Maxwell John Leenstra

ArtPrize Downtown Grand Rapids

Wow can you believe it has been 7 months since my last posting! I even had to think about how to do a blog post again :( Anyway I have decided that I am going to try my best to keep this blog up to date - I need some sort of way to keep track of my crazy life :) Anyway I am also thinking of posting pictures of the last 7 months just so there is record of it and you can see a little bit of what our family has been up to. I wonder if I still have any readers?!?!

Last Saturday we took a trip to as I would say "the new downtown"!! We went to see all the art that was put up all around downtown Grand Rapids. Wow what a lot of people!! It was neat to see Grand Rapids so full of activity. Here are a few pictures of us viewing all the ArtPrize work. We went with Michelle Donker and her girls. What a fun night out!

a bench

us on the bench - I was going to put the kids on it, but you wouldn't have been able to see the full picture :)

Alex, Zoe, Maddie, and Ella

the kids running through a maze

This next picture is bizzare and I really think that you would have to have a mental problem if you bought one of these dolls - yes that is a doll - It felt, looked, and weighed like a real baby. It was a little freaky.

Yes - I am updating my blog!

Well here is a little inside scoop on Alex - He is loving Pre-K!! One of the things they have been doing is taking home a "theme" bag. Alex's theme bag last weeks was all about music! He loved it. He was introduced to many musical instruments - the cymbal, drum, recorder and xylophone. Personally, I think that the recorder needs to be banned! Those things are so loud. Alex was marching around the house just a whaling on the recorder! He had a blast - Me not so much. Finally, I tried to show him how to play Hot Cross Buns - with many attempts it did not go so well. I did eventually convinced him to play the xylophone and he could play any song he wanted. He did great and my ears got a little bit of a rest from the recorder. The best thing about these "theme" bags is he learns so much and he gets to return them the next time he goes to school! I wonder what will be next!?

And the comments still come!!

While we lived in South Africa we attempted many things. One of the things that we failed at was how to properly take care of a lizard. Here is the post we did on September 23, 2007:

So a few weeks ago, I caught a baby lizard for the kids. We see them everyday on the walls around our home baking in the sun. We found this little guy in our garage and decided to keep him as a pet. Since this was not a planned capture, we first kept him on the kitchen window sill in some of Lia’s Tupperware. He seemed very happy in his new home where the kids put rocks, grass, water and bugs in there for him to eat. Lia did make it clear however that Lizzy the Lizard needed an new location and a new home. A couple of days later, we went out and bought Lizzy a very nice new condo. It was much nicer than his old home, much larger than he needed, but we hoped he would be able to grow into the new home.

Well, he did fine for the first couple days eating bugs and laying in the sun. Unfortunately, something went horribly wrong a few days ago. Lizzy the Lizard actually BAKED in the sun. She was fine in the morning eating her ants and then later in the evening, she looked like this: A dried out crispy version of her old self.
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WARNING!! THE FOLLOWING PICTURE MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR THOSE WITH A WEAK CONSTITUTION OR SMALL CHILDREN WHO LOVE LIZARDS.

What have we learned? · Baby lizards should not be kept in direct sunlight for an entire day when the temperature is above 90 degrees. · A full glass lizard cage can cook a baby lizard in one afternoon even though it has vents in the top. · Lizards shrink to ½ their size after a full day in the sun in a glass cage. · We should not have tried to take care of a baby lizard without large lizard care experience. · We will try an adult lizard next and probably not keep it in the sun the entire day. · Maddie says that the lizards need some shade during the day the next time we catch one. · We are much better at taking care of cats than Lizards (Here is a picture of Sylvester who we have managed to keep alive for 2 months now).

I would have never guessed that we would have so many opinions from so many people!!! I wanted to share some of these comments with you.

16 comments:
Katie said...
Poor little lizard. Actually I am cracking up right now after looking at your picture. Glad you do better with cats :)
September 23, 2007 11:27 AM

chelle said...
oops.better luck next time.
September 23, 2007 4:19 PM

Anonymous said...
Once again, even though there was a warning, I threw up in my mouth a little bit. What goes on around in your lives is a little too graphic for most of us. You should think about putting a PG13 rating on this site. Cat looks good though.G-
September 23, 2007 4:49 PM

sassy sara said...
Oh how funny is that!! At least the kitty looks great. Missing all of you.....
September 24, 2007 7:36 AM

