holiday fun

This year we attended Silver Bells in the City, a parade in downtown Lansing that takes place at night with floats covered with lights.  It was a wonderful night for the parade, although a little chilly with a strong wind.  We all bundled up, brought along some hot chocolate, and had a wonderful time.  It was our first time taking the kids to the parade and they thoroughly enjoyed it (although Drew thought there weren't enough construction vehicles).  In the picture below we had grabbed our spot and were waiting for the parade to begin.

Kate was warm in her scarf and hat, which were needed because of the cold.  I think next year both kids will be in snow pants and boots, especially if it's windy again.

Here's one picture from the parade.  Our camera doesn't do that well with this sort of light, but I think you get the idea.  The fire truck was one of Drew and Kate's favorite vehicles in the parade!

This is a random shot of Kate who is getting bigger and more little-girlish by the day.  Over the past few months her enunciation has dramatically improved and she chats away.  Also, she continues to grow like crazy.  From late August to November she grew an inch.

In the beginning of December we went to the Christmas tree farm to cut down a tree.  This has been an annual tradition for our family and in keeping with tradition, it was a cool morning.  For this trip the kids were decked out with boots, snowpants, gloves, hats, coats, everything we could throw on them to keep them warm.  Drew and Kate did a nice job of posing here for a minute before we headed out into the farm.

Drew didn't enjoy it as much as Kate, but I picked both of them up for a picture (Drew is trying to wriggle away).  Despite their combined 80 pounds of cuteness, they're still my little ones!

After a tractor ride out into the farm, we tromped around through the snow looking for a tree.  Drew and Kate both found sticks and made tracks in the snow (like in The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats).  You can see Kate is holding her stick if you look closely.

I don't think we got a picture of our tree carcass as we lugged it off the farm.  We were a little distracted by Kate and Drew and how much fun we were having walking around outside.  Toward the end, everyone was ready to get back to the car to thaw out!

the things they say

Jana and I continue to enjoy watching Drew and Kate grow up and become increasingly interactive with us and the world around us.  Those interactions, of course, often lead to some interesting conversations and things that Drew and Kate say.  I've got many more pictures on the way, but thought I'd do a brief post highlighting some of our conversations.


One evening over dinner Jana and I were telling the kids about our jobs. Both Drew and Kate like to hear about what we do during the day while they are at daycare. Jana explained that she is a teacher at MSU and that dad is a scientist at MSU. She added in explaining our education level that "both dad and I are doctors." Drew drily replied to Jana, "Yeah, but you're not a REAL doctor like dad, are you?" Both Jana and I were speechless for a moment. I didn't put him up to that! As it turns out the qualificatoin for being a real doctor is a lab coat. I wear one. Jana doesn't! :)
A few days ago on the way to pick me up from work Jana and the kids drove down a street near MSU with several buildings owned by faith communities. We like to drive along and name things and point them out to Drew and Kate. Jana is especially talented at this. Drew and Kate will often chime in with their own ideas for what things are or they'll notice things that we usually miss.  It's more entertaining than it sounds.  As she was pointing things out, Jana noted the local "Islamic center." The building is fairly distinctive. After a pause, Kate very matter-of-factly added, "Llamas go there."

This one is not as amusing but just shows the random yet sometimes profound things Drew and Kate come up with.  This past weekend I was with Drew and Kate in the car and we were talking about the pledge of allegiance, which Drew knows from school. Drew and I started saying it together and afterward Drew said, "Indivisible sounds like invisible. Invisible is something you can't see. Like God. He is invisible." At that point, Kate piped up, "We see God." Drew, who likes to be right, countered in an exasperated tone, "No Kate. We can't see God. HE'S INVISIBLE." Kate shot back, "We see God. In the Bible. We see God when we read the Bible." We weren't quite sure what she meant by that, but Drew had no comeback so it ended the conversation.  No doubt Drew was questioning, as I was, what the nature of "seeing" is.

