Music, Monkeys And More

Last week Rebecca and Mommy were on their own while Daddy traveled to France.  We tried to keep busy while he was gone.  Here is what went on.

We spent a lot of time playing, building with blocks, exploring outside and just having fun.

Rebecca had her first day of Kindermusik.  The theme this year is Milk And Cookies.  She had so much fun!  We have a larger class again this year, and got to meet some new friends.  It's amazing to see how much Rebecca has changed from last year.  She is now one of the oldest kids in the class.  She participates so well.  She follows directions.  She answered every question Miss Lynette asked during story time.  She actually sat still on the story blanket through the whole story instead of wandering around, trying to sit on Miss Lynette's lap, etc.  She sang along to the songs she knew.  She is so independent.  It's fun to watch her learn and grow.

Mommy had an appt. with her psychologist.  Rebecca loves that...she gets to play with a doll house.  And she was especially excited because she got to pick out a present for doing so well with potty training.  Rebecca picked a game of jacks...just like Sister Bear plays in The Bernstein Bears :)

Giving George a kiss and a hug.

Yesterday morning we went to the Grand Rapids Children's Museum to see the Curious George exhibit.  Rebecca LOVES CG.  It was pretty obvious too...when she saw the George statue (bigger than Rebecca) she ran right up to it and planted a big kiss on his lips :)  We went with Grandpa and Grandma Holleboom, Uncle Kevin, Aunt Sara, Carson and Uncle Dan.  We all had a lot of fun exploring and playing.  Rebecca and Carson probably could have kept playing for hours.  We headed back to our house with everyone for lunch.  When we got here the power was out.  Thankfully it came back on after about a half hour.  After getting a little food in their bellies Rebecca and Carson played and played and ran and ran.  They were like two peas in a pod :)  Rebecca was sad when Carson had to leave.  But hopefully we'll get to see them again in a few weeks.  Rebecca got so worn out from all of the playing and excitement...a little too worn out.  She was so over tired that she couldn't sleep.  So she was pretty tired by the end of the day.  But we stayed up long enough to welcome Daddy home!  Rebecca was excited to see him and get a couple fun souveniers.  She liked the chocolate he brought home too :)  By the time we visited with Daddy for a bit Rebecca was about bouncing off the walls from being over tired.  Hopefully she'll catch up on sleep today :)

Rebecca continues to learn and grow every day.  She is becoming a very good singer.  She knows so many songs and loves to sing along to her CDs using her microphone.  Rebecca is experimenting with loud and soft lately.  She'll whisper as softly as she possibly can (barely audible)...then yell something out.  She thinks it's pretty funny.  She is still a great eater.  Her current favorites are bacon, cauliflower and brussels sprouts.  And she tried balogna yesterday.  She's pretty fond of that too now.  The one thing we still don't understand is that she sometimes doesn't think it's necessary to actually chew and swallow her food.  She'll hold a piece of food in her cheek for 20, even 30 minutes!  We constantly remind her to chew.  Eventually she does.  Maybe she just wants to save it for later :P  Rebecca continues to make good progress with potty training.

Outside or inside...it's nice to have a snack handy :P

Rebecca has now graduated from nursery.  Today is her first day in Little Lambs.  It is a class for 2-3 year olds during the whole church service.  They play, hear a Bible story and get a snack.  We think she'll love it.  Rebecca will also be in a class at MOPS this year (starting in October).  No more nursery for our big girl.

That's what we've been up to lately.  We're looking forward to taking it easy today, catching up on sleep and hearing all about Daddy's trip.

John Ball Zoo

 Looking at the huge crocodile

On Saturday we took a trip to John Ball Zoo.  We hadn't been there all summer.  Rebecca loves looking at animals.  It was fun to see her interested in everything this year.  Her favorite part was a ride with Daddy on a camel!  After the zoo we had a little picnic at JB Park and watched the ducks and geese.

In the afternoon Rebecca and Daddy spent some time in the pool.  Rebecca is loving the water more and more.  No head dunking yet, but other than that she's pretty fearless :)

Fun At the Beach

Last Friday we took a trip to the beach at Holland State Park.  This was our first time at the beach this summer...and likely our last.  We had a great time!  Rebecca and Mary drove out after Rebecca's nap.  We played in the water for a while and then Justin joined us (came right from work).  Last summer we could hardly get Rebecca to touch the water.  This year that's all she wanted to do...play in the water.  She liked to go out as far as Mommy or Daddy could, holding her.  She's not too interested in swimming yet.  But she does like the water.  We spent most of our time in the water.  Then we built sand castles on the beach.  After getting cleaned up we had a picnic and watched the boats go by.  We took a little walk up part of the pier.  And then enjoyed ice cream cones while watching the waves.  It was a fun Friday afternoon/evening.

Earlier in the week we spent some time at the park and the library.  We had hoped to go to the zoo on Saturday, but it was too rainy.  We still had a fun day, though...we got a surprise visit from my sister, brother-in-law, niece and nephews!  It was a short visit, but Rebecca still had so much fun playing with her cousins.  It was nice to have a few minutes to visit and see how big Jonah is getting :)  If the weather is nice hopefully we can still get to the zoo this Saturday.  And Rebecca and Mary are looking forward to visiting the GR Children's Museum in a few weeks to see the Curious George exhibit with Aunt Sara, Uncle Kevin, Carson and possibly Grandpa and Grandma Holleboom.  We are also excited for Justin to get to take a trip to France in a couple weeks.  We'll miss him, but will look forward to hearing all about it.

