Remembering Grandpa

Marc's Grandpa DePauw passed away one week ago. This week we were able to travel to IA to be with the DePauw family as we celebrated and remembered his life. (July 2010--Sadie, Kinnick, & Macey with their Great-Grandpa & Great-Grandma DePauw)

The visitation was Wednesday night--it was such a great experience (especially for our first time bringing our kids to a visitation). All the cousins sat around visiting and enjoying being together. A packed a bag of activities and snacks for our three and they did great for the 3 plus hours we were there!

We talked with Sadie a lot ahead of time telling her what to expect. She had LOTS of questions. Some were expected: "How will Grandpa go to Heaven without his body?" "What does his new body look like?"
Some were a bit humorous: "What if Grandpa's head and legs don't fit in the box (casket)?"... explanation... followed by "Oh, so it's not like a box like we have at our house (diaper box)?" "How will Grandpa change his clothes in Heaven?"
Some were hard to answer: "When me and Kinnick and Macey die will we have a funeral?" I tried to be as honest as possible while trying to know how much information she was ready for. It was a good experience to go through and Sadie really seemed to handle to well.

Uncle Nathan & Kinnick

Sadie and her 2nd cousin Taylor--playing princess old maid... Taylor was the only other great-grandkid there. He's several years older than Sadie, but he was so kind asking her to play and letting her choose activities.

The funeral was Thursday morning. All of our kids did great sitting through it. We all went out to the cemetery--it was freezing but good to say good-bye. Afterwards we enjoyed a yummy dinner and some more time to visit. There were several more greats there on Thursday so Kinnick and Sadie had a great time running around with them.

The kids were VERY worn out... K and M fell asleep on our way back from the cemetery and K slept in Grandma's lay for about 30 minutes! M slept all the way through lunch and had to eat later!

Sadie and Kinnick with Great-Grandma DePauw

My BIG girl!

All 18 grandkids were able to make it back for the funeral (coming from CA, FL, OK, NE, CO, IL, and IA!) What a testament to Marc's Grandpa & Grandma to have 18 grandkids who are all believers and now raising another generation of believers!

My Little Man

On our way home... notice Sadie is in her p.j.'s! We had to stop for a little treat!

Grandpa's Quote that Marc most remembers: "There's always room for ice cream--it just fills in the cracks!"

Iowa Children's Museum

We were in Iowa this week for Marc's Grandpa's visitation and funeral. We had the whole day Wednesday before the visitation... Marc and Nathan wanted to shop for IA stuff and I have been wanting to take the kids to the Iowa Children's Museum for a while now. I recruited Aunt NeeNee to help and we had a great day! The museum was great. An added bonus was visiting on a week day--they were not too busy. We spent about 2 hours in the morning, took a lunch break and went back for over an hour and we still didn't visit all the exhibits! They had such a great variety of exhibits--my kids had a blast and it can really appeal to elementary school kids as well. Here are some of the things we did:

Art Studio: This was a HUGE room stocked with all kinds of art supplies. We were free to grab whatever we wanted. They have a wall of cubbies for you to stash your creations to dry and then pick them up before you leave.

Kinnick was thrilled to paint this dinosaur.

Macey loved crawling around and pulling things out of the bins.

I helped Sadie make a collage with all different types of stuff.

City Works--Hospital:

A big part of the first floor was an exhibit called "CityWorks"--they had a grocery store, hospital, pizza parlor, bank, and post office. Each place was well stocked with uniforms and tons of props. We didn't get to check them all out, but the hospital was one of the first places my kids wanted to visit. Kinnick loved driving the ambulance and Sadie loved being a doctor and a dentist.

Macey loved the baby dolls.

ABC Forest:

Kinnick found this little reading area complete with an abundance of books, couches, and a reading hide-out. He could have spent the whole day here! Sadie had fun doing some different alphabet activities while Kinnick read a few books.

ImaginAcers:

LOVED this place! This exhibit was for 5 and under (perfect for us!) It was set up like a farm with a gate that closed it off from the rest of the top floor. The kids got to plant vegetables in a garden, climb in the barn and play on the slides, dress up like animals, play with a wooden farm, and fish for letters.

Take Flight:

This exhibit was all about flying. It had lots of flight simulators that allowed you to drive an airplane or helicopter. It had a giant hot air balloon--kids could climb in the basket and it wobbled around like it was in the air. One of the coolest parts about this exhibit was that it was on both floors--to get down quickly you could ride the giant tube slide. My kids loved these little petal planes:

It's hard to tell, but Kinnick has on a little pilots jacket--too cute!

Museum "Pets":

At the entrance they had a huge tank with fish and another tank with a turtle. Kinnick loved the turtle!

City Works--Pizza Parlor:

This was probably my favorite exhibit. I helped show the kids how to make and cook their own pizzas, then I sat back in the restaurant and let them serve me.

PlayWorks Theater:

We spent a lot of time here! This was a huge theater/stage with LOTS of dress up clothes and props. They had puppets, masks, scenery, etc.

Sadie made friends with another little girl while we were playing here. I overheard her ask the girl her name and then they had the following conversation: Girl-"What's your name?" S-"Emma" Girl-"Really, I have a friend in my class named Emma." S-"Yep, that's my name."

Kinnick loved "getting me" with this dinosaur puppet.

Notion of Motion:

This was the last exhibit we visited. The kids loved it--they had all kinds of hands on experiments you could do to test the laws of motion. There were several different experiments that involved dropping golf balls on ramps, and also an exhibit that let you build your own cars (using different weights) and race them on huge ramps.

Sadie loved this climbing wall. She was so proud of making it to the top by herself.

And of course, Kinnick had to play at the train table. In this pic he's saying "Choo Choo!"

Macey's 1st Birthday Party!

We had such a fabulous party with family and friends... Macey was so happy throughout the whole party--she really is a sweetheart! (That's why we had a "heart" themed party!)

The cake!! This was my 2nd attempt at using fondant. I was pretty pleased (although my red icing was a little too dry and my hot pink icing didn't make it onto the cake because it ended up looking orange...)

For take-home favors, all the kids (and adults) got to fill a bag with heart shaped candy.

For lunch we had Italian Beef, mac & cheese, raspberry finger jello hearts, carrots & dip, chips & dip, deviled eggs, pasta salad, and strawberries with pink dip...

Present Time!

Big Sister = Big Helper!

Kinnick and Sadie loved helping Macey open her presents!

Kinnick couldn't wait for me to put the cake down so he could grab one of the hearts!

Big brother helping show how it's done...

Macey took no time to dig in... with both hands!

Marc put a scoop of ice cream on top and she chowed it in less than a minute!

She kept eating without slowing down. I finally took it away.

Kinnick and Macey having a tea party with her new tea set.

This was such a special day for me...

Biggest Surprise: I didn't have any "sad" feelings. Even though this could be my last first birthday party, I really treasured the time and rejoiced with my special little girl. I really thought I would be sad, but this day was much less emotional than K's first birthday!

Special Moment: Macey took 5 steps to her Aunt Jessica (from her Aunt Kassie)--she's been working on taking some steps, but this is the most for her so far!!

Favorite Memory: I LOVED watching her eat her cake--the pink icing face was so precious. I also adored watching her big brother and sister "help" her enjoy her big day.