Weeoo Weeoos!

For those of you who don't speak "Joshua" weeoo weeoo means any kind of emergency vehicle (just think of a siren sound). Today we went down to the Children's Museum because they were having a kid's safety day which included having a firetruck and ambulance on hand for the kids to explore. Knowing that Joshua loves these kinds of vehicles we just had to go down and check it out. Before today Joshua has seen a fire truck a couple of times as well as an ambulance once and all those emergency workers were very excited about sharing about their jobs and their vehicles - all of these times were just random run-ins in parking lots. Today the firemen we met weren't exactly excited to be there and didn't really do a lot of interacting with the kids. However, the paramedic let the kids sit in the bed in the back and even put monitor on their fingers so they could see their heartbeat on the screen in the ambulance. Joshua had a great time! I just pray we never have to see either of these vehicles at our house!

Making Playdough

Joshua has really enjoyed playing with his Play Doh lately, almost every day! So yesterday once I was sick of picking up the little tiny pieces falling off the real Play Doh, I got out the play dough we had made months ago when Joshua really wasn't into it. Unfortunately, after months of being stored and hardly ever used it wasn't very nice. We had just been to a Bright Beginnings play group this week where the parent educator gave out a recipe for Kool-Aid play dough. We decided to try to make this new recipe today. Using the Kool-Aid is a great idea because it not only adds the color to the play dough, but a pleasant scent! Joshua had a blast helping make the play dough - notice his cute apron and chef's hat Grandma H. got him! The recipe is pretty good, although I think I prefer my old play dough recipe that I used for preschool. The new recipe seems to be kind of dry. Next time I think I'll use my old recipe and use the Kool-Aid for the coloring. In the case that anyone is interested, here's the recipe for both kinds of play dough below. . .

Kool Aid Play Dough
2 1/2 to 3 cups flour
1 Tbs. alum
1 pkg unsweetened Kool-Aid
3 Tbs. vegetable oil
1/2 cup salt
2 cups of boiling water
1 additional cup of flour

Mix all the ingredients into a large bowl (except the additional cup of flour). When warming up the water, it is strongly suggested that you warm it up in a pan or a tea kettle. Make sure to use a spoon to stir at first because the mixture will be hot. As it starts to cool, use your hands to mix it. Once the mixture starts turning doughy, knead the mixture on a counter top or table, adding some or all of the additional flour until it reaches the desired consistency. Store the dough in a ziploc bag. It will last for several months if stored properly.

Cooked Play Dough
4 cups flour
4 cups water
2 cups salt
2 Tbs. vegetable oil
4 Tbs. cream of tartar
Food coloring if desired

Cook all of these ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat. Be sure to stir the mixture constantly until it is stiff. Let it cool and then knead it. Store the dough in a plastic container or ziploc bag. Because the dough is cooked, it will last a long time.

Back to Life, Back to Reality

And wow did I get thrown right back into reality as this week has been nothing but busy! It's a good busy though, don't get me wrong! Between play groups, Chatterbox group, home visits and MOPS our days have been filled with fun. Yesterday Joshua even got to go and visit an early childhood class at Calvin, my former teaching partner Susan teaches part time at Calvin now, so the students could do some observing while he and a few other kids played. It surprised me, but being the social little guy that he is he warmed right up to Susan and even gave her a hug when we left(I think he has seen her twice in his life and one of those times was in the hospital when he was born). He also enjoyed playing with the other kids. Afraid of social situations this child is not! Susan gave him a special treat for coming, Color Wonder Finger paints! Joshua was so excited about his new paints we had to come right home and try them out. They are pretty cool. I mean what mom wouldn't love their child to be able to paint without all the mess?!?! Of course, it's not a substitute for the real thing, because every kid should get messy with real finger paints! There's a lack of pictures from this week, but not a lack of activity!

Back to Reality

What a wonderful time we had in Orlando, Florida! The MOPS International Convention was a time of being uplifted spiritually and gathering ideas, not to mention the fabulous music we got to hear thanks to Matt Redman, Go Fish and Sara Groves! It was a also a time of bonding with six other women from my MOPS group that have a true heart and passion for this MOPS ministry! Not only did we enjoy convention, but we even spent an afternoon and evening at Epcot center! We returned yesterday afternoon and today it was back to reality as we had our second MOPS meeting of the year, which was full of fun and fellowship.

