what lies beneath

I haven't done laundry in a couple of weeks. I just haven't had time. I usually do it on the weekend, but my weekend was full of a little youth group trip and running (I'm running a half marathon this weekend in Kalamazoo!) and watching the Miss USA pageant. So, as you can see, I've been busy with really important stuff. As a result, my underwear supply has run low. I had to reach for the bottom of the drawer this morning-otherwise known as Wedgieland. I just thought my family may like to know that I am sitting in a computer lab right now, feeling my underwear (which I readjusted at lunch) recreep into wedgie territory. Fun day.

Sydney's New Cousin

Raleigh and Sydney have a new cousin! James' sister Jill had a baby girl named Molly Lyn (I'm sure she was named in honor of Ceci and Janet) on Tuesday. Anyway, this picture is just too funny. Sydney is 4 months and 1 week older than Molly which just happens to be exactly the same age difference as Raleigh and Molly's big sister Brinley. The same day this picture was taken, we had taken Sydney to her 4 month doctors visit and Dr. VanZee looked at her and called her a WHOPPER! I guess my 17 pound tank is trying to take after Mallory (wouldn't mind if she did...). Now our only thing is to try to get Raleigh to STOP calling her a Whopper in public.

Milwaukee Life

Greetings from Brew City. I thought that I would post a few pictures for everyone to keep you guys updated. The first is of Carrie, James and I during my freshman year at Marquette. (I know that it's been a long time coming, but I haven't been able to get the picture off of my camera until now!)




The second picture was taken after I went to dinner with Ryan at PF Chang's, a Chinese Restaurant. I just thought everyone would like to know that, yes, in-fact, I DO occasionally wear my hair down.

The last couple of pics are of the Bucks game last Saturday. The Bucks lost, but it was still a lot fun. I didn't realize how much more offense there is in the NBA! It's ridiculous.



Lastly, Ryan and I are coming to town June 2-4 because he was saying on Sunday that he would like to meet everybody. Mom suggested a cookout, which I think would be a lot of fun. Let me know if you guys are available or if another time works out better. I'm excited to see everyone. It looks like all of my nieces and nephews are getting so grown up! I'll be keeping you "posted". Love you guys.

Easter and Butterflies

Sydney and Raleigh had fun finding their baskets on Easter morning! I think Raleigh is still on a sugar-high (imagine that...). Last week we went to see the butterflies at Meijer Gardens with cousin Emilie and William. Raleigh flapped her arms the whole time "like a butterfly" and William followed. The kids liked the outside part more and were drenched from the Great Lakes. Sorry the pictures are out of order. Hope everyone had a great Easter!

Kuipers Spring Break

For our first annual spring break trip, the girls and I went to Underwater Adventure World. As you can see, Sydney came "a little too close to comfort" to a gigantic octopus. She swam with the fishies and had a wonderful time. But...one of the little seacreatures must have splashed her because her face got all wet (you can see from the picture, her chin is still dripping). None of the pictures of Raleigh turned out but she had a delightful time. And...with James having a busy season again, I guess it will be the girls and me on spring breaks from now on...hmmm...I'd rather be at Dino World eating airheads and doughnuts (with "frinkles" (sprinkles) as Raleigh calls them). As for next year, we may visit something more exciting like the grocery store's annual egg hunt...

La Barge Spring Break Trip-Downtown Disney

This is it, we promise!!! The other things we did were, visit my brother's family at the ocean in Melbourne Beach (although we wanted to see the ocean and find shells, we didn't get there until dark)but, we did find some shells. The place my brother stayed was an old WWII bunker used to look for enemy subs so Brendan was concerned about missiles for our visit. We also went to Downtown Disney. They have several different shops, most of which carry Disney stuff - obviously-and a Lego store that was really fun!!! The large statues behind the three kids are made out of regular sized Legos. It was really amazing! There was also a Riverboat restaurant so we had to get a picture of Ben in front of it. We had a blast everyday and were sad to come back to 40 degrees and rain!!!! (Ok, maybe Janet a bit more than Ben).

La Barge Spring Break Trip Day Condo

The place we stayed was BEAUTIFUL! We had a 2 bedroom, 2 bath condo that overlooked a pond, the playground, mini-golf, and you could see the waterpark. The boys sure loved sharing a bed-not!!! Brendan complained that Dugan snored and one night we checked the kids and Brendan had both his legs across Dugan's chest. And of course, Princess Daphne had her own bed-no complaints from her! The big hit of the place we stayed was the free donuts every morning. Brendan also really like the arcarde room and they all loved the mini-golf. Each afternoon, we spent several hours by the waterpark/pool area. Even Ben was brave enough to go down the black tunnel waterslide!

La Barge Spring Break Trip Day 2

The next "highlight" of the trip was GatorWorld. This time, instead of seeing cement reptiles, we saw living ones!!! Daphne was funny, she would get so excited to show us each & every alligator (there were around 250 on site). She would say, "over here boys!" Then, we watched a guy wrestle a gator (Dugan then decided he wanted to wrestle one next) and Brendan spent the whole time staring at the large bees buzzing overhead!!!

La Barge Spring Break Trip

Attached are some pictures of our trip.

These pictures are from Dino World in Kentucky. I really wanted to go see the Mamoth Caves but I couldn't get the family past the first tourist trap at the exit! The kids made me turn around with chants of "Dino World!" "Dino World!" More Pictures of our Trip to follow in a few days.

Inspiration for Dave

I know Dave's 5/3rd 25k is coming up- and since I couldn't get it together to train for it myself- I decided to be a source of inspiration for Dave by pulling up a picture of my marathon glory.

Butterflies...

Last Wednesday Elliana had her first "field trip" ever! Here are some pictures of our trip to the butterfly exhibit at Meijer Gardens.

Elliana and Ceci get ready for the big day.

Elliana is all smiles on her field trip. She is really enjoying the butterflies!

Elliana shows her boyfriend Benji the butterflies! (He's the only boy in her preschool class!)

Even Mallory liked the butterflies!

Finally, after an hour Elliana was ready to go!


It was a great day, and the butterflies were pretty cool. Everything was fine until we were leaving. Elliana looked at Ceci and said "Mom, I'm really upset about something. I'm upset because a butterfly didn't land on my nose!" She was referring to this picture that she saw on the way in...

PISA EL FRENO

I'm doing the part of a road test today where we have the vehicle inspection. We start at the driverside window, then move clockwise around the car. When we get to the back of the auto we check the brake lights by saying in a voice loud enough for the driver to hear through a partially lowered window, "PUT YOUR FOOT ON THE BRAKES." This afternoon I had a chubby kid who went to Holland High and when I got to the rear of his Trail Blazer I noticed a big H sticker with GO DUTCH! Without thinking, and this is the truth, these words almost came out of my mouth. "PUT YOUR FINGER IN THE DYKE!"

Bad Joke

Creating this blog over at Missy's I looked at a plaque behind her computer and thought about the tiny alien who was totally misunderstood when he crash landed and soon after was introduced to Pres. Bush when what he actually said was "take me to your ladder."

This is how we check to see if Sydney is awake..."Mom...Sydneysup..shesup...shesup"

Test

This is a test to see if this thing works!