Masterpiece

I have discovered that having 2 kids makes it harder to do "messy things" with one of them. Marc gets kind of bent out of shape when we pay some special attention to Samantha and not him, so while he was napping I took advantage of the time and let Samantha make her first coloring picture.Here is her finished masterpiece!!Near the end of her coloring time, Marc woke up, so in the video you will see her watching something next to her...it is Marc.

Her masterpiece will be hung up with all of Marc's masterpieces! :)

Say Cheese!

Samantha was in a very smiley, photogenic mood this afternoon....so I took advantage of it! Here are a few cute pics. :)

Smiling for the camera.

Hello out there! Watching Mommy through the window.
Nice Teddy!

Reading her new book from Grandma.

Ham bone!!

My baby girl (well I guess toddler girl) is so darn cute! ;)

Meijer 75th Anniversary Company Picnic

Meijer has been around for 75 years so they decided that they would have a company picnic to celebrate. The one for the Grand Rapids area was on Saturday. It was very nice...and very free. :) They has about 12 midway-type games for Marc to play.....and one of the workers felt bad for Samantha so we let Sam play one of the games....and with every game, whether he "won" it or not, he got to pick out a prize. They were all Oriental Trading Company type prizes. But, like I told Marc, at least we didn't have to pay $5 for him to win each prize.There were about 8 bouncy things for him to play on. Here are a couple of pictures from them.There was a radio controlled car race track that had 6 cars on it.In addition to all of the "kids" activities, there were 2 Wii stations set up to play, bingo (with "real" prizes, some "games" for older kids (like basketball, golf, soccer, and baseball). They also provided hamburgers, hot dogs, potato salad, cookies, and water for us. We spent about 2 hours there and had a great time...and didn't have to spend a dime! :)

First Steps!!

Yeeaa!!!! We were over at a friend's house this afternoon and Samantha took her first steps!! She took 2 steps, 2 different times, and 3 steps the last time. They are not very big steps...they are just baby steps! ;) I have a feely that when she becomes more comfortable with her balance, now that she has figured out that she can take steps, that we will be chasing her pretty soon. Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Marc!!

Every year for the now last 3 years, Marc has chosen his birthday lunch to be at a Mexican restaurant called Chevy's. We just happened to find one 3 years ago and now he wants it to be a birthday tradition. They have good food, but I think he goes there for the birthday sombreros they give you. I told him that the one he got this year is not staying in my house (I don't need 3 of them floating around the house). He will either take it to work or I will donate it to the preschool I teach at. After the wait staff got done singing to him we let the kids take turns wearing the hat.
Happy Birthday Marc!

Chicaho Trip: Day 3

Today we explored downtown Chicago. We went to the Hershey's Chocolate store. Inside the store we were able to pay to let Marc "run" the factory machine.After he cranked the wheel causing the lights to come on (picture above) he got to turn some other wheels and make all the candy dump out of the machine and into a bucket. The "factory supervisor" then put some of it on top of his hat.
He even got his own employee ID badge.After Marc got done being a factory worker, Samantha wanted to borrow his hat.Since Daddy helped Marc run the machine, he got a hat too.This is a picture of the candy he got in his bucket.We all had so much fun that I thought the kids needed a souvenir, that wouldn't disappear into our tummies, to remember how much fun we had. Since Marc loves cars, I found a Hershey's car for him....and a stuffed bear for Samantha.Enjoy the videos of Marc & Marc "making" candy. :)




After getting our chocolate fix, we headed over to Millenium Park. There was a corn maze that Marc lead the way out of.One of the biggest attractions in Millenium Park is a huge water fountain. There are 2 separate structures about 40 feet apart. There is continuous water flowing, so there is a couple of inches of standing water between the structures that kids like to play in. Every few minutes, water sprays out of the structures.We had a good last day in Chicago!

Chicago Trip: Day 2; Part II

After Legoland and some lunch, we headed to the Morton Aboretum. That place is HUGE! There is a Children's Garden as well as there "park area". The rest of the Aboretum is so big that we drove through it. They have all of the trees grouped a like and labeled to be read as you drive by. We drove through on the way out. We started in the Children's Garden (it closed the earliest).The first "activity" we found was a huge ball that sat in a base filled with water and Marc could help spin it around in the water.There was a huge rope "spider web" for the kids to climb across.There was a whole series of streams that connected together that kids could walk through, or as some did, swim in.There were about 4 tree houses that had crawling nets and a bunch of neat things for the kids to explore.There were old fashion pumps throughout the children's garden for the kids to pump and play with. Marc and Daddy had fun pumping the water and having water fights......and getting wet in the hot afternoon sun.There was a huge maze made from hedges that we had fun wandering through.Since there was some really pretty scenery, we decided to take advantage of some photo opportunities. Here are the best of the bunch.This place was absolutely beautiful! We were there on a sunny afternoon so sll the trees with the back drop of the sun was beautiful!

Chicago Trip: Day 2; Part I

We decided to head to the Legoland: Discovery Center today. Marc read some reviews online that were not good reviews, but we decided to go anyway. I am so glad that we did.There are several figures for us to see as we walk in. Here is Marc with Albert Einstein.The building is divided into several different areas.It was crowded but it was amazing to see what people can build with Legos. The first area we walk into is "Miniland". They built the city of Chicago out of Legos.After Miniland, there is a Jungle Room. There are all kinds of animals from the jungle built out of Legos.After leaving the jungle room, we walk into what they call "The Hall of Fame". Here is Marc with Indiana Jones...

and with R2D2.....and with Hagrid & Harry Potter.....and Batman.....and with Darth Vader.There was a dragon ride that we went on that drove slowly through another exhibit of things built out of Legos. Samantha was fascinated!Upstairs there was a ride that, when you peddled the bike, it controlled if you went up or down.Upstairs there were a couple of "building" stations. Both Marcs built cars.......and then raced them. (Little Marc's car beat Daddy's car).There was a tour of a replica factory. Kids got to help "make" Legos.There was an area with big, foam Legos. This is the first place we could let Samantha explore.Marc enjoyed building a tower that ended up being as tall as him.
Daddy made a chair out of the foam Legos and both kids "tested" it out.As we left Legoland, a statue of President Obama made out of Legos greeted us.It really was amazing to see what can be built out of Legos. It was fun, but I am not sure we would go back.