VanStrien Family Website

Happy Birthday James!  You’ve reached the double digits!  Mom and Dad are proud of the young man you’ve become!  You are a kind and compassionate young man and have many talents.  Although we wish you could stay young forever we are excited to see you grow up more and do great things.

This year James liked Lego (Star Wars and Jurassic World), anything Marvel related and Mashups.  This is the first year he went to Michigan’s Adventure and is celebrating at home on Labor Day with some friends and family.  School starts tomorrow!  4th Grade!

 

 

Another great Christmas in the VanStrien House!  We started on Christmas Eve with the 4:00 Mass at Holy Family.  The kids once again were a part of the Children’s Pageant as a Shepherd and Angel.  After Mass, we had dinner back at our house with Grandma VanStrien, Mociute and Grandma and Grandpa Cooper.  Amanda made a wonderful Lasagna dinner and salads and deserts by the Grandmas.  James woke up SEVERAL time during the night and eventually came to our room at the usual 6:00 AM time.  We said he could get up be we weren’t starting until 7:30.  The last couple presents the kids opened were books from Washington DC.  It took them a couple minutes but they figured out that is where we will be going on Spring Break this year.  Amanda and I made breakfast next with Omelets, Hashbrowns and Toast.  Later we will be heading over to Grandma VanStrien’s house for dinner and I’m sure MORE presents!  It will be a fun time but also a time to remember Dad as he looks down from Heaven!

I Want To Be Like Dad

How come when children get older they often get offended when people say “You’re acting like your (insert parent here)”. I admit it, I’m guilty of it too. The truth is I’ve been very fortunate to have had two wonderful, loving and caring parents. Upon my Dad’s passing today I’ve had a lot of time to think about this and I realized how much like my Dad I am. My Dad was a great role model and now as a father I find myself doing so many things just like him. He was so great playing with us as kids and took us to so many places to explore the world around us. He always put us first. Today, I find myself constantly tickling my kids like he did. Our favorite summer time activity became camping which I learned from him. I also find myself talking to my kids much in the same way and yes disciplining them like him to. He taught me more than I ever could have imagined about being a good man, husband and father.

I hope that when my time comes my kids look back on me the same way I reflect on him today. Just last week my son James said to me at the dinner table “Daddy I want to be just like you.” This of course made me smile and I know as he gets older he won’t say this anymore. It took me a long time to think like an 8 year old boy again but I can proudly say “I Want to Be Like My Dad.”

I Love You Dad. I know that you are safe now in God’s hands. Have fun laughing with Grandpa and I look forward to seeing you again.

 

Christmas this year has been a snowy one.  December has felt a lot like January usually does with a lot of snow.   Our Christmas celebrations started this year at Mass where James played Joseph in the Pageant.  He did a wonderful job but tended to get “upset” with me every time I asked him if the girl playing Mary was cute!  After Mass we headed to Grandma and Grandpa Cooper’s house where we had Christmas Eve dinner and opened presents.  The kids have been great all year and without any doubt they were on Santa’s good list.  Santa didn’t disappoint and we had a great time opening presents in the morning.  Alanna is enjoying her new doll and horse and James is enjoying all his Harry Potter and Disney Infinity games.  Later today we will travel to Grandma and Grandpa VanStrien’s house.   Grandpa was able to recover from his rehab just in time for Christmas and says he is doing better than ever!

More Pictures can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vanstrienfamily/sets/72157639011003353/

This year James’ Birthday and Birthday party fell on the same day.  James wanted a Detroit Tigers party so we started about two weeks ago with a trip to Detroit to watch the Tigers play the Twins.  For his party, we decorated our outside yard in Tigers colors and painted a baseball field in the yard which the kids used to play their own game.  The food was great!  He had all baseball park themed food including – hotdogs, hamburgers, peanuts, popcorn, cracker jacks and nachos.  Happy Birthday James!  Mommy and Daddy are very proud of the fine young man you are becoming!

We had an exciting Spring Break this year.  For years now, James has been bugging us to go to Chicago, even though he wasn’t really sure what it was other than the Cubs played there.  So we decided to make a mini Spring Break vacation out of it this year.   We started with a trip to the Shedd’s Aquarium which we had four passes to (which was a good thing because the line was huge).  We had a fun time looking and exploring all the aquatic life and watching the aquatic show with the dolphins.

After leaving Shedd’s we traveled to Schaumburg where we had a late dinner at the RAM restaurant and checked into our hotel at the Hyatt Place.  We were all quite tired and had no problems getting to bed!  The next morning was our trip to Legoland Discovery Center.  The kids love this place!  Not only was there a lot to look at but also had a lot of hands on activities and even a couple of rides.  James won a “build a musical instrument” competition with a lego trombone (of course) and Amanda and Alanna made racers for the race track.  We watched a Lego 3D movie, saw how legos were made and played with a lot of bricks.

We also did some shopping at the IKEA and went to the Lego store, Apple Store and a few other places in the mall.  On our way out we had Five Guys Burgers and Fries and stopped at a Trader Joes.

Overall we had some great family time and made some good memories together.

We celebrated Alanna’s Fifth Birthday Party at home with friends and family.  The weather made it difficult for some to attend but we still had a lot of people here.  Alanna choose to have a My Little Pony themed party.  The games and food all had pony themes and Alanna wore her pony dress.    The kids had a lot of fun including playing in her new puppet theatre.

Today is our little girl’s birthday. She is 5 today and it’s went by so fast and at the same time she has learned so much! We are truly blessed with two wonderful children. Alanna is a very loving and funny child and both her and James are the best children we could ask for. Happy Birthday Little Girl, We Love You!

We celebrated with gifts at home after work/school and went to Chuck E Cheese.  We had hoped she was going to choose a hot dog place but it seemed as if older brother may have had some influence.

So we survived the Mayan acapocalypse and enjoyed spending another wonderful Christmas together. We started on Christmas Eve with the Children’s Mass at Holy Family. This was James’ first year participating and he played a shepherd. He claims to have had the biggest staff! Later that evening we traveled to Grandma and Grandpa Coopers House where we had dinner and opened presents. James and Alex had a fun time playing together and Alanna had fun with all the girls. We spent Christmas morning at our house like normal. Amanda made some really good baked French Toast for breakfast. The kids enjoyed opening their presents. James received a lot of Star Wars toys and Alanna received a lot of Princess, Barbie and Pony toys. They were both surprised with the last present, a Wii U. James was a little more excited but Alanna will grow into it. Later today we will go to Grandma and Grandpa VanStrien’s house for the annual get together where I’m sure they kids will be spoiled nicely!

Another very busy week as we all got ready for James’ Birthday.  I was back to work and football practice and piano lessons kept us busy.  I had a football game on Friday night of James’ birthday but it was rained out so I did get to spend some time with him.   Saturday we had his family and friend birthday party.  It was a Star Wars party with lightsabers that Amanda designed and made for all the kids.  The kids loved the lightsabers and we had a lot of good Star Wars themed food as well.