Meeting Maverick

A few weekends ago, we had the unexpected chance to visit with our dear friends, Jacob and Laura, and their kids, Penelope and Maverick.  We hadn't see Penelope since she was a baby, and we had never met Maverick, so it was a real treat to see the kiddos AND visit with Jacob and Laura!  They were visiting a town near enough to us that we could drive to it for the weekend and stay with them.  The drive to see them was so worth it, and we're so thankful we had the chance to catch up and make some new memories with all of the kiddos.  

Here they are at a little playground.

This picture of our "youngers" cracks me up.

And…here are the kids playing in the water at a little inlet.

We got to go to the beach to see the sunset.  Jeff took this picture of Benjamin and me, and I love it.

Jacob and the little girls, and Benjamin with me.

Jonathan loves to climb equipment like this, even though he claims to be afraid of heights.

 Jeff had some fun with the camera and took a bunch of pictures of Grace.  It was hard to choose just a few to post.

This one of Jonathan is in complete contrast to the pictures of Grace, but the pictures all reflect the kids' personalities.

He took some gorgeous sunset pics, too.

Grace read a couple of books to Penelope.  I was really proud of her.  She doesn't like to read aloud to adults, but she'll read to younger kids now and then.

She was completely enamored with Maverick.  I don't blame her!!!

We took a bunch of pictures of the kids, and these two were the best.  We probably should have had only one adult in charge of making the kids smile so that they, at least, would have been looking in the same direction.  But they're still super cute.

And here's the one of all of us.  We made the mistake of setting the camera (with its timer) closer to our family than to Jacob and Laura's.  We are big people anyway - bigger than Jacob and Laura - but this picture makes us look giant.  Oh well, I'm still thankful that we captured the moment, and super thankful that we got some time with our friends.  Our kids keep asking to go back!

Interview with the 5-year-old

Our precious girl just turned five.  It's amazing to think back on the last five years and what a wonderful surprise blessing it was to learn that she was on the way, and how much our lives have changed since she's been here.  We had our typical, small, family party for her on Saturday, and I'll share a few pictures of that soon.  For now, here's a snapshot into Grace's big personality.

Favorite color?  "Black and white and pink and purple...but I have more."
Favorite food?  Macaroni and cheese, and tiramisu
Favorite book?  Goldilocks and the Three Bears
Favorite movie?  Frozen
Favorite song?  "All the songs from Frozen except for 'Love is an Open Door' because of the bad guy."
Favorite thing to play?  Fairies
What do you want to be when you grow up?  "I'm not sure...maybe a balloon maker."
What would your perfect day be like?  "Play with Princess P toys, watch 100 birthday movies, eat 100 pieces of cake, color a squillion posters."  (For the record, we don't have any Princess P toys.  She is the character on PBS' SuperWhy, and she has Spelling Power.  :) )

Here she is at her party, reading one of her cards to herself.  She is reading fluently now, but doesn't like to perform when she reads, so she is reading silently.

By the end of her party, she was wearing the Minnie dress that my mom made for her.

And Sunday morning, on her real birthday, we gave her this awesome, new-to-her bike that Jeff found for her.  He's so good at that!  She was wearing jammies and a party hat when we went in to get her that morning, so that's what she wore to try out her new wheels for a minute before breakfast.  Happy birthday, Gracie Girl!

Just a Bunch of Pictures

Jonathan taking a Calvin and Hobbes break to Etch-a-Sketch

Ganging up on Daddy

Being patient

I never know where I'll find this guy.

Coloring Anna and Elsa

She wanted me to make the balloon with "Grrr" in it.

An educational moment!  I had to take a picture before it was over.

This pair of doves has been hanging around a lot, and we enjoy watching them.  They haven't been in our baskets as much since I planted a geranium in each one.  (I did check to make sure they were not nesting here before planting!)

Of the three kids, Benjamin is the one who loves to play the piano and sing songs.  I'm thrilled.

Can you find Grace sleeping in this pic?

One way to carry a walkie-talkie.

