Happy Birthday Ian!

My baby is 6! He had Connor and Aidan over after school. He requested a Batman cake....which he insisted he help ice. It turned out pretty good, considering :)

Ian wanted hotdogs for his birthday dinner, and he wanted me to come have lunch with him at school.

Daddy made him a special Lego Batman Cave.....

which Ian thought was pretty cool.

He had a great day and was super excited about all the Legos he received for his birthday.

Ian is such a sweet heart. He is kind, thoughtful and full of love. He loves Legos, soccer and playing with his sister.

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Oh Jonah!

Well, the tale of the whale is a whale of a tale:

it's a story of the deep blue sea;

about a fish and a man named Jonah,

who was a lot like you and me.

Payton and Ian loved being in the musical at church. They were in the chorus. Pastor Marvin spearheaded this adventure with the children's choirs, and it turned out super cute.

The end product was well worth all the time and effort the kids put in :)

My little sailors:

Payton as a Ninevite:

Ash Wednesday - Our Journey Through Lent Begins

Ian wanted ashes on his forehead. Payton did not. Ian didn't want to wash them off. Payton thought the whole ritual was a little disturbing....which it is, mind you. From ashes you came and to ashes you shall return. Yikes! I'm not sure if Ian fully gets it, but I have a feeling Payton does. Maybe that's why they have the different reactions.

 

Anyway, we also started a Lenten devotion at Supper time. Ideally, we would do it at breakfast, but lets face it, we're too busy waking up, eating breakfast and getting off to school, to focus on a Lenten Bible study. I've done devotions with the kids in years past. The ones for Advent are much easier to find. The devotions for kids during Lent are pretty scarce and not really what I was looking for....Repent! Change your Heart! Nails in the Cross!

 

While, yes, these are appropriate themes for Lent. I wanted to add something to our routines. I wanted to build up the kids. I wanted to focus on all the positive lessons and stories, that will help shape their character and attitudes....not brow-beat them. So, I'm making up our own devotions for Lent focusing on Gratitude.

 

If you google Gratitude, there are quite a few articles and devotions written about it. Two sources I really enjoyed were www.thechangeblog.com/gratitude and www.Greatergood.berkeley.edu. Some of the take-aways that I got out of these sources is that people that practice gratitude are happier, healthier, and more connected individuals, especially children and adolescents. I want my children to be happy, healthy, connected individuals, that derive this sense of gratitude, not just from within themselves, but outside of themselves. God gives us many gifts, both large and small, to help us achieve the goodness in our lives. Through the stories and teachings of Jesus, the family and I are taking a journey in Gratitude during Lent.

 

I'm picking out New Testament stories and parables and presenting them in the spirit of thankfulness. Each day we'll read a story, discuss it, and put a sticker on our tree. We are turning all the brown and black leaves into colorful hearts and stars. We'll write a short phrase or word that summarizes what we talked about on the sticker, along with a number...we're counting down to Easter!

 

We'll see how it goes. The kids were very engaged at last night's discussion of Jesus healing the ten lepers :) Here's a picture of our devotional tree:

 

 

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Happy Birthday Scott!

We celebrated Scott's birthday on Thursday. He's 37! Yikes. We ARE NOT OLD! According to Ian, you are NOT old until you hit 80! So we have lots of time to be young :)

The kids were excited to give Scott their present.....James Bond posters, which will adorn our walls for his James Bond party coming up in a couple of weeks.

When I asked the kids what the theme should be for Scott's party, Ian almost immediately yelled out, 'James Bond!' It's perfect, really. Scott's been reading Ian Fleming's novels. We own all the movies.

To celebrate, we went out to Top Golf, which is normally lots of fun, but cold gusty 20 mph winds started up just after sunset. We ate, finished our game and left pretty quickly.

We finished the night at Scott and the kids' favorite frozen yogurt place, The Velvet Spoon.

Catan Jr.

This game is awesome!

This weekend we played it 3 times!

There's something funny about collecting wood and goats to build ships and lairs.

Oh, and watch out for the ghost pirate. He's sneaky.

Sporty Weekend

I'm not a huge sports fan. Heck, I'm not even a big sports fan. I don't follow any teams or players of any sport. I used to play volleyball, basketball, and track, but when it comes down to sitting in front of a screen or in a stadium, I can usually think of other things I'd rather be doing.

 

Yet, somehow, this weekend, I ended up at the FC Dallas soccer stadium and a Texas Legends game.....not to mention Ian's soccer game.

 

How did this happen?, you may ask. Well, my hubby was working. My husband is a sports fan. He recently purchased a set of tickets to watch FC Dallas, so we were invited to a Friends and Family night at the stadium. They had a couple of activities for the kids, we ate hot dogs and pizza and then got to watch the team practice. (Actually, it was pretty cool, but I'm not admitting to be a fan, yet).

 

Then Saturday night, it was our turn to have the season tickets we split with some friends of ours. The kids love the games, but they mostly just like hanging out in the kids' area. This is all good for them, but I spend at least half the game playing searching for them in the crowd making sure they're ok.

It's like Where's Waldo? except it's Where's Payton and Ian?

 

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While Mama's Away.....

Daddy takes the kids to his parents :)

I would do the same thing. Having others to help entertain the kids is great.

While at Oma and Opa's, they celebrated Opa's birthday and retirement.

Kate hosted a surprise retirement party for Opa.

From what I heard, it sounds like everyone had a great time.

The kids really enjoyed playing golf while there.

On a side note, poor Ian was fighting a low grade fever Sunday and Monday. Scott took him to urgent care. A nurse looked at him and said he had an ear infection and bronchitis. He prescribed antibiotics. I took him to our Dr. on Tuesday and she said there was no ear infection, but that he had strep throat. He's better now.