The Carve 2014

The Carve is a pumpkin carving contest put on by the Holland Farmer's Market. It is something that I look forward to each fall, as I love Halloween and carving pumpkins! It is fun to watch these guys carve pumpkins/fruit. I love to see how they do the 3-D sculptures and what they come up with each year. There also is an amateur contest that I enter. Jackie and Grace came out and had fun seeing the Olaf pumpkin, painting their own pumpkins, and playing the games. They had a pumpkin train, and I tried to get them to ride, but no such luck. It was a fun day and I look forward to carving some more pumpkins. I have some dates set with some friends and family to carve and just about every little girl that I know wants an Elsa pumpkin! The year of Frozen!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

If you know me at all you know this is one of my favorite times of the year! The Tigers are in the post season, the Spartans won on Saturday, and the Lions won on Sunday, what more could you want? Oh yeah and it's PUMPKIN season! I have already done a couple (Ninja Turtle and Kitty) for some special little people in my life. I am looking forward to The Carve downtown Holland in a couple of weeks! I have pinned a few to practice, I am trying to decide what to enter for that. I love Halloween probably because my Grandma Jackie loved it so much. I will never forget her and in the Witch Costume with a cauldron full of dry ice on the porch at their house on Benjamin St. She would have loved taking Jackie to Party City to pick out her costume! For the past couple of weeks I kept asking Jackie, "what do you want to be for Halloween?" Every time I asked, I got a different answer...Tinkerbell, Aurora, Belle (do you see a theme?) But not yesterday, she had one thing on her mind.....ELSA! Kelly knew the kids working at Party City and so she got them to get an Elsa dress for Jackie to try on....I wish you could have seen her come out of that dressing room, she thought she was Elsa herself, and she even did a little twirl for the boys working at Party City. I am sure Grandma Jackie and Grandma Audrey were up there in Heaven laughing and smiling like we were in the store. Jackie picked our a Anna costume for Grace and on the way home she decided that I should be Olaf and Grandpa should be Kristoff. "That way we would all be from Arendell," she said. Can't wait for Halloween! Tara emailed this morning and said both the costumes HAD to be put on this morning!

The Fair and The Beach

In July we went to the Ottawa County Fair....as you can see from the pictures both of the girls had fun! Jackie has always loved the carousel but you should have seen her light up when we asked if she wanted to ride a real horse! It is hard to tell but she is wearing a crown that she won at a game just before the ride....just like a real princess! Grace loved it too! If you asked her if she wanted to go on the rides the answer was always "YEAH!" We walked through the 4-H barns and had fun petting all the animals, especially Sean and Kayley's sheep. Right before Mom and Kelly left for Charleston we all went to the beach....I think everyone in Holland had the same idea because boy was it busy! Jackie had no fear in the water...she went out to the "deep deep water" with Adam and had a riot! She also loved chasing the sea gulls or as she calls them "dirty birds!" Grace was content to eat snacks and stomp down every sandcastle that I tried to make. It sure has been a fun summer!