Peeking

The sun wasn't the only one that came out today.

 We had some company that was hoping to share our lunch.

 Ethan has a new friend, this friendly cat from our across the street.  I loved it that we get to enjoy our neighbors pets.

Real Rain

These two boys were delighted with the deluge we had the other day.  When you consider that they experience some form of precipation almost every day, one might wonder why they got so excited.  Until now, they had to stay out for hours to get this wet, this time it took only a few minutes.   They now know what it means to "rain buckets."

Ups & Downs

Boosts for the week:

Sleeping in for two of our boys

The sun's appearance for three days in a row now

Picking strawberries

Christian's finishing his finals and bringing home an excellent report card

Our kids witnessing God's faithfulness in a very tangible way

 Knocks of the week:

Having to cancel our Baker climb for the 2nd time due to inclement weather

Spending many hours going to auto body shops to get estimates for two different incidents on our two different cars

Well Done

School's been out for a week now for our two younger boys.  Even the boys had mixed emotions, being a little sad to see it come to an end.  Ten months ago we had hopes and great expectations as they entered into this school and our experience surpassed anything we could have wished for. 

They were awarded for their strong character traits, Nolan for leadership

Ethan for helpfulness

Praise Band

Ethan  is now a Webelos II

Fifteen on the Fifteenth

When asked how he wanted to spend his birthday there was no hesitation.  Camping at Fort Ebey with friends.  Even though we started this talk less than a week before his bday, it all came together.  There was a site open, Shawn was off and able to take them, friends were able to come, the weather held and all had a good time.

Interesting how the guys stand back from the cake when candles are burning yet get really close to it  when it's time to consume it.

The gift of turning fifteen

A Full Decade

 Our youngest son just turned 10!

  A friend asked me how I was doing with that, since she remembers having a bit of a difficult time coming to grips with the fact that her youngest had reached double digits.  I tried not to dwell on it too much, and focus instead on the blessing of having another son who has lived a healthy, strong, full decade.  He brings so much joy to our lives and we are blessed daily by his caring, compassionate and tender heart.

 May God continue to bless you for many more decades and may you follow His lead in your life, my dear son. 

Ethan was busy celebrating his birthday many times over with many different friends.

A dear teen friend made these lovely koala cake pops for Ethan to share with his class.

They were a huge success, some girls felt it would be a shame to eat something so cute.  They placed it in a baggie to take home and show their family.

Mr Springs with the birthday boy.

Surrounded by our small group with whom we love to share life and major milestones.

Boys birthday party.  It was loud!

The weather held long enough to get a game of baseball in.

It was quite an eventful week for our son

.  He worked hard on his class project, taking real ownership over it, designing and crafting it all without much help form us.

He took part of a fun field trip under sunny skies on the only day of the week that did not rain.

Cooking at Fort Worden

Somehow I volunteered myself to help cook for 62 middle school students during their camp out retreat at Fort Worden.  I was told our kitchen facilities probably consisted of one outlet, one or two picnic tables under some kind of a shelter/ lean-to structure and a spigot somewhere in our camping area.  What was I thinking when I signed up for this? To complete the picture, the forecast looked pretty wet & miserable!

Fortunately I was not the one in control of this situation, and as always, God took care of us in better ways that we could have imagined!

I was joined by two hard working, motivated & fun parents that made for a great cooking team.  Our facilities were very luxurious compared to what we had expected.  We even had 4 outlets, a serving counter and the spigot was not that far off (we always found students that "volunteered" to fetch water for us)!  There was enough cover to accommodate the cooking area and tables for all the students.  As for the weather, we even had to get sunglasses & sunscreen out!  Yes, we had some rain in the evenings, a few leaky tents & wet sleeping bags, but everybody managed well and now have experiences to share.