A Great Way to Enjoy a Beautiful Day!

Do I dare say that perhaps spring is finally here? Maybe I better not say it out loud quite yet, we do live in Michigan! Once again today we went to Frederik Meijer Gardens to enjoy the butterflies, the Children's Garden and the sculptures outside. I think Joshua is getting to the point where is is over the excitement of the butterflies now. He likes seeing them, but is ready to move on to other things instead of take his time in the butterfly exhibit. He really wanted to go outside so we went back to get our coats and ran into Cory's cousin Missy and his cousin Lori and their kids, Eli, Lexi and Tori who were ready to see the butterflies. We went outside and this time I thought it would be fun to take Joshua on the sculpture walk (1/2 mile walk). We had a blast finding different sculptures, running under some and touching some. Joshua's favorite sculpture was a new one they are installing of three people made out of metal letters - Joshua just stood there saying, "I see a Q. I see a B." and on and on. We also played for a bit in the Children's Garden and once again bumped into Missy and Lori so Joshua played with their kids while we ladies chatted. What a beautiful spring day!

Celebrating a friend's birthday at Chuck E Cheese

Today Joshua was invited to celebrate his friend Camden's birthday party at Chuck E Cheese. Joshua has never been to Chuck E Cheese and didn't really know what he was in for. I personally had visions of our worry-wart child crawling up in the tube structure and getting frozen with fear among the maze needing rescuing from a parent who needs to crawl through the nasty balls and tubes - NO THANKS!!! Thankfully things have changed in the many years since we've been to this place and the urine-smelling ball pits don't exist and the tube structure isn't very big or confusing. Joshua did try crawling through the tubes (with less fear than expected and no tears), but wasn't a huge fan. He was a much bigger fan of Chuck E Cheese, both the animated version and the person in costume. He hugged the poor mascot a few times and even danced with him! Joshua had a ball running around in the kiddy wonderland, riding rides, playing games and collecting tickets! Thanks for the invite Cam and Happy Birthday!

Meeting the animated Chuck E Cheese

Dancing with Chuck E Cheese!

Playing a game with daddy.

Joshua climbed to the car in the tube structure!

Driving the Jeep!

What to do. . .

What a crappy time to decide that we should put our house up for sale! Don't we just have impeccable timing? However after meeting with two different realtors we are encouraged that things may not be as bad as we think they are with the housing market. It's definitely a buyers market and we will most likely have to eat some of the costs we've invested in this house, but we will also win on the buying end by getting more for our money. It was nice to hear both realtors walk in our house and say things like, "Wow, this is really nice. Someone could move in tomorrow. It looks like new construction." The realtor last night actually looked at us and said, "Is your house always this clean?" My reply, "Except for the pile of mail from the counter that I quickly threw in the cupboard, yeah!" (Thanks mom and dad for teaching me the fine art of keeping a clean house!) He said it was ready to show. We however know there are a few things we need to do, like paint trim and paint our front porch before we would show it. So, it looks like our house will be on the market soon. Now the question is, do we try to sell it ourselves or use a realtor?

Happy Easter!

For the last two weeks we have been reading the "Jesus stories" (as we call them) leading up and including Easter. Unfortunately the Beginners Bible is a bit too simplistic with many of the stories. So, we have also been reading a Walter Wangerin Book called Peter's First Easter which is told from Peter's perspective and gives lots of details. I also tried using the Resurrection Eggs with Joshua to help him better understand and remember the stories with visual aids (each of the 12 eggs contains a symbol pertaining to a different part of the story - a donkey, a crown of thorns, a stone, nails, etc). He enjoyed the Resurrection eggs, but it's difficult for a 2 1/2 year old to grasp all the information involved in all of the stories. Even though our focus has been teaching Joshua about the real meaning of Easter we did surprise him with some treats in his Easter basket before we went to church. One of the items we gave him was a new children's bible called The Jesus Storybook Bible which is well-written and one which I would highly recommend for a preschool age child! After church we went out for brunch (which was so delicious you could have rolled us out when we had finished eating) with my dad, Phil and Ciejae. Papa surprised Joshua with a Doc Hudson car! Thanks Papa! Finally it was over to Cory's parent's house to celebrate with his family. Joshua was spoiled with more Easter treats from Grandpa and Grandma! Thank you! We are grateful Jesus has risen and given us reason to celebrate today!

