getting ready for a birthday

Today was my Mom's birthday.  We celebrated in style :)

We started Monday with the cake baking.  Everyone here LOVES to cook.  I step into the kitchen and the kids run for the counter.  Lucky me, these days its Mom who is often stepping into the kitchen and managing the help.

On Monday afternoon I left Mom and the boys baking cake and set out to meet the girls at school.  Last I heard (as I shut the door behind me) John Paul was claiming he could crack the eggs and Isaac was vehemently denying his ability!  [There was no egg shell in the piece of cake I ate tonight, so my guess is that John Paul did not crack eggs, at least not directly into the cake mix!]

Walking to school all by myself is a special treat.  So is walking home with just the girls.  We only have a few home school weeks left but local school will stay in session til July.  Argh.  I'm semi-dreaming of pulling the girls out of school when their classes start preparing for finals.  The prep will last for weeks and it'll be practice test after practice test after practice test (with all the fun/extra classes canceled to make more room for.... practice tests).  Since we don't officially test "in the system" I'm hoping we can work something out that results in fewer afternoons of terrible boredom and more time at the pool for everyone!

Back to the birthday prep - we returned home, dropped back packs, oohed and aahed at the cake and gathered scooters and brothers for a walk to dinner.  Mom picked a yummy tex-mex place in a nearby mall and we were off....

Matt met us there and the celebrating began.  More coming later, when the pictures *finally* load!

Mom and Dad, meet our community

Without a smidge of hesitation I can confidently say that one of the highlights of our days is our community.

We are blessed with great friends.  And our children are blessed by their children.

In the spring we visit a park most every Sunday afternoon.  The crowd isn't always the same, but the sweet times with friends are a treat every time.

I love that my mom and dad are getting to spend time with these people so dear to us!

Friday/Saturday

I'm hardly taking any pictures.  I need to get out the camera and make sure I'm getting photos of the kids with their grandparents.  

Luke is still a tricky kiddo when it comes to sleep.  It's hard for him to settle down at midday and at night.  He sleeps fewer hours per day than any of my other kids!  And he's the youngest!  By Friday this week he was sleepy and grumpy.  By Friday this week I was struggling to parent him well.  He climbed up in my lap and I got this picture.  Nothing fancy but it's pretty much exactly how both of us were feeling at the moment.  

Right after I took the photo I texted Matt and asked what he thought about going out to dinner.  Even when the menu plan said "leftovers" I was overwhelmed with the idea of getting it on the table and cleaning it up again :)  

Luckily we have a great restaurant right across the street.  And ice cream for dessert :)  

This morning we walked down to the local sporting goods store.  Two of our boys needed new helmets for their growing heads.  I loved this line of colorful kids taking a short rest before heading to lunch.  

Julianna bought rollerblades and spent almost four hours this afternoon on them!  She said her ankles were sore!  Isaac is also a new roller blade fan - but his cash flow is a little low to be considering a roller blade purchase.  I'm praying that I'll see a used pair for sale in the next few months.  [This time of year we see a lot of turnover in the expat population of our city, so it's a great time to be looking for roller blades!]  

And after lunch Mom and I headed for Ikea where we bought a new set of shelves that will be my "linen closet".  It's set up and hiding behind the door of our bedroom.  After all our walking and with the addition of our new shelves we decided to take a three-wheeled motorcycle cart home.  

Now the house is quiet and I'm headed for bed.  Tomorrow's forecast is beautiful and we often spend Sunday afternoon at a park.  Maybe I'll take my camera :)  

the help (Luke and Mom)

Everyone was a little squirrel-y yesterday afternoon.  Easily frustrated, snappy voices, quick to fuss.   Hours like those exhaust me.

But we made it through.  Dinner on the table, eaten, cleaned up, boys through the bath, and a few chapters of Narnia.  Tomorrow is a new day.

In the chaos I decided to snap some photos.  Maybe to distract me from the insanity :)

Luke is a professional table-setter..... it's probably his favorite way to help.  He specializes in thorough-ness :)  

My mom is even more helpful (imagine!).  She arrived anxious to help out in the kitchen.  No problemo :)

One other nice thing about Grandmama in town - extra capacity to do more complicated crafting.  They worked on this tie-dye scarf and I think it turned out really well!

Lydia helping with the dinner rolls.  She arranged the serving platter herself :)

And John Paul.  Poor guy.  No energy.  ha!

More coloring (and Dad in the background, working with his computer). 

Surely today is gonna be a better one, right?

the weekend

Friday Dad walked with me to get the boys from school.  John Paul loves to wear clothes that match his Granddaddy!

Later that afternoon Isaac took a few photos at the playground.  I rarely stand at the base of a high-rise and just look up, but he did.

While we played our way through most of Friday and Saturday Matt and his companions reached the summit of a 16,000 ft peak.  He was pretty pumped.  Obviously.

And it's good to have him home again too.

departing, arriving

Matt left early Wednesday morning for a trip to the western mountains.  I heard from him yesterday and then received these two photos around noon today.  Unless he happens to cross an area with a weak cell signal somewhere back in those mountains I won't expect to hear from him again until Saturday.

This kind of travel feeds his soul.  And I know - wherever he is - there's a big smile on his face :)

There are plenty of smiles on faces around here too.  The exact same day that Matt departed.... my parents arrived!  Mom and Dad have been in Asia for four months already, so they are jet lag free and eager to join right in to all the fun.  We've had two gorgeous days, pleasantly warm and sunny.  The perfect welcome for a six-week stay here in town!

Dad is teaching basketball, Mom is teaching crochet.  They're practically on staff with our little home school :)

Perfect timing, since we could use some fresh legs here for the final laps of the race!

a picture and a few sentences

An April Monday, in the rear view mirror.

It's getting late and I'm getting wrapped up in the Narnia stories, so there's not much to say tonight.  [Matt and the big three are reading through Narnia for the 2nd time, and it got me to thinking that I might need a little run through Narnia myself.... I'm hoping to finish book one tonight!  I've been turning pages in The Magician's Nephew waiting for this picture to load.]

It's a big week for us - Mom and Dad arriving Wednesday afternoon - so I'll be back with more.  When I finish my book :)

looking ahead (next week goals)

We really lost our home school groove during Easter.  Two field trips the week before.  Monday after Easter Matt had the day off work.  Monday night Julianna spent the night out and Lydia hosted a sleepover friend so Tuesday we just plain skipped school (though they did go to local school in the afternoon).

Wednesday we waded back in to the pile of books.  And today, again, was jumbled and cock-eyed.  But we did it.  We'll do it again tomorrow.  And maybe next week will be our week to shine?

I guess there are some weeks when perseverance is the key?

Today, instead of starting a new writing assignment we spent extra time crafting.  The boys were happy.  The girls were happy.  It wasn't a hard decision :)

We make a tremendous mess crafting.  It seems to be a specialty.  I'm committed to letting supplies fall where they may and doing a massive clean up at the end.

Our craft supplies are *mostly* stored in the bottom half of this cabinet.  I took advantage of the chaos and did a bit of purging.  Yesterday Luke took advantage of my chaos (switching the kids clothes from winter to summer) and snagged himself a new shirt.  I guess you could say both of us are looking for opportunities to turn chaos into gain :)

[His new shirt happens to be a boys size 7.  I know a loosing battle when I see it.]

In addition to getting some "groove" back to our home school days we have another big goal for next week!  Welcoming my parents!  They arrive Wednesday for a 6 week visit.  And we can't wait!

putting eggs in a basket

Monday night, right before bedtime.

Me: "Luke, what did Jesus do on Easter?"

Luke: "Put eggs in a basket."

{Next year during Lent I'll be offering classes on how to help your children understand the true meaning of Easter.  I hope you'll all sign up.}

Looking back at all our pictures, his answer takes on greater clarity.

We did spend a lot of time putting eggs in baskets.

[Saturday afternoon, egg dyeing outdoors, at Graham and Ashlei's.]


[Easter Sunday lunch.  20 children and 11 adults.  We fed the kiddos and almost all of them headed out to play while the littlest stayed inside and the adults enjoyed a slower paced lunch.]

I used our school desks to transform our back porch into a buffet line, freeing up the bar for seating.  It worked well, and the spread was yummy (a breakfast extravaganza - sausage, gravy, biscuits, pancakes, hash brown casserole, fruit, and deviled eggs).

Later afternoon the egg hunt was on.

And we all took turns snuggling the littlest guest, four day old Addelyn.  Welcome to the crowd baby girl, next year you'll be hunting eggs with the best of them :)

Happiest of Easters.  It's joy to share celebrations with dear friends.  We have moved far far far away from our family.  But the Lord has given us a "family" here, and while it doesn't take away the sting of missing our relatives, the fellowship we share with these brothers and sisters is pure gift.

the 2015 garden

Our fifth garden.  Not our fanciest, but the craftsmanship was totally out of my hands.  The big three did their best, and the little two proved to be a challenge.  This is still a favorite of ours - a solid combination of excitement and significance - and even on years when the clover-carpet wilts within hours and the dirt resembles rubble we are sticking with it :)

I missed a picture of praying Jesus on Thursday night, and intended to get Jesus up on the cross at breakfast on Friday.  But he didn't make it there until lunch.  {sigh}

On Friday night we read from the Jesus Storybook Bible and then took our Jesus down from the cross, wrapped him in a napkin and placed him in our potato tomb.  Each kiddo contributed to the process and Julianna finished it up, working to get the big rock in just the right spot, blocking the entire entrance.

