Kindergarten Round Up! - Week of Apr. 22nd

The school Cameron will be attending in the fall is Meadow Brook Elementary School located less than 10 minutes from his home!  Chris and Jane told Cam that it is much bigger than the elementary schools they attended.  Over 500 kids attend Meadow Brook providing education for Kindergarten - 4th grade.

For Kindergarten Round Up, Cam took a tour of the school and met some other kids as well as teachers.  There is a large cafeteria, gym, and media center.  Part of the morning was spent riding a bus so that first-time riders could get used to it.  Of course, Cameron is a pro at bus riding- he's been doing that for two and a half years!  Now that Cam knows where his new school is, we had to drive cousin Libby to see it too.  He happily posed for a pic with his Dad in front of the school's flagpole. 
The big boy sat on the bench outside of Meadow Brook and showed Libby where the playground was. 



It was a busy weekend for Cam, first attending Emma's soccer game where he watched her score a goal! 

After the game, a picnic was prepared for Emma, Cam and Jane to meet up with Auntie Jo and buddy Will.  It was a beautiful sunny day and the friends met at Pere Marquette in Muskegon.  The kids played in the sand and on the playground.  The beach was toasty warm and the picnic lunch was delicious.

We hope the warm weather is here to stay since we saw some crazy wet snow this week, which thankfully, didn't stay on the ground too long!

Rainy Days - Week of Apr. 15th

The river is flowing above the office windows~downtown GR

“Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs... ~Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It and Other Stories

Chris & Cam- snow on back deck

It was a record-breaking week for rainfall and flooding in Cameron's hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan.  In fact, it felt like we went through all four seasons in a 24-hour period!  On Saturday morning, we had snow on the ground, but it was gone by that afternoon.

Jane, Cam, Emma- to the right of Emma is a green "gator"

Cam's buddy, Emma, came over to play and we all decided it was time to check out some of the nearby flood waters...
In less than 5 minutes, we drove into the village of Ada and were detoured due to flooding across the roads.  We stopped to walk around by the town's baseball field- you can see the scoreboard almost "swimming" in the background.  Some funny people posted a sign "Don't Feed the Gators" and even anchored two plastic inflated alligators in the flooded ball field. 

Next we drove around the corner to see our favorite homemade frozen yogurt place, Spoonlickers, except...the road to that was flooded too!  The actual entrance to Spoonlicker's is at the pine tree on the right side of road!  On our drive out to the nearby town, Lowell, we saw farms that were flooded and livestock congregated in one small area that wasn't covered by water.  A portion of the main street in Lowell was completely closed due to impassable roads.

Sunday afternoon, we took cousin Coco and ventured downtown to check out the Grand River, which runs right through the heart of our city.  In front of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum, Chris and Cam are standing at the water's edge...however, the water isn't supposed to be there.  Behind them is a set of lampposts that are normally on land with a walkway for pedestrians.
The sun was shining brightly and it felt like spring to all of us.  Many other residents were out walking around downtown and quite a few had volunteered to fill sandbags, most of which, thankfully were

Jane & Cam

not needed.

Chris & Cam are in the middle of the bridge!

On our way back home, we stopped once again in Ada and Chris took Cam high up over the river on the train trestle.  As always, Cameron, the adventurer, had no fear, and happily yelled "hi" to his Mom and Coco from up above. Even with roaring water, Cam could still be heard!   Jane and Coco made it up to the track, but felt content to stay on land.

It was an exciting and historic week, complete with Kindergarten Round-Up for our son!  Stay tuned to next week's blog for the inside scoop on Cam's school adventure...

More Spring Break - Week of Apr. 8th

For Cameron's second week of spring break, Katherine got creative (as she always does!)  She took Cam over to Barnes and Noble where he decorated a lunch bag for charity.

They made multiple trips to the library and current favs include The Berenstain Bears, Curious George, Arthur and The Little Critters.
Cam's newest favorite tv show is Daniel Tiger, on PBS.  It is a spinoff cartoon of Mr. Roger's Neighborhood and Mr. Roger's daughter was one of the co-creators.  Katherine, Cam's nanny, possesses many skills and one of them is drawing.  Her freehand rendition of Daniel Tiger looks identical to the cartoon.  Cam loves to practice his "roar" like a tiger!


Oma and Opa spent the weekend with Cam (many thanks!) while Chris and Jane had their own playtime in Chicago with awesome friends, Dan and Leslie.  Cameron had a fun trip to Spoonlickers over the weekend while his parents were away.  His friends, Emma and Will and Auntie Jo had fun tasting their own creations. 


