Halloween 2008

Star Wars is a big hit in our family, so it was no surprise the boys wanted to dress up as Jedi's for Halloween.
Our afternoon started out with the neighborhood Halloween Parade, followed by lots of trick-or-treating.
Noah thought it was all magical, going to people's houses and getting candy, what could be better? Star Wars was a popular theme among the kids so the boys had plenty of opportunity to play Star Wars, recreating scenes and battles.

Sister Weekend

I was so happy to have Emily visit us for the weekend last week. It's such a treat to spend time with her and we enjoyed every minute together!

Calvin's Soccer Season

Calvin had a good season this Fall. It's been fun to see him play some "real" games, last year was mostly drills and games on a half field.



Today is the last day of the season, hard to believe it's over already.

Lighthouse Puzzle

Grandma Sanneke gave us a puzzle of the Lighthouses on the Great Lakes after we visited a lighthouse on our Michigan vacation. We had a rainy Sunday last weekend and decided it was time to put it together. We started after lunch with the five of us, Noah left after a few minutes after a few hours Tristan, Calvin, and I needed a bit of a break, while Robert kept plugging ahead. By supper time we all came back to help Robert finish up, just in time for the picture.

First Day of School

Wednesday, September 3

All three boys are heading off to school today. Tristan starts 4th grade, Calvin 1st, and Noah starts preschool. We were outside taking pictures when Noah's school bus arrived 20 minutes early. Probably a good thing, because it all happened so quickly I didn't have time to dwell on the fact that my little Noah is getting on a school bus.



All three boys came home happy and tired after their first day of school.

Rancocas State Park

Our last weekend before school starts. We decided to explore one of the many State Parks in New Jersey. We decided on Rancocas State Park. It's a small, wooded park on the Rancocas River. We are all sad to see our summer vacation end, it's been such a nice summer.

Acadia National Park

We recently returned from a wonderful camping vacation at Acadia National Park in Maine. On our way up, we stopped to visit the Olivares' in Avon, CT. They are doing well and are settled into their beautiful new home.


This was our third visit to Acadia, and we explored some favorite sites as well as discovering new places and things to do. One highlight was when we came across Anemone Cave, a large cave that Robert and the bigger boys were able to explore because it was low tide. Inside they found a tide pool with anemone, starfish and lots of snails.


On our last day we were able to take advantage of the low tide again, and walk from the town of Bar Harbor to Bar Island. The first picture we took just before we walked across, the third was taken at high tide, on the same spot.
We spent lots of times during our hikes foraging for blueberries. There were so many and they were ripe for the picking!
We hope to go back to Acadia in a few years when the boys are all able to ride bikes. Acadia has beautiful bike trails we'd love to explore!

Fourth of July

We spent the holiday weekend in Washington DC visiting Andre, where he has been stationed the last five months. We met him at the new Smithsonian Air and Space Museum by Dulles airport. We all enjoyed the museum, it is pretty impressive to be so close to these aircraft, many which have fought in battles in different wars.




Andre's apartment is just outside of DC and overlooks the Pentagon as well as the Washington Monument and Capitol building. It was fun to be back in DC, our last visit was 3 years ago in March to celebrate Tristan's 6th and Calvin's 3rd birthday. Time flies!


We also visited some of the Smithsonian Museums on the Mall. There was a folk festival taking place which had Texas as a theme, so we enjoyed listened to several bands from that area while we walked around. The boys liked the National Art Gallery as well as the Natural History Museum which featured skeletons of the woolly mammoth and dinosaurs. Pretty cool!

Last Day of School

What a wonderful year the boys have had in school. The year flew by like they always do, and here we are, done with another year of school. Calvin graduated from Kindergarten yesterday. We enjoyed a special program with lots of singing dancing and memories from Kindergarten. As the kids walked across the stage to receive their diplomas their teacher announced what they plan to be when they grow up; Calvin announced that he will be a wild-life veterinarian, I have no doubt!



Tristan completed third grade. One of his latest accomplishments was to memorize the 50 states, he received a 100% on his states test, we're really proud of him! Here is Tristan with his teacher, Ms Young. (Yes, his lips are blue, that had an end-of-the-year party with blue popsicles.)


This morning I had an IEP (Individual Education Plan) for Noah. A spot opened up for the summer special ed preschool program, so now, Noah will start preschool July 1st. I'm very thankful he has this opportunity, he will now be able to continue speech therapy which was scheduled to end his birthday.

Michigan

Our family spent a wonderful week in Michigan at the beginning of June. We met Mum and Dad at the cottage, where they've spent some time every summer the last nine years. The best part of the cottage has to be the beach. The kids love to play there and Tristan and Calvin where brave enough to join Grandpa for an almost daily swim.


One afternoon, we rented bikes and had a nice ride from Mears to Shelby, about ten miles round trip. In the first picture you see Noah getting situated in his carrier behind Grandpa's bike, Floris sat next to him for the first mile or so, but was too excited to sit still, so he ended up running along-side Grandma. Tristan and I had our own bike, Robert and Calvin rode together, Calvin on a tag-along behind Robert's bike. I hadn't ridden a bike in about ten years, and was happy to discover I still remembered the basics.

We visited two lighthouses, Big Sauble in Ludington State Park and North Breakwater Light in Ludington. The first involved quite an adventuresome hike on the beach in stormy weather, but the view made it all worthwhile. The lighthouse in Ludington is next to a playground that we've stopped to play in every time we've visited the lighthouse.