By this point our garden was brown and wilted and limp.  It's dreary, and the situation is not looking hopeful at all.

Which is the point.

Entirely.

I think we can tend to forget how terrible Saturday was for the disciples.  Sure, I can spend the day excitedly preparing for the party-to-come {I know who wins the battle, I know who walks out of the tomb!}, but those who loved Jesus on the very first Easter?  Surely their hearts were wilted and limp.

Looking at our box of brown we talked through the story again, since John Paul was concerned we were just going to leave our Jesus in the potato.  It was clear that he was trying to wrap his mind around death... and resurrection .... and the whole thing was leaving him a little confused.  Which is understandable, since it's completely NOT understandable that a man rose from the grave.

I wish I could say that I patiently explained it again, and John Paul's eyes lit up with understanding, and the whole bunch of kids sat attentively, just awed by Momma's wisdom and insight.  But reality is that I gave a half-hearted response and Luke concluded that the angels were the ones who restored life to Jesus and I was too worn-out-with-motherhood to even care to correct him.  I hurried them away from the table, eager for bedtime to be behind me, John Paul still a little perturbed that Jesus had to stay in the potato.

Half an hour later we were in the final stages of bedtime prep when Matt called.  John Paul got first dibs on talking to Daddy and he excitedly hollered into the phone "Daddy! We put Jesus in the tomb but on Easter He will come out!"

It was awesome.

And my heart lightened just a bit with the timely reminder that God is the one who changes hearts and minds.  

We finished our garden this morning, loaded up the van and headed to worship.  Afterwards, a big group of friends gathered at our home for food, fun, fellowship, and an egg hunt.  The last guests didn't leave til after 5pm.  It was a sweet day, and the camera is loaded with pictures, but they'll have to wait for another time.

Happy Easter friends!  His glory shines bright in our imperfections.  Rejoice!

starting the celebrations

Super fun start to our Easter weekend!  I took the boys to school (thankfully drop-offs are still going well!  JP just a professional school-go-er and Luke a bit teary but not distraught.. whew!)  The girls and I grabbed our bag stuffed full of supplies and hit the road, headed for my friend's private school.

A few mishaps along the way didn't set us back!  [bad traffic and Julianna puked... she woke up complaining of a tummy ache but wasn't one to miss out ... the traffic plus tummy troubles sent her over the edge but it was one of the happy "oh I feel so much better now" situations so we quickly cleaned up the minimal damage and pressed on.]

We made handprint Easter lilies with colored paper and disposable chopsticks.  And then dyed Easter eggs - always a treat, especially for kids that have never done it before!  

The school enrolls about 20 kids in multiple grades.  They have dreams to grow much bigger but for now it's a really great size for this type of morning activity.  

And while the egg-dyeing finished up Julianna, Lydia and their friend Rejoice (one of the older students) snuck downstairs to hide Easter eggs.

The grassy area outside was the perfect spot and the hunt was a big success.  The kids headed back inside to eat lunch and we three girls hurried for the van.... time to go get our little brothers!

The rest of the afternoon flew by.  Matt is on a midnight flight home and we just started a 3 day weekend (this year a Chinese lunar holiday randomly lined up with Easter Monday).  yay!

to the panda bears, with friends

It's always special when friends from the States make it to our side of the globe.  And it's not something we take for granted!

Tim and Twyla were only here for a short visit, but it didn't take long for the kids to warm up!  Matt and I really enjoyed longer visits with them in the evening, after the little troops were in bed too.

On the only full day of their visit we knew that the Panda Research Base was a must-see.  First trip for John Paul and the first memory-making trip for Luke.  (Our last trip was spring 2012, with infant Luke and knee-deep in John Paul approval paperwork.)

These guys never disappoint.  I took disappointingly few pictures, but my hands were otherwise occupied!  After a full morning of panda watching we headed back into town to meet Matt and some friends for lunch.

Our afternoon flew by and Tim provided after dinner paper-airplane-making entertainment for everyone.  Luke is probably Tim's biggest fan :)

Twyla was a tremendous blessing, listening to Lydia's chatter, playing cards with Isaac, patiently allowing John Paul to be "on her team".

I have a group picture (with me in it!) from the panda base, but it's not on this computer so I'll have to post it later.

We are steam-rolling towards Easter.  Our dear friends welcomed a baby daughter this morning and I've already been up to the hospital for a snuggle :)  Matt is on a brief road trip and the girls and I lead an Easter activity at a local school tomorrow morning.  We started our Easter garden today too.  Our pipe-cleaner Jesus is praying tonight, and we'll move him to the cross in the morning.  [Oh, and I'm waiting til Matt is home for the egg-dyeing.  I've been pretty impatient these last few days and I'm not sure launching an egg dyeing party is gonna help anything... best to wait for reinforcements!]

camo shirt. argyle socks.

What else can I say?