moved (part 2)

Day three in the car and we finally hit our groove.

Only stopped twice between Louisville, KY and Raleigh, NC.  

We crossed the VA/NC state line at 3:58pm and the destination was in sight!  Pulled in the driveway a little after 6pm.  Victory at last!

Today = happy happy day.  All the kids just thrilled to be with their grandparents and free to roam! An afternoon car wash added to the fun.

And an after dinner walk rounded out the day.  Boys in bed and girls reading with their grandparents.

A great day!

[And another big move behind us as we head back to the big country next month.]

Kentucky, barely.

Two days into the road trip and 30 miles into Kentucky we stopped for the night.

Maybe it's just our family.  We don't do these trips so well.  Hours of mutual enjoyment and shared memories sound beautiful, but for us this trip is more about survival.

We laugh, we cry, we pout, we giggle.  We color maps and play with pipe cleaners and eat lots of snacks.  

And we survive. But it's not always pretty.

About three miles from our hotel tonight Matt and I gave out "awards" (nothing fancy, just some verbal affirmation and encouragement).

Julianna got the rock star award.  Today she was incredible - a great attitude all day long.  Lydia got the passer-out-er award.  With her (enviable) middle row seat she constantly passes stuff back and forth (from me to the back row kids - Julianna, John Paul, Isaac).

Isaac got the "best movie watcher award".  We watched Toy Story and he laughed out loud for most of the movie... and he has the best laugh!  Totally makes you want to put in another movie.  John Paul got the "seat belt award".  Not only does he buckle himself in, he DOESN'T unbuckle himself - at least most of the time!  When you have that kind of self restraint it's worth mentioning!

And Luke?  Matt and I laughed so hard we could barely see straight.  We gave him the "We're glad you're here award".  Otherwise known as the participation ribbon.

Luke buddy, you are no picnic on road trips.  But we are so glad you're here!

Only 600 more miles!  North Carolina, here we come!

the last days are here

I'm exhausted tonight from a good day of final packing including a moment of "it's not going to all fit" (it did) and a solo Target run (where I grabbed snacks for the road and coffee with a friend) and a long summer night with a surprise visit from some neighbor buddies (and S'mores for all).  

We are in love with these summer nights.  And bringing the kids in gets harder and harder.  Who wants to go to bed? 

I hate calling them in!  They would play until they dropped into an exhaustion-induced summer night snooze on the grass!

And they know that the longer we stand and visit with friends, the longer they get to enjoy the day!

[I'm feeling like John Paul isn't getting much camera time these days but boy is he hard to capture.]

Plenty of sunshine and pink cheeks and meals on the deck.

A bit of fishing too.

Tomorrow we head out.  A short driving first day (mostly a long stop to visit with Andy and Kristi and family) and then we hope to make it to the WI/MN border before we sleep for the night.

These sunsets will be for the rear view mirror.  And we will miss them.

And this town full of family and friends that we dearly love.

abundant blessing (friendship)

This spring each of us enjoyed great friendships here!  More than we could ask for or imagine, for sure!

Saturday the girls celebrated some of their friendships with a spend the night party.  We started at a park and ended with S'mores...

and had a whole lot of outdoor play in between.  In fact, from 3pm til late night the girls were outside constantly!  They only came in briefly for dinner!  And they were SO patient with the little boys tagging along and/or constantly underfoot.

These are friends my girls will be thrilled to "come back to" the next time we are in North Dakota.

We wisely waited til the little boys were in bed to start the fire play :)  

Even at 9pm the sky is bright blue... long summer nights are incredible!  

[the tie dye tees were straight from art class.... everyone was excited to wear them!]

Tomorrow it's the boys' turn.  Isaac started counting down the days to "the boy party" a week ago!  Grateful grateful for these friends - some of the many unexpected blessings of our months here.  

spring program

Well I'm a few days behind on big events here, but that's just the reality of these last days in ND.... lots happening and it's keeping us all busy!

Last Thursday the girls school did their end of the year program!  Such a sweet evening!

Everyone wore chef hats and aprons.... Grandma made these special-to-order for the girls!

Some of the lyrics keep ringing in my ears....

"I'm just what He wanted, and I think it shows.  He's really creative and all of heaven knows."

[Sweet to reflect on as I think of the individuality of each of my kids.]

"I am His delight..... When I look in the mirror, I see His style."

[This is what I want - to see the Lord when I look at my children!]

Now we are full steam ahead into our last week here.  Packing, final to-do list, last day of school, all sorts of biggies.  It's overwhelming, so I want (try!) to just take it one hour at a time!

perfect attendance (19 weeks at AWANA)

Consistency isn't one of our strong suits.

In weeks (months) like these I'm grateful for Matt's reminders that when so many facets of our lives are in swirling transition, we (the seven) stick together.  We grieve the things we are leaving behind, we turn our faces towards the things ahead.

