Planting Flowers

Last week, one of the moms that I babysit for, donated some flower seeds and little pots so the girls could plant flowers and watch them grow. We finally had a nice day where we could head outside and get those seeds planted. The girls really seemed to have fun with it and I hope they don't lose interest since it will take awhile for the plants to actually appear. Regardless, what a great thing for the girls to experience!

Olivia looking on as Rachel pours dirt in her pot.

Digging out more dirt...

Now Olivia is concentrating on scooping out her dirt.

I showed Rachel and Olivia how small the flower seeds are that they are planting.

Olivia takes a turn watering her flowers after filling the pot with more dirt.

Oops...a little too much water!

And now we wait...

Grand Rapids Public Museum and Giant Bugs!!

The Grand Rapids Public Museum has an exhibit of giant bugs through the end of the month. On a whim, I decided to take Olivia to see the exhibit the other afternoon. She really enjoyed wandering around most of the museum. Sorry for the long entry, but these really are the highlights of our trip.

One of Olivia's first "driving" experiences!

Having a tea party in the doll room.

Olivia checking out some of the fossils she could actually touch.

The ones in the case didn't interest her too much.

In the museum, there is a section of Old Grand Rapids circa late 1800's.

One of the fun things to see there is this old fashioned bike.

Olivia loves sitting on this bike (and was well aware of the fact that she couldn't reach the pedals), but I was very nervous to leave her side just to take this picture.

Here Olivia was checking out the local grocery store.

On the third floor of the museum, there are some habitat exhibits of animals of West Michigan.

Once Olivia realized the animals weren't real, she was very excited to check out the various exhibits.

Here she is checking out a wetland exhibit.

(Sorry about the following section where there are some sideways pictures that shouldn't be this way...)

We finally made our way to the bug exhibit. I think the thing that impressed me the most was that all of these giant bugs moved in some way. At first Olivia was a little aprehensive about this, but she soon realized the bugs were fun to look at.

This is a worms view of a praying mantis.

I showed Olivia how to do rubbings, so here she is trying to make her own bug.

This is a caterpillar.

Honestly, I'm not sure what type of bug this was...a friend who also saw the exhibit said it was a stick bug...

I really loved this grasshopper!

Especially the can of spray....

And what is a bug exhibit without bugs that you can hold and touch.
Here Olivia is chaneling her inner scientist. And yes, she did touch and hold the bugs. She said it tickled!

Here are two rhino beetles fighting. If you look closely, right in front of the beetles you will see three holes in the floor of the platform. There is a tunnel the kids could crawl through and then poke their heads up in the holes. Look at the far right hole, that is Olivia.

There was also a giant spider web for the kids to climb.

Olivia wasn't so sure about the climbing, so....

....she crawled under it!

We wrapped up our trip to the museum with a second ride on the carousel.

What a fun day, and boy was she tired. She fell asleep before we even got home!

Dr. Seuss in Hudsonville Michigan

Somehow Hudsonville Michigan became a stop for a traveling Dr. Seuss exhibit. To help you understand why I am amazed at this, let me tell you a few of the towns this exhibit had either been to or was getting ready to go to.... Hotel de Coronado in San Diego, San Diego Zoo, and the Naples Zoo. Hudsonville was the smallest town it would be visiting. Pretty impressive for West Michigan! Well we had a beautiful day in mid-April and we took Olivia and Lilly (one of the little girls I am babysitting) to go see the exhibit. It was very cool and I'm glad we made time to do this.

Olivia sitting on the foot of the Cat in the Hat.

This was the tallest bronze sculpture.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas

The Lorax

Green Eggs and Ham

Yurtle the Turtle

This sculpture, was by far, my favorite!

I just love this little turtle who is hanging on for dear life!

Olivia peeking around the turtles.

Inside city hall, they had more art work. Many paintings, sketches, or wall hangings. All of which were for sale, unframed. I don't think I will be buying any original Dr. Seuss art work any time soon. One painting ran $16,000 unframed. One wall sculpture (seen in this photo, the head with the long horns above the paintings) ran $25,000. Uh...I don't think so...

I took pictures of all of the art work, but the photos just don't do them justice. The colors were often very bright and vivid. However, this piece of art would be easily recognizable, so I included it.
Like I said, great exhibit and if you live in the area and haven't checked it out, please do so. I think you will find it worth your time.

Easter Egg Hunt at Church

I should have posted the pictures earlier, but I forgot to!! The week after Easter, our church had their annual Easter Egg Hunt sponsored by the Knights of Columbus. I wasn't feeling well, so Chris took Olivia to her first Easter Egg Hunt. Looks like she had a great time.

No sooner did Chris and Olivia get to church, Olivia ran up to another little girl and held her hand as they walked in together.

Finally, it's time to pick up the eggs!

Yup, sitting down is much easier.

The kids brought their eggs into the gym to get out all of their goodies.

Here, Olivia is trying her hardest to get the egg open all by herself.

Finally, she had to relent and get Papa's help in opening the egg.

She really had a great time and came home with a basket full of goodies.

Random Pics

Here are just a few random pictures that I wanted to share with everyone...

This picture has become one of my favorites!

Papa and Liv riding the carousel at the mall.

Olivia's car seat has been upgraded!! She now has a booster seat. The reason was two fold. One, we thought she would like this better (and she does meet the requirements for one) and would be happier. Two, I can use her other car seat for Lilly. So now I can take Lilly (one of the little girls I watch) and Olivia out and about if I need or want to. It has been working out great.

Just look at the smile as she gets buckled into her "big girl seat"!

We bought Olivia something to store toys in her room. I thought this would help her share better with having other kids here on a regular basis. We picked out some special toys to keep upstairs. These are toys/books just for Olivia and she doesn't have to share them with anyone.

Here Olivia is helping Papa put the storage system together.

And now she is smiling from ear to ear with her new toy storage.

So far this seems to be working. Otherwise, she is getting used to sharing her toys!

Game Night

One night before bed, I thought I'd see how Olivia liked playing some games that I recently picked up for her at some sales. First we played Winnie the Pooh Candy Land...

It took a litle while for me to set it up, but once I did Olivia seemed to have some understanding on how to play it. Ok, she could tell me the colors, but then I'd show her where to put her piece. Pretty soon, all the characters were on the board and moving wherever she wanted them to go!!

So then she decided she was done with Candy Land.

Olivia did better than I expected with Memory. As you can see, we only started out with part of the cards and I put them face up for her. Then I asked her to find a present, for example. She'd pick that picture up, then I'd ask her to see if she could find another picture of a present. She caught on to this game pretty quickly. Gradually, I could add more pieces and she just cruised through them. I was thrilled to find out that Olivia really enjoys playing games (even if it is for a short amount of tme.)

Easter

We made sure Olivia had some time before Mass, on Easter Sunday, to open her Easter basket. She was very excited!! She really liked the suckers in it (didn't do chocolate since suckers are her favorite. I think her expressions tell the story...

Yes, a card!! Just what I always wanted!!

Checking out her new books.

Playing her new harmonica (she LOVES music).

Posing with her new kite.

(Wish I could say it worked great....It was an inflateable kite, which I never had heard of before. Found out from Chris later that the kite wouldn't hold any air. Olivia ended up getting a new kite.)

We tried taking some new family pictures at church, but unfortunately they all turned out too dark. And even Chris couldn't perform a miracle on them. I guess that means this spring Fallen Leaf Studios will be taking some new pictures!!