Great Wolf Lodge

We got home from the 4th of July just long enough to do laundry and re-pack for another trip up north. Although we love Holland, there is nothing like northern Michigan in the summer!
We went to Traverse City to take in some of the Cherry Festival and also stay at the Great Wolf Lodge. It was an awesome little family get away. The older boys pretty much did there own thing between the water park and the arcade, with periodic check-in's. It really gave us a taste of how grown up they are becoming.
Now we are home and grounded for a few weeks!

Traveling...

We had a great 4th of July. We traveled up to the cottage and stayed for a few days. We went into Manistee and the kids enjoyed the parade and festivities. Sarah drove over from Traverse City with Chandler and Olivia and spent the day with us as well. The kids learned that small town parades are where it is at! They were shocked to see how much candy they ended up with!
We spent the remainder of the weekend at the lake surrounded by family with perfect weather. We were also able to celebrate Logan's 9th birthday with all the Sandstedt cousins!

4th of July

June

Well we finished off the school year strong and are now in the heart of our summer vacation. I must say that I had a little anxiety as summer approached wondering how I was going to keep 5 kids with such a vast age range, happy and busy! But I have to say things are going really well. It took us a week or so to get on a good routine, but we acheived it and in some ways it is almost easier than running back and forth and packing lunches!
This month Nate and I celebrated our anniversary on June 7th. Grandma and Papa took the kids to their house over night and we had 27 hours....kid free! That doesn't happen very often. We went to a movie, had a nice dinner and then came home to our own empty house.



Jakob spent a week at Camp Geneva. He had a great time and met some really great friends. He always comes back looking and acting a little more mature! Logan will go to camp for the first time at the end of July. We are excited for him to have that experience.

Ella has become quite the busy girl! She is pulling herself up on everything and cruising along the furniture. She has also mastered going up the stairs...FAST! We are now deep into the world of baby proofing with gates at every corner and cabinet locks. She is also quite vocal and has her own little language. Most of which consists of high pitched noises.




We finished off the month celebrating Grant's 4th birthday! It is hard to believe that he is 4 already. We had a birthday at our house and were joined by some neighborhood freinds and family.




Now we head into a fun-filled July with many things on the calender. We will start off by heading to Irons to the cottage for the 4th of July, celebrate Logan's 9th birthday on July 8th, head to Traverse City to the Great Wolf Lodge and the Cherry Festival and then finish off the month with 2 weekends in a row of weddings! Stay tuned for pictures and details.....

Busy May!

Well I have not had a chance to update lately because we have had an insanely busy month so far! Here are a few highlights!

We started the month out with Tulip Time. Some people that live here in Holland will do anything to avoid going downtown during Tulip Time. We have even heard of some actually leaving town to avoid the crowds. We on the other hand, love it. We love the tulips, dressing the kids up in dutch costumes, the parades, and of course the vendor food!







Jakob and I had a great time traveling with his class to Chicago. We drove to Michigan City and then took the train in to Chicago from there. We spent the day at the Museum of Science and Industry. It was a really great day. After spending the day with 5th graders, it was amazing to me how grown up he is becoming. I cannot believe that in a few short weeks he will be officially be in middle school. Here are a few pictures from the trip. The first is of his entire class and then the other is one of Jakob with his good freinds Alex, Connor and Isaac.


Mother's Day was a very special day. Aside of being surrounded by my awesome husband and kids, Nate and I also had the privilege of standing before our church body and dedicating Ella to the Lord. We feel so blessed that she has joined our family and truly view her as a precious gift from God. We were so grateful for the family that joined us as well. We had Grandma and Papa Sandstedt, great grandma Ruth, Uncle Andy and Aunt Jen and the boys, Aunt Jessi and Reid and Lily. We had a nice brunch following church that was fully prepared by the men, and it was delicious!




And last, but certainly not least in the calender of May events we watched our little Brayden graduate from Kindergarten. He truly had a great year. He loves school so much. He actually spent some time a little weepy that afternoon because he did not want school to end, and he was going to miss his teacher. He even asked me if he could please go to summer school! Although now that a few days have passed that idea has since disappeared!

Soccer time!

Brayden started kindergarten soccer last week. He had his first game this past Saturday. He has been having a lot of fun meeting new friends and learning new skills. His team is the "Panthers". He has one of his good buddies, Tanner on his team, so that is makes it even more fun!
He was very excited to start out the first game as goalie. We were quite proud that he blocked two goals!