Packing my bags and heading out on a jet plane!

I'm off for Orlando, FL before the sun rises tomorrow morning! The MOPS International Convention is taking place this Thursday through Saturday. Six of my fellow commerades and friends from my group are going to this convention with me. Should be a great time of growing friendships, learning and growing spiritually. Of course we will be trying to get to some of those famous Orlando attractions during our time there too! I'll have lots to share when I return, but for now I'm off to finish up my packing!

A Beautiful Day for Some Fun at the Gardens!

Seeing the weather forecast for this week I knew we just had to spend a day at Frederik Meijer Gardens! This time I thought it would be fun to invite Cory's cousin Missy and her son Eli along. They moved back up to Grand Rapids a few months ago, so now we are able to get together for play dates! Eli and Joshua are just 3 weeks apart in age and are really good playmates, as well as 2 year olds can be! We went and saw the HUGE horse sculpture, but then spent the rest of our time in the Children's Garden. The boys had a blast running around the gardens and chasing each other. They especially loved this in the maze when they surprised each other as they hid among the hedges! The tree house, the sandbox and the lakes were also big hits with the boys. It was also nice that as Missy and I watched the boys play we could also do some catching up! We even sat at one of the pavilions and had a picnic lunch. What a beautiful day to spend playing with friends! Thanks for joining us Missy and Eli!

A Little Behavior Modification

Lately a certain little someone in our household has really been acting like a terrible two year old, and no, I'm not talking about Cory. Joshua's behavior has been a quite a bit less than favorable. In turn he's been learning some hard life lessons in the past few weeks , specifically that there are consequences, like them or not, for his behavior. This is nothing new to him as I have been using Love and Logic with him since his very first misbehavior. However, with the behaviors we've seen this week we've needed to give Joshua more of a visual to help with his disciplining. So, we started a nifty little behavior chart (a lovely little form of behavior modification). I happened to purchase a great magnetic chart back a few months ago at a Scholastic sale thinking it would be great to have on hand. Sure enough, it has come in handy this week. We did have to make a few of our own magnets though since the chart is geared toward older kids. We began the chart on Wednesday after I'd finally had enough. He is doing better than he was the previous days without the chart and right now getting to put magnets on his chart is reward enough for him. We'll see if this continues. Oh the fun of the terrible twos!

A Morning Filled with FUN!

So the circus has rolled into town. We really wanted to watch the parade of animals walking down the street to the arena, but had no idea they did that last night. We were bummed to have missed it and hope to watch it next year. We decided it wasn't worth the money to take Joshua to the circus this year since it's hard for a 2 year old to sit through anything. However, last night on the news I heard that the elephants would be outside the arena at noon today. So, with nothing else to do today we headed downtown and played at the Children's Museum for a bit while we waited for noon to arrive. The Children's Museum was not busy at all which made for a very pleasant morning of play time. Joshua loved the construction site and the bank exhibits. At noon we headed down the street to see the elephants. As we were nearing the arena we could see the elephants parading over to their spot in the front of the arena. Joshua kept pointing and saying, "el-funt, el-funt!!!" He was soooo excited! We found a spot as close as possible and watched the elephants eat away at their delicious buffet lunch. We even ran into our friends Sheryl and Hannah while we were watching the elephants! It was really neat to watch these amazing animals. At least this way Joshua got a little taste of the circus!

Remembering. . .

This is the photo, featured in a Time magazine shortly released after the 9-11 attacks, that sits on the piano in our home as a daily reminder to be thankful - my older brother David is the man in the background in the green pants. I remember vividly the day of September 11, 2001. I was sitting in my preschool classroom with a new class of preschoolers going through our routine for the day. I was sitting on the ground playing with some students as news of the attacks reached us via a phone call from a preschooler's mother. There was also a message from Cory sitting in our voice mailbox. I was immediately panic stricken as I knew my brother worked in the north tower of the World Trade Centers. I finally reached my parents who told me that yes indeed my brother was in the building at the time of the attacks and they had not heard from him as of yet. My principal told me I needed to leave to be with my family. We gathered in my parent's basement watching the news coverage. Thankfully our waiting period was relatively short, because 2 1/2 hours after the attacks happened by brother was able to get a phone call out to us telling us he had gotten out safely just 10 minutes before the north tower fell (the north tower was the first to be hit, but second to fall). We daily thank God for sparing my brother. Today I am once again able to remember this day with thankfulness, but also with sorrow as so many others were not as lucky as my brother to make it out alive. Pray for these many families today.

