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!

Little League Begins!

This past Saturday Shane had the opening ceremonies for little league and his very first game.  He is on the Diamondbacks this year.  With a practice and two games a week, we will be spending many hours at the ball fields for the next two months!

Shane's very first at bat!  He was able to get a hit on the very first pitch!  In his league, a pitching machine pitches to the kids.  If they are unable to hit the ball after 4 pitches, the coach brings out a T for the hitter to use.

The coach is very good about having the kids on the team all play the different positions.  After playing third base and right field, Shane was able to put on all the catcher gear and spending an inning behind the plate!  There is (thankfully) an hour and a half time limit on the games, so they only played three innings for their first game.  Hopefully as the season goes on and the kids are better able to hit the ball, they can finish more innings!  For now, they sure are having fun and learning!

Grandma's visit!

A few weekends ago, Grandma Bruinsma needed a break from the cold and snow and came to visit us!  We did some fun things while she was here!  None of us had been to the quaint little town of Solvang before, so we thought it was a great time to go there!  It's a Danish town about an hour north of us.  Faith was excited to see a giant wooden shoe!

We also spent an afternoon at the zoo!  It was a perfect day for it, and we were able to see many of the animals moving about, even the usually sleepy lions!

Strolling with Grandma!

A highlight for the kids was going miniature golfing for the very first time!  

Shane had some pretty lucky shots!

Olivia would have me help with her first shot, then she would place her ball right next to the hole and hit it in!  It was pretty cute!

It was so nice to have Grandma with us for a long weekend!  We were sad to see her go, but look forward to her April visit!