A Fun Day With My Children That Rarely Happens!

A Fun Day At The Park

The children and I took some time to have fun today. With it being windy and then later in the afternoon, rainy, it wasn't a good day to do work outside, so we headed to the park. Scidmore Park in Three Rivers, MI was very inviting, but a little poopy (literally). With lots of geese and ducks, you definitely have to watch your every step when visiting this park. We were hoping to enjoy the petting zoo that is there, but it wasn't open today. We could see quite a few of the animals from the paths, so we still got enough of an animal fill. We particularly enjoyed this mama duck and her babies.

I don't think she enjoyed us though.

We could see this little pot belly pig from the outside of the petting zoo. He came right over to see us. Alegra thought he had gentle looking eyes.

What do you think? I just don't see the gentleness here. :)

We got to see ponies and donkeys and......

funny shaved alpacas. This one though was quite hilarious with two bottom teeth that stuck out of its mouth about 2 inches. The children thought it was quite funny too. Can you tell?

And the pony did a little bottom itch for us too, which the children also thought was quite funny. Can you tell?

This park was nice but again with all the birds, it did make for a not very relaxing walk. The river was pretty and the bridges were fun for the children. And we did enjoy seeing gosslings and ducklings but with that came unhappy parents who wanted to attack. We watched our backs constantly.

Three children having a ball while one was just along for the ride and didn't really care where he was at.

After our walk we headed for the big playground that was quite fun for the children. It had lots of slides and little special things that were added fun.

The mini wide slide.

And some of the geese that I kept my eye on. At least at the playground we were close to a place we could climb up to get away from them.

We did have fun!

These were fun twisty toys. Not a typical swing.

And made for a fun picture.

Slides and hair gone wild.

And I even made Diella do some math. Way to go! You get an A+!

All smiles from us all!

Silly faces in the tube. I think they were really just getting away from the geese.

And I certaily can't end our day without saying that today is Jonathon and I's 13th wedding anniversary. He took me out to Applebees and rather than spending the crazy amount they charge for dessert, we went home and made our own amazing dessert that we all enjoyed. Chocolate Fudge Brownies with Peanut Butter Passion ice cream with two kinds of chocolate drizzled on top and don't forget the whipped cream. Delicious! Perfect ending to a near perfect day!

The Barnyard Bash

The children did lots of fun projects related to farms this year for their annual grandparents program. We put all of their hard work on the table for everybody to look through, including their native chicken masks.

When we could finally get the men inside from looking at Jonathon's new toy, we started our program. Alegra read a book in honor of Grandpa Murphy called The Milk Man.

Diella got to read this year and picked a book called I Love Animals. She did great and we are very pleased with her development in reading.

The children also memorized poems and songs. They each did one by themselves and then The Goat song, they all sang and played instruments.

Alegra loves riddles, so when she found a book with cow riddles at the library, she wanted to have that be part of the program. We went through ahead of time and picked some that we liked the best and she was able to stump the grandparents on some and not on some.

The children also made some homemade envelopes that they put flower seeds in that we had collected last year from our flowers and sealed them with stickers. And they did this with their aprons that Grandma Deborah sewed for them.

Josiah did his part by putting the stickers on.

We had a delicious meal of grilled hamburgers, cheesy potatoes, fruit salad, angeled eggs, and guacamole with chips. After the meal, the men cleaned up the kitchen while the grandmas and children played slap jack. What fun they had!

Here is Great Grandpa and Grandma Murphy with the children. Such sweet memories for the children to still have this generation for them to be around.

And Grandma Linda and Aunt Mandy with the children.

And Grandpa Daniel and Grandma Deborah.

And last but not least, our little family. We are so blessed! It is good for the children to say their poems and sing their songs for others. Some take a little prodding, but they all did it and did a great job!

Next year we may do something a little different, but will still carry on the tradition of having the grandparents come to have the children share their school year with. But the older they get, the more we can do. Next year, Josiah will be reading too. That just amazes me. And that ends our school year! Yay, schools out for summer!

