It's Still July

Our kids are already making their Christmas lists :)

A Six-Year-Old Party

Silas and I just couldn't decide what to do for his birthday this year. We threw around several ideas but once we hiked down our creek to the bridge, Silas announced he wanted to have friends over to play in the creek. 

We decided it was a wonderful idea so invited a couple friends over and made a morning of it...

We had snacks sitting on the bank...

Silas had great fun but after a while asked if we could go in to open his presents ;)

It was just 3 families but lots of good friends...

Natalie brought some cake she had left-over which worked great because Silas had decided he just wanted to have ice cream cones and we needed somewhere to stick a candle...

#thebaby

#hesnotababy

#wheredoesthetimego

Saying Hello

We love airports when they are for saying hello!

Celebrating Again

Silas had his own little celebration on his birthday last week. We had just had the twins' party and a lot of Silas' friends were out of town or had plans so we just did a family party on his birthday. 

Silas said the smartest thing the other day. We were listening to a cd in the van that has a song which says, "the stars are His handiwork too."  You probably know it. Anyway, Silas said, "Why does it say the stars are His handiwork? He didn't use His hands, He just had to say it and they were made. It should say it was his talking-work."

Such an observant boy, he is. I didn't quite understand what He meant at first but when I put it together, it makes sense.  Especially when you consider what he has hidden in his heart...

He spoke and it came to be. He commanded and it stood firm.  

Psalm 33:9

(One of Silas' memory verses from Awana this year)

A Four-Year-Old Twin Party

We had a party for Simeon and Lieren at the pool this year. We did it for Silas a couple years ago and it was so fun we decided to do it again. Another reason to go with the pool party was the fact that we had just moved and I didn't feel quite ready to have people over (even though last year we had people over to our house for their party and had been in the house barely 24 hours!). 

The park/pool party is super easy and everyone always has a great time. Simeon and Lieren seemed to really love the whole thing...

Gotta love the Cinderella/Star Wars themed cake!

Lots of our good friends came. We didn't even take one picture at the pool because everyone was so busy swimming and sliding and splashing. 

We went home and let the kids open their gifts. The got some great things that they were really excited about. We didn't put everyone to bed till about 10 but it was worth it.  Such a fun day!

Celebrating

The last of our birthday celebrating has finally come to an end. We have 3 birthdays in 10 days, which makes for a lot of partying in a short amount of time Or, as it has been this year, a lot of partying extended out over several weeks!

We started with Simeon and Lieren on their birthday with grandparents and great-grandparents...

Such a sweet day celebrating 4 years with these two!

Our Creek

We have been blessed to live in several different houses over the last few years. Shane and I have lived in 9 houses, and that doesn't include the house we partially moved in to and then had to move out of when the contract on our house fell through. 

We have loved every single one. 

And now that we are getting settled in our new home, we are finding all kids of things to love about it too. 

We knew before we moved in that there was a creek running behind our property but we hadn't ever been back there. Well, the kids have been begging to go see it so last week we went exploring. 

It was amazing. We were blown away at how pretty it was and how fun and how perfect for the kids. We had a blast just playing close to home. 

Well. There is a little bridge in our neighborhood that Silas talks about every time we drive over it. And Shane discovered that if you follow our creek around, it eventually winds under the bridge. So of course Silas was determined to trek from our house to the bridge. We all thought it would be fun so yesterday, right after lunch, we set out. 

Lieren and Silas are our creature-lovers. As girly as Lieren is, she isn't squeamish to hold a baby frog... 

She also counted all the daddy long-legs she saw as we walked to the creek. I think the got to 10 and with each one, Blaise said, good job Le-len!

Following the trail through our woods...

Blaise is a trooper!  He just holds a hand and keeps going...

Down the inlet to the creek...

These two boys could do this all day! 

Silas has studied a bug book and is always pointing out the water striders or the earwigs or the random flying insect he knows by name. I looked at Shane several times and kept wondering out loud how he knows this stuff. 

Over rocks and through the brambles...

The whole day was a voyage of discovery...

One of our favorite spots close to our house...

Simeon is just alive out here...

We trekked and we trekked and we trekked. The kids did great and hung with us the whole time even through the rough terrain. 

A couple times we pulled out the GPS to see how much further it was (I say that with a smile). And prayed the creek didn't become impassable because we got to the point where there really wasn't any turning back. 

But finally there it was!

We made it!  An hour and 45 minutes later, we made it!

Hooray for the Tom Harris bridge. 

The kids then hung in there with us for the walk through our neighborhood back home. It has some hills and wasn't real short. They get major props for that part. 

And this is just about how everyone felt when we got home!

We went inside, had a big snack, then all the kids had a bath.  They needed the baths for sure since, as Shane said earlier, we didn't look so country club climbing out of that creek.  

Since we had missed any sort of rest/nap time for the day, the children then snuggled on the couch in the basement and watched a movie. 

We were so tired! Shane still went out and mowed while I finished dinner and got some things ready for our evening (it was the 4th of July, after all!). 

So maybe one day we will look back and say, remember that one time we walked all the way to the Tom Harris bridge?  Maybe we will never do it again. Or maybe this is the first of lots of times. Either way, we are so grateful for new, sweet, and adventurous memories in our new house.