swimming lessons 2013...

I was worried that we would not be able to fit swimming lessons in this summer with everything going on, but the swim program that we take lessons with is fortunately very easy going and let us come the end of one week and the first part of the next week so we could fit them in.  We also like our swim program because the kids are put in a # level based on their ability (usually 2-3 to a teacher), and as soon as they pass the requirements for that level, they move on to the next.  You can pass 3 levels in one lesson, or stay in one level for 2 weeks (like Grace last year! =).  This year we had Grace, Willem and Carsten take lessons.  Willem had taken one week last year in level 1, but this would be Carsten's first time.  They were SOOOOO excited and Carsten really talked big talk about how good a swimmer he was going to be, but when he actually got in the water with a teacher, this is what happened:

He was scared, clinging to the side or the teacher, crying, it was almost more than this momma could handle!  But after his lesson he was all happy and big talk about how he loved swimming lessons again so we went again the next and the next.  Still same thing every day.  Until the last 2 days.  Then the teacher told him that they were going to do a dunk just once and showed him exactly how to blow out underwater and really talked it up.  I was shaking my head thinking it would NOT work.  But...

He did it!!!

Look how proud and happy he was!!!

And he did it again and again and again and soon did all the requirements for level 1 so that on the last day he passed into level 2 (they get to bang a gong when they pass a level and all the parents and kids clap...awesome).

 Now this boy?

Went from not knowing how to swim at the beginning of the week to floating on his front and his back and kicking and basically swimming.  That is a HUGE accomplishment for them and an awesome realization that they can swim.  He grinned all week.  And passed to level 3 on the last day.

Grace was proud to pass to level 5 on the first day (after being in level 4 ALL 2 weeks last summer) and be on the big kid side of the pool.  She worked hard all week and passed to level 6 on the last day!

 And Henry loved watching all the action every day.  Seriously he never got bored of it! 

Since it was such a great last day with all of them passing levels, we stopped and got Panera smoothies (their favorites! we always split them though to save $$) to celebrate.  So glad for another year of swimming lessons...

every girl needs a pretty dress...

Grace's second grade teacher last year, Ms. Walstra, is a wonderful soul with a heart for children everywhere - her classes in MN, and also those in a orphanage in Liberia.  She taught at this orphanage for a couple years, and now goes back every summer with groups to check up on all the kids, give them a lot of love, and also do some training for the teachers.  We had a ladies' night last year where she came to talk about her trips to Liberia and the work that God is doing there.  It was an inspiring night.  And of course we asked about how we could help.  She takes a lot of things over each summer for the kids, and takes donations to help buy soccer balls and supplies for that, but she also wanted to take some things over to help her kids do a service project.  She has been working on teaching them to have a servant's heart, not just to accept hand outs.  So a group of them were going to travel to another village and orphanage and run a VBS program for them and bring them something.  That night Ms. Walstra held up an adorable "pillowcase dress" and said she was hoping to get enough of these type of dresses to take over to give to the girls in this other village.  So she asked if we knew how to sew or anyone else she would love to have these made and donated.

I thought that was a great idea, but it was getting towards the end of the year and I didn't want to bother as we were pretty busy.  I know how to sew (thank you Mom and Grandma!!!!), but don't have enough time to really enjoy it yet - it is a means to a project end for me right now.  So I bought some beautiful bracelets that she was selling as a fundraiser, donated money for a soccer ball, promised to lift her up in prayer, and went home filled with inspiration from her.

Later that week, I found a cute dress at a thrift store for Grace and picked it up.  I washed it and went to hang it in her closet and realized I didn't have any more hangers - she had a closet full of dresses already!  That is when I was struck with some conviction...my daughter did not need any more dresses, but there were some girls out there who did.

So I found a simple pattern online, bought supplies, and dug in.  Grace helped me with a lot of steps that she could, and was a prayer warrior for Ms. Walstra and the kids in Liberia.  It took a lot of prayer...to get me through, and also for the girls that they would go to.  I wanted to make as many as I could, so I did them assembly line style and this actually worked very well.

 

 

 

I finished just in time for Grace to bring them to Ms. Walstra on her last day of school, along with a card Grace made saying how Ms. Walstra was the BEST TEACHER EVER and how much she was going to miss her over the summer.  Total second grade girl cuteness.

Ms. Walstra later posted on her blog how they were hoping to get 50 dresses to take with, and they were blessed with that and more!  Please read her post as she talks so much more eloquently about her work in Liberia!

I was hesitant on this project, then convicted, and then overwhelmingly blessed and inspired by all of Ms. Walstra's and God's work in Liberia.  I also have to tell you about my mother-in-law.  Steve's mom loves to sew (I will get there someday Mom and Grandma!), and contacted Ms. Walstra to see if these dresses were something that she was looking to bring over each year.  It certainly was, so she started making dresses out of different scraps of fabric she had, some she bought, some even out of the curtain samples that hang at Target that they throw away after the curtains have all sold.  She took any fabric she could and made dresses.  She didn't just try to finish them like I did though, she made sure that each dress was individualized with different pockets or borders or ric rac on them so that each one was a bit different.  And every time she has come to visit over the past year she has another bag or box for Ms. Walstra.  Ms. Walstra was able to take a bonus trip in January and loved sharing the dresses with her girls this time too.  Look at these beautiful faces!!!

