Dyeing Eggs and Cheesy Faces

How to Dye Easter Eggs and Make the Cheesiest Faces Possible: A Photographic Journey

TA-DA! Finally we finished the eggs and were able to manage a "normal" smile! Although I personally think all of his goofy smiles are fabulous :)

And just for fun... check out this shaggy-haired-haven't-seen-the-sun-in-ages little 3-year-old version of Max dyeing eggs last year! 

Life's a Beach... (sometimes)

We needed a break. Our schedules are still insane, and I've been working extremely hard to get my end-of-the-semester papers and projects done. I usually work on schoolwork during the weekend, but I decided that  we all needed a much deserved break, so we planned a day in Destin, Florida. 

We loaded the car with a tent, chairs, beach toys, towels, a cooler filled with cold drinks, and lots of sunscreen. After all, we would need it-- it was going to be 90 degrees (32C)! We had a gorgeous drive down to the beach: good music to listen to, the sun beaming down on us, and the air conditioning blowing in our faces. Everyone was in a great mood and looking forward to a day filled with sun and fun until we saw this:

A huge line of clouds lined the beach and filled the air with fog. But alas, I was determined to enjoy a day on the beach. So we unpacked our car, and set up camp.

Rob was trying to catch sand fleas to go fishing with...

....and he ended up catch a not-so-happy crab

Max had fun making castles and farming strawberries,

And being the cheesy little dude that he is!

Lucas enjoyed eating handfuls of sand and getting our chairs wet and sandy!

Max was the lion of the beach. I think he makes a pretty cute lion so we decided to take him home :)

Rob kept catching crabs and irritating them. I told him to leave them alone, but he wouldn't listen and ended up with a pincher in his finger. This proves that men should always listen to their wives!

Lucas naturally had his moments that day, but was overall quite pleasant as long as he could eat sand!

Rob enjoyed (trying) to catch fish.

And Lucas gave me his NOM NOM NOM face. (He sometimes makes the "nom nom" sound when he eats) 

I gave up on trying to keep the sand off of his face!

CHEESE!

Yeah, I know... I cringe too thinking about how that sand must have crunched in between his mouth!

Max wanted a picture with his brother,

...but then decided that he needed to be the main focus!

Several jellyfish had washed up on the beach. This particular one is very poisonous and is called a Portuguese Man of War

Just before we went home Rob brought in the biggest (and only) catch of the day! But don't get too excited, it was just a bunch of seaweed! hehe :)

Maxisms

“Mommy, did you know that only the brown bunnies can poop chocolate Easter eggs?!”

(It's only logical, right?!)

“Today I colored a picture at school.”

“That’s nice Max, what did you color?”

“A man that died in the fire and then the men were putting his body on the donkey because God said so.”

(Right… I guess I missed that bible story!)

“Mommy, did Jesus die yet? I wanna paint Easter eggs!”

(I’m glad he understands the real meaning of Easter!)

“My soccer shoes are soooo fast!”

(The magic is totally in those shoes, babe)

“Mommy, what’s on my nap mat?” (pointing to his new outer space mat)

“Umm… that’s called a… (it took me a second to think of the name)”

“METEOR! It’s the same as when the Wonder Pets used teamwork to pull the Chimp's rocket out of the meteor's path!”

(At least my kids watch educational TV!)

“Mommy, can I watch TV because my legs are broken?”

(He wanted to watch TV instead of playing outside! Ha!... He ended up playing outside with his 'broken' legs anyway!)

“Max, what do you want to be when you grow up?”

“I don’t know yet Mommy, I will have to think about it.”

(10 minutes later)

“I want to be a train!”

“But sweetie, you can’t be a train. You can be the conductor if you would like!”

“No thanks, I just wanna be a train.”       

“Okay Max. Whatever makes you happy…” (something about picking your battles…)

(2 hours later)

“Mommy, you are so silly! I want to drive the train! I can’t be a train!”

Sigh….

Technology Rocks!

Max (as well as the rest of us!) has been missing our family in Holland lately. He often asks if we can go to Holland to see his friends (cousins), but unfortunately our budget and schedule don't allow us to take weekend trips to The Netherlands! 

But thanks to the great inventors of Skype, we can "visit" with Oma and Opa a few times a month. It's always going to be hard for one side of our family wherever we live, but I'm so thankful that Rob's parent's can see and talk to the kids through video chat. It seems to make the distance between us a little shorter!

This past Sunday when we Skyped (is that a verb?!) Oma and Opa, Max got an extra special surprise! Tante (Aunt) Esther and cousins Thijs, Casper, & Joost were there waiting to say hi Max and Lucas! The conversation was interesting to say the least! All of the kids were so excited and English & Dutch words became a soupy mess! But from what we did understand out of their conversation was that Thijs & Casper are playing voetball (soccer) and Joost is potty trained! Two very important details in kid's lives! haha! Maybe someday Tante Esther will even send pictures of the boys playing soccer, I'm sure Max would love that! (hint hint!)

The boys saying 'hi' to each other

There's Joost in the background!

Max wanted to show the boys the computer game that Sinterklaas gave him!

It was so nice to see the boys 'interact' again. I know they've missed each other! Hopefully we'll be able to chat with Noud & Fien soon too :)

Max's Pad

Max's room isn't nearly as...extravagant as it was in Holland! I will never go on a mural painting spree again, but I would love to paint his room blue. (I already hear Rob screaming NO PAINTING!! as he reads this later!) So I'll have to make do with plain walls. One day I will invest in some wall art, but for now it is what it is and Max is just happy to have a place to turn into a pig sty!

Max was already outgrowing his toddler bed in Holland, and now his cousin Joost is making good use out of it! So when we moved here I ordered this great set from JCPenney. Hopefully it will last until he's 18!

I love his bedding! I looked for a long time to find something neutral that would last him a few years and I finally found this tropical print from Pottery Barn Kids. 

I love the leaf that hangs above his bed! I got it from IKEA (my favorite store!)

Max's walk-in closet is a great place to hide store all of his toys! 

I've still got to do the office, Lucas's room, the living room, and porch/ backyard.... It's a lot to do so have some patience! ;)

Soccer Star

"Mama, is it time to play soccer yet?" "Look Mama, the soccer fields!" "OH NO! I don't have my special soccer shoes yet!" "But Mama... is today the day that I'm gonna go play soccer?" "I wanna play soccer nowwwww!"   

Well sweet Max, after 5 long weeks of waiting, and five long weeks of hearing you go on about soccer... today was your big day to shine!

But before you could get out onto the fields,

Mom had to do a photo shoot!

You better get used to them kid, soon the paparazzi will be all over you!

Lucky for me you kept your humor throughout the ordeal!

And I think this one will be just perfect for your first soccer card!

Abby had to get in on the action too

2 of the 3 gingers in our house... :)

And finally we were on the field! You quickly met up with your classmate Dahlia for a friendly pre-practice match.

The teams were divided up, and you got to be on a team with your friends Matthew and Dahlia!

There was no stopping you tonight, even when you decided to join the other teams for practice... (oops!)

You had a great time showing off your moves

And you listened very well. Most of the time anyway!

When you weren't getting distracted and playing with the wrong team, you did a great job ahem "controlling" the ball!

Go Max Go!

All of the excitement wore you out, but the first thing you asked when it was time to go home was...

"MAMA... IS IT TIME TO PLAY SOCCER YET?!"

Practice number 2 on Friday just can't get here quickly enough!