Our resident artist

Joost is very artistically gifted, especially in his drawings.  Every year, the school has a competition before the Read-a-thon begins for each student to create a bookmark.  Joost won the bookmark battle for the 4th-6th grade classes!  Even smaller things like this make a mother so proud.

Some school things...

Our school, Covenant Christian Academy, offers a bunch of extra activities that families can take part in.  One of them is skiing lessons. Jeff decided to take Joost and Grace this year. Both Jeff & Joost had skied before, but it was a first time for Grace. They have some funny stories to tell about getting on the lift at the top of the hill!

Joost's class just finished reading Treasure Island, and so their teacher decided to have a party! Each of them dressed up as a character in the book and enjoyed treats and a movie.

The Farm Show 2015

So you may be looking at all of these pictures and wondering, "why in the world are the vB kids hanging out in farm equipment?"

Jeff did not get a new job, and we're not hunting farm machines.  :)  We're actually at the Pennsylvania Farm Show!  If you're not from Harrisburg, this may seem like a lame way to spend a night, but it's so much more than just tractors.  There's farm animals, rodeos, horse shows, cute little peeps, wine tastings, butter sculptures, local honey, Pennsylvania produce, and (most importantly) great food!  One of our main reasons of going is always to try out the breaded mushrooms, apple cider, fried veggies, mozzarella sticks, potato donuts, and the milk shakes!  We never get all of that food each visit, but the milk shakes do happen annually.  It's a fun evening out that we look forward to each January.

Yeah for Pennsylvania and the farms! It's a great state to live in.

Kate's 6th birthday

She's six years old!

Kate Majorie van Bastelaar, our sweet girl, is enjoying her birthday dinner celebration at home.  I do feel bad for her, though.  Christmas--the ultimate gift giving holiday--was only 13 days ago.  Now she's celebrating the only other gift giving event of her year--not even two weeks later!  And, on top of that, she's impossible to buy for, so we're all fruitlessly hunting for gift possibilities.  :)

(Yes, that's a donut, not a cake. Despite its lack of traditional birthday dessert-ness, it did a good job of holding six candles.)

The kids don't get "kid parties" every year.  They have 16 cousins--family birthday parties are kid parties!  This year she celebrated with her cousin, classmates, and friends from church--and they had afternoon tea.  Who doesn't love tea parties? They had fun making fans and sipping tea together.  They even ate cucumber sandwiches and scones with clotted cream. All three grandparents came to help with the celebration, too.

Kate, we love you oh-so-much and are so thankful that God gave you to us.  We pray that God will bless you--in many ways, but especially in your walk with Him.  May you trust in Him for your salvation and strive to follow Him for all of your days.  

Happy, happy 6th birthday, Katie!

Happy New Year!

Don't worry...the kids are drinking sparkling grape juice.  :)  We always enjoy ringing in the new year all together.  

Happy 2015 to you!!!