We made a trip out to MN to celebrate Mike’s 30^th birthday. It was a surprise bowling party! I love bowling especially with aunts, uncles, cousins and friends.  We met at a bowling alley in Minneapolis. It was fun surprising Mike.  Happy 30th Birthday to the best brother!  Love you Mike!

After bowling we headed over to the hotel. With lots of food, candles and an amazing group of people to celebrate Mike.

My kids especially enjoyed the pool.

-Chris

 

In school, this year Esther was introduced to American Girls.  She loved the idea of doing a birthday party like Samantha, a girl from 1904.  We checked out Samantha’s craft and cookbooks at the library.  Esther started planning her doll tea party!  She picked out the menu, bought each girl a tea cup and saucer, made fancy fans, and played musical chairs.  My favorite part was going to Starbucks to test taste their tea!  Yelm Starbucks did an amazing job helping us choose!  I will now be buying tea from them

The morning started off early with the Ireland Grandparents, Sweet’s and our family.  Esther chose to have Blueberry Muffins and Strawberries with Cream. It was a wonderful breakfast!

While Esther was at piano, I displayed the Samantha set a dear friend of my loaned for the party.  She heard Esther was having a Samantha Tea Party and wanted Esther to have Samantha there!  I’m not sure who was more excited!  What an amazing blessing for Esther’s special day.  Esther is working hard to save up enough money to buy her own Samantha doll.

Dressed for tea.  We all got in the spirit of the tea party and dressed up!  I love seeing my boys in a tie!

Esther helped get everything ready for the party.  Grandma Ferol even made a table cloth and napkins!  When the guests arrived they made a fancy fan.  Then they joined their dolls for tea:  Chicken Salad Sandwiches with Peach Tea;  Lemon Ice with YouthBerry Tea; and Apple Butter Betty with Passionate Tango Tea.  I was so proud of all our guests who bravely tried everything.  After tea they all went up stairs with dolls in hand and played musical chairs.  It was fun to see them run around the chairs with their dolls!

After the party, Ireland Grandparents and Sweet’s joined us for a special dinner!  It wasn’t exactly what she requested, but top sirloin would have to do!

Happy Birthday Esther!  I love watching you become the lady God has designed you to be.  Praying you will never shy away from that design!

Love

-Mom

Lately Greg has been coming home late into the evening 10pm-2am. The kids are really excited to see him the next morning!  Usually he gets up, because they are piled on him in bed and talking his ear off.  But this morning I got up with the kids.  Before I made it to the kitchen Jadon and Rahab were already making coffee!  I love that Greg has taught his kids the “most” important thing in the morning – taking care of the coffee!

After the coffee was made the kids and I sat on the couch and enjoyed the sunrise!  It was a great way to start a busy day: school, Paddington Movie, and Small Group.

Blessed to have such an amazing family!

-Chris

 

We woke up to sun today, naturally I thought we should go for a walk.  After lunch, Esther went to work for the Grandparents,  Rahab took a nap, & Jadon and I played Legos!  We were so into them, that I didn’t even notice it was pouring outside!  After the rained stopped and I regained my motivation we (J&R) went puddle hunting.  We, baa’ed like sheep, jumped in puddles, splashed Jadon, walked backwards, and shuffled on both sides all while trying to keep my tummy tight & hips neutral.  Working slow and steady to retrain my body to close up my “ab gap.”  Praising God for great instructors, not only with me but teaching my children to enjoy exercise.

Love that my kids think we are just puddle hunting and not working on our tummies.

-Chris

Jadon started Kindergarten this past week!  We are taking it at a slower pace.  He did amazing his first week!  We started with the story of creation.  He was excited to receive his first big kid Bible.  He had to color, cut and paste each day of creation.  We did the first three days this week and will finish up next week.

We also worked on singing the alphabet song to the tune of ‘Twinkle, Twinkle.’  It splits up the lmnop jumbo.  Jadon is working on learning all the letters, both capital and lower case.  He did the first half this week.  He is doing amazing and trying to remember which is a d and which is a b.  Those ones are so tricky!

We are very proud of you Jadon!  Can’t wait to see how far you come  this year!  Love you!

-Mom

 

This morning we celebrated Rahab’s third birthday.  Talk about one excited little girl!  We had many friends over for a Minnie Mouse mystery party.  Rahab welcomed all of her guests at the door and showed them to the secret agent station where they created their fingerprint detective ID cards and gathered their supplies (notebook, pen, etc).  When all of the guests had arrived we discovered that someone had “stolen” Rahab’s cupcakes.  The kids had to track down the clues, which took them all over the house, to find the clue that led them to the cupcakes.  It was great fun searching out clues hidden in beds, balloons, and invisible paintings.  Everyone sang to a delighted three year old blonde as she blew out her candles.  She even got to open some more presents!  Imagine that, after all the presents this season she got to open even more!

Chris and I were saying that it is hard to believe we’ve completely left the two’s behind.  Our kids are growing up!  Happy Birthday little girl! We love you and are very proud of you!

Love,

Mommy and Daddy