Valentine's Day Party

Well, it was technically after Valentine's Day, but we did celebrate the holiday with our kids and neighbors, and it was really fun!  I go to a moms' group each week at our new church, and one week, we moms arrived and found out that we would be having a "make-it" day.  At the end of our time, we'd leave with all the makings of a Valentine's Day party for our kids, complete with a piñata we had made.  Oh, my!!!  Now, I love to craft, but making a piñata is not even on my radar, and I didn't have aspirations to make one, ever.  But, the make-it day was really fun, and the piñata was easy to make.  Also, you may remember that I have a scavenger hunt for Valentine's Day that we have the tradition of using every year.  With all these goodies on hand, I decided that it would be fun to make pink cupcakes and have a little party with our neighbors.  So, that's what we did!

Here we are mixing up the cupcakes...

and adding sprinkles.  I figured sprinkles would be easier, faster, and less messy than frosting.

And here's the piñata.  Everyone got a chance to whack it, from youngest to oldest.

Benjamin thought it was hilarious to be able to whack something on purpose, and he was overcome by giggles with every whack he made.

Candy!

Then we started the scavenger hunt...

and the cupcakes finished baking...

and the kids found their prizes at the end of the hunt.

I had a great time choosing little books for them, and since none of them expected any kind of gift, it really warmed my heart to see how excited they were about their books.

Jonathan and Maddie dove into their books immediately, and the pictures don't show it, but Grace and Luke spent their time smashing the remaining parts of the piñata to smithereens.  And, we were so happy that our neighbors - the whole family - was able to stay for dinner.  What a cool neighbor thing to do, right?  Now, I have to confess that I am still not good at cooking and still don't enjoy it, but Jeff had gone to Costco that morning and had plenty of ingredients to grill, so he treated us to dinner.  He's my hero.  :)  And, it was a wonderful, belated, Valentine's Day celebration…family style!

Fancy Nancy

For Christmas, we gave Grace a little boxed set of Fancy Nancy books from Costco.  (All the kids got a box of books:  She got these, Jonathan got a Roald Dahl set, and Benjamin got the If You Give a Mouse a Cookie series.  They have all been big hits.)  Her books came with a Fancy Nancy poster, and I decided to have it dry mounted on foam board so it would last a little longer than it would if we had tacked it to the wall.  The "youngers" and I took it to Hobby Lobby to get it mounted.  The poster did have a back, but it was pretty obvious to me which side was the back, so I didn't bother having the Hobby Lobby worker make a note of it.  I had a teeny suspicion that I should have asked her to do that, and it turns out I was right.  When I came back to pick up the poster, it was mounted backwards - with the back showing and the front glued to the foam board.  Grace noticed immediately and started crying.  (It seems everything makes her cry these days, but that's a subject for another post.)  The gal at Hobby Lobby was apologetic and suggested we might contact the publisher for another poster, which HL would mount for free.  A free poster is really not that big of a deal, but it was important to Grace, so I wanted to do something about it.

So...I called Harper Collins and left a voicemail.  A few days later (I'm guessing it took awhile to get to the right person's voicemail box) a very nice lady called me and offered to send a different, but still Fancy Nancy, poster to us.  And, the next day, there was a package she had sent via overnight air that contained a new (better) poster and...

ALL THESE BOOKS!  We were amazed and grateful.

Here's the poster.  We had it mounted - successfully, this time.  You can come see it in Grace's room.

Grace spent her entire rest time reading her new books, and they are fantastic.  I loved the Fancy Nancy character before, but I am a true fan now!  Grace and I both wrote thank-yous to the lady at Harper Collins who sent the package.  She didn't give her last name, so I hope our notes made it to her.  (I took a picture of Grace's note, but it must still be on my camera.  I'll post it here when I upload it.)  Edit:  Here's the link to the note.  What a huge bright spot in our week to get this surprise package!

Proud (in January)

We was so proud that he got his shoes on…but he forgot something.  :)

Nap Boycot

Benjamin, while laying in bed for his nap, but not sleeping:

God has done everything
God has done everything
God has done everything
Amen!

There!  Now we're going to sing a song called "In-N-Out Burger."

In-N-Out Burger
In-N-Out Burger
In-N-Out Burger
Amen!