Urban's Castle

We are so beyond thrilled to introduce you to our new nephew and Brighton's cousin: Urban James. He was finally born on Friday, April 8.

Jordan and Dan introduced him to the world on Facebook:

"And in the blue corner, wearing the white trunks, hailing from Holland, MI, weighing in at 10lbs 2oz with 22 inches in length, current undisputed, undefeated heavyweight champion of the world...UUUUUURRRRRBBBBBBAAANNNN JJAAAMMMEEESSS."

As you would suspect, we were at the hospital quite a few times this weekend. Brighton had anxiety about the hospital at first, but after a couple visits that nervousness vanished, and he started calling it Urban's castle. By Sunday, he was begging to go to Urban's castle again.

So, while much of West Michigan was returning from their spring vacations, we spent the weekend meeting and welcoming Urban James into the world, and we can't think of a better Spring Break 2011 destination than Urban's Castle.

The Bunny Train

We took the Coopersville & Marne Railway Train Ride this weekend. This time of year it is known as "The Bunny Train" with visits from the Easter Bunny and her friends.

The Easter Bunny even gave out presents!

It was a nice day for a train ride, but if you ask Brighton any day would be a great time for a train ride.

One Spring Evening

Yes, it has been rainy around here, but that hasn't prevented us from getting some toys out. Plus, it's been light out until 8 o'clock. It's been great to actually play outside into the evening this week. The boys have really enjoyed playing with a new remote controlled boat. There's one reason it's nice to have a pond in your backyard. We also have played quite a bit of T-ball. Brighton loves to hit the ball off the tee. Jon taught him how to run the bases this week, but he doesn't quite get that yet.

Lesson Learned: Don't get too close because he can hit the ball a lot better than last year.

Embracing the Rain and Train

Yes, it is of course rainy and cold here in Michigan during Spring Break 2011. We decided to embrace it and go and play in the rain. Brighton loves his rain gear, and I'm sure you can tell why.

This was a first for Brighton, and he had a blast. I think attraction to and jumping in puddles is an innate behavior for little boys.

Our First Garden

We're going to give gardening a try this year. I promise to be completely honest about how it goes. We're cautiously optimistic. If you know us, you know we have lots of wildlife in our backyard, but our neighbors had lots of success last year, so we're going to give it a whirl. We started some seeds now inside the house (we'll do some more outside and probably buy a couple plants too), and we are creating a raised bed in our backyard.

Right now the plan is tomatoes, basil, cucumbers, lettuce, peppers, carrots, and beans. The lettuce is what is popping up first.

If you ask Brighton about it, he'll tell you it's our "gwowden." He loves helping, but he looked at us told us we were silly when we told him we would eat what was growing. "Nooooo, that dirt is yucky!" We'll keep you posted on Bright's garden education too.

April Birthdays 2011

April isn't about a spring break trip for us this year, it's really about birthdays. We celebrate quite a few birthdays in the Walcott family during April, and we of course are also anxiously anticipating the birth of baby Kleinheksel.

We had a Walcott birthday blowout this weekend which we knew was going to be challenging for our little guy. He is of course ridiculously excited for third birthday next month. After lots of conversations and explanations, we were really pleased with how he did. He was super excited to give gifts, and he only had a couple occasions of sadness or frustration (see picture below).