On Friday the kids had no school so we decided to go to the Grand Rapids public museum ( www.grmuseum.org ). The museum is just the right size for the kids to walk through and has very reasonable rates.

There are sections on Michigan including fish, animals, even parts of a Mastodon that was found in someone's backyard in Grandville. Gavin loves dinosaurs so all bones were dinosaur bones to him.

There were window scenes of animals as they would be in the wild. There were buttons the kids could push to hear what the animals sound like. Some of the bird calls were so spot on that I was looking around for birds before I remembered that they were imitations.

A lot of the museum was sectioned into smaller rooms. There was a larger section for Michigan in the Civil War. A room was made up to look like an old parlor and included many stuffed birds of all kinds.

Gavin loved these skeletons!

There was a small Egypt room, a room about immigrants, Native American tribes in Michigan and, of course, an area about the furniture business in Grand Rapids. There was an area that was made to look like an old fashioned Grand Rapids. There were volunteers working in some of the shops. At the print shop there was a man working on printing bookmarks. He makes all the bookmarks that are given out at the museum. He gave us a demonstration and bookmarks to keep.

There was an entire pharmacy that came from Northern Michigan. all the old boxes and bottles were there along with the long wood counters and the old cash register.

A firearms store that Henry and Mark had to check out.

There was even an old fire engine that came from Bay City. A volunteer was dressed as a fireman and gave us a lot of detail about how the old fire truck would work. It was pulled by horses in those days. During that time Grand Rapids had 4 of them. Of course, the city was much smaller then.

I've only given a small sample of what was at the museum. The kids had a great time. We did ride on the old carousal and the last room you pass on the way out is a doll room. All kids of dolls were featured plus dolls that could be played with.

The museum does have visiting exhibits. We did not go into any of the extra ones this time. However, the Titanic Exhibit is coming in February of 2013 and since Henry is quite interested in the Titanic we plan to go to it.

Duck!

Sunday was a sun filled day. Still a bit chilly, but a perfect day to get out of the house and walk. We headed right for the Riverwalk and the boat ramp to feed the ducks. There were so many of them that we couldn't keep up! Five or six of them even got out of the water to get the bread and at one point we were surrounded by ducks.

The kids had fun tossing bits of bread and once it was gone (it didn't last long with all those ducks!) we carried on our way to downtown. On Sundays there are only a couple of stores that open, the Hallmark store and the liquor store. We stopped in the Hallmark store and looked around.

The kids did not have school on Monday so we drove to my older brother's house. He lives about an hour from us, and although he and my sister-in-law were working, my dad was home with their son, Eric. The four kids had fun playing while Mark, my dad and I chatted. The topic of conversation came around to Sam's Club. The Sam's Club in Grand Rapids is very much lacking in comparison to the Traverse City store that we are used to. The Lansing store is quite nice and my dad goes once a week with two of his friends and Eric. The store is not far from my brother's house so we all went over. I must say that the Lansing Sam's Club is much better than Grand Rapids'. The food section is much larger and we would have happily have gotten some food if we didn't have the hour drive home. Still, it was a fun little trip through the store. They were giving out a few samples as well so the kids found that amusing.

Back at my brother's the kids played a bit more and both Mark and my dad fell asleep. I finally had to wake both of them since we needed to head home.

We had a nice, sun filled weekend. Too bad it is raining now with a chance of snow later!

Cuteness

Still Going...

A new year has started. Not much new to report. The children are back in school after having way too much time off. I was worried that Henry would have a tough time adjusting back into the school schedule. So far, he is doing well. This week he decided he wants to go to school earlier so he can have the breakfast that the school provides each morning.

Yesterday, when we picked Henry up, I went through his back pack and discovered one of his school shoes missing. When there is no money to replace shoes your heart drops when you discover something like that. Thankfully, Mark went back through the school and found the shoe laying in the hallway near Henry's classroom. The problem was Henry's backpack. The zipper had broken a couple of weeks ago and we've been trying to make do. Losing the shoe brought home the realization that we were going to have to come up with some kind of solution. We went through Meijer last night and I wanted to look at backpacks to see what the prices were. I figured we could save up pop bottles and take them back (for the 10 cent deposit). Backpacks are expensive! $20 to $25 is a lot for a bag. Henry found a Star Wars one that he liked. I got a happy surprise when I checked the price tag. It was 90% off! A mere two dollars to buy the backpack Henry wanted and needed. And in Mark's wallet? Exactly 2 dollars. What an absolute shock and happy surprise!

