Sunday Snapshots of Mini Golf

I spy...

We often play "I spy" with the kids while looking out our big living room window. This morning, after we waved goodbye to Ian who was going to work, Mason started:

"I spy?"

"Ok. I spy with my little eye something that is green."

"Ummmm...that?"

"No."

"Ummmmm...there?"

"No."

"Ummmmm...that?"

"Yep!" (No clue what he was pointing at but whatever)

"Ok, Mason, your turn."

Jumping up and down, he starts:

"IIIII...spyyyyyyyyyy....lawnmower!"

"Ok. Good! I spy with my little eye something that is blue."

"Ummmm...that?"

"No."

"Ummmmm...there?"

"No."

"Ummmmm...that?"

"Yes! Your turn."

Jumping up and down, he starts:

"IIIII...spyyyyyyyyy....lawnmower!"

"Ok. Good! I spy with my little eye something that is red."

"Ummmm...that?"

"No."

"Ummmmm...there?"

"No."

"Ummmmm...that?"

"Yes! Your turn."

"III...spyyyyy....lawnmower!

So, imagine this going on and on and on and on. And he delights in his "lawnmower" find every single time. He squeels and yells and loves it! It's all about repetition I guess :)

So cute.

P.S. Note that there is no lawnmower that can be seen through our livingroom window.

Life is Art

I've been busy lately, creating "life is art" replicas. I found the site and thought "hey, I can do this myself!" So, I set about outside and took photos of objects (mostly natural ones) that represented alphabetical letters. Then, in Picasa, I created artistic representations of famous quotes. I made one for my mom called "Mothers", two for my aunt and uncle entitled "Liefde" and "Family", and 3 for Ian for Father's Day, entitled "Family", "Laughter", and "Friends". I think they turned out quite well! We printed them out as 8x10s and added a mat for a 10x13 frame and the result was awesome. Here are the results:


The F is the ramp up the playstructure, the R is a high chair outside, I is a stick, E is the side of the red wagon, N is sticks, D is a latch on our shed door, and S is the hose.

L is the corner of the sandbox, A is the A-Frame of the swingset, U is the seat of the swing, G is the arm of the patio chair, H is a cement block, T is a shovel, E is branches on a tree, and R is the high chair (once again - it's super-hard to find an R outside).

The F and A are similar to the ones above, the M is the side of the red wagon, I is a dandelion, L is similar to above, and Y is a tree.

I also created a picture 'frame' for my dad for his birthday but haven't given it to him yet. Since he doesn't check my blog at all, I'll share it with you all. (He barely knows how to turn on the computer so I think I'm safe :) )



Cool, huh?

Supposed to be Leavin' on a Jet Plane

I'm supposed to be leaving on a jet plane tonight. Instead, I sit on the couch, uncomfortable as ever, in some pain, beside my wonderful kids, watching "Mighty Machines". It could be worse. I could be on the 'jet plane', in pain, discomfort, and be facing all sorts of possible health issues.

Back in March, I bought my ticket to go back to the 'homeland' (Holland) to attend my aunt and uncle's 25th wedding anniversary. I was supposed to be leaving June 23 and return within a few days, after partying it up with them on Saturday. Then, along came some health issues with my pregnancy and before we knew it, we were faced with the difficult decision of whether it would be safe for me to travel abroad. There are some issues surrounding potential bleeding of the placenta and while they have great hospitals in Holland, the fact that Ian wouldn't be there if something happened, the fact that they wouldn't know my health history, and that I'd have to extend my stay impacted our decision greatly. Then, news of developing a hernia (not just one, but two I found out yesterday) added to our health issues and we made the decision that we cannot compromise our baby's health (and mine). I'll just have to go another time.

I'm glad we made the decision for me not to go, in a way, because I now also have a pulled muscle on top of the pregnancy complications and that would NOT have been fun, sitting in an airplane seat for 7 hours.

I AM thinking of the rest of my family, my mom, brother, and sister, who are right now getting to enjoy the company of the rest of my family, some whom I haven't seen since 2003. But I know that this babe is more important than all of that and that we made the right decision. Even though I'm missing Dutch pancakes, frikandellen, patatje met, stroopwafels, and tons of other delicacies, I'm quite happy right now too (and learning a LOT from "Mighty Machines"...oh those monster trucks LOL )

The Shack

I just finished reading this book, by William P. Young. Here's a summary of the book:

Mackenzie Allen Philips youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation, and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later in the midst of his Great Sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend. Against his better judgment he arrives at the shack on a wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change Mack's world forever.

