We spent Memorial Day on on our annual camping trip with our church.  I look forward to this weekend every year, and this trip did not disappoint.  We went to Lake Whitney and it was awesome (well, despite the 100 degree weather, burning hot showers, spiders crawling up your arms, and fish carcasses along the swim beach).  I think there were about 50 of us there this year, and we even stayed one extra night which was great.  It’s so much more enjoyable to us to stay 3 nights – makes the prep work more worthwhile.  A few families brought their boats and we spent most of the days on or in the water.  The kids were exhausted at the end of the day and slept great so that’s a successful trip.  Since we’re not completely crazy (not yet, anyway), we won’t be camping any more this summer, but we’re looking forward to a couple of great trips in the fall. 

 
home away from home

Olivia, Clay, Ethan & Rachel (the top of her head anyway) tubing

some of the ladies

playing Uno before dinner

an awesome church service Sunday morning

the view from the pavilion

the three youngest girls soaking up some sun

SFB at the swim beach

Clay and the kids swimming at sunset

We had a great Easter this year and did a lot of fun things.  The much anticipated preschool egg hunt was a hit for both kids.  It worked out that Clay could even be there since he had jury duty that day and was released early.

The kids woke up Sunday morning to see what the Easter bunny had left them

Easter Sunday is the one day of the year that I like to coordinate all of our clothes for church (I’m really not sure why I enjoy this so much!)

After church we went to my parents’ house for Easter lunch with my brother and his family

Nana and Poppa did not diasappoint with great Easter treats

We hid a ton of eggs in the backyard and had fun watching the kids figure out how to get to all of them (never have an Easter egg hunt where Clay and Bryan are hiding the eggs)

The kids spent the rest of the afternoon playing outside with their cousins and it was a wonderful day – we are truly blessed

…when everyone is dressed and ready to go for church and there’s still enough time for one story.  I’ll admit this doesn’t happen very often (Ethan has been known to say, “Mom – why do we always have to go so fast on Sundays?”), but it sure is nice when it does happen. 

And I just want to brag on my mom for a minute.  A couple of weeks ago we went over to her house and she pulled this little number out for Rachel that she had just whipped up the day before:

I know with 100% certainty that I didn’t appreciate the clothes she made for me when I was growing up, but I really do appreciate the ones she makes for Rachel.  Thanks, Mom – you’re the best.

A couple of weekends ago we had our annual trunk-or-treat at church.  I really love this event and Clay and Iwanted to put a little more effort into it this year than we have in years’ past.  We always say we want to do something good, but end up falling back on the soccer trunk year after year.  Well – not this year!  This year I proposed the idea of turning the car into a shark and throwing homemade fish into buckets in the shark’s mouth as the game, and Clay ran with it.  I really wish I had gotten a picture with his eyes that we made out of paper plates, but of course I didn’t.  And obviously Clay and I went as shark attack victims which really didnt’ set well with Rachel, but she got over it once she realized her entire evening would be consumed with trying to sneak candy from her bucket and hide the evidence. 

A year or so ago the ladies at church were really good about getting together once a month to play pokeeno.  I’m not sure why we stopped, but  I was ready to play again so I just put it in the church bulletin that it was at my house last Tuesday night…and they came!  Even though we were packed like sardines in our little living room, and even though Kelly stole the only gift I won, and even though Clay was entertaining the kids in our bedroom, we had a great time.  So, have a game night everyone (if nothing else it’s a great motivation to get your house clean)!

We wrapped up VBS a couple of weeks ago and had a great time.   Our theme this year was a Bible times marketplace and the kids loved it.  Rachel got an award for bringing the most friends in her class (Carson & Emory) and she looked like she had won an Oscar.  It’s too bad she doesn’t like any attention.  Ethan was so happy to have Jack & Jo there for a few nights, although he was pretty put out that another girl in his class got the award for bringing the most friends.  I told him we didn’t really need 2 of the same VeggieTales movies anyway. 