Finally, I recently got home in the evening and was interacting with Kate.  Suddenly she looked at me with a furrowed brow and said, "Dad, is that a new shirt?"  I replied, "No, it's not new.  Why?  Do you like it?"  Kate looked it up and down one more time and said, "No.  Not really."  Then she walked away.

Kate's first haircut

At our house, I'm the hairdresser for me and for Drew.  We head down into the basement and get a haircut about every month or couple weeks.  It works well, especially since Drew likes his hair cut similarly to mine.  Every once in a while Kate wants her hair cut, so I've taken out my scissors and evened things out a bit.  However, my skills are pretty limited and when it came time for her first official haircut, Jana took Kate out to get it done.

In the picture below, we tried to get a shot of Kate pre-haircut.  She wanted none of it!

Look at those shoulders all scrunched up in this picture!  While excited about the haircut, she was not feeling it for having her picture taken.

Jana and Kate went on their own to the "beauty salon" (that's what Kate calls it).  She was pretty thrilled to be there.

The rest of these pictures probably tell the story as well as I can do it, especially since I wasn't there.  Jana and Kate went to a woman we know, who had a child in our daycare.  We asked for a very light trim into a cute bob (Kate's hair wasn't THAT long).  We're thrilled with the results and that Kate loved the experience!

She didn't smile much, but Kate did do a great job sitting still and she enjoyed her experience.  Her hair continues to get longer and thicker . . . it will be fun to see what we're able to do in the future with Kate's hair.  This whole girl hair thing is totally new to me coming from a family of boys!



catching up

It has been quite a while since I've posted more pictures and stories on here.  Don't worry, the blog is not forgotten, we've just been quite busy. 

In the picture below the kids and Jana are watching "Toy Story" (the original).  We don't watch much TV and Drew and Kate have only seen a handful of movies.  As you might guess from their glued-to-the-TV expressions, watching a movie was pretty exciting.  I think I could have waved candy or anything else from where I was taking this picture and it would have gone completely unnoticed!

I can tell this picture was taken a while ago because it was still warm out.  I think I've mentioned this before . . . both Drew and Kate like to mimic things that Jana and I do.  Well, when I get hot I often take off my shirt at home.   Now Drew and Kate do it too whenever they are hot!  While we're not encouraging shirt removal (especially for Kate), it is pretty cute to see them running around in jeans and no shirt in the basement.

It has been a while since I've posted on here because next I've got a series of pictures from Halloween!  Yes, we did celebrate Halloween this year, I've just been really, really late in getting these pictures on here.  In the first one Drew is showing off his police uniform.  He got this at the end of last year and has been eagerly waiting to wear it for Halloween.  Drew has wanted to be a policeman for several years, but we haven't been able to find a good costume.  I guess most children don't want to be a policeman for Halloween.  Finally, after much searching, we found this SWAT officer uniform.  Drew was thrilled.  It has a club, handcuffs, a walkie-talkie, and percussion grenades.  Pretty cool stuff.

Drew and his friend in Mario costume get ready to go out trick-or-treating.  We went out again this year with a group of friends and their children.

This year for Halloween Kate wanted to be a firefighter.  She was originally hoping to be a "princess firefighter," which involved a firefighter coat and hat with princess skirt and shoes, but the princess part got dropped (that was her decision).  Clearly, this is a little girl with an older brother and an uncle who is a firefighter, as this is probably not a common little girl choice for costume. 

Here's the crew getting ready to head out.  With our policeman and firefighter, we had the emergency services pretty well covered.  We were also well prepared in case the MSU students decided to riot :)

Drew was a candy-getting machine.  We had him dressed warmly as it was quite cold out, but we didn't anticipate that he would run the whole time (seriously, the WHOLE time).  By the end, we'd had to empty his bucket a few times because it got too heavy for him and Drew was completely drenched with sweat.  Both Drew and Kate had quite the haul of candy, and both had a great time.