I absolutely loved it. It answers the age-old question of "Why does God allow evil to happen in our world?".
And the book does answer it. I won't spoil the plot/ending, but all I can say is that it opens up a world for you. Especially for those on the edge of believing Christianity and needing reassurance or clarification. Some people might not like the fact that God appears in human form but I found it refreshing and creative.
I highly recommend this #1 Best Seller.

Here's another little review of the book:

Click HERE.

Happy 25th Anniversary Gerrit and Anja!!!!!!!!

Happy 25th Anniversary to 2 of the best people I know. Gerrit and Anja, we wish you many many more happy years together. You're like my 2nd set of parents, our role models, and we're sad we can't spend this milestone with you today. Enjoy the day with your family and each other!
Lots of hugs, kisses, and love,
Ian, Cindy, Megan, Austen, Mason, and BabyJohnBob (what the kids are calling him)
P.S. I know, not the best photo I have of you, but kind of mysterious, isn't it? LOL

Sunny days

It's beautiful weather today. The boys are I were outside all morning. We set up some of their blow-up pools and sprinkler and they had a blast. I got to actually sit for quite awhile and read my newest book on my Kobo "The Shack". The weather is so nice and warm (finally!) and the boys hardly argued. They played both together and separate and it was just so nice. I guess if you give them sand, water, and sun they're happy! They made sand pies, sand drip castles, oars for a "boat" in the kiddie pool, and sprayed Dakota (our dog) with water guns. It's quiet time now and I guess it wore them out because even Austen fell asleep on the couch.

I've been having some physical problems with the pregnancy. Doing too much around the house caused me to have a pulled muscle in the pelvic area which is EXTREMELY PAINFUL. It's so hard to walk and sit. I find the only relief I can get is sitting on a lawnchair. I've been trying to rest up this week as I have to go with Megan on her class trip tomorrow. There's swimming involved so let's hope that my body can take that with the pulled muscle and all.

After a week of coping with the pain, I finally went into emerge and my OB/GYN happened to be on-call which was great. He told me REST, REST, REST. I said "yeah, yeah, yeah." Then he asked how many kids I have. When I told him "3", he said "Oh." So there you have it.

The walking has gotten considerable better with rest though. I can actually walk now and managed to do groceries with the boys this week. The sitting (and sleeping) is another story. I certainly hope this pain leaves because otherwise childbirth is going to be even more excruciating than it already is.

Anyhow, days like today certainly help. Being outside since 9:00 and just resting and playing with the kids is wonderful. Soaking up the sun. Reading a good book. I'm really enjoying it because I haven't had too many days like this yet! With only 3 months left to go before baby JohnBob (as Austen likes to call him) arrives, I need to take advantage of having only 2 or 3 kids to watch, not yet 4 including an infant!

Hope you're having a wonderful day and get to enjoy some of this sunshine as well! The house might be a mess, the bathrooms might need cleaning, but nothing is as important as taking time for yourself and the kids. (and yes, it took me a LONG time to figure that out too).

Have a great day!

Rainbow Cake Pops

Our Sunday School picnic was held on Sunday, right after church. Everyone brought either a salad or a dessert and I decided to try making rainbow cake pops. I checked out Bakerella's website who is famous at making cake pops and adapted my own to make rainbow ones. I tried to make them with real cake and frosting, the way you're supposed to make them. Then dipped them into candy melts from the Bulk Barn. It took awhile and for the second batch I got some Timbits and dipped those in the candy melts. Much easier. Both tasted great (we thought) and I think they turned out quite well! Check out the results below. (The photos are taken on our way to the picnic as I didn't have time for a picture before).

Toddler Bikers Bad to the Diaper

"Like Dandelion Dust" review

We rented a really great movie last night. It's called "Like Dandelion Dust" and it's a Christian movie although we didn't find it "preachy" or anything. Just a realistic look at life and its struggles. Here's a summary of the movie:

"LIKE DANDELION DUST is a very realistic look at two couples fighting over a boy who was given up for adoption when the father was sent to prison for beating the mother. LIKE DANDELION DUST has a very strong moral worldview with strong Christian content."

It really gets avid discussions going. The boy is 7 years old now when the father gets out of prison and the biological parents decide they want the child back. The adoptive parents try everything to try to keep their child. I won't spoil the ending for you but I highly recommend this movie. It's got everything...some action, romance, humour, and it's a bit of a tearjerker for sure.

Thoughts on Full Day, Every Day Kindergarten.

In our school board, they've instituted full-day, every day kindergarten this year. We decided that Austen wasn't ready to go to Junior Kindergarten last September (2010-2011), as his birthday is December 22 and he was still so young and just not ready for full day, every day kindergarten. However, he is much more ready now and will be going to Senior Kindergarten this coming September. It's going to be interesting as we attended an open house last week and he literally didn't say a word until we were back in the van. So shy. We've also got the baby due at the start of school so things are going to be interesting around here with all the changes.