Easter Fun

Finally after weeks of phone calls my new contacts were ready to pick up. Since the company I previously went to merged with another company I had to go to their new location which just happens to be in a nearby mall. When we walked in we noticed lots of children and moms walking around and some involved with some Easter activities. Apparently they had a little Easter event going on, how convenient for us! The face painting, coloring, crafting, balloon creations and visits to the Easter Bunny were all free - donations are being accepted for the Children's Hospital. Joshua of course LOVED the Easter bunny and ran right up to him and gave him a hug! Unfortunately this was an unplanned encounter and we were creeping toward lunch time so we skipped the face painting, the coloring and the crafts, but chose to wait in line for a balloon creation. Joshua requested a bunny from the clown and she came up with this crazy bunny hat! Unexpected fun!

Enjoying God's Creation

Per Joshua's request we headed out to Frederik Meijer Garden yet again yesterday morning (I did promise him we would try to go at least once a week while the butterflies are there). Joshua wanted to see the butterflies. Much to our enjoyment the butterflies were out in full force!!! Joshua really wanted a butterfly to land on him; he could often be found putting his hand out near a butterfly, coaxing them to fly onto him. Unfortunately, a butterfly-whisperer he is not. We were able to watch them remove many of the butterflies from the bungalow and release them into the observatory which was neat. Since the weather was so gorgeous we spent quite a bit of time outside exploring. As we were walking around in one of the smaller gardens next to the building Joshua spotted the train trestle that we saw at Christmas time through a window and spent a few minutes longing for the train exhibit. We visited the Children's Garden and Joshua had a blast running coatless around the sculptures. We had a great day enjoy all the beauties of God's creation! Joshua's little legs were very tired by the time we left and as soon as we got home and his head hit the pillow for nap time he was gone! Just click on the link below the picture to see how much fun we had!

http://blip.tv/file/get/Cjhager-EnjoyingGodsCreation465.wmv

Color Mixing

Knowing that Joshua would want to spend his day playing mostly with his new Mack truck (see post below) we didn't plan anything for today. However, late this morning I pulled out an activity I wanted to do with him - color mixing out of Family Fun. I must say that the preparation was a bit much, but the results were quite fun. You make a goopy substance, add food coloring and put 2 colors of goop in Ziploc bags. Then, you squish, squeeze, smash, poke, etc to get colored goop to mix and create a new color. Joshua didn't enjoy all the preparation, but he loved the squeezing and squishing and the oohs and aahs as he discovered the new color he made were priceless! The recipe and directions are below if anyone is interested.

Color Mixing

1 cup cornstarch

1/3 cup sugar

4 cups cold water

Mix all of these in a saucepan over medium heat stirring continuously. Once the mixture thickens into a pudding-like consistency remove it from the heat and stir for one minute. Let the mixture cool for 30 minutes. Then divide mixture into bowls and add food coloring. Scoop into gallon Ziploc bags and seal with duct tape. Squish, squeeze and have fun! These last for up to a week.

SQUISH!

Before color mixing. . .

After color mixing!

Mission Accomplished!

Joshua is potty trained!!! Last night we took Joshua to Toys R Us to pick out his Mack Truck toy which he was very excited about (I've never seen him hurry through a store like I did last night). The toy is actually a piece of junk for $16 which is quite sad, but how do you talk your little guy out of something he wants and has done the hard work to earn ?! I am still in shock that it only took a day for him to get the whole idea, but thrilled nonetheless! Throughout the last week he has done very well with only the two minor accidents on Friday when he was on the way to the potty. His pull-ups that he wears during nap time have even been dry 7 out of the last 9 days! When he went during Moppets on Monday morning while under the care of others I was convinced that he really had this potty thing down. Way to go Joshua!!! We are very proud of your accomplishment and know you are too!!!

Picking out Mack at the store!

Driving Lightning McQueen into Mack.

Trying out the playset inside of Mack's trailer.

Now I've heard it all!