And we do it together.

And we also celebrate (rejoice in!) the bits of consistency God graciously gives, even in highly-transitional seasons.  So on Wednesday night as I sat through the AWANA awards night program I was filled with gratitude for the consistency AWANA gifted our family this spring.  Perfect attendance for the 19 weeks of AWANA (our total time in GF is only 20 weeks! - we were here for the very first spring AWANA and the very last!)

It's hard to describe how much our children love AWANA.

John Paul (almost always!) bounced right into his AWANA class, proud to be like the big kids, proud to have his own place to belong.  His teachers loved him well, and he thrilled to tell us the things he learned.  I hope I never forget the sound of his sweet voice saying "God loves ME"!  (or his vigorous singing, "Youth! On the march!")

Wednesday is Isaac's favorite day of the week, no debate.  [His Wednesday is chock full of fun, AWANA a great anchor to the day!]

And for our girls - so many familiar faces between school and AWANA, so many friends, such solid teaching, adults loving our children and pointing them to Jesus.  The girls learned SO much!  So So Much!

Lydia and Gigi, never far apart :)  

These two friends (Broen and Simeon) warmly welcomed Isaac into the church boy party.  Matt took four or five pics of them at AWANA awards night. This is the only one that wasn't blurry :)

Exactly.

We will miss AWANA, and these friends, and the Wednesday night suppers (!!!!!) and the fellowship with other families.  And we'll be back again, hoping for perfect attendance next time around too :)

the pioneer museum (field trip time!)

Yesterday Matt and I drove/chaperoned the 1st & 2nd grade field trip.  Bonus for us that we have a first grader and a second grader!  And bonus that Matt could take some time away from work.  And that Grandma could watch the three boys.  And that our girls still think it's fun to have Mom and Dad on the field trips :)

Actually, both the company (my favorite elementary schoolers and their classmates) and the destination (the pioneer museum in a nearby town) both appealed to me.  So volunteering to drive came easy! 

Julianna was up at 6:10!  (Usually I wake the girls a little after 7am! - she was SOOOOOO excited to go on the field trip!)

Team K.  The five 1st graders in our van.  [Look at Noah - he loves having his picture taken :) he he]

Our first stop at the plant nursery.  They've been learning the parts of a flower - and plenty of flowers suffered moderate damange in the investigations ..... 25 children looking for pistils, stamens, etc.  It was one very gracious nursery owner!

[on Julianna's right is her best buddy, Haley.  Also Jewel and Kenadi (pink sweatshirt)]

My favorite part of the pioneer museum was definitely the outbuildings - several quonset huts full of old tractors and fire engines and snow mobiles and even a covered wagon replica.

Also a one room school house and two turn of the century prairie homes (think Laura Ingalls Wilder) that were painstakingly dismantled and reconstructed on the museum grounds.

The two teachers held a mini classroom session in the schoolhouse.  The kids were expected to stand beside their seat when they answered a question and were sent to put their noses in the corner if they talked out of turn.  So fun :)

Lunch at Happy Joe's.

And the class pics on the train.

The two classes do a lot together - music, gym, etc - and there is even another 1st/2nd grade sister-pair... it all adds up to some pretty close relationships.   And a whole lot of fun.

So grateful for the chance to go on this field trip with all of them!

pottery-painting, fish-catching and other fun treats

A few weeks ago Jan treated Kristi and I to a girls night out - such a gift! And last Friday it was girls night out, part two - adding in the littlest K family girls ;)  

It's a decidedly boy-skewed extended family - 7 of the 10 grandchildren are boys - so we ladies need our time away!  ha ha.  [Super fun for us that the three girls are right next to each other in age, little stair steps - dividing the grandkids into "big boys" and "little boys" groupings, and giving these ladies a sweet friendship to enjoy.]

After dinner we headed to a pottery painting spot in town.

The girls knew just what to do and jumped in to their tasks.  A vase for Julianna....

A piggy bank for Kaelynn...

and a mug for Lydia.

We met up with the rest of the gang for a short night of sleep at Andy and Kristi's house - most of the guys left at 5 am for fishing opener.  Matt hung back to drop me off at the 10k, then headed home to gather the kids for the fan van experience, and after the race finished we split again - Matt and Isaac off to join the fishermen, the four other children and I back to GF.

These six had quite a day on the lake, but (ugh!) didn't catch much fish.

Isaac didn't seem to mind too much.  He LOVES to be included in this group of men.

Getting one of the first rides on Grandpa's new boat was a big bonus :)

There's a lot of fishing and water fun yet to be had this summer.  Unfortunately, we'll miss most of it, but we definitely hope to get the whole family out on the water at least once before we head out of town.

Fun times all weekend long - the girls added in a spend the night with friends on Saturday and the guys didn't get home from fishing til late so it all added up to a early bedtime on Sunday!  For me too ;)