St. Nicholas Party

Okay, so our party took place neither on St. Nicholas Eve nor St. Nicholas Day, but close enough.

Every year the adults of the family exchange a gift basket filled with all those Christmasy things we don't buy for ourselves.
I believe it is all of our favorite traditions.
This year all the grand kids got a "movie" themed gift basket with a ticket to see a movie over the holidays.

If Jonge seems a bit less than excited in the pictures, he was coming down with a headache and fever.
You know, it isn't a holiday of someone isn't sick.

The rest of us were fine and enjoyed the festivities immensely.

Oldest Son and Daughter-in-law.
Oldest Son is still recovering from a horrific ear infection that sent him to the ER one night last week. 

Youngest Son and Hertsje

Son-in-law, father of many

Broeder, who hasn't yet noticed the movie ticket so isn't impressed - yet.

Daughter, enjoying the party!
Do notice the lack of snow.

Everyone was present.
A few have learned that if you don't want to be in Beppe's pictures, sit by her.

It is tradition to give gift baskets, EAT A LOT, and decorate cookies!

This is the moment we all hope that no one else is about to develop a fever.

Fun times.
And a great dessert!
We had a dessert, but after frosting cookies and eating them, no one wanted any!

A good time was had by all, although you can't always tell from the pictures, so you will have to take my word for it! 

Play and Work

So this happened again.

We went back to Meijer Gardens!

Where Kado was almost stepped on by the American Horse.

This boy LOVES posing.

I took a picture of the five of them on the hill overlooking the Japanese Garden.

I am VERY far away. Wasn't sure I was going to get everyone's faces but it looks like I did!

Based on how well everyone is enjoying the gardens, I think we may have to purchase a membership every year.
It has already paid for itself.

THGGM and I were absolutely exhausted after walking around so much.

Not so much these guys.

Jonge used a ladder to retrieve an errant baseball from the gutters and pointed out how much gunk was in them.

Well, the rest is history!

These two brothers worked very diligently to empty the gutters of all that gunk, even finding a varied array of interesting bugs.

This brother worked on clean-up duty.

THGGM compensated them for their work.

Famke did not feel compelled to join in.

She told us she has birthday money so she doesn't need to work.

And alone time in the pool is much more alluring for her anyway.

That was Monday.

It would appear that a good time was had by all.

Birthday Game-Night

 



MOSTLY it was game night.
Of course, we also had pizza, a plethora of snacks, and strawberry shortcake for the Birthday Pake!

Someday, we may actually get better at doing this.
The only game I played was Scrabble, but that was on my laptop, against Daughter, who was at the time playing a different game across the room from me.
Son-in-law didn't play either, he watched games instead.
We accept all manner of game players here!
Kado likes to make up the rules using various games.
Surprisingly enough, it was Feintje who kept winning!
Famke was the winner of Yahtzee, and that is about all I kept track of.
I'm at that stage in life where I ask people what they want to eat/drink then I walk into the kitchen and can't remember ANYTHING.  It's annoying for everyone.  Yet, I must wonder, how is it that I don't forget that this happens?  No.  I remember that.  Just not who wants what to drink, and if you specify a particular color bowl it is impossible for me to remember, even if you ALWAYS use the same color bowl at my house.  Perhaps it is just the noise level.  One wonders.

Oh, wait!  I remember NOW.  I DID play a game tonight.
I believe it is called Mad Gab, or something like that.
Someone reads a name, or phrase, or title, phonetically and the players guess what it actually is.
It is hilarious.
Especially at the late hour of 8:45 when your bedtime is  9:00.

Yes.
It really is THAT funny.

And that was THGGM's birthday.
I had a GREAT time.
Hope he did too!

Today We Celebrated a Birthday!

Today is THGGM's birthday!
He started his day by waking up to MY alarm, donating plasma, and then grocery shopping for his own party.
See?  I planned all kinds of fun things for him to do!
After that he had a cup of pumpkin spice coffee, and he drove me around to two of my favorite thrift stores.  Could I help it that his birthday fell on a Saturday?
After that, we got to stay with this boy while the rest of his family went to a wedding.
And we had SOOO much fun!