Most weeks, Cam has an opportunity to see his favorite professor, Ms. Lisa.  They worked with a spatial tracking computer program that the group has deemed "Cam-Man."  Cameron has used the program before, but now that he's grown even more, it's fun to see the progress.  Chris and Jane really enjoy the 70's-esque colors in the background!

A drawing is simply a line going for a walk. ~Paul Klee

Life is the art of drawing without an eraser. ~John W. Gardner

CAM Cookies - Week of Apr. 1st

“Think what a better world it would be if we all...the whole world...had cookies and milk about three o'clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments had as a basic policy to always put things back where they found them and to clean up their own mess. And it is still true, no matter how old you are-when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.”  
~ Robert Fulghum, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten 

Cameron certainly started his spring break out right by making cookies with Katherine!  She found a recipe for cookie cutter type chocolate chip treats.  Emma was a big help rolling out the dough and assisting Cam with the letter cutouts (thanks to Auntie Jo for the letters!) and of course, taste testing.

Since Emma was on spring break too, she and Cam had time for reading, playing, and eating.  The buddies giggled over the Alphabet Adventure book and seeing Cam's pic on every page.

To keep this spring breaker busy, Katherine helped him work on his Alphabet book, coloring and practicing his words.

A special treat this weekend was a visit from Ms. Karen, who drove up from Chicago!  She brought Cam some of his favorite books and yummy cookie treats!!  Jane's treat was spending time with such a great, sweet friend and shopping with Karen and Cameron...for some reason, Chris opted out of that adventure.


The weekend ended with a big adventure indeed- the discovery of The Time Capsule!!  If you are an avid blog reader, you may recall the capsule was buried a few weeks ago.  Although the authors of the capsule note had some expectation of a delayed discovery, Emma and Cam had other plans...

Spirt Week & Easter! - Week of Mar. 25th

Spirit Week was in full swing at Cameron's school before Spring Break!  Every day included a different clothing choice to show "spirit."  Hat Day, Pajama Day, Favorite Outfit Day, and Silly Day were all on the schedule.  Cam and Chris went to the store to pick out a hat to wear.  A depiction of Lightning McQueen from Cars was Cam's winner choice.    On Good Friday, a couple of our favorite playmates stopped by for a visit and to exchange some Easter goodies.  Auntie Jo and buddy Will played the entire afternoon.  It was fun to sit outside and soak up some of that sunshine!  The Culver's shakes hit the spot for everybody...

Each Easter, we enjoy gathering together as a family.  This year, we were happy to have cousins Libby and Coco join us as well!  Grandma and Grandpa arrived after church and brought Cam an Easter bucket full of sweet things and stickers. 
Chris & Jane greatly appreciate Grandma's new version of the "Easter basket" full of delicious fresh fruit!
Coco and Libby were very excited to help Cam find all of the Easter eggs hidden in the house.  Each "egg" contained some delicious chocolate, so finding them was paramount.  A new tradition of cooking a non-traditional Easter dinner also began this year.  Instead of the typical ham feast, we cooked up sliders (mini burgers) and steaks on the grill.  Accompanying the beef was twice baked potatoes and vegetables.  The cousins were a huge help with dinner prep and everything was delicious.

Chris and Jane had a special book made for Cam this Easter.
Thanks to Shutterfly, his school picture is super-imposed on every page in the Alphabet Adventure book! 
Cameron truly loves looking at books and pointing out his favorite parts on each page.  Imagine his surprise when each turn meant seeing his own image again and again...in his own book!

Our only regret was not capturing the pure squeals of delight on video!!  Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter...and counted their blessings, as we did.

A Birthday & Some Basting - Week of Mar. 18th

Cameron was quite excited about Katherine's birthday this year!  He helped Jane create a photo book that contained lots of pictures of he and "Ah-Dah" (Cam's nickname for Katherine).  He had a balloon bouquet all ready for her when she arrived at his house on Thursday and he helped her open a funny card that sang!

Due to work travel for Chris and Jane, Cam's grandparents came to spend the night with one lucky boy...

A fun activity included some egg coloring with Grandma.  Cameron had a good time "basting" the eggs with color, dipping them with a whisk.
Many Thanks to Oma & Opa for providing Cam with some special grandparents time!

The pretty colors on the eggs held the promise of spring.  Even though some snowflakes made their way into Michigan this week, we're hoping that groundhog redeems himself with his early spring prediction!