Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Back to School

The big 2nd Grader!



Can you believe that it is time for school already? Well it is. This morning I brought Ian to school for his first day of second grade.....amazing. What I found even more amazing was what happened when we went to visit his classroom yesterday. For those of you who don't know our kids are in a Spanish immersion program at Zeeland Christian. This means that they are taught all of their subject in Spanish by native speakers. Ian had a great year last year and excelled greatly in not only his general subjects, reading...spanish and english, but also math, science and every other thing you learn in 1st grade. Anyway, we have not heard much if any Spanish out of him all summer, except for one conversation he had with a guy at Walmart about fireworks. But, when he walked into his classroom yesterday he started speaking in Spanish...it was truely amazing and to tell you the truth I got a little teary-eyed. What an amazing thing...he also did an entire room scavenger hunt, in spanish, without my help....I don't know any more than about three words! So....on to another year of Spanish for Ian and WOW what an amazing thing. He will be considered bilingual when he is done with the 5th grade!!!!



Ready for school with a new backpack and shoes...didn't want to wear any new clothes!!



And......Kendra started Kindergarten at 12:30 this afternoon! Wow...she is getting so old! Kendra is just starting the Spanish immersion program so we will see how it goes. The first month or two is always a little interesting because the teacher speaks all Spanish and the kids no none. Kendra is so excited to be a big kid and go every day!




Love the short hair....how about you?


Saturday, August 4, 2007

On really hot days we....

Lay on the floor and read books.


Vacuum!


Make space ships out of boxes and fly away to outer space in the kitchen!


Make rings with magnetic marbles.


And do what ever Ian and Lucas happen to be doing:)


Anything just to stay cool! It was 98 degrees outside with about 89% humidity!! It was hot!


Thursday, August 2, 2007

3 wheels are better than 2

Gavin is now 2 1/2 and learned to ride his bike. For quite some time he only rode backward, but now rides quite quickly frontward. He loves to ride up and down the driveway...trying to keep up with his big brothers and sister.


Riding around in a circle.


Watching the pedals.


"Cheese"

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Who said you needed water?

Here are some new pictures of the four cute Wiersma's captured by grandma Feenstra's camera. We ate supper with them and then the kids went to explore the barn. They tired of that after some time and took to the water....actually just he seadoo which should be in the water. They all took turns "driving."
Ian, Kendra, Lucas and Gavin....do you think they trust Gavin to drive?

Look mom, no hands!


Wednesday, July 18, 2007

PE Exam Update!

I thought I would put up a quick post to let everyone know that I passed the PE Exam! The letter was dated June 12, which was a little less than 2 months after I took the test. This is a huge thing for me in my professional life and I'm happy to not have to retake the test. Sorry I don't have any pictures to go with my post, Beth does that better than me!

Thursday, July 5, 2007

Dutch Village

The kids earned passes to Dutch Village through the libraries summer reading program, so we went. I has been a very long time since I had been there, so it was very fun (oh, grandma came along too...she couldn't remember the last time she had gone.) We spent several hours watching Dutch Dancers, learning about herring, watching baby ducks, feeding baby goats, riding the carousel and swings, watching them carve wooden shoes and we even watched them dip and carve candles. Lots of fun only a few miles from home!


Here are 4 famous painters helping out an even more famous painter...Ian even identified the painter from something he learned in art at school. (Megan....it's fake:)


The stork brought 4 kids this time!


Me and Ian driving the wagon.


Ian, Kendra & Grandma rode the swings...I think Kendra grinned the whole time...said she was flying!


A really cute little dutch boy!

Desperate housewife?

I couldn't help but share Gavin's latest get up...better save these for wedding day!



Wearing Kendra's dress up shoes.


Getting ready to vacuum.


I'm not quite sure what he is doing here....what a crazy kid!