Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Spring Birthdays and Spring Visits

It truly has been a very busy spring. Spring always is for us. We have 4 family birthdays and usually the "good old faithfuls" come by for a visit. Cor has been traveling a lot lately making life seem all the more busier. Spring ball with 3 kids is fun and great for the kids, but we are always happy when it is over as well. For some reason, I don't have pictures of Cor's 37th birthday or Asher's 10th birthday. Cor won't forget that party though. He was in charge of 8 boys all.by.himself. Bless his heart! I was at a ball game with Arianna.



Arianna's 12th birthday, she got spoiled of course. Birthdays are very special events!



Julianna turns 6!!

her friends
she has wanted rollerblades for a LONG time! She looks thrilled



My mom and her cousin from Holland, Tante Eef, came for a quick 4 day visit. We had a lot of fun touring Jacksonville and St. Augustine. She doesn't speak too much English, and I don't speak too much Dutch, and my mom can speak both but she was a horrible translator!! But we made it through the week just fine. Julianna told Tante Eef that our dog was English. We laughed so hard! I remember Tante Eef visiting our family when I was a little, so her visiting me now was really special.
Mom, me and Tante Eef in front of beautiful Flagler College

Cor is always loved!

Jon and Kelley came for a week long visit. We always have a great time with them. Thanks for using your vacation time to visit us. We love being together and the kids just have a blast. The kids are getting older making the visits a lot easier. We even went out for dinner one night and didn't have to run out with any crying kids or tantrums. We definitely made 10 kids look easy :)The other patrons laughed at our two families and tried to pair the kids with the parents. They did a great job too!

all crammed in our little breakfast nook. We ate all our meals together.

apparently the kids like it crammed because here they are in the kiddie pool intended for Anna Grace and Nicolas!

still not sure why they sat in that little pool together

the gang minus Anna Grace who was miserable :(

Nana and Papa(Cor's parents) came for a visit the middle of May. We had a great time with them and were spoiled by them!

Playing spoons was a hit!
as was playing basketball in the pool

The kids had a piano recital when they were over. They were proud to perform what they had learned!






6 comments:

Mel said...

Nice pics! Jon is wearing a stellar black T-shirt out to dinner! ;O)

Lori said...

Hi Marlene...lots has happened in the past 6 months I see ! Got your email 2day, will shoot one back to you soon! Nice to hear & see that you are all doing well. Where is the time going..."talk" to you soon!

The Arnold's said...

Finally an update!!LOL!! Hope you are well! Arianna's dress is beautiful!
Miss y'all!

Gai Gai said...

It makes me sad thinking that this is how i'm going to have to keep up with the van dyk's :( I miss you already

Lynnette VD said...

Looks like a busy spring!! Looks like a fun one though! Beautiful pics - can't believe how has Anna Grace is growning up!

Marlene said...

Oh, Gai Gai, we will miss you too!