So I put Joshua down for a nap this afternoon and asked him if he wanted his blankets to which he said no. I closed his door and went downstairs to get a few things done and turned on the video monitor. A few minutes pass and I notice on the monitor that Joshua is out of bed, in his drawers getting his blankets and throwing them in his bed. I went in his room and asked, "You told me you didn't need blankets? What are you doing? Why are you out of your bed?" Joshua calmly replies, "Jesus told me to do it." I was stunned by this retort and tried to stifle my laughter! Where in the world did he come up with that line? Little stinker! I think now I've heard it all!

Show Off!

Okay, this is just to funny not to write down and share! Joshua is doing very well with his potty training (only 2 accidents since Tuesday afternoon and both happened in route to the bathroom- still need a bit of work on the timing). Today he wore his new undies all day and kept them dry(even when we were out and about)! He was very proud! So, tonight we ate out with Shawn, Erin and Owen and after we had finished we were all walking out and I was going to take Joshua to the bathroom because he said he had to go potty - so Joshua walks up to Owen and says, "Owen, come watch me pee!" Owen agreed to the deal and even helped with the flushing. Guess Joshua is a bit proud of his new skill!

A Night with the Butterflies!

Since the long-anticipated butterflies have arrived at Frederik Meijer Gardens there was a special member's event that we attended last night along with Shawn, Erin and Owen. Overall the event was filled with lots of kid-fun like crafts, photo ops, tattoos, music and snacks and for each activity they completed they got their butterfly pass stamped. When the butterfly passes were full we handed them in and got some stickers! The biggest surprise of the night was that Joshua loved Flutter (the butterfly mascot) this year and hugged the butterfly multiple times during the evening (last year he was scared)! The big disappointment of the night is that there weren't a ton of butterflies out, nor were the ones that were out were not very active. The Butterfly Bungalow was filled with cocoons and chrysalis' so I'm sure in the coming weeks this will change. We found out that they haven't even received the cocoons for the African Moon Moth, which is their featured butterfly this year - what a bummer. We had a great time regardless! I promised Joshua that we will try to visit the butterflies at least once a week until they are gone since this is favorite thing at the Gardens; so if anyone wants to join us for a morning with the butterflies you are more than welcome!

Can you guess by the picture what we've been up to???

With all the horror stories of potty training that I heard as a teacher and now as a mother I must say I was apprehensive to begin this process. It was fantastic and a bit unbelievable when Joshua trained himself to poop on the potty almost a year ago already. I was praying I'd have the same luck with the pee training since I'm not a fan of sitting kids on the potty constantly throughout the day and forcing them to use it (I call this parent training, not potty training). Since he hasn't trained himself yet I was still taking the laid back approach of waiting until he was 3 to worry about it. I have been offering Joshua the choice of underwear or a diaper for many weeks now. Usually he chooses a diaper, but we have had a few days when he has chosen underwear and has had very little success in keeping them dry. Lately however, we have instituted "naked running" every night before getting jammies on (thanks to Owen's infulence)! The past few nights Joshua has stopped cold in his tracks and has run into the bathroom telling us he has to pee and he does! So, now that I know that Joshua is aware of the feeling of having to go to the bathroom I decided to nudge him into potty training. Yesterday morning I gave him the choice of underwear or nothing. He repeatedly asked for a diaper (stubborn little boy!) to which I replied wasn't a choice, but reminded him that each time he used the potty he could get a Skittle. So he spent a good hour running around with a naked lower half and using the toilet. Then he asked for underwear. He did pretty well with a few minor accidents. I put a pull-up on him for nap time and told him not to worry about peeing during nap time. Five minutes after I put him in bed he called me telling me he had to pee which he did in the potty. He took his nap and as soon as he woke up was yelling that he had to go pee which he again did in the potty. The amazing thing - he kept his pull-up dry during his nap! Since 2 pm yesterday he has been using the potty consistently (except for periods of sleeping) and stayed dry! I told him that if he could keep his underwear/pull-up dry for the next few days he could pick out a new toy. He declared that he was going to stay dry and use the potty so that he could get a Mack truck from the Cars movie. Could it be that this little boy was trained in a day?!?!? Let's hope there a Mack truck is in Joshua's near future and no more diapers in both our futures!

