Everyday Fun!

Even though summer is the time of carefree fun, for everyone's benefit, there is a bit of structure to keep us all on track!  Part of that includes the summer reading programs!  The kids read for at least 30 minutes every day!  We make it fun with things like Bingo boards and prizes, and usually they end up reading for more than 30 minutes!  

Naturally Olivia has to do everything the older two do!

Along with reading, a daily math lesson, and piano practice, there is still plenty of room for fun!  Shane loved the slip n slide at a birthday party we attended last weekend!

On Monday's we meet friends at the beach!  While there has been quite a bit of June gloom this year, we were excited that our first official beach day of the year was nice and sunny!

 Shane wanted to take home this lobster tail for his treasure box!  We decided to take a picture instead!

Olivia was very brave - almost too brave for my own comfort!  We're looking forward to many more summer beach days and summer adventures in general!

Zoo Day!

Another outing we wanted to do in June (before the local schools ended for the summer!) was the zoo!  Since we had to go to Santa Barbara to go to the Apple store, it was a great day for the zoo as well!  Here the kids are on State Street!

And at the zoo!  They have made so many nice improvements lately!  It is even more beautiful at the zoo!  We love it there!

Obligatory halftime sliding session!

Blueberry Picking

One of our June traditions is going blueberry picking!  

Olivia didn't quite catch onto which blueberries were best for picking, but she did think that wearing blue chap stick was the thing to do!

I think this year we actually succeeded in picking more blueberries to take home than the kids ate!

June Fun!

The start of summer for us has been relaxing and filled with different, random, fun outings!  We have enjoyed walking/riding/scooting to the park near our house.  Olivia loves finding "wising flowers" as we walk!

Our fashion queen modeling Steve's glasses!  You'll notice she tends to wear the same outfits all the time!  This particular one she calls her workout style!

She rarely finds a dress she does not love!  This Hello Kitty one we could not leave Costco without buying!

We enjoyed attending the graduation open house of one of our babysitters!  While we are happy for her, we are sad to see another babysitter leave the state for college!

Another park outing!  This is the "Hawaii Style" Olivia enjoys wearing!

End of anther school year!

School is out for summer!  For some that means summer camp, for others it means swim lessons, for some it's a panicky time of "what am I going to do with my kids all day?!?", but for me it means TIME!  I have a bit more time in my day to do fun things, spontaneous outings, blog writing, reading, or anything else that comes my way!  The kids, per tradition, started off their summer break with donuts!

Even after school ended for the year, we had one final, fun Friday field trip!  On June 3 we went to McConnell's Ice Cream shop to learn about how their ice cream is made.

The kids were able to venture behind the counter and experience what it is like to work at an ice cream shop!

Faith sampling some raspberry sorbet! Photo bomb by the owner and our tour guide, Jimmy!

The two oldest enjoying their ice cream!  

Shane and two of his Better Together friends!

That evening Faith and I were able to go out for dinner and spend some quality time together!  I love that she enjoys going out for sushi as much as I do!

Happy late Easter!

Happy Easter from the Poelstra family!!  Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!! There was an extra excitement in the air this past Sunday morning which caused the kids to dress quickly and provide enough time for a few pictures before leaving for church!  This was about as good of a shot as I could get! 

We had a beautiful church service.  The kids were excited that their piano teacher and her husband joined us at church and even sat with us!  Following the service, was the annual church brunch and egg hunt!  This was a shot of all the kids who participated in the hunt!

Being one of the younger ones, Olivia was able to start the hunt first!  She would shake each egg to decide whether or not she wanted to put it in her basket!

Shane was off to the races to find as many eggs as possible!

Faith with full basket! And Shane still running in the background!

She was so proud and happy with all of the eggs she found!

One happy and handsome little man!

After church we drove to Steve's Uncle John and Aunt Sue's house for the family Easter celebration!  We had a lovely afternoon and evening with family, and they even put candles on my sundae to celebrate my birthday!  

The Wall

After our fireplace was complete in the top portion of our yard, the work began on the lower portion of our yard!  We had stone and bricks put on our existing wall to dress up the backyard!  Along the way, we also decided to have stone put on the steps too!  

The change really gives our whole backyard a new look! 

Looking out from my kitchen window, a place I tend to spend quite a bit of time!, my view greatly improved!

A closer look at the handywork!  The same man who built the fire pit did this work too.  He does a great job!  

Since it's hard to have a post without a picture of the main attraction, the kids, here they are the day the work was complete!  They were off to Awana for superhero night!  Olivia was just planning on coming home to have a tea party with me and play a few games, but naturally she had to dress up too! 

Spring Cotillion!

This past Friday evening, Faith had her March cotillion event!  She asked to wear her Easter dress for the evening, to which I said yes!  Olivia, not being one to miss a thing, quickly asked if she could wear her matching dress (she's been begging for weeks to wear it!) and go along!  I agreed, and Olivia actually did a good job watching.  She even claims to know how to do that Cha Cha now!

Every time at cotillion the kids play some sort of game that involves dancing!  At this event, the partners had to dance the Cha Cha while keeping a balloon in between them!  Faith and her partner had no trouble with this challenge!

Next up was two balloons!  That challenge too they were able to complete!

But three balloons proved to be too much for these too!  They made it much further than most couples (those eating the cookies and drinking the punch in the chairs were already out!), but they could not make it to the winning round of five balloons!  Faith is already excited about her final cotillion next month, which is a costume party!

Honoring Mrs. Reagan

Today, the kids and I took the ultimate field trip to the Reagan museum to see the body of Mrs. Nancy Reagan as it lay in repose.  I was excited to give the kids this once in a lifetime experience that I hope they remember for the rest of their lives!  One of the reasons that I really wanted to take the kids was because of my own experiences as a child.

When I was very young, my mom took me to watch the Presidential motorcade of President Reagan as it traveled down I-96 from the Grand Rapids airport to downtown for the dedication of President Ford's museum.  

A few years later, my mom again took us kids and some neighbors to watch a motorcade traveling the same route, this time carrying President George H.W. Bush!  He even waved to us!  We know this because we may have hopped a fence and been in an area we weren't supposed to be and were the only people standing along the freeway!!

When President Ford died right after Christmas in 2005, I was thankful the memorials in Grand Rapids happened while I had already planned to be there!  Faith was able to come with us (as an 8 month old in a car seat!) to watch the motorcade again travel the route from the airport to the museum downtown.  Then after the funeral the following day, we were downtown to watch the F-16 flyover in the missing man formation.

These are things I will always remember.  As a young child, it showed the honor and respect that we show to our elected officials, particularly the President of our country.  I hope my kids picked up some of that as well today; all three were in awe as we walked past the casket, noticing the four police officers guarding they body with unflinching care, honor, and respect.  

a memento of today, given to all who viewed the body

One more picture as were waited to board the bus back to our car

I'm glad I have pictures to show here of today as she may not remember it, but we'll remind her!

Ballerina Faith

Yesterday was one of the two days a year parents are allowed to view ballet classes!  I was so excited to visit Faith's class as I knew she had been working hard and really improving.

The girls all begin at the barre and do many exercises there.  I am always amazed at what strength and focus ballet is, along with the obvious flexibility.  

She's getting strong!

The girls then moved to the center of the room and did some movements.  While I didn't get a very good picture of it, they actually spent most of the class working in 5th position, which is challenging just to stand in!  I've tried recently and couldn't do it!

I'm sure there is a term for what she is doing, but I don't know what it is!  Looks pretty to me!

En pointe!