 

The week after Halloween we took a trip to Chicago.  We're such Michigan people that we realized it was the first time Drew and Kate had left Michigan!  We headed down to Chicago to show Drew and Kate the "big city" and also to visit our friend Nora.  For most of the trip we did a terrible job of remembering to use the camera.  We visited the Field Museum and had a blast.  On our way to Nora's place, we drove by Wrigley Field to show Drew and Kate one of Chicago's landmarks.

Both Drew and Kate loved visiting Nora's place.  It's on the 12th floor, which is the highest they had ever been in a building.  They loved the view and they loved the fact that it was so high up.  Drew and Kate aren't too tough to please though.  In the picture below Kate was exclaiming over her reflection in a shiny pot!

Both Drew and Kate clambering onto these ledges running around the apartment and put their hands all over the windows as they looked out. 

After a while Drew and Kate slowed down a bit.  Drew found a toy magazine that Nora had, while Kate pulled out the New Yorker for some light reading (I'm serious; that's what Kate is holding).

As they continued to read, they migrated to Nora's bed and made themselves at home.  At one point, both kids were sitting under the covers enjoying their reading and playing (we made sure Nora didn't mind!).

We're starting to get caught up, but keep posted for more pictures and stories!

Homecoming 2010

This is unusual for me lately . . . I'm going to blog about a recent event!  This past weekend was homecoming here at MSU and we celebrated all weekend, Sparty style.  On Friday night we made our annual trip to downtown East Lansing to watch the Homecoming Parade.  Both Drew and Kate were decked out in their Spartan gear anxiously awaiting the beginning of the parade.  It got off to a loud start with the East Lansing Police motorcyles leading the way with lights and occasional sirens.  Cool!

We met some friends for the parade and I got to hold this little guy before the parade started.  He's so little!  I can't believe Drew and Kate used to be that light and tiny.

Our friend Sarah got to experience her first MSU homecoming parade.  The highlight of the parade for Sarah?  How into the parade JANA gets!!

Kate did a great job of sitting on the blanket and watching the parade.

As you can see, we were all decked out in our Spartan gear.  The kids also had fun joining in the "Go Green!  Go White!" cheers.

Both Drew and Kate loved the parade, but Kate thought the bands were a little loud.  To deal with it, she decided to cover her ears!

As the parade went on it got darker and cooler.  Drew and Kate both pulled on their green and white hats to keep warm.

This is my new favorite picture of Drew.  What a handsome dude!  Both Drew and Kate were fantastic throughout the parade and had a great time.  The next day we tailgated (a.k.a. had a "Sparty Party" as Drew and Kate call it) and my dad, brother, and I went to football game.  MSU's football team has been doing well and there is a lot of excitement in the Lansing area.



Aunt Christina and Uncle Matt

Drew still doesn't seem to get as many pictures (especially not in this post), so here's one of him.  Drew is doing very well in 4-year-old preschool and today went on a field trip to an apple orchard and pumpkin farm.  He's the tallest kid in his class at 47.5 inches.  We learned today that a girl named Cadi is very interested in him to the point of knowing his first and last name.  Apparently she talks about "Drew Aupperlee" all the time.  Cadi is 47 inches tall and the closest in height to Drew.  While on the field trip today she asked Drew if she could hold his hand, and he acquiesced.  However, Drew is totally oblivious to the attention!  Love it!

The picture below was taken after the latest race that Drew AND Kate participated in.  This was Drew's second road race and Kate's first one.  Drew did very well, while Kate did not do so well (attitude-wise).  In the end, they both had fun and look back on it fondly though, which is all that matters!  Jana and Aunt Christina ran the half marathon part of the race.  Way to go!  In the picture below, Uncle Matt is reading to Drew and Kate after lunch.  You can see both Drew and Kate are still wearing their race shirts.  By the way, it's "Uncle" Matt now because of the next set of pictures.