MOPS Monday at the Children's Museum

It was MOPS Monday at the Children's Museum so a few of our MOPS friends were going and we decided to join them. Good idea for a dreary rainy day even though it was a bit busy! Joshua had a great time exploring the Bob the Builder exhibit they have there now - it was more well done than I was expecting it to be. He got a big kick out of "driving" all the different machine/characters they had placed around the museum. As usual I took too many pictures, but captured some fun moments in the process!

Lazy Day

Last night Joshua kept asking if we were going to a store after dinner. We kept telling him no. I told him perhaps we would go to a store tomorrow to which he replied, "No, I stay home." Apparently he has had enough running around for the week and wants to spend some time at home, so that is just what we did today.
Earlier in the week I had seen a post on Bradi's blog with a recipe for homemade caramel corn a.k.a. crack in a bowl (and boy is she right!). I checked the cupboards and actually had all the ingredients on hand so Joshua and I made a delicious batch this morning! Is this stuff ever melt-in-you-mouth good! Totally reminds me of when my dad made caramel corn when we were kids. Joshua and I even called him up to make his mouth water and told him we had some saved just for him! I put the recipe at the end of this post.

We also spent some time this morning making a paper chain for Joshua's room. Why? Well we finally decided on a couple days that will work for us to take Joshua up to Great Wolf Lodge with my dad. It's not for quite some time, however Joshua thinks we are going today. It's tough for a kid to grasp that concept of time, so what better way to help him try to understand than to visualize it with a good old fashioned paper chain. Hopefully this will help stop the "we go to great wolf today?" questions! We'll see!


Homemade Caramel Corn
3 bags popped microwave popcorn (she used lite, I used 94% fat free kettle corn)
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup butter
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp baking soda

Melt butter, brown sugar, corn syrup, and salt in saucepan and bring to boil, stirring occasionally (It should end up having a "creamy" look). Boil for 5 minutes and remove from stove. Add vanilla and b. soda and stir together. Divide popcorn into roasting pans and/or 9x13 pans lined with tin-foil.Pour caramel mixture over popcorn and put in oven at 250 degrees. Bake for 1 hour, stirring about every 15 minutes. Caramel will melt to bottom of pan so you want to stir it up into the popcorn. Remove and cool on waxed paper on counter. Gorge yourself and Enjoy!

Joshua helps make the caramel corn.

Yum!!! The delicious results!

Hopefully this visual will help with Joshua's understanding of the concept of time



Taking the first ring off the chain today!

Can't get enough of those cars!

When we got home from playgroup today we collected the mail from our mailbox and I showed Joshua the Car and Driver and Road and Track that were both in the pile. He was so excited! Instead of wanting to stay outside and shovel he ran to the door telling me he wanted to go in and look at the car magazines. So, I got him inside along with the pile of mail and I went back out to collect our things from the car. When I got back inside the house this is the scene I found - Joshua happily sitting on the couch looking through daddy's car magazines saying, "I like this one! That car is green, it match my truck (a little Hot Wheels truck he has). Mom, you drive this one? You want this one?" He's a car addict at two and a half!

Just a funny quote from yesterday that came out of the blue. . . "Mommy, daddy getting you a Mustang" To which I replied, "Oh, really? He must be rich. Mustangs cost a lot of money" Joshua's response, "It's two dollars!". In that case I guess I'm getting a Hot Wheels mustang, not a real one!

Swimming Lessons

Thanks to his kind and generous Papa, Joshua is once again taking swimming lessons! He was very excited to get in the pool and splash around! It's a different teacher than we had before, but she is good none-the-less. The focus of these lessons really is safety and getting young children used to the water. Today Joshua learned how to hang on to the side of the pool and climb out. We also tried going under water a few times and tried to "swim" to the wall. Thanks to Papa who came to watch and took some pictures for us. Joshua really didn't want to get out of the pool at the end our our lesson, but was happy to hear that we would be going back next week to swim again.

Trying to "swim" to the wall with a push from the instructor.

Joshua learns to climb out of the pool.

Joshua climbs out of the pool all by himself!

Practicing his kicking!

