Elijah really likes to glue pasta shapes.

The finished creations!

The next day we painted (the girls love that) and glued too. Since then Eli keeps asking to glue things, so we get out our art supplies every few days now. I don’t know if Eli will ever be super in to art, but who knows? He is definitely more interested now and was just asking yesterday for “nother glue project, Mommy!”

Eli painted for a minute then asked for the glue!

Gluing "pom poms" is another favorite of Eli's!
(and hearing Eli say pom poms is a favorite of Mommy)

Chilly Winter Fun at the Zoo!

Following my cousin Catherine’s example, I took Elijah, Lexi and Tori to the zoo at the end of February (it was free!). The very last day of February was pretty warm (in the 30s at least), so we got bundled up in snow clothes and spent the afternoon at the zoo. The kids thought some parts were neat (the tiger!) and were pretty unimpressed with other things.

I thought we were in real trouble when we got to the first real animals of the day – the penguins, a kid favorite, right? – only to have all three kids look at the penguins for literally LESS THAN 5 SECONDS, and then say, “Let’s go somewhere else.” Uh oh. The penguins, I thought, were good for a few minutes at least!

Lexi and Tori's first words about this animal: It's a mini-camel!
Second words: Yuck, that animal just pooped Aunt Missy!

We got the same act for basically all the animals except the tiger and the monkeys (which were inside and scored some points with Lexi just for the fact that she could be warm and watch them).

Roar! The tiger was a favorite -
we looked at him for a good 10 minutes.Or did he look at us? Hmm.

That monkey is eating snow!

We were having having snack and hot chocolate within an hour, and I thought it was going to end up to be a pretty quick trip to the zoo after spending such little time actually looking at animals! I was pretty glad the zoo was free at that point. :)

Nummy! Hot chocolate, animals crackers, and cheese sticks!

But after our snack we found another path that lead to the petting zoo (not open, but we could see the animals) and the cutest little wooden house to play in. The kids LOVED that and we had a blast playing mailmen (we all took turns delivering our “snow letters” to the mailbox on the side of the house). Of course, just as we got to the house my camera battery died, so I only have one picture. And after that the kids kept asking me to take their picture too – they stuck their heads out the window and said cheese, they all sat on the benches in front and smiled nicely – and I only could pretend to take their picture! Guess we’ll have to go back when I’ve got a fully charged camera.

As we were walking around after snack time, Elijah wanted to carry his bag of animal crackers. No problem, except he kept dropping them. Mommy didn’t go back and get them for Elijah (he was supposed to take care of them, not me), so he would start crying when he noticed that he was missing them about a minute later. He’d have to go back and get them and start the cycle all over again. One time though Eli dropped them on the path and a zoo employee driving a cart came past. And, you guessed it, when we went back to get them they were “crunched” (as Tori said). Eli was a little upset about that, but I thought it was a pretty good lesson on taking care of your things (what a sadistic Mommy, I know). :) We had a few more animal crackers in another bag so Eli was able to have those – and not drop them at all this time.

After another hour or so of playing it really was time to go home – we were all pretty cold by that time and the wind had kicked up. Brrr. Lexi got right in the car, but Eli and Tori kept climbing on the GIANT snowbank that we had parked next too. Again, wish I had my camera, but oh well. We ended up having a fun afternoon at the zoo after all!

Pretending to be penguins in front of the penguin house!
What a fun time at the zoo!

Elijah Quotes of the Week

Our silly bean continues to crack us up with the things he says. Here are the thoughts he's been having in the last week . . .

• Elijah asked me where his Lightning McQueen car was and I said I didn't know. Then I asked him where he had seen it last. Eli just looked up at me, shrugged, and said, "I don't have a clue." That phrase (appropriately used, I might add) coming out of a two year old mouth is quite hilarious. And the inflection he used told me immediately where he had heard that phrase - from Grandma Koorndyk! He sounded just like her when he said it!

