An Afternoon on the Playground

After we left the zoo on Saturday afternoon, Me, my Mom, and the kids ran a couple of errands and then we went to the playground. Marc wanted to play on the playground at the zoo, but it was too crowded so we took him to a school's playground where there was only 1 other family.

Climbing the ladder and trying to follow Marc up

Marc and Samantha on the bouncy alligator
I tried to get Samantha to swing on her belly, she wasn't quite sure about it
Marc swinging
Marc climbing on the playground
This cool alligator bounced and rocked with her movements.
Marc teeter-tottering with Grandma
Samantha loves swinging
They had super speedy slides!

This is a cool circle swing. It spins him in circles.

It was a gorgeous afternoon and we had a ton of fun running around the nearly empty playground! :)

Morning at the Zoo

Marc was gone all week for a business trip out to San Diego so I called on my Mom for company with the kids on Friday night, all day Saturday, and Sunday morning. I had Bunco with my neighborhood Moms Friday night (and after the last couple of days beforehand, I needed to get out)! My Mom came up after work on Friday and spent the night at our house Fridays night. Marc was excited that Grandma was having a sleepover at his house. :) We got up Saturday morning and went to the John Ball Zoo.
On Saturday the zoo was having a big Monarch butterfly "thing". They had butterflies that the kids could pet. Marc wasn't soo sure about it.....
On the other hand, after a little coaxing, Samantha really got into it. She actually very quickly reached out and grabbed one of the butterflies and bent its wing...oops!Throughout the zoo there were butterfly development stations where the kids got to learn the life cycle of the butterfly.At the last station the kids could color a monarch butterfly. The outline was on an overhead and they colored with Sharpie markers (hence me helping Samantha, I didn't want permanent markers all over her clothes). They turned out really cool. When you hold them up to the light, the light shines through them. I am going to stick them on our living room window that gets lots of sun in the afternoon so we can enjoy their hard work.
This was the first time we have been at the zoo when Samantha was old enough to really watch the animals and enjoy it. :) The first animal we come across when we walk through the gate are the ducks. There were loud ducks so Samantha decided to talk to them in their own language. She kept saying "kack, kack, kack". :)
After the ducks were the fish. These were down low enough that Samantha could go up to the tank and look at them. She loved it!
Both kiddos liked watching the big brown bear. Brown Bear, Brown Bear, Who Do You See?.....I See Marc and Samantha looking at me.



While Marc was working very diligently on coloring his butterfly, Samantha had fun looking at and talking to the monkeys down below on monkey island.

Even though we were there in the middle of a gorgeous afternoon, not many animals were very active. The tiger was pacing back and forth in his area. When we walked up to the cage, I said that he looked like a big kitty. Samantha kept "yeow"ing at him the whole time we were there. :)

Since we took Grandma with us, the kids got spoiled while at the zoo. ;) Grandma splurged and let Marc get a spray on tattoo......
He chose the one with the zoo's logo. The whole time Marc was getting his tattoo, Samantha was holding her arm like she wanted one too. We told her maybe next year.
Outside the zoo gate is a park area. I saw some pretty flowers groupings. Flowers=photo opportunity. ;) Unfortunately, Samantha was tired and she didn't really want any part of posing for pictures, so we got the best we could.

We just plain tuckered Samantha out!

Busy Day!

Whew....Tuesday was a busy day!! We were up at 6:30am so Marc could go to kindergarten in the morning. I picked him up after school, came home and had lunch. Right after lunch we went for his first swim lesson of the fall. After swim lesson we came home and had a nap. After nap we went back to school for his class picnic.

When we first got there there was a little time to play on the playground.It was a crazy sight!! There were probably 50 kindergartners and some siblings all running around on the playground...talk about chaos!!
After some play time it was time to eat.I took Marc picture...I figured it is his school picnic so I would take a picture of him eating....well, Samantha was feeling left out. She shrieked and smiled her scrunched-up nose smile. So, of course I had to take her picture too.After staying at his picnic for just a little while, we headed down to Grand Rapids to the Schuler's Bookstore on 28th Street. One of our favorite authors, Laura Numeroff, was there for a book signing. She write the "If You Give A..." book series and the "What ??/?? Does Best" series. She had 2 new books that just came out. She read her 2 new books and and "If You Give A Mouse A Cookie", but she changed the words. All the kids thought it was hilarious!! After she read the books, she signed books.By the time we got home and I got Marc in bed, he was in bed at 9:00pm and I was in bed at 10:00pm. Ugh!
As we were driving to the bookstore, Marc said to me, "Mom, I think I will tell her that I like her books". I thought that was soooo sweet! I am glad that we are raising children to like and appreciate the value of books! :)

Celebration on the Grand

Well, this past Saturday was Celebration on the Grand. For those of you that don't know what it is, it is a celebration of downtown Grand Rapids. We have not been there for several years, since before Marc was born. Daddy Marc was looking at their website and noticed there was a family stage with some acts geared for kids, so we decided to head downtown on Saturday.

