Memorial Day Weekend/Monday

We had a busy weekend in Holland/Hamilton. The following pictures sum it up. The Sunday post is kind of crazy but I don't feel like deleting it and starting over. I suppose I could attemp to edit it but I don't want to take any more time to mess with it. I hope you all had a great weekend! Enjoy the pictures.

Bennett at the parade with cousins Abigail and Kayla

Memorial Day Weekend/Sunday

G

Great Grandpa and Grandpa DePree with Bennett

Great Grandma DePree and Annabelle

Memorial Day Weekend/Saturday

Helping Grandpa and Grandma Leutz with yard work


The kids enjoyed bowling for the first time. Well, Bennett actually enjoyed the bowling part of it. Annabelle enjoyed just being at the bowling alley with all the interesting things to see and touch.

Don't have a picture of a bus on the back of a sign...

because your 2 year old will refuse to hold the sign because all he really cares about is turning the paper so the bus is the right side up. So Uncle Curt, this is the best I could do. Happy birthday!

satisfied

I just got done watching the season finale of Grey's Anatomy and I just felt the need to say how happy I am! It didn't leave you hanging like so many season finales do. I DON'T LIKE BEING LEFT HANGING! Now I can start the summer feeling content and happy (okay, I hope you realize this is all a slight exaggeration)! But...It really was sooooo good!

Happy Birthday Grandma VandenBerg

Here's a special video message from Bennett for Grandma VandenBerg...

What Happens in Vegas...

at least I think that's the name of the movie I saw last night. That's right! I actually saw a movie in the theater. The last one I can recall seeing in a movie theater is Friday Night Lights while we were living in North Carolina. I went with some friends (all who have teenage kids). They make it a fairly regular thing to go to the late night movies together. It started at 9:20 and I was so worried I wouldn't be able to stay awake that I was actually going to say I couldn't go. But anyway, the movie was good. Just the kind of movie I like....I was able to leave the theater with a smile. Let me tell you what movie I won't be seeing...the one written by M Knight Shama...whatever his name is. I'm sure you know who I'm talking about. The preview scared me. For those of you who don't know, I have a very small spectrum of movies I can watch. It hasn't always been this way. My intolerance for gruesome, gory, scary, or even suspenseful movies/tv shows was intensified when I had kids....not sure why. I guess that's it for now. Happy Sunday!

Happy Birthday Grandpa Leutz

Here's a special video message from Annabelle for Grandpa Leutzs' birthday...

A special birthday message from my kids! P.S. Thanks for the balloons Ron!!

Big News...

I am now, as Darrin says, "in the 30's club," and I'm happy to report that I did no crying over it! Actually it came and went in a weekend filled with fun. My birthday happened to fall on Mother's Day this year, so the day was doubly as special. It started with the Saturday Tulip Time parade. From there we went to our friends Keith and Brenda's house. For those who don't know, I happen to share a birthday with my friend Jenny (who will forever be 1 year younger than me) and Jenny is Brenda's sister. Sooooo, Brenda and Keith were gracious enough to host a birthday party for us. The kids spent most of the time with us and played so well together. The grandparents came at bedtime to pick them all up. Our weekend ended on Sunday evening with a "May Birthdays" party with Darrin's side of the family. It's always so fun and entertaining to get the 10 grandchildren together. Here are some pictures of the weekend. Unfortunately I can't figure out how to get more than this many pictures on one post so there will be more pictures posted above this message. Enjoy...okay...I figured out how to post more but the pictures are out of order...but you'll get the idea.


The girls toasting eachother with a drink
Having fun with the timer...we're only missing Keith
birthday girl's

Look at all those kids!!

Macey and Bennett watching the parade
Annabelle watching the parade
Posing for a family picture at the parade
Best Friends
The birthday girls posing with the cake Brenda made

No title necessary...

In this video I am using my wonderful parenting skills (bribing with smarties) in order to get them to sit still and say a few things for the camera. I really wanted to send a special message out to daddy at work today. I had a great video I had done earlier in the morning and was thrilled about it (both were cooperative and talking a lot) but I had this brilliant idea to try and edit it (which I have never done before by the way)...I wanted to cut just a few seconds off the end. Instead, I cut off the whole thing EXCEPT for the few seconds at the end. So this video isn't quite as cute but at least it gets the message across...

More from Tulip Time Fun

The rest of Saturday included garage saling with my friends Brenda and Jenny, Kinderplaats with Brenda, Jenny, Jason, Macey, and Kelsey, and finally, the evening ended with my mom and I going to the Elks to listen to a band. Here are a few pictures...

Tulip Time Fun

On Friday Darrin and I made a spur the moment decision to head to Holland to take advantage of some Tulip Time events. Saturday started out with a 1k fun run race. Bennett got this cool t-shirt for participating. The first two pictures are of him before the race...
Ready, set, ...GO! Here is a picture of him 2 seconds after the start of the race. We think he's upset because he knows there's no chance of winning...LAUGH!
The good new is, he stuck with it and finished strong. Look, he's even beating some of the adult runners! We're so proud!!

I have more pictures to post of this weekend. I will do that during nap time today. I have to get the kids out of thier cribs now. They're calling me...