November 5-6: Overnight at Grandpa and Grandma Smits

The boys always love spending time with grandparents, and this overnight was a perfect fun-thing for them and a perfect babysitting-help for us!  Seth was running the Christian Eduction bowling fundraiser for our church on Saturday while I had a Premier Designs training all day in Allegan.  Grandma was kind enough to pick them up from the bowling alley and take them for an overnight.

This arrangement also allowed us to have a date night (with Brielle, of course) so we ventured out to Barnes and Noble for a supper of soup and sandwich and and evening of browsing.  Seth also picked up the newest Lee Child book (one of our favorite authors!) with a gift certificate he'd received as a thank you gift.    

November 5: Games Galore!

Friday isn't usually game day, but it had been awhile since Ty and I had played a game together, so I told him I was going to finish working in the office for five minutes and then we would play a game together.  I suggested he go find the game he wanted to play, he cheerfully said, "OK!" and ventured into the den on his own. 

When I left the computer room a few minutes later and met Ty in the den, this is what I walked in on.  I'm not sure if he couldn't decide what to play or if we was hoping we'd play all of them!  After cleaning up the mess, he selected Memory as our game to play (not even in the original mess).  Of course, his idea of playing Memory is to dump out all the cards on the floor and try to find  matches (just FYI- there are way too many cards in this game for a kid to play.  I usually try to pick out 8-10 pairs).  I tried to line up all the cards (face up) nicely so we could play some similar version of the original game, but by the time I finished doing that, Ty was finished with the game.  After all, he'd found three matches! 

November 4: Christmas Paper Chain

Last year, about this time of year, Koen began asking how many days until Christmas.  After a few days of him asking, and a few days of me not satisfying him with my answer of, "We need to celebrate Thanksgiving first," I decided he needed a visual reference.  So I pulled out my scrapbooking stuff and we put together a paper chain.  It worked beautifully!!!  Anytime he asked about Christmas I could tell him to go check his paper chain to see how many days were left.  So last week when he asked, "How many days until Christmas?" I reminded him of the paper chain we made last year, and we decided to make another one for this year.

This year Ty was able to help, too!  The whole project, as simple as it is, really is a wonderful teaching tool ...

• for patterns (we use orange and yellow until Thanksgiving when we switch to green and red)
• for numbers (Koen and Ty helped count the days needed and Koen even practiced writing his numbers as he wrote most of them!)
• for months and seasons (at least fall and winter)
• for cutting (even though we used my scrapbook straight-edge when a scissors might have been better practice -- Koen just remembered what we had used last year.  They still had to hold the paper with one hand and slide the blade with the other which can be a bit tricky!)
• for writing (Tysen eve wanted to write on some of the strips...the first he's shown interest in that regard)
• for taking turns (cutting, writing, stapling, straightening the chain as it got longer, etc.)

The competed chain now hangs in their bedroom draped over the closet doors, and each night they remove one more ring, then watch and wait until Christmas.

November 1: Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies

Tysen came to me and stated, "I want cookies."  (Isn't he polite?)  I told him we didn't have any cookies, to which he replied, "I want chocolate cookies."  I laughed a little and again told him we didn't have any cookies.  He looked at me and said, "Let's make some," and ran to the kitchen, pulled a chair up to the island, climbed up, and waited for me.  What could I do?  We needed to make some chocolate cookies.

This recipe came from a Weight Watchers meeting years ago, but these don't taste like Weight Watcher cookies!!!  These 2-point cookies are delicious!  The only problem I have with them is the mint, or rather lack of mint.  I LOVE chocolate mint, but this recipe isn't strong enough.  I've even double and tripled the amount of mint with very little luck.  I still have to figure that out.  If you'd like to enjoy some chocolate cookies like Ty, here's the recipe for you.

Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup light butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp creme de menthe
2 cups flour
2/3 cups cocoa
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips

Cream butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, and creme de menthe in a large bowl.  Add flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt; blend in.  Stir in chocolate chips.  Drop by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes.  Cool 1 minute before removing to a wire rack.  Makes about 5 dozen cookies.

October 30: Early Trick-or-Treating/Cinnamon and Sugar Pumpkin Seeds

I learned a great trick from my sister, Jane.  Jane took pictures of Annika in her beautiful baptism gown days before her actual baptism on an afternoon when Annika was in a great mood.  I figured the same logic would work for taking pictures in our Halloween costumes!  It was no problem to get the kids to try them on once they saw me get their costumes out.  So in a matter of minutes we had our very own Bob the Builder, Thomas the Tank Engine, and adorable chili pepper.  The smiles were perfect for this photo op!