A Mini Celebration for an accomplished lady

Naomi's Night

I was not in charge of this mini celebration but was glad to be able to help plan some of the event. We wanted to honor a sister who just became a nurse and it's her birthday, so what better reason to honor a good friend.

Rarely you get to see my face on here, but I thought you might like to see the blogger's face. Haha.

We waited for all the ladies to arrive and then waited for Naomi and Tina. I'm not so sure she was all that suprised. I think the surprise leaked. We met at Olive Garden and had a wonderful meal together.

All of us minus Ireena who tried to sneak out of the picture down in the lower left corner.

We all pitched in to buy her her very own stethoscope. What a blessing it turned out to be since she was needing her own. This is a picture of the card/banner that I made and on the white pieces is a picture of the stethoscope and on the other is the verse that we had engraved on it.

Great Job Naomi!

One of the ladies is so handy in sewing and made this great nurses cap that Naomi wore all night. She looks professional now!

Then we went to the river walk and took pictures. It didn't rain which we were glad for, but it was freezing. But we did have fun taking some pictures and have them for great memories.

It wouldn't have been complete without a rescue by Naomi to prove she really knows her stuff. This was a great idea and maybe we should have had more of these stages pics in mind, but this one turned out cute anyways.

All of us ladies minus the two photographing us. What a pretty place for pictures. Too bad is wasn't a little warmer...okay, a lot warmer.

We brought our umbrellas just in case and they made for some fun pictures. Great ladies enjoying each other....without children. Was lovely!

Trying to get us all posed and together, looking the right direction was a trick, especially with a few cameras that needed pictures on them. Oh, and one that was accidentally videoing. Ha!

And then we ended the evening by going back to one of the lady's house and while I worked on pampering Naomi's feet, the other ladies shared with her what was on their hearts concerning her attributes, her accomplishment, and what she means to us. It was complete with hoho, cream filled cupcakes and pina colladas (how is that spelled?).

We are all so blessed to have one another as sisters. The support, encouragement, and friendship we have is immeasurable.

My Thankful Thursday Post just a little late

This past Thursday Iwas working in the garden, and Jonathon was working at splitting wood, and I realized that I have so much that I am thankful for that I just love. I thought how perfect of a day for me to share with our readers the things around our home that we (mostly me) am thankful for.

A lake would be better, but I just love seeing the sun reflect off of water. Even if it is just on a mud hole, there is just something about the shimmer on water that causes me to stop, reflect and be thankful for that sunshine.

After years of talking about it, we finally planted some fruit trees (2 apples and 2 peach) AND the deer haven't touched them. My prayers will continue though that they will stay away!

This may look like a peculiar thing to be thankful for, but do you see all the notches that are taken out of this stump? This stump is where Jonathon sets his piece of wood to split. This stump means that my husband is able to split wood for his family. I'm so thankful for his health and willingness to work hard.

And he got a new toy. We needed something to mow the yard and will need something to push snow this winter, so he got himself a little garden tractor and is really having fun with it. So, I am thankful for his new toy and his joy with it, but look at that baby watching his papa ever so closely. I'm thankful that my children watch their daddy, but more importantly, that they see good character and good work ethic when watching their daddy.

That is the first leaf to open on our maple tree. We have been wondering when its buds were going to open, and I noticed the first one today. We planted this tree a few years after we moved here. It has grown so much! It sure is fun to watch a tree that we planted ourselves, grow and grow.

This picture is of me, waving, if you didn't notice, at all of our readers.....and showing our freshly hoed garden. I'm thankful for this space to grow nutrient rich produce and thankful that I was able to get out there and hoe it. This time last year I was stuck in bed waiting for a clot to go away and a baby to come. My health is coming to mind a lot these days.

My sunflowers are up! I might have planted these a little early, but I just couldn't wait. And we have peas, lettuce, spinach, and cabbage up. Bless the Lord for the good of the land!

