Florida, Day 3, 4 & 5

Saturday morning Nana made a delicious blueberry pancake breakfast and we hung out at the house and had dance lessons and snuggle time.  At one point we had the music turned up and had quite the conga line going.

Then we headed to the beach for Aiden's first time.

Is this not the sweetest...and sandiest?  The wind was blowing pretty good this day and there wasn't much that didn't get sandy.

On Sunday, after church we hit the pool.  Amanda is a water rat.  She just wants to jump and jump.  I took her the next day on my own and she wanted me to spread my arms way out in the water and she wanted me to back way up and she got upset if I ever tried to catch her.  We're madly trying to teach her to swim because the girl has no fear.

Doing the Melting Pot is tradition and such a treat!  The whole meal in fondue and just when you think you cannot eat another bite, they bring out strawberries and chocolate to dip them in.

When we got back to the hotel, we snuck down to the hot tub...we had it to ourselves at 10 o'clock at night.

Monday morning we did more being at the house together.

Amanda had a great time giving Grandpa the 101 on how to play pretend. 

Then we said goodbye to Shaun's dad and his wife and Nathan and Laryssa.  Before they left we took this group shot (minus me and Aiden...he was sleeping, I was taking the picture) and then every possible combination of people. 

Shaun's grandmother and the girls...they have such fun together!  And Shaun, his brother and his dad.

Grandpa and his girls.  He lives far away in Illinois and when we do get to see him its for a busy event like a wedding or a holiday.  This was nice relaxing time to just be together and get to know each other.  He played tirelessly with them and held one of the three of them any chance he got.  They quickly formed a bond and it was very sweet to watch.

Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations. The LORD is faithful to all his promises and loving toward all he has made.

Psalm 145:13

We Have a Winner

So three of you thought it would be cool to win a toy box.  I wish I knew how to put the whole Random.org box on here, but this is all that comes up when I copy and paste.

True Random Number Generator



Min: 1

Max: 3

Result: 3

Powered by RANDOM.ORG

By my count, #3 is

Lori @ The Davidson Den


Love Amanda's tiara!! And how sweet that sisters will read to each other. Awww...


May IS a great month, isn't it? Just so happens to be my birthday month. Not that I'm terribly excited about THAT! Eek!

Okay. So I checked out the TV stands...and I'm thinking I like this one:

http://www.racksandstands.com/Home-Styles-88-5530-07-HO2090.html

(Sort of has a Pottery Barn Kids feel.)

Hoping I'll win...that little toy bin would match my youngest two boys' room EXACTLY!!

So, happy birthday, Lori!  Probably not exactly what you were wishing for, but... :)

Purim Celebration

Over the last 11 weeks or so I've been studying the book of Esther with Beth Moore and 10 other beautiful ladies.  I've written pages and pages in my prayer journal about all the things God is teaching me and the areas He wants me to grow and be encouraged.  It was such a great study and a fun time getting to know these ladies better.  Last night we had an end-of-the-study party

Are you up for a little history and culture lesson?

Therefore these days were called Purim, from the word pur.  Esther 9:26

During the reign on King Xerxes, there was an evil Prime Minister named Haman who was able to sign into law an irrevocable decree that all the Jews in the land should be annihilated.  God worked through Queen Esther to save her people.  Haman was put to death and yet another irrevocable law was put into effect that the Jews would be allowed to defend themselves on the appointed day.

"Purim was a spontaneous celebration of the joy of finding oneself still standing on the day after an irrevocable death decree was executed.  The day of death had come and gone and God's people were still alive!  Thus, Purim is in the Sabbath, a joyous rest after evil and the threat of death have passed."

The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. Hebrews 1:3

"Nothing in the universe's order-no kingdom, no nation-is sustained through the millennia except by Christ's powerful...whether of not they acknowledge Him.  It is this unexplainable survival that the Jews celebrated during that first Purim.."

