Valentine's Fun 2015

First we got out our crayons and scissors...

...and got busy creating....

 Custom 'punny' valentines!

 Then we packed them up to exchange with our friends at our Children's museum play place....

 ...where apparently I only took pictures of Daniel.

On Valentine's Eve Gramps treated us all to Dairy Queen ice cream. 

 This is what the kiddos woke up to. It was almost like Christmas morning!

 Teddy bear from Daddy. :)

A "love-ly" Valentine's this year indeed!

Saturday Feb 7

We spent the afternoon today at the lake celebrating a friend's 4th birthday! The day was beautiful and mild. 

After play time and pizza and cake, we all set out to explore a campground island. The fourteen of us, yes, 14 - and that's just two families! - tromped and raced and walked and admired for an hour or so, then headed back to the 'mainland'. The idea was for the kids to keep running and playing at the playground there while the adults enjoyed some nice park benches. :)

But after we crossed the bridge and all turned right toward the playground, one little explorer turned left instead. His brown head soon disappeared down an incline, so I sent the others on ahead, and said we'd catch up. I quickly followed his trail, since he had been headed toward the water. 

This is how I found him:

My contemplative one.

Just enjoying the beauty of the water and sunshine.

Admiring it all as God's creation.

I'm always thankful for his perspective.

And always thankful that he can still be a kid. On this day, we enjoyed a few quiet moments together and then I easily convinced him to join the others at the playground.

Where we snacked on lunch leftovers.

And swang. (Dirty face alert!) 

Don't fun days like that wear you out, too?

Tuesday, December 9

Away in a Manger - again.

Continuing on yesterday's manger theme, today we made a handprint manger craft.

While waiting on the handprints before we could add baby Jesus, we sang Away in a Manger, adding in quite a few ASL signs and motions. 

Sweet and simple today! No pics of the actual crafting...it was pretty hands-on for me!

Monday, December 8

Away In a Manger!

We read Advent Scripture Reading Day 7 - "A Baby is Born!" and colored these sweet pictures of a manger filled with the name JESUS. Today's art supply: markers!

We were also busy organizing our pantry from yesterday's bounty...

 ...cleaning up shattered ornaments...

...and loving on this sweet baby face! 

Happy Monday! (and Happy Birthday to my Daddy!)

Weekend: December 6th and 7th

Saturday's stocking was simple and sweet:

It held our Charlie Brown Christmas DVD!

I went to a ladies' cookie exchange and luncheon at church. Yummy! The kids and I made quick work of those 6 dozen cookies I brought home! 

Sunday was a special day. Each year, local churches 'adopt' seminary families for Christmas. They find out likes, sizes, and wishes of each child and purchase gifts for them.  This Sunday evening we visited our adoptive church. 

Greg preached, and then we enjoyed a fellowship meal and brought home not only presents for all the kiddos, but also bags and bags of groceries!  

We were truly blessed by this very generous church.

(the seats in the background were still empty because they sent us through the line first)

Ooohing and aahing over the lights we could see on the way home one of the kids exclaimed, "We didn't do the surprise stocking!"

No, but we certainly had plenty of Christmas on this very blessed Sunday!

Friday, December 5

Today was all about Bethlehem!  Our surprise stocking held watercolor paints and .... the van keys!

We looked at the globe to see where in the world Bethlehem is, then painted pictures of shepherds on the way to Bethlehem. 

We also watched this video, on what the stable and manger were probably really like:

After supper we met up with friends and drove to a church in a neighboring town that was hosting a "Walk Through Bethlehem", an excellent outdoor reenactment of what the streets of Bethlehem might have been like when Jesus was born. The kids (and mama and daddy too) loved it!

And, of course...there were cookies, too.

 Lots and lots of cookies.

Thursday, Dec 4

Today's stocking held a scroll of Advent Day 5 Scripture reading: An angel visits Joseph.

We read how the angel told Joseph he was to name the baby 'Jesus' and we discussed our names - who gave them to us, and what they mean. 

Then we made Christmas trees with letters of our names as ornaments! 

(Dale's is messy because he intended to cut his tree out and I took the pic before he got to that).