Happy Fourth of July

Great-Grandma

We had a surprise birthday party for Joe's grandma's 95th birthday!!

June 4 birthday girls :-).  So special that these two special little girls share a birthday with their Great-Gram! 

Easter

We were surprised on Easter when we arrived home from church to find an Easter egg hunt!  We didn't know who it was from, but turns out that our sweet neighbors across the street from us did it!  The kids loved it!  What a great idea that was.  We then went to lunch and Grandpy and Gigi's and had an egg hunt there too.  And at night, we went to Grandpa and Grandma's and had yet another hunt there! 

This isn't on Easter, just a cute one of Gibs and Greta holding hands watching tv in the morning.   They ofen watch a show while I get Layla on the bus. 

We've been loving the nice weather recently--lots of lunchtime on the deck!

Egg hunt at Grandpa and Grandma's...



At Grandpy and Gigi's...




Grandpy and Gigi with all their grandkiddos (plus a few that aren't officially grandkids)...




Love these three amigos!

Palm Sunday

I love seeing the kids wave their palm branches and sing for Palm Sunday.  The kids did enjoy it even though they don't look like it in the pictures :-).

Mother's Day

Our tulips came in really pretty this year.  Now we just need to get landscape!  This little frog hung out on this leaf all day the other day.

The house that my grandpa (and great-grandparents) grew up in is going to be torn down soon in order to put up the new power plant in Holland.  We thought it'd be fun to get a picture by it before it gets torn down.  I really wish we had a picture of it from when my grandpa lived there.  No one seems to know where those old pictures would be.  It is my dad's dad that lived their with his parents.

Mother's Day pic...

I love Greta's face here.  I'm sure she was saying something like, "No picture!  Me no smile!!"

We gave the grandma's hand print garden stones this year for a gift and made one for our house too.

A few weeks before Mother's Day we walked through the house with my uncle, dad and cousin.  We were able to get permission to go through it.  All the houses in that area are empty and boarded up, ready to be torn down. 

Springtime Fun

We still haven't found a lawn mower, so we've been borrowing Joe's dad's.   The kids think it's great fun to ride on it with Joe.

I was surprised to see that Greta fell asleep on it after a short little ride around the house!

It is so funny to see the kids' drive this car.  It's really Gibs' car and he loves it.  It is SO slow, but when he rides it, you can tell he feels like he's going as fast as McQueen :-).  And it's a good car for Greta to practice on since it can only go on concrete.  She can't hit too many things that way :-).

Harper showed up the other week in the same shirt that Greta had on.  Normally, if they dress alike it's because one copies what the other is wearing.  This was actually a coincidence :-).  The girls I think will be more like sisters growing up because they see each other so much.  It's fun having Harper come every Tuesday.  Gibs also enjoys having Harper come--another little girl to be silly with and share his bad ideas with :-).   Yesterday, I heard Gibs say, "Put the blanket over your heads, then mom won't even know."  Me:  "What won't I know Gibs?"  Gibs: "Oh, nothing you need to worry about, Mom."  Greta:  "Shower on my head mama!"  Apparently, Gibs was sprinkling the girls' heads with water out of a water bottle.  They thought it was great fun :-).

It's rare that Greta gets more than a few moments to herself--especially in the bathtub.  She was excited the other night when she got a tub and the other two took showers in our bathroom.  She, however, was not so excited when Layla and Gibs interrupted her bath by sticking their feet in her water after they were done with their showers.  I love her little grumpy face here :-).

They love their umbrellas!

I got to experience Fun Night for the first time as a parent.  Not quite as fun as when you're kid, but the kids loved it.

Layla's favorite part was probably the face paint.  The other two didn't want their faces painted.

I was going to put Greta down for her nap the other day and discovered that she was already napping. :-)  She doesn't often fall asleep on the couch.