Kyper Begins Preschool

Many of you know that I work from home for a non-profit.  About a year and half ago (once Joel started getting paid instead of paying to learn) we had put Kyper in a in-home daycare.  We loved it.  The house he went to was within walking distance, so on nice days we'd walk there.  He loved YaYa and made some fun friends there.  He went to mornings a week, so that I could focus on work.  Let's face it I cannot do non-profit work with a busy boy at home.  (Anja will probably go to the same place this coming fall once she is older than 18 months and getting to even more trouble than she already does. :))

Well, this fall Kyper started to really dislike going to daycare.  There were a few issues I think that surrounded his feelings including, another little boy that was having some issues with the rest of the kids, Kyper was potty-training, and he just seemed like he was getting ready for a more structured environment.  We love YaYa and so did Kyper and I think she is really good with younger kids, but I don't think she had a lot of structured activities, but rather it was just free play.

Kyper also started going to story hour through hour coffee break this fall, and at story hour it is more structured.  They have a story time, craft time and a snack.  He often would tell me that Wednesdays were his favorite day--story hour day.   So along with this information and his dislike of going to daycare Joel and I prayed and really thought about preschool for him.  Our original plan was to wait until next fall, but the more he didn't want to go to daycare and the more he wanted to go to story hour kind of showed us that he may be ready for school.  I also talked to a non-family member who is a first grade teacher.  She and her family watched Anja and Kyper for a weekend while I was gone for a women's weekend and Joel was working.  I realized that I have mom-bias when I say this, but Kyper is smart.  When talking to Tracie though, she said we'd be crazy not to send him and he is ready for school and she pointed out some reasons she said this.

Therefore, after much praying, talking amongst ourselves and with some friends and family, Joel and I decided to send Kyper to preschool starting after Christmas break.  He goes to the Christian preschool that is attached to our church.  The teacher is great.  Kyper loves it and we are excited to see him start the new adventure of school!  Here is a picture of him on his first day of school:

This is the best shot I have of him--what a goof. :)

Meal Planning: Phillips Style

I recently posted a picture of our meal planning board and it has created quite a frenzy of activity on my facebook page and with friends that I actually see in real life.  So, I thought I would blog about it.  First and foremost, I have to credit Joel with doing most of the work on meal planning in our house.  He is the one that typically will sit down and fill out the calendar.

We have a white board monthly calendar that we use to fill it out.  I am sure you can pick up a very similar thing at a store like Target, but I got mine free from MOPS. (Actually, I just saw a nice one through Fathead)   It used to hang from a 3M hook that I put on our fridge, but I decided to take that down and hot glue a magnet we didn't need anymore.  (It was a hockey schedule, so it was a big magnet, but I didn't want to throw a nice magnet away, so we found a way to reuse it.)

Joel has a list of recipes/meal ideas on the computer that are tried and true.  Some months, when he has more time, he'll also sift through cookbooks to get some new ideas.  He then just fills the board up.  We only plan the main dish and we only do it for dinner.  I have my go-to lunches or we have leftovers for lunch--no need to plan for those at our house.  I also tend to have frozen veggies in the house that I just throw with whatever meal. Also, some of our meals we hardly need sides--like stir fry or casseroles--all the food groups are included.

We also have a few standing dates most months.  Like the first Wednesday of the month, we put down WND, which means Wednesday Night Dinner.  Our church hosts a community dinner the 1st Wednesday of the month September through June.  We also go to small group on the first Friday of the month and that is potluck style.  Finally, we have days labeled LO--that stands for Left Overs and are days when Joel is on-call.  IF we have left-overs that is typically what I fix.  Or, I will do another easy meal like spaghetti, grilled cheese, mini pizzas, chicken nuggets, etc.  (Easy, fast and very kid-friendly.)  Many months Joel and I also try to either do one night out or a date night for just the two of us.  (Although to be budget friendly sometimes the meal out will be breakfast or we won't go out at all that month.)

