birthday gift

with my birthday right around the corner, i decided to spoil myself a little...
so there's this podcast that i've loved listening to for a few years (though now defunct) called 'midnight movie club'.  its hosted by an australian named lee sargent and a brit named dan hughes.  other than funny podcasts, lee also is an artist.  i've checked out his work online before and really love his cartoony style.  he has a shop on etsy where he makes these amazing ink and watercolor drawings of different pop culture based subjects.  well, it just so happened that he put up an offer on his site that you could commission him to make pieces for you.  he often works in a small size, usually about baseball card size.  after talking with diana about it, i took the plunge and commissioned him to make me a bunch of stargate sg-1 drawings!  he had listed on his store that he would make sets of three cards.  i decided that three wasn't going to be enough, instead i opted for 9!  i worked with him on what i wanted: a set of eight drawings of characters to be set around a central image of the stargate itself.  it's kind of a brady bunch style layout. he immediately understood what i was looking for and made the most amazing stylized images of the characters!  when we got them i had them framed and they have since been hanging in our place as a testament to just how nerdy i am!  amazingly, diana thinks they are pretty awesome as well!  i may be a nerd, but at least my nerdiness is expressed through original commissioned art, right?
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vbs fun

one of the things that comes with summer is all the local churches have their vbs programs!  not wanting to miss out on the opportunity for crafts, ledger was all about it!  so, we took advantage and joined up with the vbs programs of different churches, even though they weren't our home church!  anything for a craft, right?...
the theme at one of the churches was farms, so ledger loved the chance to pretend to be a cowboy and wear the hat!  they even went for a field trip one of the days and got to go to a petting farm!  he had a blast and came home with some fun questions about jesus and faith!
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auntie visits

barbara and james were doing one of their patented 'random road trips' up through michigan, so they decided on a whim to stop by and spend a couple days with us.  we figured we'd show them a good time, so we used our annual pass and took them to the grand rapids museum and let ledger show them around!
afterward we took them to a wonderful tapas restaurant downtown called san chez.  the last time diana and i had been there was for our anniversary a few years ago. it was, as it had been last time, amazing!  even ledger found a few things he enjoyed.  the rest of the visit was a wonderful time as well.  you know ledger, he always loves auntie barbara visiting and spending time with her!
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fireworks show

ledger loves fireworks almost as much as diana...  with the 4th of july upon us, we headed out to sandy pines to get the most of it!  i spend the day working, but headed out to meet them after work.  diana and ledger had gotten there earlier in the day and spent the afternoon enjoying all the fun of sandy pines with mema and papa.  when grandpa and grandma declined, the three of us headed out to the beach to get a good view of the firework show.  ledger, as always, had a blast and was so excited about being able to stay up way past his bed time!  the fireworks, as always, were great.  we headed back and said our goodbyes.  we thought for sure ledge would fall asleep on the way home, but he was busy chatting our ears off the whole way home!  needless to say though, he passed out about 2 seconds after his head hit the pillow that night...
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kids museum

tavish and alanna came to visit the family and so we, of course, had to stop by for a few days and let the boys have a bunch of fun together!
one of the days we were able to go to st. joe and visit the children's museum.  we had never been there before so it was quite a treat to check it all out and watch the boys discover all the fun that the place had to offer!  they have a ton of exhibits that the boys absolutely loved! 
after we had checked it all out we headed down to the lakeshore across the street and let the boys go on the carousal, which of course they loved!  the two of them had an absolute blast of a day- we will totally have to go back soon!
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to the beach

one of diana's friends from griffith comes to visit us from time to time.  she always comes on the weekend, which means i'm working, but the two of them take ledger and have some grand adventures!  with the weather being so nice, they recently went to the holland beach and had a lot of fun playing and swimming!
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jack graduates!

that nephew of mine keeps getting bigger and bigger!  this year he graduated from junior high.  the family threw a party for him and celebrated this big achievement- next year he's going to south christian as a freshman!  considering he's been home schooled since 2nd grade, that's going to be a pretty big transition!
we're proud of you, jack!
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new bed new room

ledger as been sleeping in a little bed for a couple years now, ever since he moved out of the crib.  he's starting to get a bit big for it, so we were looking for a big boy bed for him to move into.  well, it just so happened that my mom and papa were in the process of redoing some rooms in their house and were ready to get rid of their old twin bed.  what luck!  we stopped over and got it and set it up in ledger's room, which he loved! 
since he got a new bed, that means he also needed new sheets.  what design did he pick?  well, minions of course!  with all the changes in his room, we also decided to do a little redecorating to match the new bed.
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captain underpants

diana and i made friends with one of the parents from ledger's preschool class, so we made plans with her to have the boys go see captain underpants in the theater.  the two of them sat together and had a lot of fun, snickering together through out the movie!  a fun time and great chance to spend some more time with one of his friends since school got out.  ledge has been having a great time the past week or two of summer vacation, but was really missing his class friends.  this was a nice chance to see a friend and have a fun time together.