R, Josie, E, Jack

E’s class singing on stage

R’s class performing on stage

At the petting farm on the last night

 

Last week Ashley and I took the kids to the Fritz Park Petting Farm and then to the park for a picnic.  Rachel and Payton will be in the same class next year…I’m already praying for their teachers.

Two curly-headed girls

Sad that we were leaving

A couple of weeks ago Clay and I took the kids to the grand opening of the Lego store at Northpark.  We had a lot of fun shopping, watching a master builder build a Yoda out of Legos, eating dinner together, oh, and finding out that apparently there are cacti needles that have the specific milk protein in them that Ethan is allergic to…that was fun.  Robin - if you take Isaac to Northpark, DON’T let him touch the cacti by the Apple store…or make sure your purse is stocked with Benadryl.

On Saturday we loaded up the car and headed to Mosheim, Tx to celebrate the 60th birthdays of Doc & Mam (Cara’s parents).  It was a lot of fun seeing people I hadn’t seen since college graduation, and I was glad to be there to honor 2 awesome people. 

The honorees cutting the biggest cake I’ve ever seen

Clay and Will with their girls

Crazy kids

I like to think that most 4 year old boys are as equally entertained by bathroom humor as my son is (if not, please let me stay in my naive state where everything still makes sense).  Tuesday night’s after-dinner antics hit all all-time low around here.  This is how I found my children after clearing the table:

I’m not sure why I asked, but Ethan said he was waiting for all the beans he ate for dinner to give him some good toots. 

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Last night at church was just one of those nights.  I love going to church on Wednesday nights because it’s just the refresher I need to get through the rest of the week.  I’ve said this many times before, but the kids have the most amazing Bible classes, and I really enjoy going to the ladies class.  Well, I didn’t even make it to class last night.  We got there and I dropped the kids off in their classes, took Rachel to the bathroom, ran into Ethan’s teacher who asked me for a snack for Ethan since he couldn’t have the snack provided, and then ran to the bathroom myself before heading to class.  I get in there and realize that there is water running out of the stall next to me.  Upon inspection it was the pipe behind the toilet that was leaking and quickly soaking the floor.  So, I go and interrupt one of the adult classes to get one of the men to go in and turn that toilet off.  Then I cleaned up the floor in there and made some out of order signs.  It was too late to go to class at this point so I head to workroom to finish a quick project.  Ethan’s teacher came in asking if I had found anything for Ethan so I dug through my purse to thankfully find a Special K snack that I had put in there a couple of days earlier (I’m still telling myself it was just a couple of days earlier).  The bell rings and I take the kids into the auditorium for a devotional and remembered that Clay was leading singing so he wouldn’t be sitting with us.  Devotional ends and Clay is off to a very long meeting.  Kids go down the hall to play and I spend a few minutes talking about very important things like jewelry.  Ethan runs into the foyer loudly announcing, “Rachel pooped on the floor!”  Before I had time to respond Rachel walks into the foyer – where everyone is standing – with her panties around her ankles and her legs covered in poop…excuse me, diarrhea.  I just stood there looking at her for a minute and wondered if I could make a mad dash for the exit before anyone realized.  No such luck.  Ethan dutifully led me to the scene of the crime and there was diarrhea all over the bathroom floor.  She can go to the bathroom by herself, so my best guess is that she got in there and lost control while she was getting her panties down.  I’ll save you the more disgusting details, but just know that they included cleaning out fingernails, half a box of wipes and some clorox.  She couldn’t stop crying because she had to walk out in a diaper and a hairbow, and the crying resulted in her tripping over her own feet and banging her head into the wall.  All that really matters is that we did finally make it home and today has been a better day. 