"In large part the Jews have kept the tradition they 'took upon themselves to establish'.  A handful of customs surrounding Purim remained the same.  Some Jews still fast the day before Purim as a symbol of Esther's three-day fast preceding her courageous approach to Xerxes.  Many give presents to one another and money to the poor."

This is actually a too-short, poorly written summary of the tradition.  The story of Esther is such an intriguing, remarkable story.  I highly recommend you pull out your bible and take 15 minutes to read the whole thing.  As Beth Moore kept saying, God is not IN the book of Esther, but He's all over it!

And so, us Christian-American girls celebrated Purim last night, and oh, we had so much fun!

It is traditional to have a Purim Seudah (feast) on Purim day. And it is customary to serve food at the Purim meal that has symbolic meaning that links to the Purim story.

One custom is to serve an especially long, braided challah in memory of the rope used to hang Haman. Triangular-shaped food such as kreplach and hamantashen pastries are eaten in memory of Haman's three-cornered hat.  Since Esther ate as a vegetarian in order to keep kosher in the King's Palace, many people serve a vegetarian Purim meal. It is customary to eat poppy seeds on Purim because tradition says that Queen Esther ate only seeds and legumes when she moved into the King's Palace in order to avoid eating non-kosher food.

When I first got the idea to make the feast "authentic" I almost dismissed it right away.  But then I did a little research and found that most of the food was actually doable and best of all editible!  The ladies were good sports and willingly went along with it, everyone bringing something they'd never made or tasted before. Now that is brave!

I have to say, all of the food was outstanding!  We ate Challah bread, Sugared Almond Salad, Peacock Vegetables, Quick Meat & Veggie Pie, Poppy Seed Cookies, Swiss Chard with Garbanzo Beans and Fresh Tomatoes, Best Bean Salad, a Spinach and Egg Salad with mustard dressing and a fruit platter.  Like I said, we ate good!

It was such a blessed couple months studying God's word with these ladies.  We laughed and cried, our minds were challenged, our hearts were encouraged and our lives are changing.

How good and pleasant it is when brothers sisters live together in unity!

Psalm 133:1

Florida, Day 2

Our second day in Florida included a trip to Disney, which the girls had long anticipated.  When we arrived we were disappointed to learn that the park was closing at 7 so there would be no light parade or fireworks over Cinderella's castle, but we ended up packing in plenty to our day, including just being outside in near perfect weather.  Tons of fun!

This was our family picture last year.   

 Other than the fact that we are all wearing the exact same shoes (weird), we've come a long way.

Upon entering, we were immediately hit with a random, short parade.  Aiden could not figure it all out, especially the guys on stilts with bright costumes.

Grandpa couldn't say no to Amanda.

 There was a fake camel near the Aladdin ride spitting water.

 Avery does not appreciate her clothes getting wet.

 Amanda...yeah, she doesn't care. 

Good-bye Disney, good-bye Cinderella's castle. 

What a beautiful home, God-of-the-Angel-Armies! I've always longed to live in a place like this, Always dreamed of a room in your house, where I could sing for joy to God-alive!

Psalm 84:1

Florida, Part I

When I mentioned a few days ago that I had taken 790 pictures on our 6 day vacation, I was not exaggerating.  Its a bit overwhelming to go through them all and I decided it really has to split into more than one post.  I think the girls will always have vague memories of the trip, especially if they have pictures to look back on, so post I will.

After landing and renting our mini-van (Avery loves the fact that we drive a van on vacation) we got to Shaun's grandparent's house about 1:30.  After hugs were exchanged, the kids dove right in getting all the attention from the doting adults around.  Hands down, my favorite part of this trip was watching four generations interacting.  Nana arranged it so that Shaun's dad and his wife from Illinois were there during our visit and additionally Shaun's brother Nathan and his wife were there.  Though they live 10 minutes from us the kids and I hadn't seen a whole lot of Uncle Nathan because of tax season.  Together, we made a group of 11, but amazingly, and with Nana's careful planning, the week went very smoothly.

