Riding Bikes and Singing to Mommy

Here are some recent videos of the girls...,

Celebrating Mommy's birthday

In the midst of everything that has happened in Boston this week, I was blessed by 3 days of celebrating with my family. We experienced joy, while so many others were in sorrow. It is hard to reconcile that sometimes.

The girls had so much fun planning the birthday surprises with daddy, although it was tough for them to keep secrets. They asked me over and over again in the days leading up to my birthday if they could tell me. I told them I didn't want to know, much to their disappointment.

On Wednesday, Daryl took the day off and we spent the morning with the girls on their bikes.  We went to Bradley Palmer State Park where they have a road closed to motorized traffic. It was perfect for little girls learning to ride their bikes.

The girls are ready to go!

Lizzle decide picking up sticks was much more fun!

Hannah is riding! (As long as she doesn't scare herself and head into the woods!)

Gracie proudly wearing her "Poppi" helmet.

 On Thursday, while I was at work, Daryl and the girls prepared a lovely birthday supper of steak tips (from the grill), rainbow fruit salad, and couscous. YUMMY

The table is set and ready for mommy!

The beautiful birthday flowers with the "mommy balloon." (Hannah says: "We had to have yellow hair because we didn't have brown streamers.")

My raised bed, garden cake ~ complete with oreo dirt, wafer sides, gummy worms and sprouts.

Mommy and her girls

To complete my days of celebration, Daryl got a our friends to watch the girls and took me out to dinner. It was lovely!

2nd Annual Interview about Mommy with Grace, Hannah, and Elizabeth

What does your mommy do while you are at school?

H: Go to the Y
G: Play and go to Bible School
E: Hannah School Bus Stop

If your mom were an animal, what kind would she be?

H: Elephant
G: Giraffe
E: Baby Duck

What is Mommy's favorite TV show?

H: The ones where the people talk to each other
G: Monkey
E: Puppet Show

My mom says the most important rule is...

H: Don't get near the oven
G: Say hello
E: Roll Roll Roll

I love my mommy because...

H: she's nice
G: I love her
E: Hannah

What food does Mom make best?

H: fish
G: cookies
E: cookie

What makes your mommy laugh?

H: When I do something like clean up
G: When I do something funny
E: Hannah laugh

What makes your mommy sad?

H: When nana send her a card... it is a happy sad

G: When I do something wrong like bite people

E: Wah Wah

How tall is your mommy?

H: 30 feet
G: 5 feet
E: Hannah

My favorite thing to do with my mommy is...

H: Swim
G: talk on the phone
E: Talk on phone

Nobody is better than she is at...

H: Helping me write
G: Helping me play games
E: Hannah

Easter Egg Hunt 2013

The Valencia's hosted us for Easter dinner this year. Jayne and Winter hid eggs and other surprises on the hill behind their house. The kids had a blast looking for them.

Frankie finding an egg behind a tree

Gracie getting some encouragement from daddy

Look what I got mommy

Another one...

Eggs are ok... but sticks are AWESOME!

Strategic gathering

Mom, check out all the eggs I got!

Look, Jim, I got some eggs!

After the hunt, we gathered for a fabulous meal! Thanks, Valencias, for hosting us!

Easter 2013

The journey to Easter has been a good one this year, yet, somehow Easter still snuck up on me. As a church, we gathered each of the 6 Wednesdays of Lent for a simple supper and then an activity that involved the whole church family... from 0 to 100 years old! We painted made collages, painted rocks, illustrated the worldwide distribution of resources using Hershey kisses, collected food for the food pantry, made bracelets and paraded with palm branches. It was great (and exhausting)!

On the Thursday of Holy Week, we gathered together as a church to celebrate a Passover Seder ending with the Lord's Supper.

I wish I had pictures of each of these evenings. It was great to be together!

On the Saturday before Easter, Hannah, Grace and I made Resurrection Cookies! (Thanks Pinterest!) Here are the girls with our "soldiers" guarding the tomb, complete with tinfoil hats, swords and a shield:-)!

The next morning we enjoyed our "empty tomb" cookies!

Easter morning, Hannah and I got up before the sun in order to attend the Easter Sunrise Service. It was a beautiful sunrise! We went home to pick up the rest of the family so we could attend the breakfast at the church together. Yummy!

Later... the girls in the Easter dresses... yes, I say it again, it is HARD to get a good picture of the three of them!

Happy Easter! 

He Has Risen! He has Risen Indeed!

Needing some grace...

Today was a tough one... 3 out of the 5 of us had the stomach bug. I was the well one (and Elizabeth, who went through this last Friday). My compassion showed up this morning, but as the day drug on and the vomiting continued, it literally ran away.

I know... I know... it happens to everyone, but I saw the effect of my disappearing compassion in the eyes of my children... that was hard. First, Elizabeth decided to rip up a page of a library book... and I called her a bad girl! I KNOW better! She isn't a bad girl. She is a little girl who did something wrong. Her eyes were so sad when I told her that, but did I go and ask her forgiveness, NO, I scoured the house for the missing pieces while she sat in time-out hearing her mommy call her naughty.

Then, Grace, who had been complaining of a tummy ache (but I dismissed as "just" wanting attention) threw up... again... and again... and then after I told her not to drink so much water and to stay near the bucket, threw up all over the floor. I burst into tears and she just kept saying "I'm sorry, mommy, I'm sorry!"

Oh, baby, I'm sorry. You're mommy wants to be so strong for you and your sisters, but I'm not. Please remember I love you!

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The next day... today I sat down and read this post on the blog A Holy Experience written by Ann Voskamp. Wow did it speak to the place I was yesterday and even this morning. I encourage you to go there and read it.

"So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen,
since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." 

2 Corinthians 4:18