So very thankful for all the work that God is doing in Liberia through Ms. Walstra and many others!

JUNE BLOG CHALLENGE!

My dear sister-in-law Amy messaged me a while ago and said "I'm thinking I'm going to do a "blog 20 times in June" thing (which is basically blog every weekday for the first four weeks). Want to do it with me? I could use a little accountability. And you don't have to blog just on weekdays, just 20 times in 30 days."  I thought about my neglected blog and sighed.  I really should do this, but...

but...June is really busy you know with the end of school.
but...we have VBS right after school gets out and you know that is always crazy.
but...I am so behind where would I even start.  
but...I have tried and failed miserably at these types of challenges before (reference New Year's "resolution" post and many others I haven't recorded and just failed without documentation).

BUT...don't I want to keep blogging and keep up with writing about our family and our life as these kiddos grow?
BUT...wouldn't this be a good way to get back into blogging more regularly?
BUT...wouldn't this be a great challenge to do with someone to help keep accountability?
BUT...is there ever a time when you are not going to be busy?

OK, Amy.  I'm in.  Let's do this.

sweater nostalgia...

I am a very nostalgic person.  I love to know the stories behind things, I keep WAY too much stuff because of memories, I love using things that my mom or grandma had or that we used growing up (Corelle ice cream dishes, right mom? =), and I adore anything hand-made.  Especially from people that I know and love.  Fortunately, we know a lot of talented and creative people who have blessed us with many hand-made gifts and treasures.

Today, Sunday March 23, we woke up to a balmy temperature of 7 degrees F and the high only reached 23.  Ummm, gotta love spring in MN, right?  The only bright spot of the weather report for me was that I would have one more Sunday for Henry to wear a gorgeous hand-made sweater.  We put on the owl one, probably for the last time size-wise (and I do really hope weather-wise too), and I made sure I got a photo of him.  That led me to looking through some photos (ok A LOT of photos, why did I not sort them by sweater instead of date? =) this afternoon looking for pictures of the kids in the beloved hand-made sweaters that we have.

1 - Grace 16 months, 2 - Carsten 18 months, 3 - Henry 2 years

This first one is the owl sweater is from Aunt Karen.  It was one of our very first baby presents.  We visited her when I was 6 months pregnant with Grace, and she had just finished it except the buttons for the owl eyes which we shopped for and sewed on while we were there.  Our kids wore this anywhere from 14 months to 2 years depending on head size.  Willem fit into this in the summer, and we wore it as an outside sweater on cool nights, but I didn't have a picture of him.  I remember that Carsten wore it the most actually, and we lost one of the buttons (after the photo above), so we told him the last owl was winking.  We ended up losing the other button with Henry too, so now he says the last owl is "SEEEEEPING!

 1 - Willem 6 months (with Nana!),  2 - Carsten 11 months,  3 - Henry 12 months

This next sweater is from my Grandma Kole.  She knits the BEST baby sweaters ever - they have a zipper in the back so it is super easy to put on little wiggly ones.  This sweater fit all the boys between 6-12 months, and they were all able to wear this one.  It was so nice and soft and a great color on all of them.

1 - Grace 6 months,  2 - Grace 14 months, 3 - Willem 8 months

More baby sweater love!  Grandma made us one for Grace when she was a baby in super fun girly colors, and then a bigger one for her the next fall in a beautiful yellow (the boys wore this one too quite a bit, but I can't find photos of them!), and Willem even got to wear a vintage one that Grandma made for my brother Marcus when he was little.  We LOVED these sweaters.

1 - Willem 2 years old,  2 - Carsten 2 years old,  3 - Henry 2 years old

This next sweater was also made by Grandma Kole for Willem, only she put the zipper in the front because he was a big boy. =)  This fit the boys between 18 months and 2 1/2 years, and Henry is still going strong in it.  This was the sweater they all would always pick to wear on Sundays to church.

 1 - Grace 2.5 years old,  W - 6 months old,  C - 11 months old

These sweaters were crocheted by Auntie Christy out of beautiful warm wool yarn from our local yarn shop.  The style was great with folded cuffs on the arms and open front with the top buttons that gave a pretty big size range that they could wear it for.  Grace wore it for almost three years (the last year more as a 3/4 length sweater), so she actually "matched" both Willem and Carsten (can you see her sweater peeking out on C's photo?).  Henry wore this sweater as well, but I can't find a photo for the life of me.  Just imagine the cuteness though. =)

This last sweater was made for me by Grandma Kole, and my mom got it out so Grace could wear it too.

