Spring Break III - Bloom Festival

My parents came up and we visiting the Dallas Arboretum where the Bloom Festival was in full swing.

Spring Break II - Medieval Times

Groupon brought us our next Staycation Spring Break adventure. We all went to a Medieval Times Dinner. We actually went to a 2:30pm show, so that Ian could go through Knight Training.

Knight Training involved lining a bunch of kids up in the stadium and teaching them to swing a wooden sword. Ian liked it well enough.

The kids thought the castle was pretty cool. 

As part of the show, they had trained horses prance around for us. While Scott and I thought this was very cool, poor Ian was sneezing up a storm. As soon as the horses were done prancing, the sneezing stopped. Thus, we have concluded that Ian is allergic to horses :( Poor guy, it was so bad, he wanted to leave the show. But I got him to hold on until the horses left and he was fine.

The show's choreography was pretty impressive. It was better than I expected and Scott thought it was amazing!

The food was good.....especially for food that you had to eat with your hands.

All in all....a good time.

Spring Break I - Legoland Discovery Place

We had a staycation during Spring Break this year.  One day we went with some friends to the Legoland Discovery Place and SeaLife Aquarium in Grapevine.

We have been to the Discovery Place before. The kids enjoyed being there with friends though. And I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't overly crowded. I think Lego limits the number of guests, so that everything is manageable.

There was a new ride that we hadn't seen before..... 

The kids enjoyed driving, except when they had to contend with the littlest girl out there who didn't quite understand what she was suppose to do. Poor thing. She caused quite the traffic jam.

 This was our first time at SeaLife. It was a little shorter than I expected, but was still had some beautiful displays.

For dinner we ate at the Twisted Root (yummy hamburgers!) and visited the fountains at the Shops at Legacy.

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.