Aunt Christina and Uncle Matt recently were married.  Congratulations!!!!  Drew and Kate came along for the "wedding practice" the day before the real deal.  They had fun clambering over the church and checking it out.  Kate got dressed up for the occassion.

Below Drew is checking out the "horns" at the back of the church (for the organ).  Both Drew and Kate were fascinated by the balcony.  Drew was dressed up too with a button-down shirt and khakis, but he didn't enjoy posing much.

Drew and Kate did some wiggling during the rehearsal, but generally were very good throughout the rehearsal and the dinner afterward.  They were so excited for Matt and Christina!

The secret to keeping them still?  Smarties!  We went through several packages during the rehearsal.

Today at daycare Kate got her hair curled.  She was super-excited about it and proud of the results.  This is all uncharted territory for me.  Is Kate going to be a girly girl?  She got her hair curled . . . and liked it?  Woah. 

This shot of Kate in the bath gives you an idea of the curls.  I'll admit it was pretty cute!!

drawing

Recently at school Drew made the picture below.  It may not look like much, but as with most things from little kids there is a story behind it.  First, you'll note that the person on the left is smaller and is wearing a backpack.  Although hard to tell, both people in the picture are happy.  The person on the right is taller and has a belly button (note the mid-torso dot).  Also, the person on the right is thinking as evidenced by the thought bubble and the "thoughts" in the bubble. 

So what is this picture?  It is me picking Drew up from preschool . . . because he knows it is "the highlight of my day" to pick him up.  I am thinking how excited I am to see Drew.  Yeah, this drawing is getting saved!

School starts again

Drew loves to play with Legos.  He can spend hours making things and modifying them and moving them.   I love it because it reminds me of myself at his age!  Drew is fairly creative (in our highly subjective opinion) and does a nice job of coming up with Lego creations.  Here he is below putting the finishing touches on something.

This is Drew's Lego version of a combine harvester (picture below).  Not bad, eh?  Sometimes when he draws something or makes something with Legos we have to guess what it is.  With this one there was no guessing, we immediately knew.  Obviously, it helps that we know that things he likes!

Once Drew created a fire truck (with a ladder and platform) and had me guess what it was.  I was torn between guessing fire engine or cherry picker.  Sensing my indecision, Jana suggested Drew give me two options for what it was.  Drew said, "It's either a fire truck or a cherry picker."  So helpful!  After some examination on my part, I was able to make the correct guess.  How did I know what it was?  It had a red light on the top, so of course it was a fire truck.  I love four-year-old logic!  If it had an orange light on it, then it would have been a cherry picker.  Notice the orange warning lights below on top of the combine harvester.

Today was Drew's first day of four-year-old preschool.  He goes two days a week for five hours each day.  It's a big change for him to be in school five consecutive hours, so we've been pumping him up and getting excited about the big day.  Here Drew is out on our front porch at 7:20 a.m. all ready to get going. 

Kate had just gotten up (hence she looks a little rough) and desperately wanted a picture too. What's she carrying?  Her new lunch bag.  Drew has lunch at school and thus needed a lunch bag.  Drew already has a backpack that Kate is envious of his having, so we decided to allow her to have a lunch bag too.

Drew was asked to be the first "student of the day" in his class.  He does a great job listening to directions and leading other students in the class, so he was selected to show the other students how to be the student of the day.  Way to go Drew!  For show and share, which the student of the day gets to bring, Drew brought a fire truck and talked about how he wants to be a firefighter when he grows up.

Upon arriving at school, Drew hung up his lunch bag and backpack in his cubbyhole.

Our big guy ready for school to start.  And yes, he's a big guy.  Most of his class he's 2-3 inches taller than and some kids it's already up to 8 inches of difference.  He's clearly the dutch kid in the class!

Lest this post be too much Drew and not enough Kate, here's a picture of Kate playing tonight in our basement.  We had a great time!