Marva's "Marvalous" Memories said...
Poor Lizzy! Goes to show that not just anyone can care for a lizard - it takes special training, I guess. Well, I'm sure we all learned something through Lizzy's tragic death. Love ya! Aunt Marva (we'll miss you at the car hop tonight!)
September 24, 2007 2:40 PM

denise said...
That is a pretty disturbing picture! Poor Lizzy! You'll have to try it again now that you have all the lizard gear! We'll be anxious to hear how the next one goes.
September 28, 2007 11:28 PM

mark said...
wow he looked like a man eater scott lol so Hi you guys and Maddie and Alxe too I will get a pic on here soon your dad and I did the car hope we missed ya Lia let the kids know the cats are ok I know Maddiewill want to know bye for now yes you are missed and you are always in my prayers bye for now Stubby :)
September 29, 2007 9:26 PM

Anonymous said...
That's so sad! I too am having lizard trouble. My little bearded dragon is not eating or moving around much any more-I don't know what's wrong! :(
February 16, 2008 12:23 PM

Anonymous said...
Poor lizard! Perhaps showing/teaching the kids about lizards in the wild will be a bit more productive :) (psst: I'm a lizard owner, and they are classed as being a stress-free pet - not true! they have tons of requirements and need lots of research done before owning) :)
March 12, 2008 10:59 PM

Trustthapo said...
I'm sorry, but that was not a lizard- you had a baby Mediterranean gecko. Not much difference, besides some minor differences in appearance. Such as him having cat-slit like eyes, instead of round pupils.BTW, I would suggest getting a bigger gecko- or lizard- so that he could feed easier ;)
July 12, 2008 9:25 PM

KISS said...
that's hilarious i just caught a baby lizard i have no clue what to do with it so thanks for the advice!
August 3, 2008 7:09 PM

THIS ONE IS OUR FAVORITE!:

Anonymous said...
.... I personaly think it is a very irresponsible thing to take any of God's creatures out of their natural habitat for a soo called "pet"... there is one thing about adopting a cat or dog but taking a lizard, frog, ect, form your yard trapping it in a cage, under an un natural environment is cruel....come on people experiments take place too often in labs everyday, let the ones that are lucky live free in the wild, thay dont need humans beings altering there habitat! would you leave your baby in the sun all day?!?!? also you are teaching your children that this is ok..... futhermore i think in any circumstance like this you sould feel ashamed of and have never posted a blog bragging to others. You two are obviously irresponsible ignorant humans and parents.
August 11, 2008 9:05 PM

Anonymous said...
thay regulate there body tempature in the sun for short period of time. your prison needs to be bigger with a heat lamp on one side and a thermostat hooked up to a heating pad, and slapped on to the side of the tank. never put them in the in direct sun light. grrr
August 26, 2008 2:54 AM

Anonymous said...
That is disgusting. That little lizard had thoughts and emotions. Now it's just a raisin. I'm surprised you don't leave your children in the car with the windows shut to suffocate.
August 28, 2008 12:26 AM

Anonymous said...
Try a salamander or a dog

Here is one I received yesterday:

Puff Matty said...
Big Ol' Snowman.Hi. I needed a picture of a lizard for my blog and Lizzy the Shriveled Up Lizard showed up on Google Images. That was funny. I once posted a pic of a mouse in one of our traps here in Baghdad and I got sooooo much hate mail from the animal lovers, too. (These also happen to be the people wearing leather shoes, eat meat, etc).
January 1, 2009 2:42 AM

Again - just for clarification - we did not intend for this to happen to our lizard - It just happened. And we hope others can learn from our mistake!

Keep the comments coming - We love to read them!!

Walking with the DINOSAURS

On December 10 our family went to the VanAndel Arena to see the Walking with the Dinosaurs. The kids loved it. Alex was ready to see it with his mask and all! He was waiting a whole month to see his beloved friends - THE DINOSAURS!! It was a great family night. Here are some pictures of our night.

We had front row seats so everything was up close and so real (minus the robotic stands some of the dinosaurs had). This guy here "walked" us through the life of the dinosaurs. How they became and how they were lost.

It was a great production!

Some of the dinosaurs we saw

These ones were fun to watch - they were men dressed up as dinosaurs - you could hardly tell!

Out came the "long neck" as Alex would say

That is Alex in the bottom right of this photo. The dinosaurs towered over us! So BIG






Seriously - this is how the kids looked during the whole 90 min production



Petri
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Well throughout the whole night Alex and Maddie awaited the arrival of the Bad Boy - T-Rex! They finally got to the moment and a shadow appeared of the meanest, baddest dinosaur - THE T-REX - ALEX SHOUTED (while trembling) ITS T-REX!!



Ok maybe when he is full grown! The large shadow was only a baby!
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Soon to follow came the mother T-REX and satisfied Alex's imagination!
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Then it got loud as the destruction began - a large comet came and destroyed all the dinosaurs! WOW was it loud and to have seen it all so close was AWESOME!!

The kids will never forget it - I think Alex dreamed of dinosaurs for the next 3 nights

Here is a little video clip that we saw: