Ian & Helena

I hope you all enjoyed a fun, relaxing Easter weekend, especially for those of you who got together with family!  We got lots done around here including lots of play time and some special outings with just one kid and mom or dad!  Pretty fun!  We also made Easter eggs, gifts from grandma & grandpa Kwantes, and worked on special wooden puzzles from them. 

Rory (Breanna behind him)   Stevie

 We also took a family picture since we happened to be up early Easter Sunday and had the time to get everyone dressed up a bit and even did the girls’ hair!  We tried to take pictures outside, but it was so sunny that everyone was just squinting in all the pictures.

And I just had to add these cute pictures of Rory and his friend, Campbell, when he came over to play last week.  It’s so neat to see them actually playing together now; they were taking turns on the track and building the tower together.

We have recently been making the switch to big beds for the girls; we started with Stevie and then Breanna too, in order to get prepped for camping this summer (we don’t want to have to lug the playpens around anymore!  I can’t believe we still needed three last summer)!  Anyway, it has been going quite well, although Stevie is really enjoying her freedom and pops out of bed at some of the funniest times.  It’s so interesting how different they all are; Rory & Breanna took to it by the book - repeated attempts and then once they got it they stayed, whereas Stevie just comes out at random.  Kinda cute though when she’s still half asleep and wandering out looking for you (as long as it’s not the middle of the night)!  The girls also just recently reached 100 words each - they are quite the little chatterboxes - one big part is how much they love to imitate their older brother.  Breanna also did her first pee on the potty tonight…we’re not working on training her, really, but she’s taken an interest in the potty, so we sometimes sit her on it when we’re changing her diaper anyway.  I don’t think she really knows what she’s doing there, except that she always gets books read to her for some strange reason!!! 

Rory’s doing really well, too.  He’s starting to speak in short sentences ”Sha-Sha (Theresa) sleeping bunk bed” (he was so excited that aunt Theresa slept in his top bunk bed when she came over), or “Stevie push Breanna” (he loves to ‘tattle’ already - nothing like his mother as a kid, I’m sure).  He’s also getting good at going for walks now that the snow’s melted and I can definitely see a difference from last year, since he’s not getting distracted every 10 seconds (which was cute, just now we can actually go places). 

 Anyway, I could go on about my cuties forever, but I’ll try to contain myself! 

We are really looking forward to some camping & other holidays this summer, especially time at the cabin!  What do the rest of you have planned for summer holidays?

Helena

P.S. I just thought I’d add that since this is the only blog I maintain, I give the address out to friends & family outside of the Vander Veen family, incase some of you are wondering why I add info about people you may not know