Happy 9th Birthday Faith!!

Now that we are finished celebrating Faith's 9th birthday, I'm finally getting around to writing about it!  It was a full week of fun, parties, and celebrating with family and friends.  We did so much celebrating it wore me out!  Literally!  I ended up coming down with some minor bug that just wiped me out!  But I finally think I'm starting to get better!

 

The weekend before Faith's actual birthday we had a family party! 

 

Faith was especially excited that Aunt Betsy could make it out to the party!

 

The birthday girl on her actual day!  As tradition goes, I always let the birthday child pick out what they would like me to make special for breakfast and dinner.  Once again Faith picked bubble bread for breakfast, and she chose ravioli for dinner! And apparently nine is the age in which one no longer wants to show one's teeth when smiling!

 

In the middle of all the birthday celebrations, Faith had her final cotillion of the year, which was a costume party!  Specifically, it was a superhero costume party, and so Faith had the perfect outfit in her Super girl costume!  They even let the parents go onto the dance floor to take a few pictures!  Thankfully the parents did not have to dress in costume!

 

This past Saturday we had a TaeKwonDo birthday party for Faith with her friends!  She had so much fun showing many of her friends what it's like to do TKD!  And even Olivia participated and had a blast!

 

Little Livvy working on her front kicks!

 

And what's a party without some tasty cake?!?  I think this is just such a cute picture of these two!

 

One of the gifts Faith received from her friends Ellie and Ethan was a pair of roller skates!  She was so excited to be given them as Ellie and another friend both have skates, and so now the three girls all have skates and can skate together!  It was such a thoughtful gift!!  She has been practicing constantly since Saturday!  Our driveway has turned into a roller derby rink!

 

It's really hard to believe that this girl is already nine!  People always say it goes fast, and when I think of how fast these nine years have gone, I must agree!  While some days seem long, the years sure go by fast!  I'm thankful that she is healthy, growing girl who is very confident, musical, and fun.  I'm proud of who she is and who she is becoming!  We love you so much Faith Anne!!

Camping Adventura - Part 4

Included in this post are pictures from our trip taken by Steve's Aunt, Sue Roeda!  They were too good not to share.

 

An actual family photo!  This was on the Trail of 100 Giants. 

 

Livvy and I on our hike!

 

She looks much happier to be back at the campground and with daddy!

 

The three of us attempted a mountain bike ride.  I say attempted because I did not make it, while the two men did!  Having zero experience on a mountainous or off-road trail proved to be too much of a challenge for me!  The sand, rocks, gravel, ruts and I just didn't get along too well!  And before any real damage could be done to my aging body, I turned around and rode back to the campground!  Nothing ventured nothing learned!

 

Breakfast buddies!  We were excited to eat what someone else was slaving over a camp stove to make!

 

The other breakfast buddies!  Shane's sporting the new coat we picked up for him on the trip!

 

I never did figure out exactly what game the kids were playing, but they sure had fun doing it!  It had something to do with knocking things over!

 

This crew did another hike while camping!

 

My day to make breakfast!  The French toast on the griddle!

Camping Adventure - Part 3

On Friday morning everyone in our group (about 50 of us!!) headed further into the Sequoia National Forest to the Trail of 100 Giants.  What a beautiful hike seeing the giant Sequoia trees!

 

To everyone's surprise there was actually quite a bit of snow left on the hiking trail!  What a fun surprise for the kids.  In an effort to solidify the "mother of the year" award, Shane's mom once again left behind his jacket!  At least there was an extra sweatshirt in the back of the truck!  Poor Shane!

 

It was amazing to see in person how massive these trees really are!  I've never seen anything like it before this hike!

 

Shane is popping out from that same tree as in the previous picture, but he is on the other side of the tree!

 

Faith is standing by a Sequoia that fell down! It's still huge!

 

In an effort to keep up with the group and because of the ice and snow on the trail, Steve and I took turns carrying Olivia!  What a great workout it ended up being for us!

 

Faith hiking with her friend Miranda!

 

One more picture! I recommend visiting this trail if you are ever in the Sequoia National Forest!

Camping Adventure - Part 2

One part of camping that we have discovered and come to really enjoy is the breakfast!  It is fun to make a big breakfast, and then sit around the table and enjoy the time talking, eating, and drinking coffee! For this trip, we were there for three mornings, and we shared breakfast with Steve's Uncle John and Aunt Sue, and two friends of theirs.  It worked out perfect for each family to take a day to host breakfast!  We went first and made French Toast and sausage!  Each morning it was a delicious menu, filled with all different foods no one normally makes for breakfast at home!