Here is a picture of our white board:

Reasons we like to meal plan:
1. I don't like to cook.  There I admitted it--I actually really dislike it, but lets face it, it is necessary for me to cook with Joel's schedule.  So because I don't like to cook a meal plan prevents a) having the same three meals that I can make every 3rd  night and b) that we don't have to wait for Joel to get home to even begin cooking.  Because this brings me to the second reason we plan.
2.  Part of cooking that makes me dislike it is just coming up with so much is coming up with an idea for dinner.  If we don't have something planned ahead of time all of a sudden it is 4:30 or 5:00 and I have super hungry kids, which means they are also crabby.  I then need to think of something and hope that I have all the ingredients on hand.  Also, it probably means that we will have a vegetarian meal (not that, that is bad), but most of our meat is frozen, so it requires time to thaw.

1 and 2 ensures that Joel typically comes home to a almost ready meal and doesn't have to stop at the store on his way home.  Although, I have to give Joel even more credit.  He tries to plan bigger, more time-consuming prep meals on days he thinks he'll be home on time or on weekends he doesn't have to work, so he can cook.  He likes to cook, but just can't always because of his schedule.

3.  It also helps with grocery shopping.  We make the meal plan first and then I get a grocery list from it.  If I am on top of it, this means I only have to go to the store once for a large shopping trip a month and then perhaps one or two more times for a few items and fresh produce.

Finally, I think there are one thing to remember about us--.
We are pretty laid back and that is one reason we love the white board.  We are flexible with our meal plan and we aren't rigid with it.  If we don't feel like having what is on the meal plan, we can easily switch (which is way reason 3 is helpful--I have ingredients for almost all the meals for a month).  I know this is one reason my friend gave me for why they don't plan.  I say, be flexible.  Don't worry if your meal plan says tacos but you feel like pizza.  Do it and then just do tacos another night.

I know a month seems like a long ways out to plan, but remember reason number 3--it really helps with the grocery bill each month.  It also helps with our flexibility since we have quite a few options to switch around too.

A little crafty...

I have been getting into some crafting lately.  First up my new wreath:
Joel and I received one of those twig wreaths for our wedding.  At that time (8 years ago) it had some flowers stuck into it.  It was pretty, but over time and a few moves the flowers were lost.  So, I did a little searching on pinterest on what I could do.  Another friend of mine had done a tutorial at MOPS on how to make rosettes, so I combined the ideas with the tutorial plus some scrap fabric I had from my Christmas stocking to make a new wreath.

If you want the tutorial on how to make the rosettes please contact me; my friend Noelle has given me permission to pass it along.  The basic idea though is to take some long strips of fabric (I did all different widths to get a variety of rosette sizes) and roll and twist, hold the fabric in place with some hot glue.

After making the rosettes I hot glued a part of a pipe cleaner on the back in order to stick the rosettes on the wreath. 

I only spent $2 on the whole thing, because I bought 1/4 yard of the white fabric you see in the picture.

Here is the finished product:

(All pictures are from a cell phone since Joel's camera was spilled on and is now getting cleaned in AZ.)

The other craft that I finished yesterday were Kyper'sv valentines-V-day Bookmarks.  Last year, I felt so bad that I didn't send him to daycare with any Valentines.  He didn't go on V-day, but still got little cards from his buddies.  I don't even know if he needs them for preschool, but I didn't want him to be the only kid without them, especially since he will be in school on Feb. 14.  I only paid for the smarties, so these were super duper cheap!  Thank you again to Pinterest for this idea.

You go to Lowes, Home Depot or another store like it and grab a few paint chips.  Due to them being for Valentine's Day, I tried to get shades of pink or red.  My paint samples were really wide, so I was able to cut them approximately in 3rds. (I cut off the name of the paint and then in half from there.)  I threw the parts with the names away, although you could probably use them if you didn't care if they were on them or not.  I then borrowed a heart hole punch from my friend and punched a few hearts into each bookmark.  She also let me use white ribbon, so they have ties on them.   I wanted to put a fun little pun on the back with a label, but I realized I had punched holes in the bookmarks, so the label wouldn't really work unless I wanted sticky to show through the holes.  Which is why I opted to include a little packet of smarties.  I used the labels to stick the smarties on.  My friends Rebecca and Bethany helped with the puns: "You wrote the book on being cool."  and "You are pretty cool in my book"

Up next, a perpetual birthday calendar.  (Again, we got one as a wedding gift, but it fell into some dirty dish water, so I am going to make my own.)  I also want to make a picture board with some left over fabric I have and ribbon to put the Christmas cards up for the year (I cut out pictures so I can leave them up year round.)

