June 30: Palmer Park



Palmer Park



One of the items on our summer check list is "Visit a New Park"...meaning a new-to-us park.  Palmer Park is listed at grkids.com as a great park to check out, and since it isn't too far away from our house it became our "new park" choice. 

I actually missed the entrance to the park...not realizing it's the same entrance as the L.E. Kaufman Golf Course.  Once there, we needed to drive a ways on the property before arriving at the parks.  There were two play areas available, each near a pavilion or picnic area.  Of course, we had to play in both areas just to compare.  The second area was a bit more toddler-friendly which Brielle loved, and the boys enjoyed both areas.  Since they are walking distance from each other, it's no problem to play in both areas in one visit. 

We enjoyed our time there with friends from church -- picnic lunch and all!  It was quite nice that we were the only ones visiting the park so it was easy to keep track of the kids and let them run around.  They loved exploring the forest area, hunting bugs, and playing hide-and-seek .  I loved that it was shady!  The only thing to be aware of if you choose to visit the park is that the kids WILL get dirty!  But isn't that half the fun of being a kid? 

Koen took this picture of Brielle and me
coming down the twisty slide.
 Our friend, Noah, checks out Koen's work
behind the camera.




Koen and Ty down the twisty slide!






Kiersten and Ty playing in the dirt.




"Wheeee!"  Brielle said this each time
she slid down!  So cute!





Koen froggin' around.



Doesn't Brielle look stunning in Mom's sunglasses?
 She thought so!

June 29: VBS Week

It was Pandamania at church this week!  Our Vacation Bible School was a huge success with over 100 children in attendance each night!  Koen and Tysen were both able to participate in classes and both really enjoyed the VBS experience!  Neither boy chose to sing the songs...they both just sat and observed.  I'm not sure why they choose not to participate; I'm hoping it's just a phase.   

June 27: Monster Cookies

Per Daddy's request, we made Monster Cookies for our kitchen activity today.  These are a childhood memory for me...we often seemed to have these around.  Maybe it's the M&Ms that make them so appealing, or the peanut butter, or maybe the chocolate chips.  I just can't decide...

I asked the boys why they thought these cookies were called Monster Cookies.  They got wide-eyed and quite for a minute.  "Do you think monsters like to eat them?" I asked.  They quickly decided no. :)  Then I suggested maybe they got their name because the cookies got so monstrous in size, or maybe because they were so monstrous in numbers, but they didn't really care about those explanations. 

Of course, the favorite part of the activity was adding the M&Ms. :)  I told them each cookie needed four M&Ms and to try to use four different colors...good counting and sorting practice!  Ty got a little carried away, though, and often placed 6 M&Ms on one cookie and he really preferred cookies with all the same color M&Ms...I guess that's just a different kind of sorting. 

Monster Cookies

• 3 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp. light Karo syrup
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 stick oleo
• 1 1/2 cups peanut butter
• 4 1/2 cups quick oatmeal
• 6 oz. chocolate chips
• M&Ms

 Mix ingredients (except for M&Ms) in a large bowl.  Drop by teaspoonfuls on a cookie sheet.  Top each cookie with 4 M&Ms.  Bake 12 minutes at 350 degrees.  Enjoy!

June 19-26: Cousin Connection!

How do I write about a whole week of fun in just one post?  Uncle Mark, Aunt Jane, Evan, and Annika were in town from Arizona and Uncle Steve, Aunt Lori, Henry, and Evelyn were in from Chicago so we had a lot of family time!  Grandma and Grandpa treated everyone to a few nights at the Holiday Inn Express with a water park!  It was fabulous for the kids!  We also visited the Grand Rapids Children's Museum and Teusink's Pony Farm, a special place from my childhood.  We also splashed in the neighbor's pool and the slip-n-slide.  The kids enjoyed all the fun activities, but were thrilled just to have time to spend with their cousins!   

Tysen, Annika, Grandpa, Brielle, Evan, Koen, Henry, Grandma, and Evelyn.

Most of the grandkids:  Ty, Evan, Brielle, Henry, Koen, and Annika.

June 17: Wooden Puzzles

I found these Creatology wooden puzzles at Michael's a long time ago and promptly forgot about them.  I rediscovered them when I cleaned out the front closet not long ago.  I figured we should make them soon before I forgot about them again.

Tysen's wooden puzzle was a dinosaur.  The package said ages 4+, but I thought he could probably do it OK.  He punched out all the pieces but did need quite a bit of help putting it together.  We actually ended up gluing some of the pieces on since it didn't stay together very well.  He loved making his purple dinosaur!



Punching out the pieces.



The finished dino!

Koen's wooden puzzle was a helicopter.  I wasn't sure if he would be excited about this since his passion is trains, but Michael's didn't have any trains, and it's always good to try new things. :)  He was SUPER excited about his project and couldn't wait to complete it!  The project was designed for ages 6+, but he still needed help, especially with the assembly instructions which weren't always that easy for me to figure out.  But we did it!  I had to put most of it together, although he punched out all the pieces and helped me find all the parts we needed. 

Overall, I was a little disappointed that they couldn't do more of the puzzles themselves, but they both loved the process, so maybe this is just a stepping stone for crafting more models.  I was surprised the next day when Koen asked to paint his helicopter.  He got out his watercolors and went to work, spending quite a bit of time painting each section of his helicopter.  It looked fantastic!

The finished colorful helicopter.

June 16: Bounce Party and a Fire Truck!



Bouncing on the trampoline.

Koen had the chance to go to Bounce Party a few weeks ago for a birthday party, but Tysen was so disappointed that he couldn't stay to play, so when it was a rainy day this Thursday I thought we'd visit for the open bounce.  Of course, I forgot that the few times there had been bouncy equipment at gymnastics Ty had wanted no part of it.  So it took a while for him to go on any of the items, but eventually he had some fun bouncing on the trampoline and going down the slide with me.  Brielle also bounced on the trampoline and liked it... mostly.  We went with our friends Ian, Caleb, and their mom.  The kids ran around for over an hour before they lost interest and we headed home for lunch. 

Koen, Ian, and Tysen paused for a
moment for a picture.

Caleb and Brielle.

Kentwood fire truck.

On our way out of Bounce Party there was a fire truck stopped on the road.  The firemen were testing the fire hydrants...over 4200 to test in Kentwood!  The Lieutenant came over to us as we stood and watched them work.  He gave each boy a sticker badge and a postcard with a picture and info of the truck.  They were pretty excited about the whole experience!

The fire lieutenant talking with
the boys.

June 15: Paper Toss and Painting

I found this Paper Toss Game and thought it might be fun for the kids to play.  I glued six toilet paper rolls together in a triangle shape and then crumpled up some paper into little balls.  I gave the boys the paper balls and told them to try to toss them into the toilet paper tubes.  If they were a bit older we could have done different points for each tube, but I just wanted them to have fun tossing the ball into the tubes. 

Koen's first attempt wasn't so much a toss as a shot, so it bounced off the edge and landed on the floor.  Frustrated, Koen decided he was done after one turn.  Unfortunately for him, I made him try it again.  After adjusting his technique, he did get a few in which improved his mood somewhat.  Tysen found it worked best to stand right next to the tubes to drop the paper balls into the tubes.  He had great fun with this game.  Even Brielle got in on the fun!  She'd crawl after the balls that didn't make it into the tubes and crawl back to put them in herself.  She was so proud of being so helpful!

Later in the day, Ty asked if he could paint handprint fish (described in a previous post), so we pulled out the paint and let the boys paint.  It was the best part of the day for all of us! :)