Easter Eggs

We had a wonderful Easter this year. We spent it in Naperville with the Peckenpaughs and had the gift of my Grandpa Wilson joining us from Ohio. After a rainy week it was such a joy to spend a few days enjoying spring and God's beautiful creation coming to life.


We crammed a lot of Easter fun into the weekend:

• Annika had her first train ride, traveling from Kalamazoo to Chicago to Naperville.
• We attended a service at Willow Creek. It was an impressive service and the church was bigger than I expected. They had an entire wing for 2 year olds!
• We dyed Easter Eggs with Nana, Papa and Great Grandpa and only spilled the dye once :)
• Annika spent a warm afternoon at the park and insisted on going down the biggest, steepest slide.
  
• We attended Easter service at Naperville Covenant and got to see a lot of old friends.
• Annika discovered the fun of Easter egg hunts, participating in not one, but three hunts! It was no wonder that her favorite part was the candy inside.
  
• We enjoyed a lovely Easter lunch at Great Grandma and Grandpa's home in Hinsdale - getting to see aunts, uncles, cousins and 2nd cousins.

The weekend was an amazing celebration of the sacrifice Christ made for us. He is risen...indeed!

Spring Break

Last week Branden was off of work for spring break. Though I was longing for some time on a sunny beach, I instead took some days off of work and enjoyed time with our family at home. Last Friday we made a trip to Grand Rapids to take Annika to the Children's Museum. She had a lot of fun running around exploring the activities and playing in the bubbles, but her favorite part was watching the elevator go up and down. Isn't it it typical that her favorite thing would be the thing we could have enjoyed with her for free :)LEGOS

THE ELEVATOR

BUBBLES

Baby Kay-Kay

On St. Patrick's Day we eagerly welcomed the newest addition to our family - a new cousin, Kayla Joy Koetje. Becca and Chris are doing a wonderful job navigating the first sleepless weeks of parenthood and it has been so fun to to introduce Annika to her new cousin who she endearingly calls "Baby Kay-Kay".

This past Monday I took the day off of work and Annika and I headed to Zeeland to spend a girls day with Becca and Kayla. Annika had fun "mothering" Kayla and claiming the baby's bounce seat as her own. We are so excited for the fun ahead for these two girls.

Annika is 2!

This weekend we held a special PURPLE birthday party in honor of Annika's second birthday. We were thrilled to have both sets of grandparents as well as Branden's sisters and our nephew Will in town from Minnesota and North Carolina to help celebrate. Some highlights included...

- Annika's favorite meal: Chicken Pesto Pasta
- A beautiful purple birthday cake
- A life-size Minnie Mouse doll from Grammy and Grandpa
- A new trike from Mommy and Daddy
- A new Little Tykes car from Nana and Papa

A Growing Family

This is a little overdue, but Annika is excited to announce that she's going to be a big sister to a baby BOY due July 11, 2011. We couldn't be more thrilled!

Swim Lessons

This morning Annika took her first swim lessons with her Daddy. We signed up to take the class with our good friends Eric and Cindy and their sons Marshall and Caden. Annika was a little timid at times, but loved playing with the balls and splashing around. I have a feeling that by the end of this class we'll have a little fish on our hands.

Winter Fun

Snow, snow, snow has been the the theme of this winter and if I'm completely honest, I really love the white stuff. Annika is learning to love it as well, though she wasn't too sure about about it being up to her waist a few weeks ago. With March nearing I'm starting to long for spring, but we have had a lot of fun being snowed in together this winter!