aukeman family reunion in WI...

Fall 2008

Summer 2013

Steve's Grandpa Aukeman loved his family dearly and prayed for all of us daily.  We have had a number of times when all of us have been able to be together when he was alive, but Steve's mom and aunts and uncles knew that after he passed away in 2011, we would have to be a little more deliberate in our planning to still get the family together every so often.  So they started right in and planned a family reunion for July 2013 in WI, halfway between MN and MI. 

27 out of 29 of us were able to come, and what a wonderful weekend we had together.  They rented a farmhouse at Windever Farm near Plymouth, WI, that was large enough to sleep almost all of us!  And it had a big enough kitchen and diningroom/gazebo for us to all be able to cook and eat together (each of us signed up for a meal).  We planned a few activities for each day and also enjoyed a lot of time relaxing and visiting together.

Carsten, Uncle Daryl, Owen and cousin Kevin

 We all arrived on Thursday afternoon/evening and enjoyed brats on the grill and an evening of exploring the farm we were staying at.  Including a short walk to the nearby pond.

As always happens on trips, the kids don't sleep well at all on the first night, and Thursday night was no exception.  Topped off by Henry waking up at 6 and refusing to go back to sleep.  The ONLY bright side to this was a beautiful morning sunrise view and a nice chat with Uncle Daryl (who is always up early).

(cousin Caroline and her boys Caleb and Owen)

 Our first activity on Friday morning was a short drive to Sheboygan, WI, to visit the Bookworm Gardens.  This was a delightful garden filled with beautiful trees and plants, and areas representing 60 different classic children's books.  What a fun place to go for everyone!  It was so fun to see the kids react to all the different books that they knew.

And of COURSE there are books to read too (all in plastic protected pages).  The kids wasted no time in asking Aahma to read them one...

Here is Pooh's house from Winnie the Pooh!  A cute little tiny place that the kids tried to fit as many as they could in.  Willem, Carsten and Henry are in there behind Owen and Logan!

Here is the log cabin from Little House in the Big Woods.  This was Grace and Greta's favorite spot!

Carsten and Willem driving the covered wagon!

OK, I take that previous statement back.  The fairy house area was Grace and Greta's favorite spot.  I think they would have stayed here all day if Jeff and Steve wouldn't have moved them along. =)

Willem on the cow outside of Charlotte Web's farm.  I didn't grab a picture, but they had a metal web inside with "SOME PIG!" in it - so cute!

They even had a Magic School Bus!

"all aboard for an adventure!"

cousin love

After a while at the Bookworm Gardens, we all drove across town to a beach on Lake MI.  We started the afternoon with a picnic in the park...

...and then headed for the beach!

The water was a bit cold yet (and full of little dead fish!), but that didn't stop the kids!

They did spend most of their time building sand castles and dams and rivers though.

Henry had a lot of fun in the sand!

The farmhouse had a great backyard patio with a fire pit, so s'more's were a nightly treat. 

"One more Momma?!!

Aunt Jalaine and cousin Kevin playing ladder ball

We also got out some lawn games and frisbees.

Since Friday was such a big day and everyone went along to the gardens and the beach, we purposely didn't plan a lot on Saturday so it could be a much more laid back day.  Most everyone had a relaxing morning either sleeping in, reading and playing and exploring the farm and area a bit more.  By afternoon the kids were ready to do something again though, so a big group went to the little water park in Plymouth.  But Henry was fussy and ready for some chill time, so he and I went with Christy and Kaatje to check out the street fair that was also going on in Plymouth.  Lots of fun little art booths...

...and homemade ice cream!!!  I think that was Henry's favorite part. =)

Saturday night we ordered pizza in, played some games...

got breakfast ready for the next day...

and of course had some more s'more's!

Grace tried a cookie s'more, yum!

Willem and Henry were experts at relaxing by this time!

Everyone took off after breakfast on Sunday morning.  We had a great weekend all together, and you know it must have been a good family reunion when everyone left saying we need to do this again!

fun fridays, rest of summer 2013...

The rest of the summer in 2013 was filled with lots of trips and special activities and a lot of them fell on Fridays, which was super nice because then fun fridays were built right in!  But rather than trying to break each Friday out separately, I am going to just blog about our trips and stuff.  I hope they will resume their regularly scheduled programming (or slightly condensed/combined) after I blog about the rest of our 2013 summer.  Here is a sneak peek of what is coming:

family reunion in Wisconsin
soccer
visit from Nana
crazy trip to IA, NE, MN & SD (might need a couple posts for this one!)
camping 
grace's birthday
baby shower for Lucas and Jessica

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...