Rebecca turns 5!

Finally getting to posting about Rebecca's 5th Birthday. Can't believe our little girl is already 5 and a big time kindergartner! Here are some pictures of Rebecca's Beach Party Birthday.

Happy Birthday Rebecca!

Legos were the popular gift for this big girl!

Dan and I made Rebecca a Lego table for her birthday.

Homemade Baby Food

Now that Blake is 6 months old, he wants to eat everything in sight. There are so many opinions about when and what to feed babies, but I try not to get too caught up with all these and just try to keep it simple. My simple guidelines:

#1. Baby needs to eat

#2. Fresh foods are the best.

#3. He better like how it tastes.

I started Blake off with single grain rice cereal and then started adding in a little natural applesauce and banana for flavor. Once he was good at opening his mouth and swallowing I started trying a few new foods. I had some good coupons for baby food and picked out a few that I thought even I would like.

One of the ones I tried was Gerber Organic carrots, apples, and mangoes. Blake loved it so I decided to make my own.

I cut up 2 mangoes, 3 apples, and 6 carrots.

I steamed the fruit and veggies and pureed them in the blender. While blending I added water as needed to get a good consistency. 

There are different ways to freeze baby food. I know many people like to use ice cube trays, which works great. I happen to have found small food containers at the dollar store a long time ago that are about 2oz. I lay the containers out on a cookie sheet, fill them evenly, and freeze.

Once they are frozen, pop the food out of the containers and store in a labeled zip lock bag. One minute in the microwave, and thees are ready to eat. I add baby cereal to all the plain fruits and veggies that I feed Blake. It stretches the food and thickens it up a bit to it is not so runny.

I use this same blend and freeze method for turning leftover foods that we eat into baby food for Blake. Here is left over cheese ravioli with meat sauce and homemade macaroni and cheese. I haven't given these too Blake yet since they are a little more complex than just veggie and fruit, but he will be ready for them soon enough.

Rebecca just had to get in on this last one!

Some more food combinations that are on my to do list are apple, spinach, blueberry and banana berry - combination ideas from Gerber.

Niagara Falls (part 2)

Here is the (much anticipated ;) second half of our vacation to Niagara Falls.

On Thursday morning we decided to drive over Rainbow Bridge and visit the American side of the falls. We did this for 2 reasons. The first and most important, was for Dan to be able to check his voice mail and make some much need phone calls. International calling is not part of our cell phone plan and at 99 cents a minute, we decided that the $3.50 toll charge to cross the bridge was better than a $30+ cell phone bill. While Dan sat under a tree and made a few calls, the kids and I explored the sights (the second reason).

The American Falls in the foreground and the Canadian Horseshoe Falls in the background.

The view from Luna Island looking at the American Falls. Blake is taking his morning nap.

Rebecca found a cool spot up in a tree on Luna Island.

After our time back in the US, we drove back into Canada to the Americana Hotel in Niagara Falls for the Cadet Counselor Convention. Dan has been a Cadet counselor at our church for the past 8 years and is now also on our area's Cadet Counselor Executive Committee. We did not intentionally plan our vacation to Niagara based on the fact that the convention was there. It was a nice coincident, so we decided to sign up for the convention, which was very family friendly.

While at the convention there were workshops and speakers for both the men and women and activities for the kids. Dan did workshops related to leading Cadets, geocaching, and reflector ovens. My workshops were cupcake decorating, card making, and we both took scroll sawing.

I made turtle toppers out of fondant. I will definitely try using fondant for the kids birthdays in the future.

I made a few pretty cards.

Here is Dan scroll sawing. We both did pretty well and will also have to try this again at home.

Rebecca and Blake spent their days playing in the hotel water park, visiting the Niagara Falls zoo, and generally having a lot of fun with the other kids. They both were exhausted in the evening and had a hard time waking up in the morning.

On Friday night we went back to the falls with the Cadet group to watch the fireworks.

The American Falls illuminated.

The Canadian Falls illuminated.

