The Accidental Boilermaker

Memorial day weekend we were in Carol Stream to see Meredith who was home for a wedding.  We took to the kids to the popcorn shop in Wheaton. Then we walked around town center in Carol Stream and found our family's brick. After church pictures. Memorial day we went to a bbq at Harper's house.  The kids got to run through the sprinklers and jump on the trampoline.  Then on Tuesday we met Harper and Willow at the zoo.   It was very hot outside so the kids loved playing in the sprayers. Today Evelyn went a birthday party for a boy from her class.  It was at build-a-bear and I didn't really know what to expect.  But it was very nice and Jameson didn't even seem to notice that he didn't get to build-a-bear like his sister.

We went on a nature hike this morning at Eagle marsh.  We had never been to the marsh before but I learned that once a month they have what they call "short hikes for short legs."  It's an hour long program with a different theme each month.  Today we learned about bird nests and the kids got to collect materials to build their own nest after the hike. We invited our friends Tamber and Natalya to join us for the hike.  Our guide, Mr. Don is pointing out an old bird nest in the bushes. Jameson did okay - I collected most of his nest materials, but he did walk the whole time.  It was pretty muddy in some parts, but the marsh actually has two huge racks of boots, in little and big sizes, that you can borrow so your shoes don't get dirty.   I would definitely go back to explore and hike more. Mr. Don pointing out milkweed and explaining how important it is to the monarch butterflies. Back at the barn, we assembled our ne...

Today was Evelyn's last day of school. Evelyn with her friend Adeline. Tonight was also the end of the year program for the preschool and preK.  Both classes recited the pledge of allegiance, the pledge of allegiance to the Christian flag, and the pledge of allegiance to the Bible.   The preschool acted out a skit they had written themselves.  It was about football players and princesses. Together, the preschool and preK recited the alphabet and alphabet sounds. Evelyn with her teacher Mrs. Plant.  She was a wonderful teacher.  Evelyn keeps saying she will miss Mrs. Plant and I think I will too. We finished the night with a trip to zesto's to celebrate the end of school and the start of summer.

We took a mini trip to the zoo today. We got there early but we clearly picked the wrong day. I think every school kid in Allen county was at the zoo for endangered species day. Everyone always goes to Africa first so we jumped ahead to Indonesia and beat a good number of the school groups.  Can’t miss a chance to ride the carousel.  Or take a picture with the Komodo dragon. I wasn’t going to take the stroller but Jameson insisted he wanted it and for that most part he rode in it and didn’t walk much (which considering how busy it was, wasn’t a bad thing).  By the time we made it to Africa the crowds had thinned out. And we caught the creature chat with the colobus monkeys.  The zoo has a new sign!  A nice lady offered to take our picture as we were leaving. 

We had a busy mother's day weekend.  I did my first River Bank run on Saturday so Friday we headed to Grand Rapids for packet pick-up. The weather for race day was less than ideal.  It was cold and dreary, but at least it wasn't pouring down rain.  I really enjoyed the race course and was very happy with my time. Training for a spring race is always challenging.  I ran in snow, rain, and lots of mud.  But it's worth it when you cross the finish line.  I was super thankful for Anna driving me to the race and getting us to the start; took a lot of that stress away. Mother's day morning we said goodbye to Pat and Paul and went to an early breakfast at a farm-to-table restaurant in Hudsonville.  Our food was very good and Evelyn and Jameson were mostly well behaved. Then we went to Windmill Island for my (and Evelyn and Jameson's) first Tulip Time experience.  Just this spring we bought a membership to our botanical garde...

We went to a story time nature walk today.  Evelyn brought her binoculars and was very excited to use them. The nature walk was wildflower themed.  Each family got a guide to help them identify flowers along the way. We walked the trillium trail and saw lots of trillium flowers. Nate's on his phone because he's trying to identify a bird.  The trail was a 0.5 mile loop and at the end the naturalist read The Giving Tree to the kids. After the story, on our own, we walked the 1 mile reflection trail to the pond.   Evelyn and Jameson did a good job.  While walking with the naturalist, Evelyn was super engaged.  Once we set off on our own, both kids got a little tired/lazy, but overall did a good job and seemed to enjoy being out in nature.