Before we headed over to the family stage we went to the VanAndle Public Museum. There was a daVinci Machines in Motions exhibit. This exhibit was a bunch of working models of a machines that daVinci invented.Outside of the museum there is a space capsule that Marc loved "wowing".After exploring the museum for awhile we headed over to the family area. The Helen DeVos Children's Hospital is working on a remodeling project. They had a tent set up where kids could go in and decorate tiles that would be used in the decorating. Just for decorating a tile, each child got a t-shirt that stated that they helped make art for the new hospital. :) Samantha actually helped me, Daddy just didn't get a picture of her coloring on the tile. ;)
The whole theme was circles. So Marc decided to make "abstract" circle smiley faces. He thought that would cheer up the kids in the hospital.The family area was partially sponsored by Celebration Cinemas (local movie theater). So their mascot Flick was walking around and playing with the kids.There were several tables set up from different area businesses with activities for the kids to do. Celebration Cinemas had a spin-to-win wheel. Everyone got to spin the wheel, kids and adults. So, the first time we spun we got a glow necklace, a coupon for free popcorn, a box or candy, and a stuffed Flick toy...good haul. :)After awhile we went back to the wheel again (shh, don't tell anybody) ;) This time we won free popcorn coupon, another Flick toy, and a t-shirt from G-Force.

The family area was by the Gerald R Ford Presidential Museum. There is a cool looking fountain there, so I made it into a photo-op.One of the tables set up was for Operation Pillow Talk. They go around and have people decorate or write on pillows and then send them to soldiers overseas . We took this as an opportunity to reinforce with Marc just how much our soldiers sacrifice for our country.The main act that we wanted to see on the family stage was a kids songs band called Scribble Monster. Marc had fun dancing all around during the outdoor concert.One of the songs they sing is all about chocolate milk. Marc just happened to be drinking chocolate milk so as they sang, he and Daddy waved it around like a lighter during a rock ballad.
The area that the stage was in had a huge hill. So they took pink spray paint and made a big section and called it the rolling spot, so not to sit there. Marc had a blast rolling down and then running back up the hill.I tried to get Samantha to do it, but she was more interested in watching the older kids doing itThis whole thing is free to the public. It was a lot of fun, and we came home with a really big loot!
2 free popcorn coupons, a box of candy, 2 stuffed Flick toys, a G-Force shirt, 2 Art for the hospital shirts, a canvas Home Depot bag, a glow in the dark necklace, McDonaldland cookies, a home-made bookmark, a homemade tambourine, and lots of other little stuff.
It was a beautiful sunny day and it was a great day to spend with the family! :)

First Day of Kindergarten!!

Well, I guess it had to happen eventually, my little boy started kindergarten on Tuesday! He was really excited for his first day.We got there a little early so we took a few photos of our little man.At Chandler Wood Charter Academy, the elementary school teachers come out to the front of the building and all the kids line up with their teacher and all go in together as a class.
As Marc stood in line, we could tell he was about to cry...and he did. After a hug and some reassuring, he was fine.While we were waiting for time to go inside, we got a picture of Marc and his teacher, Mrs. Grimm.After some waiting, it was time for them to go into their classroom. :)We told Marc that we would go and spend a few minutes with him in the classroom. As soon as all the backpacks got hung up, all the kids went the "rug" where they do group time to say Hi and Welcome to kindergarten. After the short group time, there was a whole school assembly. At the assembly they said the Pledge and the school's Creed. the principal talked about some school rules. I have heard from a neighbor whose 7th & 4th graders go there that the school has an assembly once a week. The classes rotate and do "something" during the assembly. We went to the assembly which lasted about 20-30 minutes. Since we told Marc that we would hang out in his room for a few minutes we went back to his room.
Mrs. Grimm had them cut out a clothing shaped paper, write their name on it, glue a picture of them on it, and then tell her 3 things about themselves to have written on it. Since there were still a few of us parents there, she put us to work.Marc chose a baseball cap to decorate.
After we were done helping Mrs Grimm we left and came home for a little while. Samantha kept asking "bra-ur" (translation=brother). She was confused about why he wasn't in the back seat with her. I thought I would ball and sob the whole time he was gone on his first day of school. Surprisingly enough, I didn't even shed a tear. (I came close when he was crying, but I held it together.)
On the second day of school I parked and walked him up to his class line. I had planned on hanging out with him until he went into the building. After just a couple of minutes, he looked at me and said "Bye Mom". So I took the clue and left. I cried almost all the way to work that morning.
He said he has not had a single tear since those first ones. :) He has had a great time. He tells me all about what he did that day when I pick him up. On Tuesday he spent some time in the Art Room, on Wednesday he spent time in the Computer Lab, and on Thursday he spent time in Gym. I think the other 2 places that get rotated every week are Music & Library.
He is off to a great start and he loves it! :)