It was warm and muggy, not to mention extremely buggy, but there are some things one just must do at Lake Michigan.
Yes!  We got to go to THE cottage, where Broeder's family was staying for the weekend.

Not too many leaves had turned color yet, but the beach was bigger.

Broeder spent most of his beach time attempting to drag this log out of the water.
It wasn't budging.
But that did not stop him from trying!

It was misty when we first headed down the steps to the beach, but it didn't take too long before the sun appeared.
Isn't that pretty?

 Since Broeder is now in full-time daycare we do not get to see so much of him, so it truly WAS special, and a wonderful birthday present for THGGM to spend an afternoon at the beach with this boy.

 He even obliged me by reading Finding Nemo to me.

But as always, it's Pake that the grand kids all go crazy about.
It's like I just come along for the ride or something.
I'm not complaining!

When the time was right, we helped Broeder get ready to go to the "wedding party" (reception).
Although I frequently tell you that I rarely attempt to pose children, I DID try to get a nice picture of Broeder in front of the fireplace.
He was happy to do so, as long as I let him drag along the box from his little cousin's birthday present, which he had filled up with blocks and puzzles from around the room.
Nope.  He wouldn't let go of that.

So that was THGGM's birthday afternoon.
It was incredibly fun to play with this delightful three year old.
And then we went home and got ready for tonight's Birthday Game-Night Party!

Annual Independence Day Breakfast

 I have a fairly good idea what other people do on their July 4th celebrations, but I'm not particularly fond of doing those things.

Crowds and noise are things I avoid like the plague.

But I DO like family and I DO like to eat, so the Annual Independence Day Breakfast is what I enjoy.

Then, for the rest of the day I like to sit around.

I always miss my mom on the 4th of July.

THGGM and my dad used to take the kids to the parade while mom and I made Christmas cards all after noon.  It's just not the same without her.

But she wouldn't want me whining about that, so I'll try not to.

We ended up needing to add an extra table to hold all the food!

Our menu rarely varies, but a few things do get added and subtracted each year.

This year our menu consisted of:
Fresh fruit
Yogurt with homemade granola
Blueberry muffins
Cream cheese almond Danish
Sausages
Broccoli, ham, and cheese quiche
Green chili and co-jack cheese quiche with fresh salsa
Milk, coffee, and orange/pineapple juice

Tonight THGGM and I will watch fire-works.

But we will do that from the comfort of our own driveway.

This just maybe the last year for that.  Not sure how tall the new school is going to be!

(These picture were taken by Daughter, I just moved them from Facebook to here!)

Birthday Party for Kado and Feintsje

 

Today was another nearly perfect summer day in West Michigan.
Warm and sunny, yet not humid at all.  
And there was plenty of great food and exciting presents too!

But once the presents were opened, it was hard to take pictures of the birthday boys who had new things to play with!
Thankfully, there were also TWO new cousins on Son-in-laws side of the family who aren't into the moving around stage yet.
This is Famke with her nine month old cousin.

Daughter has the perfect yard for entertaining children.
Fenced in, things to climb on, room to run around.  If I were the jealous type, I'd be jealous of her yard.  

Uncle Oldest Son kept the swings moving.

The view is better from up high!

 
I didn't get a picture of them, but Jonge found two trophies at the thrift store this morning, and wrapped them up for his brothers.
He said his brothers saw his All Star trophy and they each wanted one soooo badly, so he picked out a T-ball trophy for Feintsje and a baseball trophy for Kado.
They could not believe it when they opened them up!  So much excitement!
And I kept my mouth shut about how trophies should be EARNED and just let him give his little brothers something that they truly wanted.
I'm learning.
I don't have to weigh in on EVERYTHING.
 

Daughter also had amazing goody bags for the kid guests.
Even silly string!
Here Youngest Son is teaching his daughter the fine art of shooting silly string.
I did take a lot of pictures of that, but mostly everyone was just a blur.  

And this is Famke with her six month old cousin.  I'm not sure why they aren't smiling, as everyone was very happy!
In our family we have FIVE birthdays in June.  This is a dream come true for me, as I used to be the only one.  Then came Daughter-in-law1, followed by Kado, Feintsje, and Broeder.