Trail Mixer

Johanna loves to eat Trail Mix. She loves almonds and M&Ms the most and often picks those out but definitely likes raisens, cheerios, granola clusters, peanuts and dried fruit too. But more than eating it she likes to make it! She's definitely our "Trail Mixer." A couple of weeks ago I came home from the store late at night and she was still awake (doing that crappy if she naps she has trouble going to sleep but if she doesn't nap she's a crab thing) and once she saw the trail mix ingredients she really wanted to help. So she made a HUGE batch of trail mix. This batch included raisens, granola clusters, cheerios, almonds, peanuts, coconut, butterscotch chips and M&Ms. She did awesome!

Art Prize

A couple of weeks ago we packed the family up on a Saturday night and headed to Grand Rapids to visitArt Prize. We are so fortunate that this nationwide event happens right in our backyard! It's such a great event, showcasing great artists and their talents and appealing to everyone. Definitely worth checking out if you never have! The kids had so much fun seeing the different kinds of art, telling us which ones were their favorites and seeing how some of them got even cooler as it got dark out (with a full moon no less)!  We went on the last night of voting so many of the pieces had the artists by them asking for votes. It was very neat for us to meet the artists and the kids had lots of questions for them. :)

 Making Walrus faces :)

 This was our favorite piece, Disposable Game. Everything was made out of recycled materials. The kids liked the animals of course, but also liked finding common household "trash" that was used to make the cool animals. We got to chat with the artist of this piece for awhile.

 Johanna's obsessed with cheetahs so she had to have a picture by this one.

Park2Park 1/2 Marathon

Last Saturday morning started out beautiful - not too hot, not too cold, a little breeze. It was perfect running weather for Colin and the 1500+ other runners taking part in the 2012 Park2Park 1/2 Marathon and 5K for Neighbor's Plus. Colin was running with Haans, his friend Larry Smith and a couple of other running buddies. We saw them around mile 3 and they were looking great!

 See the blue sky in the upper left corner?

Here they are around mile 6 (I think). Still going strong. This picture is facing East and the sky is blue. Behind us, to the West, it was getting dark and the clouds were rolling in. Colin had said his goal was to finish this 1/2 marathon in under 1 hour, 30 minutes. At this point in the race I told him that my goal was for him to finish before the rain!

 At 9:50, 1 hour and 20 minutes into the 1/2 marathon they black flagged the race, meaning they quit timing it and racers were to finish "at their own risk." Colin crossed the mat at 9:57 with an "unofficial" time of 1 hour, 27 minutes. Official or not, he met his goal, set a PR (Personal Record) and did AWESOME! Did he make it for MY goal? Just barely! Within minutes (seconds?) of crossing the finish it began to rain. And then continued raining and thunderstorming for hours that day. We were glad to get in our cars just as it really began to poor.

Colin and his good friend Larry Smith. They usually run together on Saturday mornings so for them it was just another Saturday morning run. :)

Colin is in the best shape of his life - running often and going to Crossfit daily. So proud of him and how well he did on this race!

Civil War Reenactment

On Sunday my mom took Abigail and Henry to the Civil War Reenactment at VanRaalte Farm.  My mom used to teach the Civil War in school so she had lots of facts for the kids. Since Abby is history obsessed she was so geeked to meet "Abraham Lincoln." :) They arrived on time to see President and Mrs. Lincoln arrive.

 They also got to see how a typical camp would be for the soldiers and even hold the guns. Henry thought that this part was pretty cool.

 Colin and Johanna met up with them to watch the battle. Johanna thought it was really cool to see the guns and the horses.

 At the end of the day Abigail looked to my mom and said "Grandma, when you die, can we put a cell phone in the casket so you can take pictures of people like Abraham Lincoln in Heaven and send them to us?" What a "lovely" way to end the day. :)

School Days...

We are now 8 days into the school year for Abigail and Henry and 2 days into the school year for Johanna. It's been a crazy ride so far trying to balance all of our schedules. It's not easy dealing with four job schedules, two school schedules and one daycare schedule. Added to this I am working extra hours right now at the hospital so that makes all the original plans for drop-off/pick-up go out the window for now. Colin's at three schools this year (so I guess we really deal with 4 school schedules) and only at the kids' school on Fridays so he can't help with pick-up the other four days a week. BUT...we are making it! Here's our schedule (for my own benefit...so when things seem crazy I can look back and this and see that we made it!).

Mondays:
A&H to school at 8:15
J to daycare at 8:25
Work at 8:30
Lois picks up A&H, then J and watches them until I'm done with work
Colin has staff meetings until 4:30ish

Tuesdays:
Josh comes over at 7:30
A&H to school at 8:15
J&J to school by 9:15
Work by 10:00
My mom picks up J at school
Pick up J at 2:45
Pick up A&H at 3:05 

Wednesdays:
A&H to school at 8:15
J to daycare at 8:25
Work at 8:30
Mom picks up A&H and brings them to Colin at Heights
I pick up Johanna after work
Colin to work#2 at 4:15
Kids to church events 6:00-7:30

Thursdays:
A&H to school at 8:15
J to daycare at 8:25
Work at 8:30
Mom picks up A&H and brings them to Colin at Heights
I pick up Johanna after work
Colin grad class 6:00-8:30

Fridays:
A&H to school at 8:15
J to Rebecca's house, then school
Work by 9:30
 Rebecca picks up J at school
Colin takes A&H home
Rebecca brings  J home
Me to work#2 at 4:30

Saturdays:
Colin to work#2 at 10:15

Sundays:
We are usually found teaching Sunday School or in nursery

Are other families busier? Absolutely. Do other families have less extended family help and support? Definitely. Are we managing? Yes. Are we exhausted? A bit. Would I change anything? Not much...but I'd be lying if I didn't wish that bussing was an option for us or that Colin and I didn't feel we NEEDED to work second jobs...but we love our (crazy) life.