The weather here has been beautiful. No snow and it is January! I think it is suppose to snow tomorrow :-( but today the sun is shining and it is almost 50 degrees out. I love not having snow. Of course, Mark just told me that the radio station has been reporting that we are supposed to get a lot of snow. I shushed him when he said it. Snow is my 4-letter word!

Goodbye 2011....

Hello 2012!

May 2012 be a year without fear for us all!


We did have a wonderful Christmas. A fabulous knitter and her husband made it possible and a group of knitters/crocheters banded together to help in another area. Please take a minute to check out my knitting blog and read all about it. Click here :-)

Life goes on...

Exciting news! Henry lost his first tooth! It had been loose for a while and I thought it would be some time before it came out. Then on Monday night it came out while he was in bed. No tears, no pain. He came down with it in his hand. We made a big deal out of it and had him set it out for the tooth fairy. In the morning there was 4 quarters waiting for him.

Last Saturday the town had reindeer on the Riverwalk by our house. We stopped and got Shelby, my sister-in-law's youngest, and went to pet them and take pictures. Santa was on the Showboat but the line was crazy long. Instead we got in line for a carriage ride. It was very cold while waiting but once we got in the carriage there were blankets. They had lined the Riverwalk with luminaries and the horses took the carriages down the Riverwalk, behind the old school and eventually onto the main road then past the library. It was fun, we sang songs and Henry even sang a song for us. It was so worth braving the cold!

On Thursday we went to Henry's school for his concert. They sang several songs. Henry sang every one and even did all the hand motions. I was thrilled. This is the first time he has participated in any school sing. I was so proud of him. I love the teacher he has now and I hope she is able to stay with his class for the rest of the year. She took over the class in October when the other teacher went on medical leave. The old teacher is supposed to come back in January. I do not want her back! She was not good. Anyway, it was important to me that Henry be able to give this teacher a gift since she is the reason he is doing so well. I knitted her gift and you can read about it at my knitting blog.

Henry's class had a party that we were invited to before the concert. Irene joined the group for the yummy goodies.

And, as usual, Henry made a goofy face for me when I took his picture.

I am still hoping and praying for some kind of Christmas miracle. I know I go on and on about it here. I just want my children to be able to come down on Christmas Day to find some gifts under the tree. Is that selfish? Is that wrong? All I know is that I want them to have no worries, I want them to have the joy and fun. I've tried many different ways and things to come up with some money for gifts. So far nothing has been successful.

I've tried talking to family about our situation. I'm not asking them to solve our problems. I'm just asking that they listen like I would listen to them. Instead they either quit talking to me, or completely gloss over the bad stuff like I never mentioned it. Oh, and don't send my kids cards saying that you hope Santa gives them lots of great gifts when you KNOW Santa can't afford to come here this year!

Gingerbread Houses and Reindeer

I know I've had a bunch of sad and whining posts about how difficult things are and how I don't know how we're going to "do" Christmas. Yes, things are still as they were, BUT I have a post about happy things!

This morning, while Henry was at school, we took Irene and Gavin to the library for their Gingerbread House program. The librarian read a story and then the kids each got to make a gingerbread house.

Everything was provided for the kids; frosting, gumdrops, chocolate chips, coconut, candy of all kids, fruit loops, marshmallows.

We were there for about an hour and came home with two super cute gingerbread houses created by my elves.

When we picked up Henry from school we drove to the little town that is about 6 or so miles from our town. The town is so small but they are part of the Kent District Library system and actually have a really cute library. This afternoon they were having reindeer visit!

Two reindeer stopped by to visit. Bronner was an old pro but this was Velvet's first year. Each child was able to pet the reindeer and my three kids were eager to do so.

The children were actually allowed as much time as they wanted for petting the reindeer. No rush, no pushing. There was probably less than 20 people there which wasn't surprising when you think about the town size. However, I expected more people since it is only one of 4 libraries (out of the 18 in the KDL system) that is hosting the reindeer.

Gavin had been napping when we got there. He was about half awake when we went outside. We showed him the reindeer and then I asked him if he wanted to pet them. He immediately answered with "Yes!" He actually petted the reindeer then went back to pet him again.

Overall, I'd say we had a pretty great day and both activities were free!