Back to the zoo

We decided to take the kids to the zoo today since we hadn't been yet this year. We were excited to go, as this year was the opening of the new African exhibit. It included lions, zebras, hyenas and other African animals. They even let you handfeed the giraffes. The kids were pretty excited with all the sights and we ended up spending about 3-1/2 hours at the zoo (I think that's a record!).






The new lions, Bill and Ina (yeah, Bill. You would've thought it was Mufasa or some other cool African name, but no, it was Bill)

Hand feeding the giraffes

The obligatory carousel ride

After looking at all the photos from today, I remembered a similar photo taken back in 2007 when Syd was a year old. How quickly they grow up!! Maybe we should make it an annual thing.

Day at Tippy Lake

Our friends, the Colglazier's, invited us to their summer house on Tippecanoe Lake. We drove up on Friday morning and stayed over, returning on Saturday. Friday was the best day of the weekend and we had a great time. As soon as we got there, the kids wanted to go for a boat ride so Wade fired up the pontoon. We had a nice cruise around the lake and the kids even swam a bit when we stopped on the ride. The water was a little chilly but the kids didn't seem to mind. We got back, had a snack and a beverage, then went back out on the ski boat. We brought along the Hot Dog to go for rides. It was Spencer's first time doing anything like this and he was a natural! He even rode by himself for quite a while. Then he tried the tube, but ended up falling off and that was the end of the watersports for the day. I think he was a little freaked out falling into that big lake and being out there by himself. Christine jumped in and swam out to him and all was good. We came back to the house, had a terrific steak dinner (thanks Janet!), then relaxed on the deck. Once it got dark, we had the firepit going and the kids roasted some marshmellows. However, as soon as Christine broke out the sparklers we bought, the s'mores were quickly forgotten. All in all, we had a great time and hope to head back up again!

Christine, Spencer, & Syd on the Hot Dog

Brandt having a good time on the boat

Syd, Mya and Brandt after a long day of fun

Jason and Syd playing with sparklers

Weekend in Michigan

This past weekend, we headed to Michigan to attend our friends Bob and Virg's daughter Jane's 4th birthday party. We hadn't been to their place in Holland for a while and it was good to catch up. Here's a picture of Spencer and Syd at the party.





After enjoying breakfast at the local IHOP, we headed to Plainwell to visit with the grandparents. We got to my dad's house around 11:30am and the kids were eager to take a dip in Poppa's pool. They got changed and jumped right in. Spencer was jumping off the diving board and going down the slide. Syd even started going down the slide after making it up the ladder.










Here's Syd getting some nail polish applied by Aunt Kelly.






Around 1pm, we headed out to Camp Merriewood where my mom works. It's a Girl Scout camp that hosts campers most weeks during the summer. Sandra picked up a pizza from Doster Store and we had lunch with her at camp. After that, she took the kids for a ride on the camp golfcart. We're going to see if we can teach Spencer how to drive the tractor this summer so he can earn some money cutting grass at camp!

Salad Box

I was reading an article recently and came across a "salad box." It's a wooden structure used to grow salad-type vegetables...lettuce, sprouts, beans, etc. You can modify it to grow deeper root items such as tomatoes. We've been wanting to plant some vegetables with the kids for a couple of years, but never could really find a spot in the yard to do it. So we jumped at this idea. It's nice and compact and, more importantly, it's mobile. I found some plans online and modified it with a deeper bed (2x8's versus 2x4's) and put some old jogging stroller wheels on it to move it around. We've put in some strawberry and tomato plants. Christine started some cucumbers, beans and carrots in starter planters, but the little guys didn't make it. I think I left them outside too long one day. Oops. Anyway, we'll see what happens. We've actually pulled about a dozen strawberries off already and they tasted great! Here's the link where I found the plans: http://www.hgic.umd.edu/_media/documents/hg601.pdf