Waiting for fireworks.

Ahh! Worth the wait!

The final thing we did before leaving on Saturday was to play a little bit in the hotel water park as a family. Rebecca is fearless in the water and loved the body slides and tube slides, which she had to go on with an adult.

Rebecca and Dan after the tube slide.

All smiles!

This was Blake's first swimming pool experience and he seemed to like it too.

After leaving Niagara we drove to Jenison, MI and spent the night with friends Cara and Jamie and their adorable kids Owen and Emrey. We finished our drive home on Sunday afternoon. We had a great time and made lots of great memories.

Niagara Falls (part 1)

Last week we enjoyed a great family vacation to Niagara Falls. It's a little overwhelming to sort through over 150 pictures and try to capture our vacation in a blog post, but I will try. Here is the first half of our vacation to Niagara Falls.

We left Monday afternoon and drove part way to my brother's house near Chicago. We had a good visit with them and Rebecca had fun running around with her cousin Josh. On Tuesday, we drove the rest of the way to Niagara Falls (about 9 hours). The kids did really well in the car and it was a pretty easy drive. We stayed on the Canadian side of the falls and checking into a Days Inn for the first two nights. After settling into our hotel, we took a walk down Victoria street and Clifton Hill. We had a fun supper at Rainforest Cafe.

Rebecca with the Rainforest Cafe frog.

The next day we walked down to the falls and went on the Maid of the Mist boat ride. Decked out in blue ponchos, we enjoyed the beautiful views and felt the powerful mist of the falls. We all got a little wet, some more than others. Although, on a hot sunny day, no one complained about it.

Maid of the Mist boat ride.

Rebecca sporting her blue poncho.

View of the falls from the boat and the seagulls having breakfast.

All wet, but happy :)

View of the falls from the Maid of the Mist store patio.

Later in the day we did some more walking down to Table Rock, which has a large visitor center and the Journey Behind the Falls experience. We took an elevator down a few levels and walked through tunnels to see out of portals drilled behind the falls. We took some pictures but it's hard to imagine from a picture what it was like. The water is pounding powerfully in front of the portal and if the wind blows the water would pour in like a rain storm. It was a neat experience. There was also a lot of facts posted along the portals explaining more about the history of the falls.

Walking around Niagara Falls.

Getting closer to the falls. Journey Behind the Falls is in the lower right.

Dan and Rebecca in one of the portals. The falls are thundering right behind them.

Blake and I trying to stay dry in the mist of the falls.

View of the Maid of the Mist from the deck of Journey Behind the Falls.

View from the boardwalk. Rainbow bridge is in the distance connecting Canada and the US.

Family photo in front of the falls.

This is one of my favorite pictures! Just taking in God's beautiful creation!

Stay tuned for Part 2 of our vacation - coming soon!

Happy 4th!

This last week has been full of fun summer activities. Despite the hot, hot weather, we have had a lot of fun. Here are the high lights in pictures.

We got to go out on the lake for the first time last Saturday. Our friend Scott took us out. Don't pay attention to the look on Rebecca's face in this picture, she loved the boat! Dan and I both skied and Rebecca and I also had a ride on the tube together. She is still not ready to try the tube on her own.

Every time the boat stopped Rebecca wanted to jump off and swim!

She also enjoyed a noodle fight with Scott.

On the 4th we had lunch with some friends near Brooklyn. The Caddens are a great family and have a large hog confinement with a bunch of new piglets. Brian, who is the same age as Rebecca, was very excited to show her the pigs. 

Rebecca had no problem jumping in and holding the pigs too!

Is a hog barn in our future too?

In the evening, we got together with a bunch of families from church and enjoyed a BBQ, water balloons, a dunk tank, sparklers, and fireworks in Pella.  

Here are the girls getting ready to hit the boys with water balloons.

We all enjoyed the fireworks, including Blake who watched them very intently. 

And just for kicks, here is a picture of our very healthy, happy, and well fed baby boy. 

Blake is almost 6 months old now.