The first afternoon we stayed outside and enjoyed the breeze.  Grandpa and the girls were on a hunt for lizards.

Each night we were treated to dinner out and were shown some of their favorite restaurants.

Because there were 11 of us staying we could not all fit in Nana's 2 bedroom mobile home.  So we stayed at a hotel just a couple miles away.  The girls were pumped about it.  When we arrived, Shaun looked out our window and said, Oh, there's a hot tub!  Amanda went running over and said Where's the hot dog??  There was also a "cold tub" as the girls called the pool.

The Mighty One, God, the LORD, speaks and summons the earth

from the rising of the sun to the place where it sets.

Psalm 50:1

Need You Now

I am working on the vacation photos and will have some ready soon, but thought you'd enjoy this on a Monday morning.  The scrapes on her forehead, the plastic jewelry, the crooked lingerie, hair wet from "accidently" running through the hose water while I watered flowers...You just cannot make this stuff up.



I blame her father 100% for the fact that I've caught her singing this to herself over the past week or two.    Anytime they hear a country song, they excitedly say, "That's Daddy's songs!".  For those of you who don't know, the actual lyrics here are

Its a quarter after one
I'm a little drunk and I need you now
Said I wouldn't call but I lost all control
And I need you now
And I don't know how I can do without
I just need you now

Nice.

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.

Philippians 4:8

:)

Project 365, Week 18 and a Giveaway

Happy May!  May is one of my favoritest months.  The weather is so good and is our anniversary month, too!  There are usually fun events like graduations, ball games and recitals.  It also used to kick off the softball season for us.  Anyway, just looking forward to what's in store for MAY!

Part of our week was spent in sunny Florida and part of it was spent in sunny Connecticut.  Yay for spring!  We had a good time away and then it took us the next couple to catch up on work.  Come to think of it, I don't think there is such a thing as being "caught up", is there?

I bought some flowers and did some on going yard work.  I was reminiscing to last year and thinking how much easier it is to bend and squat, etc without being 7, 8, 9 months pregnant.  Go figure!  We had a record high-temp April by more than 6 degrees and when you have long winters like we have here, that is a blessing!

I'm linking this project up to Sara this week.

April 25
Nana held Aiden while the rest of us swam in her community pool.

April 26

I took two of the kids to the pond to see if we could spot the duck family and we found some shade under a palm tree, which led to a big discussion on the Easter story.  Amanda is so fascinated with it.

April 27

We spent the day at Busch Gardens, mostly in the Sesame Street area, which was perfect for us.  This is a mini-Flume ride, though they didn't really get wet.

April 28

Back home!  I was delighted to look out my kitchen window to see my lilacs had bloomed.  I love that smell!

April 29

Caught the girls reading a story together.  Avery's gotten good and fast enough that Amanda will now sit and listen to her.

April 30

I called Amanda into the bathroom to do her hair and this is what greeted me

May 1

May Day!  My sister and I did a babysitting swap.  These are the two little cousins hanging out while Avery was in dance class and the older ones were playing some form of baseball.

So...how about a giveaway??

CSN Stores had generously offered to sponsor a giveaway for my readers.  This store sells everything, I think.  We have ongoing remodeling and decorating projects going on here at our 1895 home, so there are lots of things that caught my eye there.  They have rugs and picture frames, all manner of kitchen ware and household furniture, including corner tv stands.

My sister and her husband just finished their bonus room and now have a media room.   Those are all the rage now, aren't they?  I like the idea that there is one place the family can gather and be all together in one room.  And so to enter, just go take a quick peek at their tv stands and leave a comment stating which one you'd pick for your family room.

Oh, the prize?  This adorable fabric toy box for you or as a gift to someone you know (pictured baby not included).  I know its perfect for 9-month old Aiden because he can't fall on it and hit his head. :)

I will chose a winner Thursday morning.