Stella is Four!

 In honor of Stella's fourth birthday, Nana and Papa broke out their last candle from China.

 It lets out quite a stream of fire,

 then the flower opens and it starts playing a high pitched version of the Happy Birthday song, which continues for a couple of hours unless you pull out the wires.

One of Stella's presents was a new doll.

 Henry's track stays put together for 20 minutes at a time, then he rips into individual pieces.  I wait and only fix it every couple of days to discourage this...it isn't working so far.

 Henry was Jer's helper this weekend with spreading bark.

 He had his own shovel and wheelbarrow.

 He watched Jeremy and with little to no instruction

 managed to do exactly what Jer was doing.

 He was so proud of himself!

 The girls did some painting on the deck while the boys were spreading bark.

 Then after naps it was warm enough to get out the water table.

 Stella was excited to wear her new Ariel bathing suit.

 The sprinkler was a big hit too.

Jeremy loves watching airplanes take off and land, so we went to GRR to watch them.

 We packed a picnic lunch for the kids and KFC for us (the kids opted for sandwiches over KFC - I don't know what is wrong with them).

 They had fun eating in the back of the van during a light sprinkle and

 running around on the grass after dinner.

 We saw probably 5-10 planes while we were there.

Leila made the cover of Connections - the picture was taken during Maker's Week.

Kids Quotes:

I put on a dress for church this morning.
Stella: I think dad's gonna laugh.
Me: I hope not.
Leila: How much did that dress pay?
Me: You mean how much did it cost? I don't remember.
Stella: It looks beautifuller. I think our dresses rhyme.

Stella: Henry, did you know that toothpaste isn't supposed to be delicious?

Leila: I can't wait to see what everyone looks like old tomorrow! (hunches over like an imaginary old person)
Me: Everyone is going to wear old clothes for the field trip, the clothes are old so we don't have to worry about them getting dirty, they won't look like old people.

Stella: I don't remember the words to that song. But I can whistle it with my nose.

Stella: mom, I'm so excited that my birthday is in one minute!
Me: you mean one month?

Tulip Time

We began Tulip Time week with the 5k & 10k - Jer ran both.

 We watched Dan and Isaac finish too.

 There was a large group from our church that all ran or walked.  Grandpa came to watch and help me with the kids.

 Luke and Shane ran the 10k.  I took pictures of almost all of the runners, but did not realize I had left my camera on the "Food" setting, so almost none of them turned out.

 While the 10k was going on, the kids picked every single dandelion in the median strip and put them in Uncle Rod's pocket.

 Henry and Stella also played hide and seek.

 There weren't many places to hide.

 After the races, we checked out all of the stuff going on at Kollen Park.

 There were animals to pet, Leila sat that out :)

 This goat liked Jer.

 And this one liked Henry.

 Then we went to the playground and the kids stayed on the tire swing

 laughing and having a great time

 for at least 10 minutes, it was great.

 We found more animals to pet!

 Or look at from afar.

 They also had a lot of vehicles to check out - like the city plow - that thing is huge!

 Each of the kids got to sit in the driver's seat.

 We also went on the Sheriff's boat

 And got two kinds of sticker badges!

 We went downtown to take pictures of the kids with the tulips with nana and papa.

 It is hard to get everyone smiling at the same time, but this was as close as we got.

 Today is mother's day, and we had brunch with my family at Kari and Ryan's house.

 Here are the eight grandchildren.  We ordered the girls matching dresses!

Greta and Duie