Spring Break

We don't really officially take a spring break. However, we have cousins and friends who are out of school and some of our normal weekly activities (Community Bible Study, homeschool enrichment, etc) take one as well . . . so we end up with a day off here and a day off there. One of those days off happened to coincide with Levi's birthday, so we enjoyed having some friends over for the day ~ and also got to indulge in an "open gym time". Levi and Emily were both thrilled that they were able to master doing a back handspring and a back flip (with a lot of wonderful help from Daniel's gymnastics coach). . . guess what they've been doing on our trampoline ever since?!


















On Mondays the kids are normally at enrichment all day . . . but since there wasn't enrichment today, we took advantage of the opportunity to "serve up some fun"! We went to our favorite 'soup kitchen' (a church downtown that serves food to the homeless every Monday) and helped out for a few hours. Some of Emily's friends were able to join us, and Grandpa too!

Anna's AWANA class takes turns sending "Cubbie bear" home with a different child each week (they get to chronicle his adventures in a class journal), this has been Anna's week to enjoy having Cubbie at home, so any guesses about who else went along to serve the homeless? ~ yep, Mr Cubbie Bear himself!

Levi boy!

Ten years ago, today, God blessed us with a 10 1/2 lb bundle of little boy . . . twinkly eyed and tender-hearted, hard working and happy-go-lucky, clearly gifted at working with his hands ~ fixing and fashioning; hard wired for pursuing possibilities ~ dreaming, scheming and 'thinking outside the box' . . . a faithful friend and full-time fun magnet, all rolled into one amazing boy named Levi! Happy Birthday, we're SO glad you are part of our family!

Another birthday boy!

We had a fun afternoon/evening celebrating Kevin's 50th birthday today. After MUCH deliberation, he decided that what he really wanted to do was to find a way to share his celebration with the homeless. I made several cakes and we took the kids (and the cakes!) downtown, walked around several different parks and found as many homeless folks as we could to share Kevin's birthday cake with. The older kids helped serve the cake, Samuel kept the napkins from blowing away (it was a beautiful day, but very windy!) and Anna enjoyed her 'very important' job of handing out forks! It was a lot of fun! Afterward, we had a "fine dining" experience at Chuck-E-Cheese!

Better than meeting the president!

It's all a matter of perspective, life is. What we set our hearts upon and pour our passion into, what inspires us and defines us, what we give our time to. Along the way, we tend to be drawn to "like-minded" people, those who we feel we can relate to because we share a common thread of what "makes us tick".

The kids and I had the chance to meet the Duggar family yesterday in Colorado Springs. It didn't start out as such, but it turned into an all day event (with a little fun at Whit's End tossed in beforehand!). As we were waiting for the Duggars to enter the room, I saw the twinkle in my kids' eyes, they inched to the edge of their seats and looked around the room in anticipation, scanning each doorway for possible signs of the family they admire and adore. I mentioned to one of them that, for us, this was probably more exciting than meeting the President! No offense Obama, we can just relate to them a little more!

We only see glimpses . . . and no doubt the glimpses we see are often of a family at their best moments ~ but nevertheless, we are drawn to them because we can relate (at least on a much smaller scale!). We agree with their values, we share many of their passions and we admire the fruit of their daily choices. I'm GLAD their kids are some of my childrens' role models and "heroes"; from what we've seen of them, they are polite and respectful, hard-working and responsible, intelligent and compassionate, servant-minded, kind to their siblings and even seem to have a great sense of humor!

After spending 2 1/2 hours standing in line (in 30 mph wind!) to meet them . . . all of my kids told me afterward that it was WELL worth it (even though some of their favorite, younger, kids had already gone back to the bus by the time we got inside). The kids (mine) did a great job entertaining themselves while we waited ~ playing "rock, paper, scissors" with each other (over and over and over again!) and talking to the people around us . . . with only minor moments of complaining tossed in there ~ I was proud of them!