Today's Engineering

While I prepared breakfast, the boys engineered their own creation. . . a building with a secret hide-away. Secret passageways/hide-aways/compartments are "it" these days. . . they are so creative and the amazing thing is what they all come up with together. Someone will have an idea and they may start at one place and end somewhere completing different from where they originally anticipated. I could watch them for hours, literally. It's phenomenal what little ones will come up with when we supply the manipulatives and then just get out of the way! :-) (unless your assistance is requested of course - then ya jump right in!)

"Fireproof"

This is something that is very near and dear to my heart. . . we need to come together, in Christ, and help one another, share what we know, and encourage one another in this journey of marriage. I feel incredibly blessed that God chose me to be the wife to my wonderful husband - what a blessing he is to me and what an amazing father he is to our children. I am thankful to him, each and every day, for the effort that he makes to always provide for us. . . spiritually, emotionally, physically and mentally.

Let's reach out to another and share, support, uplift and encourage. . . the way God commands us to, in His name. Let's share the message of this coming movie! Please join me in praying for marriages across the world - for strength and God's direction and amazing blessings.

Afternoon Out

Today we headed over to Paradise Cafe to grab some lunch and then to round out our afternoon at the bookstore, choosing some new books. The big boys earn new gift cards based on the readers they get thru. . . then they get to take those and choose more books to devour! I love watching them carefully perusing the book isles and picking up and inspecting possible choices, it's such fun to watch during this process. Not only do they feel proud of their accomplishment and happy about their new gift card that is theirs to spend on what they choose, but they also get to use their math skills while figuring out how much they have to spend and what they can get with it. . . or how far they can stretch it! :-) Love, love, love the bookstore!

Shoe Thief Strikes Again

Shoe. . . shoe. . . oh shoe, where are you??? Uh huh, I'm wondering if any of you know the shoe thief as well? Does he come and visit your house too??? It is astonishing for me to think of how one actually loses a shoe. . . I mean seriously. . .I am very well organized, have taught (or that I had! ;-)) our boys how to be organized, and we even have a system in place. Yet somehow, we are missing a shoe! And truth be told, it's not just one shoe, nope. . . it's 1 shoe today for ds4, but ds2 and 3 have each lost a croc to the shoe thief over the last 6months. Pretty soon, we may have to start charging the shoe thief for all these great new shoes he's accumulating! ;-D Sooo today, our handsome youngest one was stylin' in his own kind of. . . hmmm. . . we'll say. . . fashion! :-)

Happy 15th Anniversary Babe!

We celebrated our super-fabulous anniversary by taking a little trip, just the 2 of us. . . for 4 wonderful, incredible, amazing days! WOW - did we have the greatest time! It's so easy to get bogged down with the everyday life stuff, and anyone who knows me understands how important I think it is to make weekly time for just you and your spouse, but getting away, truly away. . . well, it's just F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S! Our 4 little men were in the best of care (my sis - thanks again Hun, you rock!) and had a wonderful time all of their own! :-) When you know your kids are in great care with someone who loves them, it's easy to relax and really enjoy your time away. So this little snipet of a pic is all you get. . . oh and the free advice to plan your own annual away-from-the-kids, just-the-two-of-you trip. . . the rest of our trip is well. . . Top secret! ;-D

1st Day of Co-op

Today marks a new day! The beginning of our co-op year, yay! And the boys and I are very excited as God has led us to a new co-op group this year - lots of new friends and new adventures await us. While we are year-round homeschoolers, our co-op group will follow a standard school year length and then break from classes for summer. Don't our little men look so big. . . and so handsome?! :-)

Birthday Festivities Come to a Close

Well, after about 6 straight days of celebrating (since they're 6, ya know!) with friends and family, our family headed back to their respective homes and we began to prepare for our 1st day of co-op! This pic is a true testament to how wound up and exhausted they were, all at the same time! ;-) The boys said to us several times over the past couple of days, "this is the BEST birthday EVER - can we do this EVERY year?!" Boy Daddy, what were we thinking?!