Happy Valentine's Day!

This morning I was contemplating how I wished I was the mom that made their kids heart-shaped pancakes for breakfast or heart-shaped cupcakes or really heart shaped anything when I began to realize that maybe I am just not that mom. And then at lunchtime I realized I could make them heart-shaped grilled cheese sandwiches. Hurray.
I do love holidays and traditions, but it is sometimes overwhelming to me when I realize I'm in charge of all that...I much prefer to be a part of something that someone else does for me :) I remember getting Valentine's Day cards and small gifts from my parents as a kid that just magically appeared on the kitchen table and I loved that. I did pick up a few small things for Matt and the kids - books and small treats - so I need to pull that together during naptime and before Matt gets home from work. What about you...do you have any special V-Day traditions?

Now I'm off to contemplate how I wish I was the wife that cooked a special romantic Valentine's Day dinner for her husband...unfortunately I don't think I'm that wife either. (But I am good at ordering take-out!)

the 4th

We spent our 4th of July in Grandville watching Matt play basketball...again (just try to keep us away from a 3-on-3 tourney). We also managed to catch the parade and spend some time with friends (lunch with Katie and Ernie at Katie's grandparents' house) and family (Matt played with his brothers Chad and Brett). The eight hours we devoted to basketball that day paid off because the boys went undefeated and took first place.


We spent the rest of the weekend with my family at my parents' condo on Lake Michigan. The kids swam and swam and played on the beach. Now back to real life - loads of laundry and tired kids :).

Our Weekend

We are finishing up one of the most relaxing long weekends I can remember in a long time. We kept things pretty simple and stayed close to home which was nice. It's fun to travel around too but not always very relaxing with two little ones.

Friday we worked in the yard and Matt spread the six yards of bark we had piled in our driveway. That evening we had our friends Katie and Ernie and Derk and Bethany (+ kids) for a grill out and a camp fire.

Saturday we took it easy again, and in the evening Matt and I had a date night to celebrate our anniversary - dinner at Rose's in East Grand Rapids.

Sunday we took the kids to John Ball Zoo, and the kids got a kick out seeing the animals, especially the tiger, monkeys, and the goats. In the evening, we took a bike ride to the new ice cream place in town, Scoop's, and we're happy to say it's a very nice 2 1/2 mile bike ride from our house. Ella enjoyed her first entire ice cream cone.


Today, we woke up early to watch Matt run in the Jenison Ambucs 5K (Chad, Yesenia, and Dad T. also ran). It was quite the feat to get the kids up and out of the house by 7:45 but we did it and the kids were excited to watch Daddy start and finish. He beat his previous time and made it in just under 22 minutes. We went straight to the Jenison parade after that and the kids caught and ate tons of candy. This was Ella's first parade and she was happy to figure out that people were throwing her candy. She quickly learned to open it and get it in her mouth really fast before Mom and Dad noticed. We went to Grandpa and Grandma A.'s for brunch and then came home and we ALL took three hours naps (heaven!). Our last activity of the weekend was Aunt Cara's 15th birthday party - more eating and playing outside for the kids.



Hope you all had wonderful holiday weekends too!