The kids and I hit it hard on the Fall Fun this past weekend while Jeff was out of town on his annual guys golf trip. We packed it in with the Adams Family 2 at Celebration Cinema Friday night (popcorn and sugar for dinner of course), Ed Dunneback and Girls Farms and pumpkin picking on Saturday, then we prepped our Halloween costumes after a quick stop on the way home at ACE Hardware. We even made it out to Fredrick Meijer Gardens to see the pumpkins on display after church on Sunday. Natalie reminded me that we never got to pick apples - mercy, this child misses nothing. We’ll have to check that one off the list later this month.
Two weeks ago Thomas’ class visited Post Family Farms and had a blast riding the barrel train, zooming down the giant slide and finding their way through the maze. The kids got to take a hay ride out to the pumpkin patch where they picked their very own pumpkin to take home and of course, they enjoyed donuts and cider.
Thomas has been hard at work this school year in Mrs. Jansens preschool classroom. Mrs. J. sent home Thomas’ preschool assessments and Thomas knew all his colors, letters (except ‘P’), numbers and shapes. We assume having an older sibling to learn from at home likely helps with his success. That or he’s a genius. Probably a genius.
We’ve got one more Saturday of soccer left this season for both kiddos and we’ve already moved onto booking fall/winter sports. Both kids are fitted for their boots and skis and signed up for lessons beginning in January. And Natalie is excited to begin piano lessons this fall after receiving a hand me down piano from my Grandpa and Grandma DeKoekkoek (my moms parents) this month.
Natalie has also been rocking it out at school this year. We had her class conferences last week and her teacher Mrs. Kingma had wonderful things to say both about her academics as well as her social demeanor. She told us Natalie is very kind and works well with everyone. We were very proud of her. It was school spirit week at GRCS earlier this month with themed days including twin day (Natalie pictured with friend Karter on twin day below) and eagle day where Principal Barkel dressed up as the school mascot.
Work at Steelcase has been all hands on deck these past two months but we’ve finally reached our Fall finish line having finished NeoCon last week. The event was a huge success and I’m extremely proud of the hard work put in by the digital communications team on this massive effort. We launched big new products including the new Steelcase Karman Chair and our new CEO Sara Armbruster had her first day on Oct. 4th. The work has been challenging as well as rewarding.
While in Chicago for work I was able to have a bit of fun including dinner at a few favorite spots (Beatrix and Duck Duck Goat), make multiple stops at Whole Foods (obsessed), spent a few hours shopping and visited with my maid of honor Cassie who lives the super cool Chicago city girl lifestyle you see in the movies.
The kids hung back home with Jeff in Grand Rapids and they, too, had a bit of fun including a neighborhood happy hour, attending their first GRCS Homecoming football game, soccer games and a visit to John Ball Zoo with Grandma and Grandpa Kladder. It was fun to have friends and family text photos of the action back at home in real time - it gave me all the smiles.
A few weeks ago Jeff, the kids and I grabbed dinner downtown at StudioPark and checked out ArtPrize. Jeff and I mostly reminisced about how cool the event used to be while the kids geeked out over the massive StudioPark movie screen that (at the time) was displaying a delayed mirror effect of the park - the kids would dance for 10 seconds then pause to watch themselves playback on the screen. It was pretty neat and probably the coolest things we saw at ‘ArtPrize’ this year. We took a walk over the bridges and back stopping to check out the massive tin man the art along the riverfront.
Grace’s Gala benefitting Grace’s Table happened last week and it was a huge success! We were thrilled to surpass our fundraising goal and so honored to have such incredible support from those who attended. Three pieces of artwork were auction off, we sold 8 pieces of small scale artwork in our silent auction and we ate, drank and networked the night away with friends and family.
We’ve got lots more Fall Fun coming up later this month including the annual Smith Family Bonfire, Halloween weekend, a trip to North Carolina and the U of M vs. MSU football game. Party on my friends!