Here is a picture of our other beautiful tree that I promised I would take only it is not in its full beauty. I waited a little too long.

Another strange picture perhaps, but this van full of tools and supplies means my man is working, and we bless the Lord for that every day!

One of my favorites from the day of taking pictures. These tulips were planted by me and the girls when Jonathon left back 5 years ago. Tulips are my favorite flower and I wanted something to pop up in the spring to remind us of new life and growth no matter what happens. Well, in the spring, he was back and our family had certainly gone through some growth and new life. Then last year I missed them blooming from being in the hospital doing some more growth and waiting for another new life. So these flowers are super special to me. And speaking of super special.....can't be thankful and show what things I love without posting......

a babe with blue eyes.

Good Deal-E-O

Hey, I went shopping today at Walgreens and scored some great deals with getting register rewards back. Love freebies from stores. But I wanted to pass along a freebie that is $14.00 worth of freebie. I got a shampoo and conditioner of the Organix Coconut Milk. The bottles had a Try Me Free tag AND Walgreens had a Buy One Get One Free sale. So, I did the Walgreens sale of buy one get one free and will mail in my receipt along with the rebate form to get my money back for the one that I did buy. Love those kinds of deals! Let me know if your Walgreens is having the sale and if their bottles have the Try Me Free tags.

It's Spring!!!!

Well, it is finally getting warm, things are greening up around here, and we wanted to share with you what our view is here at our house. Oh, and Benaiah is officially crawling, so we are busy around here keeping our eyes on him and keeping things picked up. What a task!

This is the first that it clicked with Benaiah and the crawling milestone. He is pretty happy about being able to get around.


Welcome to our front flower bed. Right now, there aren't too many flowers in the garden...just a few here and there, but the trees are looking mighty fine. Usually we only get to enjoy these for a day and then a big wind storm comes in and blows the flowers all away. We are really enjoying it this year!

Here is one of the few flowers blooming in our front flower bed. It seems before I can see one all pretty, one of the girls finds it and picks it. This one I caught first though. :)

Jonathon has done an amazing job at trimming this tree so it has this amazing arch over our path to the shed. And since the winds in the past usually blow away the beauty, I thought I better get a quick picture of it with the children.

Love these three! They make the tree look especially beautiful.

The girls smelling the fragrance of our weeping cherry tree.

The children surprised me by showing me this little bush to the east of our house. It is a rhododendron and is looking like it also is enjoying this warmer weather.

The children are hesitant around the weeping cherry trees as they have lots of little visitors. I did finally get them convinced that they wouldn't bother them while they were getting their picture taken. I couldn't resist getting a close up shot of this bee. How amazing to watch it go from flower to flower doing what God created it to do.

That evening Jonathon and I were busy outside planning garden stuff and preparing to have an area started for wildflowers. I love cutting flowers for bouquets and if this area we are planning works, I will have a great assortment of flowers to cut. Maybe I can post pics after the flowers are up....hopefully. Anyways, Benaiah enjoyed the flowers too.

He would reach up and grab one flower and feel it in his hands. And notice his feet crossed? That's how he sits often. We are a little behind on getting seeds planted but hopefully that will happen soon. Last year my tulips didn't bloom. I was in the hospital and would have missed them anyways. I'm really wanting to see those bloom this year. Then it will be the crabapples turn to bloom. Will post pictures of that too. I missed that one too last year, but thankfully a lady from church came and took a picture of it on her phone and came to visit me and showed me the picture. My husband sure did choose some wonderful trees for our home when we did our landscaping. I love it!

If you have any lovely landcaping pictures on your blog, leave a comment with you blog address so we can all enjoy them too. Now I'm waiting for allergies to kick in. Missed those too last year from being in the hospital. Would rather have the allergies than go through that again. Blessing the Lord for those memories, His protection, and healing. Spring growth is so lovely!