Ottawa County Fair 2011

The local county fair is taking place near us this week, so Sarah and I decided to take the boys last night to see some animals and ride some rides.

We started in the 4H barns, where the boys got to see cows, pigs, chickens, bunnys, donkeys and goats.

They even got to pet a donkey and a few goats.

Bentley cracked up, he thought the goats were pretty funny.

Maybe it's time for a farm! ;)

We stopped for some carni food, of course, and Bentley and I shared an elephant ear for dinner!

There weren't very many rides that the little boys could ride, but we were able to take them on the ferris wheel! :)

Bentley loved riding the ferris wheel, he kept peeking over the side and he would laugh every time we went down and around... I think it tickled his tummy!

We also got to ride on the "jolly caterpillar".

of course, he loved this ride too (i think we have a future rollercoaster lover on our hands) and he sat like this the whole time and giggled.

Kind of cut off but you can see him laughing...

I was super excited to ride the camel that they had there again this year, and Bentley was the perfect excuse to fulfill the excitment, until he fell asleep in line!!! I couldn't believe it! Apparently the other two rides were enough excitement for him....

No camel ride for us this year, but Sarah got to take the boys and they really enjoyed it.

One last ride of the night...the Fun Slide!

Hunter had to race his mom...even tho she ending up beating him, he was still happy!

We had a great time, and look forward to next year when we can take the boys on some more rides! :)

[[let the party planning begin]]

Lately I have been browing the internet looking for fun and unique birthday ideas and party ideas for Bentley's first birthday. (The fact that he is almost one is mind boggling to us, but we can't wait to watch him grow into a busy-er little toddler.)

I found some invitations I like on a website called MixBook. The best part about this is invite website is that once you pick your layout, you can change the colors to be any colors you want. I have decided to use brown, orange and green for Bentley's party instead of doing anything themed. The themes were a bit overwhelming for me. I picked out my colors but couldn't seem to find a picture I liked...so saturday I played "dress up" with Bentley and took my own.

Here is a sneak peek at the two that turned out the best.

The invitations have been ordered and I am hoping to make a test run at his cake this week sometime. Since I decided to make it myself, I thought it would be a good idea to make a "practice" one so I know what to expect. And who doesnt like a little cake, for no good reason, every now and then anyway? ;)

[[boys.night.out]]

Thursday night we had boys night out with Hunter & Preston. It has been SO unbearably hot here so there was no doubt this playdate would revolve around the kiddie pool!

The boys in the pool [[bentley.preston.hunter]]

the "little" boys

of course we can't do one thing for too long...so we had to ride quads around the yard for a bit too. :)

brothers

This is the reaction I got from Bentley when I said,

"Say Bye-Bye!"

buddies

is he just adorable or what? ;)

Thanks for having us over, Turkstras! We had a lot of fun. Hopefully this week our boys night out can take place at the local county fair, and maybe involve a camel ride instead of a quad ride! ;)

No Carrots For Me, Mom!

I have slowly started to give Bentley chunkier foods so that he can graduate to "big people" food. Well, last night, we tried some carrots, in chunks as opposed to puree.

He definatley wasn't shy about letting us know he didn't like them....

::HappyBirthdayMsMakena::

Sunday we spent the day with Bentley's friend Makena to celebrate her first birthday. They have a pool, so we spent the afternoon swimming and playing before we enjoyed dinner outside. It was a perfect day for a pool party, and the kids had a blast!

Enjoying the beautiful weather, and rocking his birthday beads!

The birthday princess!

Diving into her Cake...or actually using the candle as a spoon. So proper.

Our little water rat.

Cousin Craven jumping in like a big boy.

Poor Craven and his badonadonk...he didn't have a swim diaper on so his regular grew to be quite large...and yes, we might have been laughing at him when he walked because his butt did really bounce...just like a badonkadonk.

Bentley + Water = All Smiles

Showing off his super serious face.

Bentley went to bed early last night, slept like a rock and even slept in a little bit this morning. Looks like we may need to visit the Nyenhuis pool a bit more often! ;)



[[big & little]] mr.fix.it.

As always, when you have toys, they are fun part of the time, and broken part of the time. At least that is how it seems to go with us.

Currently, it's the boat that is causing the big headache. Nothing major, but a time consuming fix nonetheless.

Brandon has been working on the boat at night, and Bentley has been trying to "help" him.

