Crawling!

Elise started crawling last night, and she's really getting around! Check out this video from today....

80 degrees and Sunny!

How wonderful is it that it's springtime!?! I just came inside from being out on the deck, finishing a good book, and the windows are open.....oh how I hope for this weather to never end!

I ran to Meijer last night to get a few groceries, and I think it's so funny that after just a couple days of really nice weather so many of us have bad tan/burn lines! It just shows how desperate we all are for some sunshine after a long winter.

Bryan, Elise, and I have enjoyed a few of the best parts of summer already. We enjoyed ice cream at Captain Sundae, cleaned up the yard and spread bark (it looks so nice!), taken a couple walks with Indy, and had the top down on the convertible almost all week. We're looking forward to a fun memorial day weekend in Indianapolis for the race on Sunday. This is Bryan's most favorite event of the whole year!

Springtime has been so fun with a little girl! Elise is seven months in May, and all of a sudden she is bound and determined to move. She isn't crawling officially, but she can move around just enough for us to start thinking about baby gates. New favorites include her outdoor swing, the Velcro on her tennis shoes, her toes, anything paper, mom's purse, mango dessert baby food, singing-anybody singing anything, and Gerber puffs.

A quick bee update: the bees are doing great. They're making honey and honeycomb, laying eggs, the queen is healthy and happy, and so is the bee-keeper.

Tulip Time Fun

Tulip Time is well-underway, and we are having a marvelous time!

Bryan's Uncle Dave and his wife, Lisa, and Lisa's mom, Betty visited us this past weekend. They had never been to Holland before and came to check out the tulip festival. So, we toured them around Holland as best as we could and enjoyed being tourists in our own town! We spent most of Saturday downtown, watching the dutch dancers, shopping, admiring the beautiful tulips, and taking a trolley tour through the city. We ended the day with a visit to Veldheer Tulip farms where we bought the smallest wooden shoes I have ever seen....a perfect fit for Elise. Sunday brought us to windmill island and then a delicious lunch at New Holland Brew.

This week has been busy so far with dutch dance and meeting friends downtown for junk food. I don't recommend trying the Italian sausage on the same night as trying the onion rings.....just a thought.

Elise has been a pretty good sport with all the stroller rides and changing clothes into and out of her dutch costume, but I've found that she pretty much hates wearing it and will put up a fuss just to be released from all that lace. I won't even mention how she feels about her hat.

We enjoyed scrubbing the streets this afternoon with my dad, sisters, and my niece and nephew. It turned out to be a beautiful day! We always say that we might skip it, but then we always end up going and having a wonderful time.

The rest of the week will be more of the same: dutch dancing, junk food, friends, parades. FUN, FUN, FUN! Here are a few pictures of the last couple days:

Elise and Me in front of the house in our costumes, some day we'll have matching!

Thef amily: Dad, Ella, Abby, Noah, Jessica, Elise, and Me ready to scrub the streets! (we missed mom this year, she was home vacuuming water)

My niece, Ella

My nephew, Noah

Me, Jessica, Abby

My dad, carrying a tired Elise through the parade

Our family downtown...some year Bryan will have a costume, too!