Baptism to First Communion....Time Flies

First Communion 2013

This past Sunday we celebrated the kids First Communion at church.  It was such a beautiful day all around.  We had both sets of family in town and all the God Parents were here to help the kids celebrate.

The kids and Jon and I have been preparing for their First Communion all year.  A and K carried the gifts up at Mass and E did a reading in front of the whole church.  They all did a wonderful job.

As always, I ask myself where the time has gone and how are we already at their First Communion.  I'm sure in not so many years ahead I will be asking myself how we are at their Confirmation.

Celebrating life events such as this, it really makes me look at my life and appreciate how blessed I am to have such a wonderful family.

Thank you to all who joined us on Sunday to help AEK celebrate their big day.  I could not feel more loved nor be more proud.  May God continue to Bless AEK and our entire family with so many blessings.

Amsterdam Spring 2013

This was at the Airport and we thought it was cool!

For Spring Break this year both Jon and I were blessed to have the time off of work.  We vowed that we were going to take the kids somewhere fun for Spring Break.  A few years back we spent the money on getting the kids their passports for traveling.  We never used them and well they are going to expire in October of this year so we thought we better put them to good use before that happened. 

Well I will spare all of you the details on how we decided upon Amsterdam but that is where we ended up going and we all had a BLAST! 

We left on Easter Sunday night and we arrived on Monday in Amsterdam at 10 AM local time.  We all managed a few zzzz's on the plane and decided it was time to go exploring.  We headed to City Central and we caught a Canal Boat to take a tour.  It was very fun to see the city from the Canals and I was impressed to learn that Amsterdam has more waterways through its city than Venice Italy. 

AEK off on our adventure

After our boat tour we found something to eat as we were all hungry.  We had Italian and well we learned that Margaretta Pizza is just like cheese and that Pepperoni Pizza is like ham.  It was very good and it filled our bellies.  We then headed out for some more site seeing.

Jon and the kids in the Park

We had to get the famous Shoe Picture

That night we had some dinner in the hotel bar where we sat and played games and ate dinner it was a fun day. We were all wiped out and headed to bed. 

Tuesday we did not even wake up until 10:30 AM.  K jumped out of bed and shouted that we all needed to get up as we had some site seeing to do and it was already 10:30 AM!  Once we got moving we explored the neighborhood where the hotel was and found some lunch.  We did a little grocery shopping as well and it was great to see the prices of the food in Amsterdam.

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Once we were done with lunch and shopping we headed to the NEMO science museum.  What a great place for all of us.  It was very interactive and the kids loved it.  It was a very cool building with a roof top that was huge.  We closed the place down and we probably could have spent another two hours there.

AEK and I outside the Entrance to the Anne Frank House

After the NEMO we headed to the Anne Frank House.  The line was long but we decided to get in it anyway.  We met some very nice people in line and since we were talking with them the line moved quick.  It was interesting to see the house and hear the stories of Anne Frank and her family.  The kids and I had read a book the day before that was all about Anne Frank so that helped them to understand the Museum.

 

After, we were done at the Museum we headed out for some Pancakes.  We did not have to go far and the kids LOVED them.  Jon not so much but he settled on an omelet.  It was fun to see the city at night. It is very pretty with all the lights.

 

The next day after we all got up around 10 AM we packed up our room and put our stuff in storage at the hotel. We then headed back to the City Center and we hopped on a street car and headed to the Museum district. We visited the diamond museum where we learned all about diamonds and Jon was tempted to buy me one tax free! (Ya right!) Jon and K were bored but the girls enjoyed it. We were then going to go to the museum of purse and hand bags but we decided to spare the boys so we by passed!

On the Canal Boat Ride

After the museum we headed to the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch. This is the first place we went to eat that had a kids menu! The kids were in high heaven with their chicken nuggets and French fries. However, K did order a chicken sandwich so he may be getting more worldly with his food choices!

After lunch we walked through Vondel park which is similar to NYC Central Park. It was fun to see but we were all cold. So we walked over to the Van Gough museum but it was closed for construction. Bummer! We then walked around a bit more but decided soon there after to head back to Central Station so we could do our souvenir shopping.

