One of the many benefits of having more house than furniture...

We're still here

The Van Hal clan is still here, just super busy! I apologize for the lack of updates. Today I will restart my quest to catch up- I think as far as the blog goes we're still stuck in April (for a laugh be sure to check out the video I posted yesterday for April 23rd- drama queen).

For now, though, here's some current news from our family.

We've been living in our new house for just over three weeks and Anna is absolutely loving it (as are we). She loves having lots more space to run around and play with her toys. One of her favorite new hobbies is to transfer objects from one room to another, resulting in me finding some items in interesting locations- for example, a half-eaten apple in the bathtub. Anna has been taking full advantage of the fact that Bryan and I have not gotten around to putting latches on the kitchen cabinets and drawers. She enjoys scattering random kitchen items all around. Anna has also been honing her climbing skills by practicing getting on the couch, climbing into her high chair, climbing onto the dining room table, etc. Oh, joy.

Anna's vocabulary has expanded dramatically to fit her new surroundings. Up until a month or two ago her words/signs were somewhat limited, but she's suddenly surprising us with new words all the time. Here are some she has picked up since we've moved:

lawnmower
mulch
dirt
peach
cucumber
hurt
aw
ouch
blanket
swing (for some reason, Anna says "eesh" for swing, so I'm not sure that this one counts)
stop
go
helicopter
box
chair
drink
pancake
crash
trash
cheek
kick
push

Hmmm... that's all the news I can think of for now, I'll try to post more later!

Bye-bye sleep sack!

The days of the sleep sack are over. Today Anna learned how to escape!

Shelling peas from the CSA

As an experiment our family has joined a CSA (community supported agriculture) group for the summer. Every week we get to pick up a bag of fresh organically grown produce from a local farm. This has been an interesting experience for all of us as we are a little picky about veggies and I am not much of a chef. Often I find items that I needed to first identify, then find out how to store (I have a little cookbook about seasonal cooking that has been very helpful) the food, and then figure out how I'm supposed to prepare it. We've discovered some things that we don't like (radishes), but we've also discovered some foods we didn't know we liked (summer squash). It's also been lots of fun for Anna to get to know some of her foods in their more raw form. Tonight she helped Mommy make dinner by shelling some peas.

Beach baby

More goofing around in the water

Anna and I went back to Frederick Meijer Gardens today for more water time. Anna seems to be developing an engineer's mind just like her daddy. In the last two photos she is methodically removing the screws from the fountain's posts. Don't worry- we put them back!

Happy Father's Day, Daddy!

Today was Father's Day! To celebrate we went to the mall in the morning to get an accessory for Bryan's iPhone. In the afternoon we went Frederick Meijer Gardens and let Anna splash around in the fountains. She had such a great time! Be sure to check out the video below- about every 60 seconds Anna would run out of the fountain and come to the bench Bryan and I were sitting on and say and sign "wawer!" We got a few of them on video. The last photo in the post is of Bryan and Anna on father's day last year.

A candid shot by Daddy

Bryan took this photo of Anna today at lunchtime- I love it!

Elle's birthday party

This afternoon Anna and I went to a park to attend a birthday party for Anna's buddy Elle. She had a great time. Elle has a December birthday like Anna and her family decided to throw her a half birthday party in June- a great idea that we may try next year :).

The birthday girl had one finger in the cupcakes the entire time we sang "Happy Birthday" to her- it was so cute!

Opening presents in style.

Anna got in on the present action, too.

Anna had a busy day today! In the morning we had a playdate at a new park with some friends and in the afternoon Anna tried out a new sprinkler toy for the first time.

We've found a (at least termporary) solution to the toothbrushing battles- Anna brushes my teeth while I brush hers.