No, I don’t mean old people.  We spent the long weekend camping with our church group at Dinosaur Valley State Park and it was awesome.  We had heard such good things about this place, but could never get in because of the waiting list for camping sites.  We went with 55 people from our church and had a blast.  Although I don’t love the getting ready and the unpacking when we get home, it really is our favorite family activity.  We got there early Saturday morning and saw the big dinosaurs that were donated after the 1964 New York World’s Fair.

We also saw some really huge dinosaur tracks that Ethan is still talking about.  We got the camper settled and spent a lot of time at the river.  There are parts of the river that are roped off for the dinosaur tracks, but it was the coolest place to play.  Most of it was very shallow and very rocky, and most of us had at least one good, hard spill on the rocks…I’m pretty sure mine was the hardest but I had to make a statement somehow.  I also took Rachel down with me so that gave me extra points.  The water wasn’t too cold and we found some trails there from our campsite so we could bike there.  I couldn’t believe it but Ethan biked all over that place without his training wheels and with only a couple of spills.  Kid’s got skills!

We camp twice a year with our church group and we’ve started all just pitching in for a group breakfast each morning.  The first morning we had breakfast burritos and the second we had french toast, pancakes and bacon.  Definitely one of my favorite parts.

My favorite part, though, is always our church service Sunday morning.  Dinosaur Valley had a really cool amphitheater where we had service.  There’s just something about singing praises to God when you’re outside and surrounded by His creation.  We are so blessed to live where we do and to have this church family.

When Clay talked me into buying our camper last year I would have never thought we would get so much enjoyment out of it and that the kids would love it so much.  This was our 8th trip in 14 months so, Clay, I’m sorry I ever doubted you.  Can’t wait for the next trip.

Clay was working late last night so I took the kids to eat at Subway.  This is how the conversation went:

Ethan:  Mommy, I want to go to heaven.  When can I go?
Me:  We all go to heaven when God is ready for us.
Ethan:  But when will that be?
Me:  I’m really not sure.  God doesn’t tell us when, so we just have to be ready all the time.
Ethan:  But I really want to go now.
Rachel:  Mommy, I want be baptized.
Me:  You want to be baptized?  What does it mean when you are baptized?
Rachel:  Means you get be a Christian.
Me:  That’s right, Rachel!  
Rachel:  I want be baptized right now!  Want Mr. Bill (our preacher) put me in water and become Christian.

Her Bible class had a lesson on this a few months ago and I guess she’s been thinking about it ever since.  I will be forever grateful that they are getting the important lessons at such an early age.   

…of the Spirit!  For the past several weeks Ethan and Rachel’s Bible classes have been talking about the different fruits of the spirit.  My mom develops all of the curriculum for both of their classes, and I’ve really never seen anything like it.  I know there are a lot of people who think little kids can’t learn much about the Bible, but this is the age where they just soak up every word – every story – every take home.  When Ethan’s class had their first fruit of the spirit lesson, my mom told them that if they memorized all of them and recited them on the summary week, they would get a special prize.  Well, you say ’special prize’ to Ethan he’s all over that.  I love the way he really tries to understand the things he’s learning.  He is sure to tell me when he’s showing goodness or kindness, and he’s certainly sure to tell Rachel when she needs to show some patience.  He also made mention of how someone in our house doesn’t show self control when he or she eats too much. 

Last night was the summary night and he talked about it all day.  Thankfully he didn’t freeze up, and he came away with his special prize -

I can’t remember a time when I’ve ever seen Ethan so proud of something.  He wore it all night, asked to sleep in it, tried to find shadows this morning so he could see the crown on his head, walked around shouting, “I’m the king of the fruit of the spirit!”, wore it to school today, and even got to recite them for his friends in class (to which he reported that one boy had to sit in time out because he wouldn’t clap for him).  Clay and I are obviously very proud of him, but I’m more proud of the fact that he’s excited to learn about God and excited to go to Bible class and excited to share it with his friends at school.  I pray that he never loses that excitement.  And Mom – you are making an eternal difference for the kids at church…thank you.