Even in the rain there were fireworks!

All day we kept an eye on the weather to see if it we would cooperate. So, with the assurance of the local meteorologists we headed downtown last night to watch the Celebration on the Grand fireworks. We met my dad for dinner first and then found our usual spot to settle in to wait for the fireworks to begin. Papa came prepared with popcorn for us to enjoy, although Joshua thought the popcorn was all for him! It was a beautiful night and the fireworks were only half hour away from launching. Then we felt some sprinkles of rain. The sprinkles didn't last but a few minutes, but the clouds overhead didn't look promising. The fireworks started and only a few minutes into it the rain started to come down. It poured pretty hard for a few minutes as the fireworks went on and then it quit almost as quickly as it had started while the last five minutes of the fireworks went off. Even with the strange weather, it was a fun evening!
Settling in at our favorite fireworks watching spot

Playing chase while waiting for the fireworks to start.

Joshua thought the popcorn was all his!

"Boom, boom, boom" was all Joshua could say as the fireworks went off.

Watching the fireworks under the cover of our umbrellas!

Camping at Brower Park

Over the Labor Day weekend we headed up to Brower Park to camp with Cory's parents and his sister's family (aka The VanWesep Clan). The park isn't exactly what we were looking for, but it worked for the weekend. If you like big boats, drunk campers and lot of noise this park is for you. We personally like a things a bit more on the quiet side, especially in the late night and early morning hours (I didn't appreciate the loud boat that woke me up at 7:45am on Monday morning). We did have a great spot in a quieter corner of the park, right across from the beach and a playground. Joshua spent lots of time playing with his cousins Nicholas, Gabrielle and Allison on the playground, the beach and their camper! Shawn and Erin even came out to visit on Saturday and brought a Seadoo! The only real issue we had was Joshua being a stinker and not taking a nap most days, which in turn made for a tired and cranky boy in the evening hours. A cranky two year old is not my idea of a good time! Overall we enjoyed our second camping trip and created some great memories. Check out all the fun we had in the video below!

Click To Play

The Before and After Pictures of Our Trailer

So, I finally remembered to take pictures of the inside of our trailer. It is a 2000, but the inside looked like it was from the 1980's when we got it. With some white paint, new knobs, new carpet and vinyl flooring and a lot of new fabric in updated colors it looks like a totally new trailer. Even though it was a ton of work, it was absolutely worth it for the end result!

A Camping We Will Go!

We are taking off to enjoy the holiday weekend camping! This will be our second trip out with our little trailer! Thanks to an amazing little white anti-nausea pill a fabulous pediatrician prescribed Joshua yesterday we have our old Joshua back!!! He hasn't thrown up in in over 24 hours and is back to an active little boy! His appetite is slowly coming back too. Hopefully all will go well this weekend and he will continue on the road to recovery so we can all enjoy our time away! I'll have to capture some pictures of the inside of our trailer as I realized the other day I haven't posted any. Enjoy the holiday weekend

I've never done those make and take meal things, but last night a few of my girlfriends from my MOPS group along with Erin and her mom all went to Alicat Kitchens to make some meals. The ladies in my MOPS group were making meals for ourselves, but also making a meal to give to a friend who is going back to work. Even though I hate the kitchen and would rather not be preparing food, Alicat was a very warm and inviting place that made food preparation enjoyable. Things are laid out very clearly and simply which makes your meal preparations easy. The meals are very much homemade with fresh ingredients and homeade sauces which makes them even more delightful. We had such a blast socializing and preparing our meals! We are actually thinking of doing a "girl's night out" every month at Alicat. Who couldn't use a night out with friends and bring meals home to their family?!?!? So for any of you skeptics out there who haven't tried one of these joints I highly recommend Alicat Kitchens.

Checking out the Metro Cruise!