Thank you to all who have blessed us with your time and love and beautiful sweaters.  They have kept our kids warm and cozy and cuter than ever.  And I smile a lot when they wear and love them as much as I do...

happy valentine's day 2014...

So the night before Valentine's Day, around 11pm while we were watching Olympics, Steve looked at me and said "I have nothing for you for tomorrow."  I honestly wondered "why?" for a second before I remembered about Valentine's Day and had to admit to him "Oh, I am so sorry honey, I didn't even think about getting you anything for tomorrow!"  By this time I was so stressed out about getting the kids' all squared away with their valentines for their class parties that any romantic notions of the day went straight out the window.  You can take me out for a random Thursday sometime, okay sweetheart?  =)

Valentine's Day for me has totally turned into a kids/family holiday.  By the time February hits and we realize we live in MN and the snow and cold will last another couple of months yet, it does everyone good to focus on a little fun and craftiness and love, right?  So commenced another year of crazy homemade valentine's.  This year the big three all wanted different cards as well which made it a little more crazy.  I may be obsessed with homemade Valentine's, but I am also obsessed with the kids making most if not all of it on their own so that they can feel proud of what they did, not thier mom. (If you want to revisit the past years' crazies, here is 2011, 2012, and 2013 =)  And not pictured below is Aahma B, who joined us for the crazy last year and was able to help with the beginning stages of making them this year since she was visiting the week before.  (thanks for giving me motivation to start early Mom B!)

Grace:  "I want something that is not too girly because I want the boys to like them too (is she REALLY saying this already?!!).  I also don't want something easy - I want to put hard work into them."  (yeah, like her mother she was eating those words the night before Valentine's Day!  ha!)

(momma notes:  these turned out very cute, but does anyone make googly eyes that stay on?  we tried both the sticky back and glue on ones (with TURBO tacky glue) and there were still ones that fell off resulting in much sadness and sulkiness at school the next day.  G is my craft loving girl and did a great job on focusing on these without much help from me at all since I was helping her brothers.  She also picked the font and homophone valentine greeting - they learned about those in class getting ready for valentine's day!)

Willem:  "I want to draw and color a valentine for everyone and it should have a race track on it that I can draw and color cars on each one too.  And maybe a parking lot!" (while I was looking at Pinterest for ideas with him he also saw the "I never tire of your friendship" on one and loved it)

(momma notes:  knowing how carefully my boy draws and colors and how much time he takes, I had to talk him down from the drawing everyone's!  I had him draw the road and parking lot - seriously his idea and it turned out so cute! - and I scanned it in to the computer and printed it out.  I suggested that he color the yellow lines on each one first, and then if he had time he could add more color to the rest.  Then we found Cars sticker sheets to hand out with them.  Although he was upset that he couldn't put the stickers on each person's!  I told him Liam and grandmas and grandpas wouldn't mind if he put their stickers on.  Personally, these are totally my favorite valentine this year!)

Carsten:  "I want to hand out candy.  And I don't want to use Willem's cards."
Momma:  "I want you to sign your name on each one now that you know how to write it."

 (seriously this photo tugs at my heart because he is getting so. so. big.)

(momma notes:  yeah, I came up with this one for him, but he loved it because he loves to play tic tac toe too.  And he drew the game board on the back and signed his name to each one and stapled the packages of m's - he did such a good job!!!)

Henry:  "Color...markers, momma?  Peeeez?"

(momma notes:  I know he could care less, and I really wasn't going to do a card for him, but his coloring on paper with markers was seriously what got us through all the valentine making sessions, so I thought it would be appropriate to use those and make him a valentine.  plus he is all over glue sticks too so he loved gluing the papers together!  And he is saying "cheese pik-uhls!!!" in the last photo. =)

And finally Momma: "Pinterest is evil.  You find ideas like this and think it is a great idea to make them for 26 third graders for their class valentine party snack that I am in charge of.  Please please please someone remind me next year to just order cupcakes."

(momma notes:  remember the age of children you are a room mom for - third graders could have done this themselves during the party and would have had way more fun and done it a lot quicker than the two hours it too you.  seriously!  also, all these foods do not have evenly smooth surfaces to make adhesiveneess easy.  pressing down too hard to get the applesauce cup to stick results in breaking through the foil and applesauce dripping over everything.  glue dots on top of packaging tape - need I say more?)

I sent this photo to one of the other room moms with the request to remind me not to do this again next year and to just order cupcakes.  She sent me a message back saying "Friends don't let friends do Valentine crafts!"  =)

I think I just need to stick to doing them with and for my four sweet kiddos.

 (by the way, this photo right here?  makes me all sorts of happy.  take that winter!!!)

fun friday, 2.7.14...

In which we put on Christmas jams, broke out the $1.97 Costco clearance Christmas ornament cookie kit, drank out of our Christmas mugs, put away the Christmas decorations, and watched the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics (looking for countries on the globe and Google Earth, pretending to bobsled, and cheering for USA when they walked though)...