And I was so thankful that I had done this!  The night we went out trick-or-treating we had a total of 20 kids over (with their parents) and it was a bit chaotic...not the best atmosphere to get a nice picture.  A few people did try to get a group picture of all the kids, but I was still locking up the house and missed out on that...I'll have to get a copy from someone.  We all had a great time walking around our neighborhood on a crisp fall evening collecting yummy treats!







Seth and the boys had carved the pumpkin Friday night, and we saved the seeds after washing all the goop off.  Saturday afternoon before heading out for trick-or-treating we made some cinnamon and sugar pumpkin seeds.  I've only ever had a salty pumpkin seed, but Seth asked for a sweet variation this year.  I went online and found a simple recipe (included).  The seeds were quite good, especially warm right out of the oven.

Cinnamon and Sugar Pumpkin Seeds

1 cup pumpkin seeds

1 Tbs butter

2 Tbs sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Start with clean and dry pumpkin seeds.  Mix the cinnamon and sugar in a large bowl and set aside.  In a frying pan, melt the butter over medium heat.  Add the seeds and stir frequently.  Saute until the seeds are lightly browned, about 5 minutes. 

Immediately remove the seeds to the bowl with cinnamon and sugar and toss to coat.  Enjoy!

Note:  These are best enjoyed when still warm!

October 28: Library Day

It'd been a while since we'd visited the library, so it was high time.  Koen had been asking to go to the library with the doll house and blocks (Gaines Township) so we decided to head that direction.  Of course, once we got there I realized they don't open til noon on Thursdays and we'd arrived at 10:30am.  Koen was devastated --tears and all, but decided that he'd rather go to the Kentwood Library than go back home.  So we turned around and traveled back in the direction we'd come from.  There seems to be something about that Gaines Township library that brings tears to my kids eyes (remember my entries about Ty's tears when we visited there while the Kentwood branch was closed?).

I noticed a new statue in the entryway of the Kentwood branch and found out later it had been an ArtPrize entry.  Having been ill during much of the ArtPrize time, I was glad to at least see one part of it!  (Picture of "Flight of Learning" Statue in the KDL entryway)  While it does look nice and I appreciate what it represents, I think that the $30,000 spent on it could have been used in other ways.  Just my opinion...

The children's media specialist was at her desk talking with another mom and I overheard her say that they hoped to have a new train table in the children's section by the end of the year!  The boys were thrilled to hear that!  It's always a hard lesson when multiple kids want to play with the few trains there, but it's great to teach sharing and getting along with others.   The library also plans to get a Duplo table which will be great, too!  Now we'll just wait patiently for these new additions...

October 22-24: Chicago!

Koen had been counting the days since August for when we could go to Henry's house!!!  He knew we'd be going after Tysen's birthday and told everyone he met about it.  We'd made plans to visit Auntie Lori, Uncle Steve, and Henry so that Lori and I could do a Premier Designs Jewelry Show together and we could spend some time hanging out with them.  Little did we know when we made these plans 2 months ago that we would be traveling to Chicago the Monday-Tuesday earlier in the week for Grandma Rinsema's visitation and funeral.  Two trips to Chicago in one week after not having been there since July (even before that for Seth and the boys) was a lot, but so worth it!

Koen and Tysen had a great time hanging out with Henry, playing will all of his toys, and reading all of his books.  They also enjoyed the fact that Henry's TV actually gets shows they like, such as Arthur and Micky Mouse (we don't have cable or a dish, nor do we get PBS with the digital box we have).  Koen was excited to have a slumber party in Henry's room, and Tysen was happy to have a slumber party in Mom and Dad's bed (although that wasn't the original plan...apparently the bed is more comfortable than the floor!?!).  Brielle did just fine on her own in the pack-n-play.  :)

The boys enjoyed breakfast out on Saturday morning while Lori and I had the jewelry show and Brielle napped (just an aside...Lori's show was so much fun and she earned A TON of FREE jewelry!!!)  We had thought about going to a Children's Museum in Naperville for the afternoon, but between a late lunch and nap times, plus an early closing time for the museum, we decided to try it another time.  So it was a relaxing afternoon for the group with movies for the adults after the kids were in bed. 

Sunday began with a wonderful worship service in their church.  Koen even went up front for the children's blessing and left with the kids for Children's Worship!!!  He's growing up so much, as last time we were there (a number of months ago) he refused to leave with Seth and ended up staying in church with us.  After a yummy lunch together and some football on TV, we left for home again...with the boys asking when we could come back.