Jenny is 7!!!

It's hard to believe but my baby is 7! Jenny got spoiled with breakfast in bed this morning..eggs, sausage and a waffle (She ate half the waffle and one bite of sausage)

She got to open her presents first thing this morning, too! She got some littlest pet shop (which she loves) and a CD player for her room. Grandma and Grandpa Feenstra are coming out tonight and we'll go out to eat for dinner. She hasn't chosen where yet but we'll find somewhere that sings!!

She's having some friends over on Sat for a little party so it'll be a busy weekend! On Sunday, we'll be celebrating Anna's 2nd birthday so we're really having a party weekend!!

Here's some info on the birthday girl:

She was born March 27, 2001--she was due April 18--she came the day we were planning on moving out of the hotel into the house after the fire.

She was hospitalized with RSV when she was 2 weeks old

She was given powerful drugs when she was in ICU and has had power lungs ever since!

Her favorite color is pink.

Her favorite animal is cats.

Her favorite thing to do is color.

Her favorite food is Spaghetti.

Her favorite friends are Taryn, Ali and Erin.

She wants to draw cats when she's grown up.

and finally...

Her family loves her and wishes her a fun birthday!

SPRING??

I think it might be getting closer to Spring! Look what's outside my window...

Did you learn something new today?

What did you learn today? We went to a Maple Syrup Festival and we learned that Maple Sap flows about 3 weeks out of the year. We learned that the temp of the air affects the flow of sap. We learned that the perfect temp for sap is 40's during the day and below freezing at night.

Here's what Maple Sap looks like...

We got to taste it as it came out of the tree...it tasted like water with the tiniest hint of sugar in it.

They told us that it takes 40 gallons of Maple sap to make 1 gallon of Maple Syrup--no wonder it's $65 per gallon!

It's a very long process to heat the sap and evaporate the water out of it. Some of the major collectors have lines running from the trees to a collection place so they don't have to collect buckets, etc.

We went to Fenner Nature Center to the Maple Syrup Festival with Jenny's Girl Scout troop. She has 9 girls right now and 5 were able to make it...

So far they are all liking the meeting and the outings. We had a fun day and we really learned a lot about making Maple Syrup. We did get to try a drop of real Maple Syrup. My girls did not like it since we are pretty used to lite!!

Fun in T.C.

We just got back from a fun weekend in Traverse City. Our youth group went to the Grand Traverse Resort for a Youth Conference so Dave drove a van of kids up, since he's a youth leader. He stayed with the boys and they formed a dodge ball team. (I have a picture but it's not letting me upload it!) The won the first game in a great game but lost the second game with great dissappointment. They were a little frustrated as the 2nd team seemed a little dishonest when there were hit. They had fun, though!

Meanwhile, I drove our van up with myself and the girls. I was an elevator monitor and the girls came because our babysitter (Aunt Gail) was sick! All four of us slept in a room with one king size bed. Jenny had her sleeping bag so she slept on the floor, Kelly and Abbey alternated nights-one in bed with me, one sleeping on a chair-footstool-chair combo.

I took the girls down to the pool when ever I could. We ended up going 3 times total for almost 2 hrs a time. I had a few long breaks between elevator duty! I tried to do several shift when the girls were in bed so I had some late nights and early mornings. And yes, I rode the elevator up and down for 1/2 hr pushing the floor buttons so the kids wouldn't get in there and push all the buttons. Most of the time, the time went quick and the kids were pleasant to talk to. At a midnight shift, I did have a drunk couple that had some not so nice words to say about the kids and me! Thankfully, they were on the 4th floor and not the 15th floor! I did most of my shifts in the glass elevator so I was able to see beautiful sunsets and sunrises!

It was a fun weekend but I am tired! I'm ready for bed already and it's only 7:30 (6:30 before the time change!)

Valentine's Day Tradition

We went to dinner at Cheddar's tonight! Our tradition for 16 years! Dave and I came to Lansing on Valentine's Day for a job fair (where he got hooked up with Auto-Owners which brought us to Lansing right after we got married) and we went to dinner at Cheddar's and got engaged!!

We started taking the kids a few years ago and now we can't go without them! It's our tradition!

So here's Dave with his Valentine girls...

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Another Snow Day?!

This is the view out our window right now. This morning we had just a dusting left from our snow day on Friday. Today, we are expected to get 4-6-8-10 inches (depends on who you listen to at any specific moment!)

I drove home from work at 1:30p.m. and slid onto our street. We had maybe an inch. I left a few minutes early to pick up Kelly at 2:30 and the roads were quite a bit worse, more sliding! The school let the kids out early so the buses could get a head start so they wouldn't be so late picking up the elementary kids. I had to mail a letter and drop off a girl down the street so we were probably gone for about 20 minutes. My tire tracks in the driveway were already filled in when we got home.

I went to pick up the elementary kids early and dropped off a few more kids and by the time we got home, my tracks were filled in again.

It's snowing non-stop! We'll see if we have school tomorrow. It will depend on when the snow stops!

Dave is on his way home from Swartz Creek right now...we'll see how long it takes him! We're praying for a safe ride for him! (And for another snow day!)

Snow Day!

We had the day off of school yesterday--due to 7 inches of snow! We played outside for a little bit and then went to a nearby park and went sledding! We were the first ones there with the fresh snow so we made new trails with our sleds! It was so fun. We ended up with a lapfull of snow by the time we got to the end of the hill.

It was also our friend, Sydney Riekse's 12th birthday so we brought our spa stuff over to their house and spent the afternoon soaking, scrubbing and putting lotion on our feet. (Well, I did it to the girls feet!)

Today, we are heading out to do a fun badge for Abbey's girlscouts called Frosty Fun where we play in the snow! A perfect day for it!