Snowman

Kyper has been so excited to get snow this year.  His eyes lit up whenever it even started snowing so far this winter.  Although, as many of us know just because it snows doesn't mean it sticks or that there is enough to make a snowman.  That is what he really wanted--a snowman!

We had told him that maybe there would be snow on the other side of the state, but nope.  They had a little bit while we were there, but no such luck.

However, when we got back Detroit had gotten snow while we were gone.
Without further ado...

Funny thing though, this is how we found the snowman the next morning:

"Help, I've fallen and I can't get up."

Joel did put it back up, but we found it worse off the next day--fallen and decapitated.  I sent Joel a text wondering if it was an accident or foul play?  It is still a mystery-a fun one.   Joel fixed it again and it stood for a few days.  Now the head is off and it is starting to warm up, therefore we bid the snowman farewell. Until the next snowfall!

Trip to Holland

After doing Christmas with the Phillips 4 clan, we drove out to Holland.  We spent 5 nights there.

When we got into town, we stopped by my parents and said Merry Christmas.  We then proceeded to Joel's parents to do the extended Phillips family celebration.  Extended meaning his parents and his brother and sister-in-law.  Yes, I am that old now that extended doesn't mean my grandparents, aunts and uncles, but extended is now my kids' grandparents, aunts and uncles.  JP and Katie were in Texas this year, but we Skyped them in when it was time to open gifts from them.

Anja and her gift from GGma

Kyper with the kids' new able and his dino puzzle

Skyping with JP and Katie and Sumners family.

Wednesday was a pretty low-key day and we basically hung around the Phillips house.  Joel did manage to get a trip to the beach in.

The boys found a fire on the beach,

Thursday was also pretty low-key, but we spent the majority of the day at my parent's house. My brother and sister-in-law were there finishing up the paint job on my parent's bathroom.  One of my best friends, Stephanie, stopped by so she could see the kids while they were awake--she lives in Florida now, but was visiting family too.  The other times we saw her the kids were already in bed.  We then had the Koning extended family celebration.  My mom ordered pizza and had appetizers...it was perfect.  We let all the kids goat their gifts and then once they were playing with their new toys, the adults could open gifts in a much less chaotic fashion.  After gift opening, Joel and I did play a round of hand and foot with my siblings.  We then headed back to the Phillips, put the kids to bed and then headed to the local coffee shop, JP's.  We saw Stephanie, Erin, Bethany and Justin and stayed until it closed 11pm--man, was that a late night.  I never stay up that late anymore.  But, it was worth it to spend about an hour with some of my closest girlfriends!

Some of the cousins lined up ready to open gifts.

Anja happy with a bow

Kyper got a dump truck

My mom with the youngest two grandkids.  Amelia and Anja only a month apart.

Friday, we had breakfast with Scott and Stephanie, some other friends.  We then headed back to the Phillips for morning naptime.  That afternoon, we drove up to Grand Haven to see Joel's cousins and grandma.  Joel's cousin Joe had some tools to give Joel that once belonged to Grandpa Phillips.  Joel was pretty excited to get some of those tools.  He now owns a level and a few wooden handled screw drivers.  He got a few other things but those are going to his brothers, so they can all have a few things from Grandpa Phillips.  After picking up the tools, we headed to Grandma Phillips.  She is in an assisted living home and while we were there Kyper got to try Wii bowling with the other residents and we all got to participate in a fire drill.  We also met the resident flirt when he started blowing kisses to GGma.  Friday night, we hosted some friends at the Phillips house.  It was nice to catch up with them--Tim, Tricia, and Jaxon, Tim, Melanie, and Judah, and Stephanie.

Not enjoying a sink bath. (I have other pics that show her even more unhappy, but cannot post those on the internet.)

Jaxon and his mommy, Tricia with Anja.  Jaxon is two weeks younger than Anja.  Yes, she is my peanut.

