Sloan Museum

Last Saturday, we took a trip to Sloan Museum in Flint. We've never taken Carson and it had been many, many years since Kevin or I had been there. We met up with Aunt Julie, Anna, Joel, and Jonah and had a lot of fun.  The kids had a blast! They all got a kick out of the Grossology exhibit, which features all things gross about your body... burps, farts, stinky feet, pimples, etc. Gross was definitely the way to describe several of the exhibits! I think the favorite part of the trip for all the kids was actually the most simple... a bare stage to jump off of! :) I think they could have stayed in there for hours. They also really enjoyed the puppet show area. Jonah really loved the puppet shows and playing peek-a-boo with the curtains.

After the museum, we walked over to the Flint Institute of Music to see their sneak peek of the Nutcracker and we got to see where Anna takes her violin lessons.  It was a very fun afternoon and we are already looking forward to our next visit to Sloan when they get some new exhibits in a few months or so.  Its nice to be reminded that we have some pretty cool places to go right in our own backyard.

Fantastic Fall

We've been having some fantastic fall weather.  It was up in the 60s last week with bright sun every day - it was awesome!  Unfortunately the weather was short-lived and we're in the 40s today...  We took full advantage of the beautiful weather with a few different trips to local parks.  We found a new (to us) park in Linden on Friday.  The locals call it Wood Park.  Its a really nice, huge wooden playscape right down by the river.  Carson had a lot of fun and met a new friend named Owen.  They had a lot of fun playing together, running all over the place and swinging. 

Carson will kill me one day for posting this, but I just think its too funny.  Carson is wearing big-boy underwear most of the time now and I guess he had a bit of a wedgie from all his running and playing at the park.  :)

We've also been taking full advantage of the nice weather to finish up the fall clean up chores in the yard.  Carson has been having a lot of fun helping us sweep and rake leaves; trim bushes, flowers, and trees; and ride around on the tractors with Kevin. 

Here is our favorite fall craft that we've done so far.  Hand print leaves on a 6"x6" stretched canvas.  We love crafts that double as nice artwork for our living room! 

And lastly, we've been working with Carson to learn to write some letters.  He is doing very well - when he focuses on what we're doing, at least.  :)  Here is a letter A that he wrote on his chalkboard all by himself!  Of course, they don't all look this good, but many of them do! 

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween to everyone (a day late)!  I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!  I just love Halloween... always have and always will.  I love seeing all the kids in their costumes and I do love dressing up myself.  Although I haven't dressed up the last few years, but I think we'll all dress up next year.

Last night we went over to Aunt Julie's and Uncle Jason's house for dinner and trick-or-treating.  The kids all looked so cute!  Anna changed up her costume from being an angel to being a cheerleader, Joel was Batman, Carson was a pirate, and Jonah was a lion.  They all had a lot of fun trick-or-treating and seeing all the other kids and adults in costume.  Carson was a little unsure about some of the scarier masks, but he did really well again this year with few fears.  He loved the houses with jack-o-lanterns (especially the happy ones), spooky lights, and ghosts.  He really loves ghosts this year.  The kids all got a good amount of candy and we cut our trick-or-treating short after about an hour this year. 

Just for a look back, here's a link to our post about Halloween 2009... Carson sure has grown!

Once we got back to Aunt Julie's and Uncle Jason's house, we all piled in the cars and headed over to Grandma and Grandpa's where we met up with the Bush family.  It has been a long-standing tradition of the Poiriers and the Bushes to meet up at the Holleboom house after trick-or-treating.  We are thankful to have been included in this tradition for the last two years now and look forward to many years ahead! 

And lastly, I wanted to share our favorite Halloween craft that we did this year.  Its a handprint ghost on a 5"x5" stretched canvas.  I think it turned out so cute and am so excited to add this to my Halloween decorations in the years to come!