 

The kids were beyond excited when Randy, Steve's friend who organizes the trip, came around one morning with donuts!!  What a treat!!

 

Olivia showed off her Dutchness by sweeping off our mat throughout the day! 

 

At the edge of our site there was a very small and shallow creek.  Shane loved to ride his bike around to the other side and then wave to us!

Camping Adventure - Part 1

Last week Wednesday we left for our second and final camping trip of the year!  This has become an annual trip that we take with a group from Valley Christian!  As we started our trip and drove through the city of Bakersfield, we could not pass by without a stop at our favorite ice cream spot, Dewars! 

We did learn a lesson though...and that is maybe we should save the ice cream for the trip back home!  The road from Bakersfield to Kernville, our destination, is a very winding road, and both Faith and Shane ended up getting car sick!!!!  Be thankful I don't have pictures of that!   But the good thing was given it was the older two kids, both were able to tell us they were not feeling well and we could pull over each time so that there was not a gross, smelly mess in the car!

 

With our extra adventure on the drive up to camp, we were all especially excited to arrive at the campsite!  The kids quickly found some of their friends that they had met last year, and all three were off to play while Steve and I unpacked at put everything into the trailer!  Something that makes this trip easy and enjoyable is that we have a trailer delivered to our campsite!  Upon arrival, it is fully set up and ready for us to enjoy!

 

The kids love being able to ride their bikes around the camp ground!

 

One of the highlights each trip is the nightly fire!  Shane's mom is winning the "mother of the year" award for not bringing any type of sweatshirt or jacket for him!  And in years past this would not be a terrible thing, but it was colder this year - down to the low 40's at night!  We were able to go into town the next day and find him a suitable jacket that was even on sale!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter from the Poelstra family!  We had a joyous and fun-filled day celebrating the risen savior!  The kids were pretty excited this morning about their Easter baskets and their coordinating clothes! 

 

These two were dancing around the living room before we left for church!  Olivia told us that she is ready for Cotillion! 

 

After our church service, there was a brunch for everyone.  The kids provided a little meal-time entertainment as they sang one of their favorite songs! 

 

When the singing was complete, the kids were able to participate in the annual egg hunt!  Olivia had a lot of fun this year filling her basket!  She was very proud of herself!

 

Faith and her friend Naomi had the same dress!  They were actually pretty happy about it, despite the look on their faces!

 

And finally here is a picture of some of the kids who either hunted for eggs or hid the eggs!

 

One other event of note from this weekend was Faith and Shane took their TaeKwanDo belt test on Saturday.  They currently have a yellow belt, and they took the yellow test in order to be given their green belt!  They both did well and are feeling confident that they will be green belts later this week!

Easter Activities!

With Holy week upon us, here are some fun things they kids have been doing as Easter approaches!  Last weekend we went to a festival at the Harbor.  Since Grandma Poelstra was with us, the kids had the chance to do some fun things, such as pony rides and the petting zoo! 

 

Shane also made this cute bunny mask!  He loves to put it on and chase Olivia around the house!

 

One of the annual activities the church youth group participates in is filling the Easter eggs with candy for the hunt after church Easter Sunday!  Since Steve and I are two of the leaders, our kids get to come along and help fill the eggs too!  We filled 936 eggs!!! Everyone worked hard (fueled by the pizza dinner provided!!) and had fun prepping for the big hunt on Sunday! 

First Sleepover!

This past Tuesday Faith went to her first ever sleepover at a friend's house! She was beyond excited, and it was a long afternoon counting down the hours until we could drop her off at the party!  While we are a little hesitant about the whole sleepover thing, since it was at the home of a close family friend who also happens to be our Pastor, we felt that this was a good place for a first sleepover!  And of course she had an absolute blast, calling it one of the best times of her life!

 

While we had one very happy and excited daughter, the other could not understand why she too could not attend the sleepover!  She wanted to bring her sleeping bag and pillow when we dropped Faith off, but we compromised on carrying just the pillow!  When it was time to leave after bringing Faith, poor Olivia cried the whole ride home! 

 

Monkey-man Shane wasn't too thrilled either, but at least he didn't cry and throw a fit!