Rookie

Madeline was invited to her first non-family, non-family friend birthday party.  Her little friend from preschool was turning four and invited all the little girls from her class.  I have to admit, I was probably more nervous than she was.  Silly as it was, I had SO many questions.  Do I stay with her?  Do I drop her off? What does she wear?  What kind of present do I bring?

I felt like such a rookie mom!  It had been a long time since I felt that, probably the day Madeline was born!  So, I thought back to when I had birthday parties.  I remember a picture of my third birthday party with all my friends in their party frocks and black mary janes eating cake around my parents table.  There were no other parents in sight.  So, I dressed Madeline up in her church dress, cute shoes and decided I wasn't going to stay.  I bought a couple small little gifts and wrapped them up.  I took a deep breath and drove Madeline to the party.

As I pulled up to the house, there were numerous cars there.  I walk in and ALL THE MOMS ARE THERE.  In fact, one of the moms is actually participating...she's face painting all the girls faces!!  I walk in a little further and another mom is helping all the little girls with a project!!  As the party goes on, it gets more crafty and more educational and I am feeling more and more behind the times.  As the party wrapped up, the party favors were handed out and I couldn't believe the loot Madeline came home with. She may as well have been the birthday girl.

Don't get me wrong, the party was super cute and Madeline had a great time.  The only questions I have left are:  are ALL parties like this now???  and do I have to go next time???  :)

Madeline post party

I {heart} our camera

pinch my cheeks!

playing in the sunshine

sisters!

always reaching for something!

thinking of her next move

naughty!

her tower :)

Florida

Ah yes, Florida. Each morning on the lobby chalkboard we were greeted with the high temp and low temperature for the day. Can you see what it says?? 51 degrees. No, that's not the low. It was the high for all three days we were there. Not the best weather for vacation, but....

the beautiful hotel and fun things we did totally made up for it. See how cute this hotel is? It was featured  on the Today Show and I booked it the day I saw it! All the rooms looked like they could have been out of an Anthropologie catalogue. I mean, look at the cute fire pit and chairs. They even built the fire for us :)

And the view...dreamy! Even though we couldn't swim in the ocean, we stared at it all day and walked its sandy beaches. We found lots of sea shells and took in the sunshine that felt warmer than here in Michigan!

The girls loved the beach, fire pit, Tampa's aquarium and running around! For more info on where we stayed, go to postcardinn.com

My Millie

My Millie--10 months.

I just love this picture of her, she looks so cute!

What a difference...

a year makes! Above is Madeline on Thanksgiving 2009. She is so much taller now and has lost a little of her "baby face." She wasn't potty trained and certainly hadn't been anywhere for an extended period of time without a parent or grandparent. Her favorite activities were riding her bike, watching Sesame Street and Dora and scribbling all over her coloring books with her crayons. This time last year, I was five months pregnant with Millie and I knew she was a girl, however I didn't have a name picked out yet.

Fast forward to this year. I have two beautiful girls. Millie is now almost eight months old. She can just about get up on all fours to try and crawl, however she prefers to be held. She loves to make growling noises and adores her sister. She also likes to yank on Rocco's ears and feel his furry coat. Madeline has been potty trained for quite some time now and attends preschool twice a week. She even stays for lunch there from time to time. She can draw smiley faces and loves anything to do with pirates, Spiderman and Superman. She can frequently be found wearing her Superman shirt and Thomas the Train hat. She loves to make her sister laugh.

We are lucky, blessed, happy, whatever you want to call it. Above all, we are THANKFUL. I could list everything we are thankful for, but it would be too long (maybe another day as I think it's a good practice :)). I know that God has blessed in amazing ways, especially in the form of the two cuties above.

I still Paul Boersma's message to us at our wedding: do not forget the Lord your God. He reminded us of two things: to surround us with community and to always give thanks to God. It was a beautiful message, based on Deuteronomy 6: 4-12

Attention, Israel! God, our God! God the one and only! 5 Love God, your God, with your whole heart: love him with all that's in you, love him with all you've got! 6 Write these commandments that I've given you today on your hearts. Get them inside of you 7 and then get them inside your children. Talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street; talk about them from the time you get up in the morning to when you fall into bed at night. 8 Tie them on your hands and foreheads as a reminder; 9 inscribe them on the doorposts of your homes and on your city gates. 10 When God, your God, ushers you into the land he promised through your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to give you, you're going to walk into large, bustling cities you didn't build, 11 well-furnished houses you didn't buy, come upon wells you didn't dig, vineyards and olive orchards you didn't plant. When you take it all in and settle down, pleased and content, 12 make sure you don't forget how you got there - God brought you out of slavery in Egypt.

Let it be know we haven't forgotten!

Downtown 2

I am going to continue my little series about downtown Kalamazoo! We love to live in Kalamazoo and especially love downtown. We ventured to the main drag to participate in the annual Holiday Parade.

Once again, this is a {free} event! This year they asked you to bring canned goods and non-perishable items for the local food banks. Pretty easy admission! We originally planned on sitting with our group from church, but as we walked in, my friend from work and her kids had FRONT ROW seats! We snuggled up with them! There were five local marching bands and three or four large balloon creatures (as featured above!). As the different floats go by, they throw candy to the kids. A special shout out to the sweet grandma next to us who would grab the candy and give it to Madeline! All in all, another fun time downtown Kalamazoo!