Family Day at Almar Orchards

We started out our October family day (last Saturday) at Almar Orchards in Flushing, Michigan. They're a certified organic orchard.  I've been buying most of my apples from them through our online CSA Farmers' Market. Kevin and I have been out there once before, but its been about three years now, so we were looking forward to visiting again. Unfortunately, Saturday ended up being a rainy day and things were quite muddy so they were not doing the hayrides that they normally do. But we still had fun picking out some caramel apples and cider and visiting the petting farm. They have lots of animals to see - horses, donkeys, goats, llamas, reindeer, chickens, turkeys, peacocks. They were all a hit with the kids and adults alike. Caden, Gabe, Carson, and Mackenzey all had a lot fun feeding the animals.

We ended up cutting our visit to the orchard short with the rain showers rolling in and headed back to Great Poppy's house. We had a yummy dinner - homemade chicken noodle soup (with homemade noodles and broth!), roasted potatoes, pumpkin muffins, cornbread muffins, chocolate chip bars, and chocolate brownies. Then we spent lots of time just visiting and playing. We also enjoyed some delicious homemade stovetop popcorn as a snack later in the night. It was a great day and night!

Trick-or-Treating at Crossroads Village

On Friday night last weekend, we took a trip to Crossroads Village for their annual trick-or-treating weekend event. We met up with Uncle Jason, Aunt Julie, Joel, and Jonah and had a lot of fun! Joel was dressed as Batman, Carson as a pirate, and Jonah as a lion. It was a little chilly, but it was actually warmer than we thought it may end up being.

Carson is a little sensitive to the scary aspects of Halloween this year, so he was a little timid at first. But by the end, he was having a lot of fun and was not ready to go home!  On the way to the car, he was singing, "I'm so happy! So very, very happy! I'm so happy! I had a lot of fun!"  He often just starts singing his feelings and emotions these days, its so fun to hear.  Carson loved seeing all the kids in costumes, especially the blonde little girls... he definitely has a thing for blondes. He made many comments about how pretty some girls looked dressed as fairies and princesses. :) He has also really been enjoying all of his Halloween treats. He isn't allowed candy very often at home, so it is extra special for him!

Here's a link for a look back to our time a Crossroads Village last year.

Turkeys!

Carson loves doing crafts.  We try to do some type of creative activity everyday... even if its just coloring or drawing on the chalkboard... and we try to do a more structured creative activity at least 3 or 4 times a week.  I don't often take pictures of the outcomes, but these hand turkeys were so cute and Carson is extra proud of them, so I thought I'd post them.  We have some other fun things we've done recently that I hope to post soon, too!

"Do you have a sprinkler?"

If you have spent any time with Carson during the couple of months, more than likely you've been asked the question in the title of this post.  The next question was probably "Do you have a yellow sprinkler?"  :) 

Since we have totally re-done our front lawn this year, Carson has developed a strange obsession with sprinklers.  He LOVES them and gets so excited when he sees them.  His favorite place to shop is Home Depot (has been for awhile now), but now he loves it because he'll get to go down an entire aisle full of sprinklers.  I guess we'll see how he reacts on the next trip there, as I'm sure most of the sprinklers have been clearanced out for the season. 

Carson loves to turn the sprinklers on, watch them go, and always has to go over and "fix" them by turning them back and forth a few times... we bought a couple cheap sprinklers for two of the corners of the yard and they often get stuck so we've have to go "fix" them.  Carson was really in his own little perfect place during a few weeks this summer when we had five sprinklers going at once in our front yard... and when he's at Aunt Jeri's house and the in-ground sprinkler system comes on all at once... you should hear his excitement when that happens!  :)  Anyway, I just had to share a few pictures of our little man loving the sprinklers...

We've since brought all the sprinklers and hoses in for the winter, which I must say made Carson quite depressed.  We cleaned off his favorite yellow sprinkler to let him examine it more closely inside the house.  He played with every part and can tell you exactly what each spring or switch or hole is for and what it does.  The first couple of days that he had the sprinkler indoors, he seriously never let it go.  It was in his hand while he ate, while he sat on the potty, while he fell asleep, and while he took his baths.  We had to do some serious convincing to get him to let it go and leave it home after three days of never letting it out of his sight.  :)