Interestingly enough, I was talking to one of the Kindergarten teachers (I had her daughter in my daycare for a few years) and she mentioned that the Director of ______ did not want the Kindergarten teachers doing interviews with parents and incoming kindergarteners before school starts. I couldn't believe it.

Imagine little 3 year old Bobby getting off a huge yellow school bus on the first day of school, completely shy, and not knowing what to do, or say, or where to go. Imagine being the teacher, asking little Bobby what his name is and little Bobby is too shy and intimitated to answer. Weird scenario, don't ya think? I guess the teacher could check his backpack for a name but how weird is that? This teacher wouldn't even know anything about this child!

I don't know about you, but as a former teacher, I want to know what I can about the kids coming into my class, especially if they're only 3 or 4 years old! I'm not sure what this Director is thinking but to me he's not thinking like an educator!

Father's Day idea

IAN...PLEASE, DO NOT READ!!!


For Mother's Day and Father's Day we always do only homemade gifts. I was surfing the web and found this really great idea. So... need a super awesome great fantastic Father's Day gift? (Thought I'd share it)

Here's the link: click here.

Let me know if you end up doing this one...I'm curious!

Busy, Busy, Busy

I've been off the radar for a bit because things have been super busy around here.

For one, we've moved the oldest 2 to their own rooms. It's really nice that they each have their own space now, especially with the baby coming, they like being able to call a space their own. Austen's always shared a room, since he was a baby, so it's been a bit of an adjustment for him but we've put doorbells right by their bed so if they need us, they can ring the doorbell and it will ring in our room!

Megan chose pink and purple this time for her room. Here are the results: (and yes, her room is very messy because, of course, she had to play in her new room a lot right away)


Austen chose a "Diego" room, which has blue and white on the walls and a Diego border. Mason is getting the exact same replica in his own room. Austen's bunk bed was painted red (huge job!). Here are the results:


Ian worked super hard at laying the tiles for the path from the deck to the hot tub. It looks amazing! It took him a whole day but the results are awesome. Our inflatable hot tub looks great and it's nice and secluded behind the pool.


Ian also worked so hard at the play structure for the kids and getting that all ready. His dad and brother helped cut down a few trees one day and pull stumps another day. Then, Ian hauled sand and filled the sandbox. Huge job all together and it's massive. It's very similar to the play structure we had set up when I had the daycare at the other house but we decided that it's so much easier to have sand around the play structure than grass which has to be cut around.


Today we finally planted our garden. A bit late, but it's in.

The kids "helped". They each have their own little plot, separated by Dollar Store fences. We told the kids they could each pick any 3 seeds they wanted. Megan planted green beans, violets, and corn. Austen chose carrots, sunflowers, and cantaloupe (!). It'll be very interesting to see how it all turns out as they paraded through their plots several times, stamping on everything many times. Austen planted cantaloupe seeds which will take 3 months to grow (if they do), and VERY close together.



Mason has his own little plot in which he and I put a rectangle of popsicle sticks in which he planted a few seeds. 4 sunflowers are expected to grow. We'll see.... :) At least he won't be walking all over them or weeding through them with the popsicle stick fence around the seeds.



Enjoying some freezies after planting. The Motts Fruitsation ones are sooo good! They're made with 100% fruit and no added sugar. Love 'em.


The garden is way behind our house. It's actually in quite a nice little spot. Lots of sun. We have a little path between the trees that guides us into a big clearing, surrounded by trees. The actual garden ended up being much bigger than we originally planned but it's kind of good because we ended up planting a lot. My biggest thing that I was sooo excited for is having come across a red currant plant/shrub. I've been wanting red currants forever! Bought 3 right away. Here's hoping they'll do well in our newly prepared garden. Super excited!

We also planted green beans, carrots, yellow beans, cucumbers, broccoli, green and red peppers, lettuce, parsley, pumpkins, watermelon, and cantaloupe. We've got some corn as well and a few flowers for colour. And, of course, sunflowers. Also some strawberries, raspberries, and red currants. Can't wait to see if it'll take, since starting a garden is always kind of a gamble. You never know if the soil is good enough for the veggies to grow.

After planting the garden, and being eaten alive by the mosquitoes, we enjoyed some time in the hot tub. First time this year. It's just a small one, and it's an inflatable one so not a big purchase or anything, but it certainly does the trick! Very relaxing...

Then a perfect summer supper to finish off the day. BBQ chicken, salad, carrots, and potatoes. Hmmmm.... Aside from the mosquitoes and deer flies, a wonderful day.