First, they search online for tutorials and parts they need to fix the problem...

Then they go outside and take stuff apart to put the new on...or whatever they do. They are way smarter than me when it comes to this stuff.. :)

"what tool do you need next, dad?"

i believe this won't be the last time they are working on motors together, since they both have an unquenchable need for speed...

Just a few things left to put back together and everything will be in running order! We are hoping to be able to use it this weekend!! :)

Backtracking..

A week ago, Monday, Brandon was golfing and Bentley and I got to spend some time with Danielle and Craven because they were in town. It's fun to get the boys together when they are home since we don't see them very often anymore.

It's very rare that we go to Nana & Papa's house and the boys don't go for a tractor ride with Papa...even if its just around the house a few times. We joke about who has the most fun: Papa or the boys?? ;)

With another little monster on the way, Danielle and Chad bought a double stroller. I helped her put it together and then of course, we had to try it out!!

 Just relaxin...

Smiles for Papa!

Aren't they cute?!?! ;)

We are excited to meet Baby Boy Viening [[his due date is only a month away!!]] and see what kind of personality he brings with him!! I am sure the three of them will be best buds as they grow up together.

{{Blueberry Pickin' }}

Saturday morning Bentley and I got up and met our friends at Farmer's Market. We picked up some fresh goodies and then headed to a blueberry farm and let the boys pick some blueberries. Hunter was more into it than the little boys, but everyone still had a great time!

Bentley really like grabbing the bush and eating whatever he could get his hands on; ripe berries, non ripe berries and some leaves :)

I also learned that Bentley picks blueberries like his Mommy does...1 in his mouth, 1 in the bucket... ;)

It was a warm morning, so we didn't pick too long so we did have to buy a 5 pound box on our way out.

So guess what we have been eating, morning noon and night since saturday? ;)

you guessed it!

BLUEBERRIES!!

::weekend:fun::

We had quite an eventful and busy weekend this weekend, but as always, it is a lot of fun.

One of Bentley's new favorite "toys" is the dishwasher...and of course, I had to let him misbehave so I could catch a few pictures of the crime.. ;)

Thursday night Bentley turned 10 months, so we let him feed himself spaghetti for dinner. He made quite the mess, and had a lot of fun smearing it around, but he did seem to like it.

Smearing it around...

mMmMmMmM, so yummy!!!

...the aftermath...

Saturday morning Bentley's friend Hunter invited him to go to Lowe's for Build and Grow. This week the project was a tow truck. Bentley's mom isn't the best builder, so his cab went on backwards the first time, but we fixed it and it turned out alright! When we got home and showed Daddy though, he pointed out that the smoke stack was on the wrong side. Gee, who really knew there was a right and wrong, anyway! ;)

of course he would rather eat this string than play with it...

the finished product:

Sunday night we let Bentley drive around the yard on his quad for a while. He is finally learning how to hold the button down on his own. Can you tell he enjoys riding? ;)

I ran some errands in the afternoon and came home to find this:

Aren't they just adorable?!?!

We had a great weekend, but are looking forward to a somewhat quiet and low key week this week to spend time together as a family! :)

Playdate Friday!

Friday morning we met Bentley's friend Ava at a park in Zeeland. Ava is going to walk down the aisle in Jenna's wedding with Bentley, so us moms thought it a wise idea to introduce them a few times so they could get to know each other. It was a gorgeous morning for it, a bit on the hot side, but we still had fun.

Bentley had a great time on the swings, and enjoyed crawling around eating bark, of course.

 He giggled so hard at times he could hardly hold his head up!

Here is a video of all his laughter.

absolutely precious.

After the park we went to Grammy's house and got ready to meet Grampy and Great Grampy for lunch.

Of course, Grampy has to share his butterscotch malted with Bentley...

trying to be patient and wait his turn...

The people how own the restaurant where we ate have a little girl named Lilly. In fact, Friday was her first birthday. When she was born last summer, Mom and Vern would hold her while they waited for their lunch. They told us it was their "practice" while they waited for Bentley to be born! It took a whole year, but Bentley and Lilly finally got to meet!!!!

After lunch we ran some errands, and Bentley didn't want to nap. He was being quite the little ham, making his gramma laugh. Finally Grampy got home and he decided he would relax...

Bentley had a great day with G&G and enjoyed seeing Great Grampa for a bit too. :)