• Eli and I were playing last week and he stopped, looked at me, then scooted over and hugged me and said, "Mommy, you're my best buddy." There's one to melt your heart. Guess all my hours invested in trains and cars are paying off. :)

• We were at BSF last Wednesday and as we were leaving Eli pointed to the sanctuary part of the church and asked what was in there. He's never in that part of the church (his classroom is in a different area) and I figured it wouldn't do any harm to show him, so we headed in. Eli stopped, looked around, and said, "Wow, there's lots of cool things in here!" We poked around for a bit and then as we were leaving Eli said that he, "want go church Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday!" I questioned whether he wanted to go to church all those times, but he said, "Yes!" We'll see if he's singing a different tune when he's a teenager!
  

• Jon, Eli, and I were in the office, and Jon was looking for a picture of Eli as a baby to show him (we had just been talking about how Eli used to be a baby and now was a big boy). We weren't on our computer (which is in our room) so Jon headed to our blog to see if a picture was still there. As he typed in the address he was talking to himself and saying "jon and missy dot blogspot dot com, " when Eli piped in and said, "No, go mommy daddy dot com!" We didn't even know what to say we were laughing so hard. Our son the internet expert!
  

Bowling!

Almost two weeks ago Friday we went on a special outing with Aunt Lori, the girls and Noah, who had the day off from school for Winter break (You’d think they’d already had “winter break” with the 7 snow days they’ve had so far this year, but I guess not!). Lori had kept the destination secret from her kids, but Elijah kept bugging me about where we were going, so I told him we were going bowling with Lexi and Tori and Noah. Eli immediately asked, “Like on tv?” Yes, like we do on the tv – but for real this time! My child’s first experience with bowling came, not from a real bowling alley, but from the Wii bowling . . . what a sign of the times.

When we met Lori at the alley the kids had figured out where they were and were super-excited. We walked in and Eli looked around and said, “Bowling!” and started jumping up and down. We had to wait forever for a lane and then couldn’t find appropriate weight balls, but we persevered and eventually the crowds of children left and we were all set to go.

Elijah used the ramp the first time, but once he saw Noah and Tori throwing the ball he didn’t want to use the ramp anymore at all.

Hmm, they don't bowl with a ramp on the Wii, Mom.

So then Eli tried throwing like a baseball (quickly stopped by Mom) and then rolling the ball. That worked okay, but the ball was very slow. And then one time the ball just stopped about ¾ of the way down the lane. We called for help and a man retrieved the ball for us – and then Mommy said that we had to use the ramp.

I hit bowling pins! Yay!

This is taking a while. Time for a thumb break.

At least this one is still going!

Elijah was done with bowling for the most part by then and was more interested in the touch screens that you entered player’s names in. We got “yelled” at for touching them though, so then Elijah had a bit of a tantrum. Oh well, buddy!

Noah was actually quite good at bowling and picked up a few spares and even got a strike! And that was with not having a ball that really fit his fingers correctly. I think he could be one good little bowler!

What form!

I think Tori was so cute with the way that she threw the ball – she did not want to use the ramp and instead would just side throw the ball down the alley and then strike all these funny little poses as she waited to see if she hit anything. It was hilarious!

Tori chucks her ball down the lane pretty well.

Tori strikes a pose.

Lexi used the ramp for the most part, and seemed content to wait her turn playing with the pink and purple balls and talking to Lori and I. I got the cutest picture of her perched on the edge of the ball return with her legs crossed – sooo Lexi right there!

How adorable!

At the end of the game Noah ended up with a 105, and Eli, Lexi, and Tori all tied with 72. Yes, you read that right – they all tied! Of course, if you look at the score card you’ll see that Eli got a spare or two and a strike, so I think it’s pretty clear he had a little help from Mom and Aunt Lori. Still, it was nice that that we didn’t even have to lie to them to tell them they tied.:)


After bowling we had lunch together and then headed home. The kids keep talking about going bowling again, so I hope we all go together again soon. Almost every time we go to get in the car and see Lexi and Tori, Elijah is convinced that we’re going bowling and gets all excited. Even though he only bowled a little over half his balls himself he seemed to have a great time!