Foosball

Saturday, we visited my grandma VanFarowe and my grandpa Koning in the morning.  Late afternoon and evening was spent going to Fredrick Meijer Gardens with my parents.  The Christmas trees were still up.  Kyper loved the train set that was in the garden part and he also loved walking in the jungle at night.  Good ole Russ' was on the menu after seeing the gardens.

Before heading out for the evening, Kyper, Grandpa P. and Joel went hiking in the woods.

Joel was trying to capture her front two teeth, but she was cutely refusing.

Jersey Junction--a figure of a pretty famous ice cream shop to Grand Rapids people.

Family Foto in the jungle

Just a sample of the Christmas trees (they have all different ones representing different countries)

Anja admiring a tree

Sunday, we headed to church with the Phillips and did Sunday dinner with them.  Before leaving we did spend a little more time at my parents' house.  Kyper loved playing with his cousins there.  We left around bedtime and it was a pretty quiet ride home as the kids were asleep for most of it or watching a video. We all were soon fast asleep in our own beds that night!

Kyper and his cousin dressed up in pillow cases and other items.

hat hair

By the way just have to give a shout out to Joel's gift he gave me this year--an electric blanket.  I no longer have a cold bed to go into at night, instead it is pre-warmed.  It is beautiful!

Christmas 2012

Christmas was great this year! 

Christmas eve, we headed to church for a candlelight service.  It was beautiful.  After church, we put the kids to bed and then Joel and I had a lovely steak dinner.  It was delicious.

Our meal

Happy birthday Jesus cupcakes!

Joel and I then were very excited to fill the stockings and add a few more gifts under the tree.  Kyper did great not asking about opening presents before Christmas, although he saw me wrap most of the ones that were not for him.  He had fun doing some Christmas shopping with me too.  I am pretty proud of my little guy for being so helpful and understanding in not just getting gifts but also giving!

Christmas morning we woke up pretty early thanks to Kyper's "amazing" schedule.  Kyper did great waiting for the rest of us to wake up.  I am not sure he really realized it was actually THE day we had been talking about...he seemed to think everyday was Christmas since we put up the decorations. :)
We opened our stockings and then had a yummy breakfast of sticky buns.  Oh the ooey gooey goodness...good thing we only have them like once a year.  We then headed back into the living room and opened the presents under the tree.  Kyper was so excited and did so great!  Anja was pretty happy too.  She really didn't know what was happening, but loved to crawl around getting the bows.  I could have just wrapped a bunchs of bows and she would have been happy.

Kyper and Anja with their stockings.  Kyper is pulling out an owl puppet.  Anja got some hair bows.

She also got some girly sippy cups that she can start practicing with.

 I love this one, because when I asked Kyper what he wanted to get Anja.  He adamently told me "a rhinoceros."  So, I had to get her a rhino from Kyper.  Good thing amazon.com came through and I found one for a penny plus shipping.  (also, because of swagbucks, it cost me nothing.)  He was so excited to get a rhino for her and she loves sticking it in her mouth.

We then played for a little while and Anja napped.  Around noon, we were in the car headed for the west side of the state to spend some time with family.

Catch-up

I realize I haven't blogged in a long time.  Some of it was due to blogger saying I didn't have enough room to post pictures.  Well, here is  quick catch up post.

Thanksgiving: We did a quick one day trip to Holland.  Joel had Thanksgiving day off, but had to be back to work on Friday.  So, we headed out on Wednesday night to optimize our time.  We had dinner with my family and then headed up to Grand Haven for Joel's extended family party.  Then we were back in the car for our trip home.  Here are just a few pictures.

My parents' new table--Anja couldn't figure out why she couldn't grab the book.

Anja and GGma Phillips

We decorated and set up the Christmas Tree the Saturday after Thanksgiving

This is my favorite decoration of the year. :)

Anja turned 7 months

Kyper fell asleep...

We celebrated Sinterklaas Day by giving the kids their Christmas Pajamas.

Kyper and I made Christmas cookies and consumed too many.  Kyper and Joel made sea foam and consumed too much.

Anja started pulling herself up.  (Oh, did I mention she started crawling a week or so before Thanksgiving?)

Anja also has enough hair for a little bow.  Thanks Auntie Mungo!

I will do a separate post for Christmas and our time in Holland.