A Winter Visit to the Zoo

We had no plans today. I was debating between taking Joshua to the Children's Museum or taking him to the zoo. Once I woke up and saw the beautiful sun and clear skies I decided we should go to the zoo. The zoo in the winter???? You may be thinking I've lost my mind, but actually it was a great time thanks to the mild winter day we had. The zoo was free and will be through February 29 this year. The zoo was also very empty which meant lots of room to run and not many reminders spoken as far as behavior was concerned because there was no one to walk in front of or bump into. Joshua enjoyed every exhibit to it's fullest as we leisurely walked around. We spent lots of time in the aquarium building and while we were in there one of the zoo keepers told us they were going to feed the penguins. We of course had to linger a little longer to see that! The reptile and monkey building was another huge hit with Joshua. He walked up and down looking at each creature asking "what's that?" or commenting on them. Who would have ever thought we would have such a fun time at the zoo in the middle of winter?!?! The video below captures our fun morning!

Click To Play'

A Dose of Vitamin D!

Finally!!! The sun was shining so beautifully today we just had to go out and enjoy it - getting a natural dose of Vitamin D! Joshua couldn't quite understand why I had him put his sunglasses on, since he probably hasn't had them on since this fall. Not only did Joshua romp around in the snow while I shoveled, but he decided that he should try a little 4-wheeling in the snow with his quad! It was quite the sight to see the little guy all bundled up riding down the sidewalk. Perhaps he is just wishing is were spring like I am. Oh when, oh when will this winter be done? We are ready NOW! Guess we'll just have to make the most of it while we wait for spring.

Quite the Sight!

This is how we rolled around the Home Depot on Saturday! After entering the store we spotted a cart with Pinky (known to others as the pink panther) in it. We immediately knew this was Cory's dad's cart that he pushes around to promote home services for Home Depot, but he was no where to be seen. So, we "stole" Pinky and strolled around the store trying to find him. We definitely got some interesting and funny looks from other customers and some employees! Grandpa had a good chuckle when he saw Pinky and Joshua driving the race car cart! Joshua just kept laughing and saying, "We stole Grandpa's Pinky!!!"

Happy Heart Day!

Happy Heart Day is what Joshua is saying today, since Valentines is a mouthful! We've had fun celebrating in small ways today (we don't do much since I feel that this is a Hallmark holiday). This morning he opened some special cards from Papa and his cousins and then a special gift from us, a Playmobil paddle boat to go with his big boat! He loved his surprises! Then it was off to do a taste test (the second part of a two day test). Unfortunately there were lots of computer problems and major delays so we received $50 instead of the anticipated $40 - BONUS!!!! After the taste test it was off to visit Papa and Uncle Phil at their office, give them treats and go out to lunch with them. Joshua also walked around the office and handed out little treats to all the other employees there. Of course we had to go out in the warehouse and see the forklifts and trucks too! We enjoyed sharing the love today and hope you are too! Ohh and here's something to make you chuckle. . . my husband didn't buy me flowers, candy or a card (that would be out of character) for Valentine's day and that is perfectly fine by me, however here is the kicker, he took my wedding ring to be appraised today (needed to be updated for insurance purposes)! Very thoughful honey!!

More Birthday Celebrations!

Again we headed out to our favorite restaurant to celebrate birthdays at, Red Robin. Perhaps it is our favorite because you get a free burger (you have to sign up for it ahead of time) and a free sundae - oh yes, can you tell we are Dutch?!?! This time we celebrated Erin's birthday and Cory's mom's birthday. With much anticipation all day Owen kept saying, "Josh . . . burger. . . fries!" and Joshua kept talking about seeing the red duck (as he calls the Red Robin mascot that walks around the restaraunt). However, we didn't see the Red Robin this time. Cory asked the waitress who had been with the mascot the last time what the deal was. She told him the mascot is only walking around the restaurant on Wednesdays. Oddly enough the employee who happens to dress up as the mascot was eating with her family in the restaurant (Erin had noticed her walk in behind us when we arrived). The waitress asked her if she would dress up for the boys. This sweet woman actually did it!!! The boys gave the Red Robin lots of hugs and high fives! Of course we also gave the Red Robin a nice tip for being so gracious! It was a fun night!

Joshua steals most of Grandma's birthday sundae!

Erin gets a birthday sundae to celebrate too!