chad passing through

my brother only comes to town once or twice a year, so we always make a point of spending some time with him when he comes to town.  this time he and his wife (and even their dog!) were driving through on their way to spending a few weeks camping and touring the sights in the upper peninsula.  we spent the day with them and the whole family at sandy pines!  ledger always has a great time with his uncle, so they had fun together.  its kind of silly- ledger thinks miyuki is very beautiful, so he continually wants to give her hugs and stare at her...  she takes it in stride, but its super funny!
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preschool graduation

the big day is finally here- our little guy is graduating preschool!  its been a good year that saw him stretching and growing, learning to spend time with someone other than his parents (gasp!), and even start the huge step of reading!  for the most part he has risen to the challenge, enjoying his school year.  he started off in the fall really excited about preschool, nervous but thrilled at the different fun stuff he would get to do.  as the year went on he kinda lost interest, asking every morning if he really had to go or if he could just skip it for the day.  sorry buddy, if you are sick of it now then you are going to have a tough 13 years ahead...
by the end of the school year he was back into it and excited about graduating!  the night of the ceremony his mema and papa even came to celebrate.  it was a fun and special night!
he was very proud to be done and the first thing he asked was 'so do i start kindergarten tomorrow?'  not quite buddy, we have summer vacation first!
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visiting auntie b!

ledge got to spend some quality time with his auntie!  barbara and james invited ledger to stay with them for a night over the weekend, so diana brought him down and the four of them had a lot of fun together, exploring the woods, being kitties, and just generally having a blast!
ledger is up for visiting auntie any time.
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minion house

ledge has been totally obsessed with minions lately, and he continues to love making crafts, so we decided to combine those two loves and make a fun playset for him! 
we both had fun creating this silly house for his little minion toys- which resulted in hours of playtime fun!
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allegan walk

with the weather being so nice lately, ledger and i decided to take advantage!  we stopped downtown after school and enjoyed the wonder that is allegan!
we stopped at the library for a few new books, played at the park, wandered around the boardwalk, and even stopped for ice cream!  truly a red letter day- another reason why i love this little town so much!
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air zoo

another field trip!  this time ledger's class went to the kalamazoo air zoo.  i had never been there before, so i had no idea what to expect.  what exactly is an air zoo?  well, it turns out that its an airplane museum with some fun rides and stuff!  the visit started with a brief class with all the kids, learning about flying and making a fun craft.  then they got the chance to wander through the museum and check out all the cool airplanes they had on display.
after ledge put in his time on all the exhibits, he gleefully ran to the rides with all his friends- and spend the rest of the time jumping from ride to ride!
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kids museum

ledger's preschool class made plans to go to the children's museum in grand rapids for a field trip.  i was lucky enough to be selected as one of the chaperones!  i met them there and got to wander around the place with the kids and check it all out!  that place is really cool- and all the kids had an amazing time!
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liver class

papa hasn't been in good health lately.  he got word that he needs a liver transplant, which was really shocking for the family to hear.  as we get accustomed to this new reality, the hospital invited anyone in the family who wanted to go, the opportunity to sit in on a class about what the transplant and life transition that lies ahead for papa.  mom, jill, and i signed up immediately.  papa's sisters, marlene and carol also tagged along.
it was really interesting to hear what papa will have to go through, but we were certainly encouraged about what the future holds.  now, its just a bunch of waiting for that transplant!

the parties continue!

one birthday party is never enough for our little guy- we headed down to celebrate with diana's family as well.  ledger was all about it because it meant twice as many presents and twice as much cake!
grandpa, grandma, grandpa allen, auntie b, james, and even miranda & levi all showed up to celebrate our little fella!  as you can see, his favorite part was the cupcakes and treats...
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birthday party!

we always get together with my family for ledger's birthday.  this year jill offered her place for the festivities!
we picked up a cake and headed over.  the kids had a blast together being silly and overdosing on sugar...  the whole thing was centered on his latest obsession: minions!  ledge got some great gifts and his cousins had even made a pinata for him- which he had never done before, but that made it even more fun!
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birthday number 5

it was a bit more of a low key birthday at home this year.  we didn't really do much with just the three of us.  we gave him a few gifts, including a marble run set that he had fun playing with!  most of the fun and festivities were saved for the get together at jill's house. 
its kind of amazing to think about the past five years and look back at where our life was then and where we are now.  i for one couldn't have guessed that this is where our adventure would take us!  we have been pretty lucky to be blessed by this happy, boisterous, goofy little grunyit for the past five years, thats for sure.