Aside from our outings we're having plenty of fun at home building with blocks, playing with little people, painting and playing in the sandbox.  And Rebecca is making progress on potty training...trying underwear a few times :)

Vacation 2010 - Wisconsin Dells and Grandpa and Grandma Voogt's Farm

Last week we went on our summer vacation to Wisconsin.  We left Monday morning and drove to Wisconsin Dells.  We got there in the late afternoon/early evening, checked into our hotel and walked to a local park to stretch our legs and let Rebecca run around.  It was very hot and humid, but she still loved it.  After the park we walked to Mimi's American Grill for dinner.  Rebecca had her first taste of "regular" milk she's had in a long time.  And immediately said it smelled like cheese :P  And the rest of the trip she called the milk she drank (at restaurants and Grandma's house) "cheese milk."  Rebecca is very fond of her Mooville milk :)  After dinner we relaxed in our room for a bit.  Then we walked around downtown (just a few blocks away).  We went to the Bavarian Village and watched the story of the Pied Piper.  And we shared some ice cream.

Tuesday morning we drove to Baraboo to go to Circus World.  First we went to the Kid's Interactive Circus.  Rebecca is a little too young to participate, but she really enjoyed watching all the other kids pretend to be tigers, elephants, magicians and ring masters.  Then we walked around for a bit.  Next was the Tiger Adventure Show.  Rebecca liked watching them do tricks.  Then we went to the Big Top Circus Performance.  A one ring circus with lots of fun acts.  Rebecca loved the dogs, the elephants, the juggling and the clown.  She could not get enough of Jessi the clown and would keep asking where she was if she wasn't on stage.  Rebecca was happy to get to meet her and take a picture with her after the show.  There were many more events/shows in the afternoon, but we had our fill of the circus for the day.  We stopped at a local park for a picnic lunch and then went back to our hotel for nap time.  In the afternoon we went to the Tommy Bartlett Water Show (Ski Sky Stage).  It started with a half hour skit/water ski show.  That was our favorite part.  Especially Rebecca...since she got to see another clown :)  The second half was filled with various performers - juggling, acrobatics, comedy.  After the show we went right to dinner at Buffalo Phil's Pizza and Grille.  It was a late show/late dinner, so after that it was time to head back, spend a few minutes on the hotel playground and go to bed.

Wednesday morning we started our day early so we could catch the first ride on the Duck boats.  We weren't sure if the weather would hold out, so we wanted to squeeze in what we could in the morning in case it started raining later.  We all really enjoyed the boat ride.  It was neat to go from land to water and back to land.  And to see some beautiful scenery.  Rebecca was interested at first, but then got sleepy part way through and just laid on Mommy.  After the boat ride we headed down the street to the Tommy Bartlett Exploratory Interactive Science Center.  That was a really neat place with tons of hands on activities.  Although I think Mommy and Daddy may have enjoyed it a little more than Rebecca :)  That's what you get when you put two engineers in a science center.  We stopped in the gift shop to let Rebecca pick out a couple souveniers.  She chose a purse, a small stuffed animal cow and a magnet with her name on it.  Then we went back to the hotel for a quick dip in the pool and lunch.  After nap we walked around downtown and shopped for souveniers.  We picked up some WI fudge, got a couple things for Rebecca and a birthday present for Grandma Voogt.  Then we walked to dinner at Carvelli's Pizza and Pasta House.  Rebecca was very excited to get ham pizza :)  After dinner we played at the hotel and got most of our stuff packed.

Thursday morning we left the Dells and headed to Hilbert to visit Grandpa and Grandma Voogt.  It was a shorter trip than we expected, so we were there by 10:30 am.  We walked around the farm to see the animals and played inside for a while.  Grandpa came home from work in time for lunch.  After nap we just played and did stuff around the farm.  We couldn't be outside for very long because of all of the mosquitos.  But Rebecca did get to play with the kitties.  She couldn't get enough of them.  And did not hesitate at all to go right up and pick them up :)

Friday morning we went to Mulberry Lane Farm to see lots of animals.  It was on and off raining, but we still had  a great time.  Rebecca got to hold a chicken, pet chicks, ducklings, turkeys, goats and sheep, feed some animals, milk a cow and take a pony ride.  She LOVED the pony ride.  She had a huge grin on her face as soon as the pony started walking.  When we got back it was time for lunch and nap.  In the evening Rebecca played and had dinner with Grandpa and Grandma.  Justin and Mary got to go out for dinner...a real date to finally celebrate our anniversary.  We really enjoyed some time alone while Rebecca got to spend quality time with Grandpa and Grandma.  When we got back it was time to pack a few things and put Rebecca to bed.

Saturday morning we left for home.  We made our usual lunch stop at an oasis in Chicago.  Rebecca has now learned that it's fun to run from one end to the other...and make Mommy or Daddy go chasing after her.  She has come close to running right out the automatic doors and into the parking lot a couple times :P  She sure is getting fast.  We got back around 5 pm.  The first item on Rebecca's agenda when we got back...play in the sandbox and collect rocks :P  A bath was the next thing on the list.  We had dinner, unpacked and relaxed.

We had a wonderful trip.  We saw and did many fun things.  We made great memories.  We enjoyed our time on the farm as always with our wonderful hosts.  We came home with some fun souveniers and a "few" extra mosquito bites :P  It was fun, but it sure feels good to be home :)