March 24 - My Sleepy Baby

Thomas must be going through a growth spurt...he has been falling asleep almost everywhere, and is almost impossible to wake up. When you try to move him, he'll say he doesn't want to go to sleep...and then start snoring again. It makes John giggle. It reminds me of how Philip used to fall asleep on the stairs...

March 9 - Finally, the Fort's Done!

Well, kind of. It's still missing a front door, a trap door, and the shutters, but hey, it's got a working slide and that's what counts!!! It took me FOREVER to figure out how to support the slide without drilling through the carpet. The boys LOVE it. Thomas did have one accident falling down the ladder on top of (under?) Nikki, so he's more cautious now, but over all, it's a huge success. John's latest is sliding down the slide inside his sleeping bag. Basically we just created the fort by putting a false ceiling inside a walk-in closet. Loren VDT did all the framing, I just did the slide / ladder, so don't be too impressed. Altho I did get to hold up drywall with my head! In case you are wondering why the slide is not outside like normal people's, the only place we could legally put it outside was on top of a whole web of pipes that our house sits on thanks to the springs we hit while excavating :)). Dwight wouldn't let me paint the woodwork in the playroom, but he did let me tape off and paint the walls and ceiling...I am really bad at vertical taping!! It was a lot of fun, and I love having a finished room for the nieces to play in. FYI the cement form on the right is going to be turned into a tree trunk filled with packing peanuts. I kind of like my kid's forheads the way they are. I will put up another picture whenever I get the rest of it finished.

March 3 - Jessica Van Den Top's Shower

I left Calvin with two kids at half court and ran off to be late at Jessica's bridal shower at Lynn Vander Meulen's house. FYI Jessica is Loren and Carolyn Van Den Top's youngest daughter. As you can tell, it was a cowboy-themed shower. Linda de Boer won the prize for best dressed, can you believe those chaps!! I am putting this on the blog because I thought Mom would get a kick out of Mrs. Tolsma in a hat, and of Mrs. de Boer playing musical chairs to fiddle music...she is so tiny everyone was scared to sit on her!

March 3 - Last Day of Church League

Calvin has been enjoying playing basketball with Dwight on Del's URC team. John likes to watch his daddy and run up and down the court with his team, holding up his hands when Calvin's playing defense. Thomas was so inpired he ran ON the court...They won their last game and came in second. These are pretty bad pics but it was the best I could do in that very green and gold gym! Hey Brad and Chris, look to the right of Dwight shooting a freethrow / shaking his hand - that's Greg Terpstra who used to live up our street...now he lives down my street and teaches / coaches at LC.

February 28 - Calvin's 40th Bday Party

We had the big bash on Saturday. The guys who could played paintball most of the afternoon...they had a great time, although some of them were veeeery tired and sore at the party :). While they were diving around in the underbrush I was busy trying to make appetizers. Leshia and Karla came to my rescue about an hour before it started and we manage to get it all out just in time. We served an Italian dinner with an antipasti course followed by lasagna and dessert. A highlight of the weekend was that Keven Moelker just happened to be here on a ski trip so we got to celebrate with him as well! My favorite part of the night was when everyone sang to Calvin, I almost cried, I was so proud of him! My least favorite part of the night was my eggplant-mozzarella rollups - wow, those were bad :)!

February 25 - Happy 40th, Calvin!

Well, he didn't want to, but Calvin finally turned the big 4-0! We put his picture in the paper, but the best surprise happened at work...I had asked Steve, our shop manager, to change the words on our sign, but he went all out and made a much better sign of his own :) Wasn't it COOL?! We brought in pizza and the girls brought in dessert...Thomas couldn't keep out of the angel food cake. We had a freak snowstorm that day also. That night we went out with Mom DH to Homestead. I think Calvin had a pretty happy day after all!

February 14 - Happy Valentine's Day!

We celebrated our love by going on a date with John :). It was fun! We went up to Baker again since it is John's new favorite place in the whole world. It was sure a whole lot easier lugging a tube up a hill without Thomas! The sledding bowl is within walking distance of the upper lift (and the restrooms!), thus the ski photos...I pretend I'm a cool skier person, but I think my boots give me away. On the way down we hit the ski shop for some COFFEE and a heart cookie for John. That night we made our own cookies...usually John makes them for the route drivers but since Valentine's was on a Saturday this year, we ate them all ourselves!