Trip to Minnesota!

We just got back from a wonderful trip to Minnesota. Jim had a conference to go to in Minneapolis and while he was there, I hung out in Rochester with some very dear friends from medical school who are completing their residency at the Mayo clinic. The kids and I had a blast hanging out with our friends and their two children Logan (8) and Maddie Ann (4). On Saturday Jim met back up with us and we were able to all spend time together before we took off on Sunday. Thanks for a wonderful and relaxing trip Ludwig Family!!

A day at the beach...

A couple weeks ago when my mom was here, we took the kids to the South Haven Beach and they had a blast! Ethan loved the waves and playing in the sand - he was freezing as soon as he got out of the water because of the wind so he spent most of the time playing in the waves. Caleb was more happy out of the water and putting sand all over our chairs and blanket :) There are defiantly more trips to the beach in our future! Thought this was a cute picture of my mom and Ethan

Happy 80th Birthday Grandma

Today my grandma Biener turns 80 and we want to wish her a very happy birthday!

Batman to the Rescue!

My mom bought these PJ's for Ethan when he was Caleb's age. I just love them and get a kick out of the cape that comes with them. Here are both of the boys sporting the Batman PJ's :)

Ethan

Caleb

Summer 2010 is flying by!

Whew...this summer is flying by! I have been a little behind on my postings so I am hoping to get caught up here. We have been doing a lot of outdoor activities and having a great summer! Here is a recap of the past couple weeks...

Last Thursday was the "Miranda Park Party" here in Kalamazoo. I thought that it would be fun to take the kids and see what it was all about. It was really aimed towards older kids, but Ethan had fun eating his free lunch, playing at the park, and watching Miranda give away prizes.

The Eggleston's invited us out to their house last week to catch up and to go swimming in their pool. Ethan had an exciting time swimming and an even greater time playing with the rafts and watching them swim in the water:) I enjoyed hanging out with my girl Amy, it had been awhile and it was so good to see her and all her family! Thanks so much!
Fun in the Sun!
This year we grew green beans and cherry tomatoes in our garden and the kids love to pick them and eat them as we are playing outside. I could not think of a healthier snack! Caleb is especially fond of the tomatoes, I am pretty sure than he has eaten about 85% of the ones that are picked!

The boys have been having a lot of fun with coloring, cutting, gluing, and stamping during the extremely hot or rainy days. Ethan has really been into cutting and gluing and makes some great masterpieces!Caleb completing his first art project which is hanging on our refrigerator!

Today we went blueberry picking with our playgroup and the boys ate way more than they picked, but that is the point at their age! We did manage to bring some home and Ethan wants to make blueberry buckle with them!Ethan had to get his picture taken with the tractorEthan had a blast picking the berries that were up high.This is how Caleb "picked" his blueberries.My boys and I picking blueberries!

Family Reunion

This past weekend we headed to Indiana for a family reunion. This is not just any family reunion, we make an entire weekend out of it and about 30+ people sleep in one cottage. We meet at my grandparents cottage on the lake, something that I have been doing every third weekend in July for my entire life and it never gets old. Now my children and husband are developing some great memories there and look forward to going every year with me. It is a whirlwind of a weekend as you can imagine with 30+ people under one roof, but that is what makes it memorable. Now that we are growing up and having families of our own, the place still manages to hold all of us, even if some have to sleep on that couch. It was a great time and the kids had a blast on this enormous water slide that goes right into the lake. Ethan who is rather shy, did not hesitate at all and was on that slide most of the weekend. Great times - until next year.....

Privacy

The popularity of this blog (thank you to everyone who visits) has led us to realize that it is time to address the privacy of our family. There is a lot of personal information on here, our entire lives and the pictures and names of all our friends and family members including pretty much everything we have done for the last 4 years.

We decided that we probably shouldn't make this information available to everyone who googles our last name (given Jim's profession). So, in 30 days or so we will be password protecting this blog which means that we need to input the email addresses of those who wish to view it.

If you enjoy keeping up on our family via this blog, please email Laurie your email address so she can send you an invite to view the blog after it is password protected.

Laurie's email:
ljastifer@yahoo.com

Sorry for the inconvenience

Happy 4th of July!

We had a great fourth of July weekend. Now that Jim is a 3rd year resident, he does not have to work as many holidays and actually had it off! We thought it would be fun to visit some friends from college who have two children, Matt and Christopher, right around Ethan and Caleb's age. We headed down to my grandma's cottage on Friday and spent the night. We headed the rest of the way on Saturday and spent the remaining part of the weekend with John and Katie and Katie's parents, who are so much fun! We had a wonderful time and the kids enjoyed playing with each other and the adults were able to catch up and relax. It was in the 90's so we were either outside playing in the water or inside with the AC, both of which were nice. The weekend went by way too fast! Thanks for a great weekend Stein family Ethan riding the hammock with great-grandma at the cottage! The kids were pretty exhausted by the end of a fun-filled weekend!

The Farm and the Zoo

Last week I took the boys to the Kalamazoo Nature Center for playgroup. Ethan was excited to see all the animals in the barn and learn where milk comes from. They had a class for young kids called "From Moo to Milk" with a bunch of different activities, stories, face-painting, and even milking a pretend cow.
The next day the boys and I met up with my good friend Angie and her children at John Ball Zoo and spent the morning there checking out the animals. Both Ethan and Caleb did a great job and were thrilled to see all the different animals there. I was even impressed! Both kids were asleep within minutes of leaving the parking lot.

Bike Riding

Ethan has been doing a great job riding his bike. So well that now the only way to keep up with him is to ride your bike with him. We have a seat on the back of my bike for Caleb, so we have been on many family bike rides so far this summer and I am sure that there are many more to come! (Except on these 90 degree days!). Off they go...

E-T-H-A-N

Ethan really wanted to write his own name the other day. So I took him downstairs and wrote his name and then made dots underneath. I told him to "connect the dots" and I was impressed at how well he did with no help from mom - way to go Ethan!