walking?

i am convinced that a 4th child must be very resourceful in order to survive... well at least my 4th child in our crazy home :) .... jillian decided to use this chair to help her "walk" across the room. she even stopped for a moment to "celebrate" her accomplishment by dancing :)

saying goodbye

day 15 photo
sniff.... sniff.....tonight we said goodbye to our infant car seat. it was another one of those bittersweet moments for me..... another milestone for our family, i guess.

on the bright side my chiropractor (both in hilversum and kenosha) will be happy that i'm not lugging this big ol' thing around anymore :)

announcement: i'm moving my 365 day project to http://www.flickr.com/photos/58369418@N04/to keep it separate from my blog and make it a little easier to follow "the project"

and if this floor doesn't shine....

day 14 photo

.... like the top of the chrysler building..... quote taken directly fon the movie Anne (yes, it's Helen's favorite movie right now)

in an effort to try and clean the dining and living room floor better - i've resorted to the old fashioned scrubbing on my hands and knees. i can't seem to get the floor as clean as i would like it. so i thought i would try some wood floor soap and good ol' fashioned elbow grease :) 1 hour and 4 buckets of water/cleaner later - i hope it's clean!!!

happy 6th birthday, jayden!

all the kids help jayden celebrate his 6th birthday

(day 13 photo)
jayden blows out the candle on his breakfast bar .... our family tradition on birthday mornings :)

the oreo pops all tied up and ready to go to jayden's school!

buzz lightyear cupcakes!

Jayden requested both cupcakes AND a cake for his birthday. (he picked out the candle at Target back in the states!)

ross did a great job decorating the dining room

"diluting" the melted chocolate with white frosting to make the nose on buzz

decorating the cake!

i made oreo pop treats for jayden's class at school... had to come up with something to put them in so the chocolate could set.

only a few "broken" cookies during the preparation process

putting in the popscicle sticks - ready for the white chocolate

i will post the link to the directions for making the pops and the cake here tomorrow!

rain rain go away!

it's been raining pretty much all week here.... but on the bright side - the temperatures have been in the 50's during the day. so i thought it was an appropriate picture for my day 12 photo. (special thanks to graham for taking my photo!)

i've come to the realization that there's no glamour in transporting the children to and from school on a bike in the rain though. but i must admit - it's so much easier than driving the car. i pull right up to the kid's school... and let them out of the bike. jillian and helen don't even get wet!

my garage

photo - day 11

Well, since i cleaned up my garage this past weekend - haha - i thought i would share a photo :) (cleaning consisted of sweeping out the leaves that have fallen off my bike and cleaning up the salt deposits from where the snow slush has melted off my bike earlier in December)

This is actually the foyer to our house in Holland.... not technically a garage. You can see the kitchen area off to the right. There's a really cool straw mat in front of the door that is actually cut into the floor. Catches all the dirt and rain as we come in :) Most houses that I have seen in Holland to not have an actual garage like you would see in the USA. Our house happens to have a large front foyer area and we decided to use it as a place to park our bikes and double jogging stroller/bike trailer. (The boys and Helen park their bikes around back under a covered area.) In the morning when it's cold or snowy - I don't have to clear off my bike :)

I usually load all the kids in the bike before we open the front door and then they are "delivered" right to the front door of their school. Talk about a chauffer door-to-door service :)

laundry helpers

the official day 10 photo

yesterday the girls were helping me with some laundry. when we got the washer loaded - jillian was fascinated by the bubbles and water that were swishing around inside (gotta love a front load washer!). i also thought it was so cute to see helen putting her arm around her sister..... ahhhhh sisterly LOVE.

i have to add that the dress jillian is wearing --- officially the FIRST EVER dress of Matilda Jane Clothing that i purchased (for helen) :)