The girls each got a sweatshirt and K got a fut ball. They are all happy with their purchases. After we got the shuttle back to the hotel to pick up our bags. We were going to grab a cab to the other hotel but we were encouraged to take the train as taxis are very expensive! So we headed back to Central Station with all our luggage and walked to the train part. We became very comfortable with the mass transportation here! We were proud of ourselves.

Taking the Train!

 
We thought before we went to Amsterdam that we would get to see the tulips in bloom.  However, they are experiencing the coldest spring in 60 years so the tulips were not in bloom.  It was disappointing but we did have a wonderful time.  It was a great trip!

A Lil Behind

Holy Smokes...it has been over a month since I have posted to this blog.  I feel terrible about that.  So many excuses as to why this happened but I will spare you all of my whining and we can just move on.  Life has been crazy this past month and now I plan to do a Blog Marathon to catch all of you up on our crazy little life. 

Wordless Wednesday ~ Nap Partners

Famous Artist

E came home from school a few weeks ago and was anxious for me to open up an envelope that her teacher had given her.  Inside the envelope, was a letter from the Principal.  Her artwork had been one of two selected for the City Art show for students.  We were invited to the open house and we got tickets and all. 
E was very excited about her artwork being chosen and we were all so proud of her.  What a fun experience for E and one that I am sure she will remember forever. 

Tonight, Grandma, Jane, Aimee and I escorted E to the art show so we could check out her items.  It was fun to see what other art kids have done and to celebrate with E on her success.  She can't wait to take Jon over there tomorrow night to show him her art. 

Steamboat Vacation 2013

I am a few weeks....okay almost a month late with this post but like they say, better late than never.  We returned to Steamboat this year for another wonderful ski vacation.  The Erickson 5 took a different route to Steamboat as we flew into Denver and drove up the mountain.  That proved to be a lot of fun and as challenging as driving in the mountains (especially when snowing) can be, it was beautiful. 

The kids all enjoyed the scenery and it was fun to hang out the five of us in Denver and then on the drive.  We got to Steamboat right after it started to snow so the last half hour of our drive was a little scary on the pass but we made it just fine. 
We stayed at the same house again with Grandma and Grandpa A and Uncle T.  The first night we went out for dinner to the pizza place and then headed back for hot tub and cards. 

The first day of skiing, the girls were in ski school and k took a snowboarding lesson.  They all had a great time.  Uncle T, Grandpa A, Jon and I hit the slopes.  We skied hard that first day and covered a lot of ground.  It was great and when we picked the kids up at ski school, they were ready to head back up to the top to do some skiing with us.  It was fun.  K had a good time snowboarding but we decided to put him back on skis for the remainder of our trip so he could "keep" up with the rest of us. 

The next two days were filled with lots of fun skiing.  The kids LOVED to go through the trees and aside from a few run In's everyone had a great time.  Both Jon and I are impressed with how well they are skiing now.  We have decided that pretty soon we will have a hard time keeping up with them. 

Over all it was a wonderful trip.  So relaxing with skiing during the day and hot tubing and playing cards at night.  It is never easy to leave Steamboat after our vacation there. 

This year we drove back down the mountain in a snow storm for half the way and that was scary.  We Thanked God when we drove out of that snow.  We had some time when we got to Denver so we went to a fun Mexican restaurant called Casa Bonita.  They have a live dive show in the restaurant so it was some fun entertainment.  We had never experienced anything like that before and we all enjoyed it. 

It was a successful vacation and one that we all enjoyed so much! We are already looking forward to 2014! 

Snow Day

 Yesterday, we  blessed with a snow day...or I guess I should say a Snow afternoon.  The kids went outside to play and I believe that they were out there for three or four hours playing in the snow. 

The adventure started with them making a snowman family, three kids and a Mom and Dad.  We all worked hard to finish our family. 

 We then headed over to the neighbors for some sledding fun.  K also took advantage of the rope swing!

 It was fun to relax and hang out together. Our new neighbors came out with their little boy and joined in the fun too. 

It was a lazy Sunday afternoon and we finished our night off with getting Pizza Delivery and playing some board games.  It was the perfect snowy day retreat!