They grow up so fast...

Noah's 4th Birthday

A happy day in our household today as we celebrate Noah! It's hard to believe he's four already, or maybe I should say, it's hard to believe that my baby is no longer a baby. We had a fun day. Presents before breakfast, Build-a-Bear visit thanks to Opa and Oma, french fries and chicken nuggets for supper per Noah's request, and cake to end the day.

Last Day of School

Ahhh... the last day of school. All three boys had a great year, wonderful teachers and are now totally ready for a break. We leave for Washington tomorrow, can't wait to see everyone!

Fourth Grade Buddy Readers

Tristan's class and one of the first grade classrooms worked together this year in a Buddy Reading program. Tristan was paired with Phillip, already a friend of the boys, so it was a good match. Every time the kids read a book together they would draw a picture which was later transferred to the t-shirts you see the kids modeling.

The Buddy Reader Fashion show was very sweet. Kids took turns walking down the runway and met up with their buddy at the end of the runway, where they then read each other letters about the experiences they had reading together. The letters were all sweet and full of encouragement to continue reading.

Parkway's First Grade Poetry Night

Calvin and his teacher, Mrs. Hart.

Calvin with his buddy Quintin


First grade was a great year for Calvin. He had a great teacher and made good friends in his class. One of the final events of the year for the first grader was Poetry Night. The kids all worked hard, learned and recited their poems and made us all proud.

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!