Art In The Park - Sat. August 2

PETUNIAS will be at Art In The Park on Satuday. Please come and check us out if you are able. The show runs from 9-5 and is right downtown Holland in Centennial Park. Hope to see you all there!

PETUNIAS...

Is on at ETSY today. I signed up to be a part of the Handmade Kid' Showcase today so check me out HERE : )

Binder Park Zoo

Update on Simon...

Simon's biggest interest lately is drawing and coloring. He spends a ton of time each day on his magna-doodle and can draw "circles" and "hearts" he also is trying trains and tractors. He also continually asks us to draw for him each day. We recently bought him some new markers/paint brushes to use as well and he is LOVING them. The other newest thing he has been doing is singing. He loves learning new songs, and at this point can sing "Jesus loves me", "The Itsy Bitsy Spider", "Row, Row your Boat" and is working on some others. He really likes the radio playing all day and dances and sings along with it. It is sooo cute when he sings, I just love listening to him : )

Sierra update...

Her hair has totally gotten blonde (at least by my standards) this summer, and also has curls (which I adore) not that it is getting longer. She spends most of her days trying to keep up with her older brother and gets Soooooooo frustrated when she can't do everything that he can. She just recently is able to climb up on our couch and chiar upstairs (which she has been working on for months) so is very thrilled with herself on that. She also figured out she can climb on our chairs onto our dining room table, which is lots of fun for her : ) She is doing great with talking as well and continues to add several words a day it seems like. She is also starting to put two-work phrases together!

Potty Training 101 grade...

"F" for mommy. I think we were a bit too anxious to start Simon on potty training. He did great but only if we brought him to the potty. He wasn't getting that he had to let us know when he had to go, so alas, we will try again in a month or two probably : )

1st visits to the dentist...

And I should have brought my camera, but didn't think about it at the time. This spring James and I read in GR magazine a big article about Pediatric Dentists. Both of our dentists had told us not to worry about bringing our kids in until at least 3 but this article said the exact opposite. It was about bringing them in early, teaching them good habits, and just getting them used to the whole process. SO we made an appointment with Suzanne Port a pediatric dentist in Holland. She was GREAT with the kids and they both did really well. She just looked into Sierra's mount to confirm that there were no problems. And with Simon she checked out all of his teeth and also introduced him to the whirling toothbrush dentists have and cleaned a few of his front ones. SO all of you mom with little ones who read this I would really recommend checking her out!

Potty Training 101

Well, James and I have psyched ourselves up to begin potty training. We bought pull-ups, the cutest boxer-briefs ever, gummy worms, and are looking for a few bigger reward presents. Today Simon STARTED potty training. He has been going to the bathroom on the potty for quite a few months now so we decided this summer was the best time to attempt potty training. He did great today. I put a pull-up and boxer-briefs on him and set the timer to go off every 30 minutes. He only had one poo-poo accident (he has never gone poo on the potty so we will see how that works in the future) but otherwise did an awesome job. Hopefully our strategy works and we have a lot fewer diapers to change around our house!

Sibling LOVE...sharing a fluffy!

Uncle Steve, Aunt Heather and Cousin Lake come to visit MI

We had Cousin Lake and Uncle Steve staying with us for most of this past week. The kids LOVED hanging out. Lake is right in between Simon and Sierra age wise and they all got along great. Sierra liked rough-housing with the two boys and we all had a good laugh when we decided she was actually the toughest of them all. We had so much fun at the slide park near our house, the mall play area, playing out in our backyard, going up north to Duck Lake and Rockford on Lake Bella Vista. And we also celebrated Lake's 2nd Birthday!

Tree through the roof update...

My kids spent the night over at my parents house Wed. and Thurs. and were no worse for the wear except for a few mosquito bites (the house was full of them)! The tree was removed with cranes on Thursday and my dad and brother covered the hole with a tarp. The insurance people and a clean up crew should be at the house tomorrow and we will know more then. There is pretty extensive damage though, the hole and lots and lots of buckling and broken trusses, insides walls and carpet, and water damage all the way to the basement ceiling and carpeting!

Yesterday's storm...

Yesterday we had some bad storms come through the area. My mom was at our house watching out kids and waiting for them to wake up so she could take them back to her house for two nights as James is in a wedding so we went to the rehersal dinner last night and tonight have the wedding to attend. SOOOOOOOOO, around 5:00 she got a call that a tree fell on their house from the strong winds. My dad got a call as well (he was at work) and told a friend who was at the house to just grab a few buckets and put them in the living room. Unfortunately, it wasn't and isn't going to be quite that simple : (