Despite the weird sickness Joshua had on Saturday (he threw up once in the morning, but threw up later that night as we watched the cars cruise by) we headed out and met my dad at one of the huge car gatherings in town for the 28th Street Metro Cruise. It was fun to walk around and see all the old vintage cars. We even found a car very similar to my dad's first car that he paid only $30 for! Unfortunately, we had to call it quits after about an hour and a half since Joshua was getting tired. We did however meet up with Cory's parents, my dad, Shawn, Erin and Owen and Erin's dad and stepmom later that night to watch the cruise and eat some dinner. The highlight of Joshua's evening was seeing the firetruck that pulled in the parking lot we were in. The fireman who was driving stopped the huge truck, gave Owen and Joshua stickers and let them sit inside! Talk about making a little boy's dreams come true! The only downside to the day was Joshua's stomach acted up again toward the end of the night, but thankfully we had the puke bucket handy and he told us he needed it - we just hope it didn't gross any one else out too bad to have to witness it. The Metro Cruise just seems to be getting bigger and bigger every year and it's fun to see!

AARRGGHH!!!!

Excuse the absence from the blogging world, but we've been dealing with a sick little boy. Since when do viruses fly around in August?!?!?! Whatever he has caused him to throw up once on Friday morning, a few times on Saturday and numerous times yesterday. In fact yesterday he couldn't even keep water down for a while. We felt so bad, but there isn't much you can do other than cuddle and hug. Hopefully things are improving since he was able to keep liquid and some food down since yesterday afternoon. There is just so much of a sick, whiny child that I can take and I know he is tired of it all - he kept asking to go "bye bye" yesterday despite feeling so nasty. Poor guy.

UPDATE: He was keeping everything down for 24 hours when all of a sudden this afternoon we had another puking episode. AHHHHH!!!! We've had enough of the nasty bug!

Great Family Movie!

If you know me you know that I am not a fan of little children watching TV. Yes, I am going to step atop my soapbox for a moment. With my background in early childhood and all the research I have read and heard over the last few years I've never found anything that supports or has found the benefits of children under 2 watching TV. Personally, I would rather be playing with Joshua or reading to him than having him watch some junk (which is mostly whats on)on TV. Joshua didn't even have an interest in the TV until a couple months before he turned 2, which was fine with me. Of course even then he would only watch 5 or 10 minutes and this still rings true most of the time, although he has a few rare times once in a while when he will watch for 20 or 30 minutes. However TV watching for Joshua is not even close to a daily activity.
All this being said, I put the movie Charlotte's Web on our list on Netflix movies - I wanted to see it and thought maybe Joshua would enjoy it too. So, today it came in the mail and I told Joshua we could watch it tonight as a special treat. He did his share of walking around during the movie, but actually watched the entire movie. It was such a great movie! Unlike many of the Disney movies out there there was no violence or aggression to avert his eyes from or fast forward through. It was just good ol' clean fun! There is even some adult humor thrown in there for the parents watching. I'm sure by now almost every one with a child has seen this movie, but if you haven't be sure to check it out.

A Fun Day at Zoo!

Thanks to the cultural exchange the Children's Museum membership offers us, Erin, Owen, Joshua and I spent a day at the zoo for free! It was a beautiful, busy day at the zoo. Most of the animals were out and active, which isn't always the case. Our favorite part of the day was feeding the Budgies. It was such a great experience to have these birds flying right by you and eating right off the stick in your hand! After a fun morning we had a picnic lunch and Joshua got to play on the playground, while Owen headed home for a nap. Below are some pictures from our day, just put your mouse over the pictures and they will pause with captions (you may have to click you mouse once to use this feature).

A Beautiful Day at the Beach

Today Joshua and I met a few of my friends from MOPS at Millennium Park for a morning of fun. The kids ran around in the splash pad portion of the park for a few minutes before we headed off to sit on the beach and play in the lake. Joshua of course hated the splash pad the minute a sprinkler got him wet, but was happy to go splash around in the lake. He is still trying to get over the cold he got after we came home from camping last week so he was still a bit clingy. You'll hear no complaints from me as I cuddled him in a towel on the beach! It was so nice, as the kids played in the sand and water we moms had some time to catch up with each other. After a little picnic lunch we headed home so Joshua could take a much needed nap. If you've never been to Millennium Park you should give it a try. The beach is very nice, the water is shallow and warm and the beach house is clean. A nice little get-away in the city!
Ella and Joshua play while Zach and Emma play in the background


Ella and Joshua


Joshua chases a seagull

Dinner with the Jets!

It was such a beautiful night last night that we decided to head to the airport and have a picnic dinner and watch the jets. Joshua was a little to focused on the jets so it was a challenge to get him to eat (more so than normal). We had a great time watching the jets land and take off as well as spending time as a family!