Playground Fun at Yellow Banks Park

The weather was warm today so we decided riding bikes and playing on the playground sounded like a fun idea before napping.  It was nice to be outside, playing in the sunshine!

Elliot is getting so big!

He loves to go down the slides all by himself!

Everett had fun "balancing" around the edge of the playground.

This kid loves to run!

It was a beautiful day!

A is for Apple (That I Like to Bite)

Elliot is so cute at times, I can't resist taking his picture.  Today this is how I caught him eating his apple at snack time.  He is so silly!  He will eat the whole thing, core and all!

 

Winter Melt at Yellowbanks Park

Today the temps started to rise, so we put on our rain boots and spent the whole day outside.  It was a beautiful day!  We ate lunch outside, rode bikes, explored, played on the playground and had a lot of fun just soaking up the sun at our favorite park!  I am thankful that God has provided a day like today to get out of the house and burn off some energy!  I needed it as much as the kids, and it is such a joy to my spirit to feel the sunshine on my skin and the warm weather for a change!  Tomorrow the cold is supposed to return.  Happy Spring while it lasts!

Today Everett decided to try the fire pole all by himself!

He did it!

  

Elliot loves the slide!

Ethan showed off his skills too!

It was a beautiful day to swing!

Lunch outside!

I bet you didn't know that rainbows migrate too, did you?

Big brother Ethan helped Everett along.

Elliot was excited to ride outside in his car!

  

The sky was a beautiful blue!

After we left the park, we stopped to see if we could find a geocache near the driving range in Pleasant Hill.  We were unable to find it last fall.  Sure enough, Everett spotted it!

Everett found this geocache all by himself.  One proud little boy!

2014 Sparks-a-Rama Games

2014 Grace Church Awana Sparks

This is the first year for our family to attend the Sparks-a-Rama Awana Games.  It was an experience for sure.

Ethan takes competitive games pretty serious, so you can only imagine his attitude towards the event.  Focused and ready, he was so excited to play the games and see how our home church, Grace Church, stacks up to the competition.

He told me about the games and what ones were his favorite, but I will admit, that I would only get confused about the concept of the games without actually seeing it in action.  Today it all came together, and it was very entertaining to both watch and participate in.

Grace Church has won the last 10 years in a row (or something impressive like that) so they were eager to defend their title!  They ended up taking home the win again this year!  Way to go Sparks!

The kids have to keep the balloons from falling on their side of the line.

Watching them run around, attached to each other, made me think someone was going to get hurt.

They did a really good job of staying together.

I love the look on his face while he talked with a friend about the last event.

All the games were about teamwork.  The kids had a lot of fun.

Whoooo Can See Us Geocaching?

We are all tired of being in the house with this LONG winter, so when the temps started to rise today (a whopping 46 degrees) and the sunshine stuck around, we called some friends for a nature walk, which is never complete without a little geocaching. 

The kids had fun finding some caches we couldn't find last summer (because of the tall grass/thorns and not to mention a few snakes we saw crossing the path) and we adults enjoyed just being outside letting them "be kids". (Although they were soaking wet from all the puddle stomping and snowball flinging.)

 

We even spotted someone we weren't expecting along the way.  It was a pretty good day.

 

Everyone was in on finding this cache.  Lots of swag to sift through.

While walking back to the van, Amanda spotted someone looking at us.

I wish I could have zoomed in more to see exactly what it looked like,
but this owl let us get just close enough before flying away.

Help Me Find It!

Sometimes (most times) my house gets neglected.  The dishes pile up, the floors go unswept, the laundry sits in piles and I try my hardest not to be home, just so I can avoid the piles of things to sort, filter and file.

Today the neglect is showing.  My poor house.  I look around and wonder... who is the crazy family that lives here?  Seriously, what monkey ate bananas in the living room and then left the peels on the coffee table, right next to someones stinky socks and the slimy dog bowl?

Who decided that it was a good idea to stack the books on the couch, and the table, and the floor, and the... everywhere else but the bookshelf?

What exactly is it that the children are doing?  Shouldn't they be doing school work?  They've built a pretty impressive tower from MagnaTiles, but now they are filling it with red LEGOS?  Like that won't make a mess the moment the tower fails!

Then there is the dog... the sleeping dog in the middle of the living room, WEARING PAJAMAS?  Why? Oh, I see now.  The dog has a disgusting wound that won't stop leaking all over the carpet, so the mother of the home decided to make the best attempt possible to keep a covering over it just so she can keep the last whiff of her SANITY?!  Yes, very logical.

And then there is the kitchen.  Hmmm.  I see why this family must eat out tonight... where is the stove?

But at least she has a bouquet of flowers on the table!  I mean, they distract really nicely from the huge piles of books, crayons, markers, craft supplies and who knows what else is scattered on the table top not to mention the rest of the chaos of the house.  I barely noticed the mess with these flowers on the table!  RIGHT?

That is exactly what I will keep telling myself.  This is why I will continue to purchase myself a bouquet of flowers at Aldi every time I go grocery shopping.  It is well worth the $4 sacrifice to have something beautiful in the middle of my mess, something to inspire me to keep moving forward.  Just like the children, yes, they are probably going to make an even larger disaster of the living room the moment that tower comes crashing to the floor, and I will probably assist again (for the 10th time today) in picking up the mess, just so we can move on to the next event in our lives, but they are playing nicely and really working together... beautifully.

Now, don't get me wrong.  I confess, I decide to live this way sometimes.  I get way to busy with other things, projects, people/animals and I let my house suffer and sometimes other important things in my life.  I take on more than I can handle sometimes, but out of everything I have to neglect, my house can take it... it will forgive me... someday it will be clean again.  It might be when we move out, or when my kids are grown and are no longer the focus of my day, but someday things will be in order, someday I might look like I have it all together.  

Until then, I will just continue to get by, enjoy my $4 flowers, and keep loving my family the best way I know how and keep praying that God will give me the ability to see those in front of me, those that mean so much to me, and what direction He is sending me, even if I can't see over the piles of stuff to get where I need to be going!  Thank you Lord for your love, your strength and your grace, even when my life is a mess, for you are the calm in the middle of the storm, that provides me a moment of rest.  You can help me find my peace, even in this chaos.  Amen.  

This song, by Sidewalk Prophets-Help Me Find it spoke to me today.  I hope it draws you closer to our creator and helps you have some peace in your day.  

A Sweet Boy With A Sweet Treat

We tried a new place to eat today for lunch while we were in Carlisle.  We had to pick up meds for Bailey, and the vet was out of the office on lunch, so we decided to go next door to Fizz (the local mom and pop sandwich and ice cream shop) to eat while we waited.  Of course, the kids were well behaved (this is actually true... they were great kids all through lunch) so I gave in to the request for ice cream at the end of the meal.  

Elliot was very pleased with his first experience with an ice cream cone!  We were sticky when we left, but it was a fun, new adventure.