She's a Maniac!

Vintage Apron Gets New Life!

Cupcake discovered the joy of wearing an apron today! She wore it as a dress, a hat, and cape! She danced and rolled around in it. She knows this fashion statement is never going out of style!

...and she didn't cook a thing!

~Now, that's the way to do it!

Lending a Hand!

Serving the community and giving back is such a great opportunity! This weekend, we were excited to help out with a local food drive! The American Heritage Girls invited a few Cub Scouts to join them at this service project. A local musical group that draws quite a crowd encouraged concert goers to bring canned goods and non-perishable items with them to the event. The crowd was very generous and the kids gathered close to 800 items for the pantry! What a blessing! And what a great opportunity to teach our kids about helping others!

Warm hearts triumphed over our frozen fingers!

Praise God for the opportunity and the lessons learned!

Let's Go Fly a Kite!

With the promise of Spring in the air, we've been drawn outside at every sunny moment! Cupcake and I decided to take advantage of the windy breezes and (try to) fly a kite. What a great idea-other than the tangled string, twisted kite tails, and misc. kite parts that needed homes!

Cupcake really enjoyed the kite tails most of all! Running through them, grabbing them and running with them, and getting them all tangled up around her shoes after spinning in circles! Who needs the kite when you can just enjoy the tails? We actually got it to fly for a few brief moments! Kites don't stay up very long, however, when someone is running in the opposite direction with it's tail in their hand!

Oh yeah, we're professional kite-handlers in the making!

Yeah right!

A Lesson Learned...

The Annual Pinewood Derby Race always stirs up excitement with Cub Scouts. Each boy gets a wooded block to make into their very own speedster. Sanding, planning, cutting, more sanding, and painting their car in the hopes that their efforts pay off with that coveted win! Supergus is no different-he saw a dream car amidst the grain of that rectangle. He drew up his own car design! He asked Grandpa Moo to use his gift of carpentry to carve out the hot rod. The sanding took at least two days! He painted it black with fire flames. The sleek design seemed to scream proudly how aerodynamic is was! It weighed in light, but they added weights to help him out and added graphite to the wheels!

We were set! Supergus proudly wore his uniform and gathered with his friends to cheer on his creation! The cars were as varied as the personalities of the boys entering the race! Some flashed stripes! Some had lettering and add-ons like seats and NFL helmets! Some were simple and some were pretty complex.

Each boy started out with excitement! Cheers went out as the cars raced. Supergus's friends chanted his name! He glowed with pride. He lost... Three times and was the first to be eliminated... His pride deflated and he looked defeated, but tried to keep his chin up. We were proud of his reaction to the loss. He really felt bad, but he kept cheering on his friends.

He's a great kid and it didn't take an event like this to prove it--it only reminded us how awesome he is! He's a winner, I'll tell you, and we don't need a trophy to say it!

He's already talking about next year!

Trying something new!

We hit the ground running...or spinning rather!

And at times we just hit the ground--period.

But we had fun!

Handprints on our Hearts

These photographs are reminders. Gentle reminders that time goes by so quickly and all of the day's events will all too soon become memories of yesterday. Our children leave fingerprints on everything~mirrors, walls, television screens, but mostly on our hearts. I'm reminded of the small hand print that Supergus put on a freshly painted wall of his bedroom. I'm glad I didn't repaint over that small mishap. I think back to the small friends, including pooh, piglet, and rabbit, that were hiding on the window sill behind the curtain one morning. I love to see these precious reminders again and again.

Our children model us. They watch us and repeat what they see and hear. What gifts are we leaving for them to discover that will remind them of our love for them? Kisses on the way out the door? Notes in a lunch box? Remedies to fix a bad day? Comforting hugs and encouraging smiles? Pancakes that were supposed to be mickey mouse, but turned out to be a snowman?

The love of Jesus?

So, from bathing duckies to that peanut butter sandwich found under the couch--I encourage you to love it! Remember it! And treasure these things up in your heart, for tomorrow comes all too soon and our children will be grown. Here's to finding joy in the moment and jelly in the bottom of your purse!

Where The Wild Things Are!

Be careful not to have too many stuffed animals in your bed!

At night, they come alive and talk to one another! They plan... they plot...they party! One night recently. we crept into Supergus's room after hearing an unusual sound. We heard giggling! The sight we saw took us totally by surprise! Can you believe these cute little animals were having a pile-up-party right there on Supergus!? He slept through the whole thing! Luckily, we got a few pictures as proof that we are not crazy. He claims to not remember a thing. AND he claims we had something to do with it. Now that's crazy.

We're innocent.

of course.

Playdate!

Cupcake is becoming quite the little social butterfly! She had a friend over for her first official playdate! The girls had a good time (so did we moms!). They only took a few moments to get used to the idea there was someone else just their size to play with! Only, when they became overly comfortable did Cupcake decide they were her toys.

The afternoon lent itself to learning to share, taking turns, seeing what each other sippy cups had in them! The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, you know! It just didn't work when one girl had a cup in each hand and the other had none. No grass is even worse!

Having the children play was wonderful and we already scheduled another day together! I think I'm going to have to get a calendar just for her schedule!

Chinese New Year

Well folks, after years of waiting, buckets of tears, and enough prayers to fill a thousand journals, we made it..... we got to celebrate our first Chinese New Year as a completed family. There were years we went and celebrated without Cupcake and there were years we just couldn't go because it hurt too much. But this year? We celebrated like we had created this holiday! Every minute was filled excitement (sometimes a little too much for Cupcake (those of you that have seen her visa photo know that look!))! From the dragon parade to the duck for dinner to the origami projects to the fireworks~we celebrated! But most of all we were joyful~ Overwhelming joy and love filled our hearts! It was amazing to see Supergus chatting with other children during the group photo when we could barely convince him to get in the picture just a year before. He felt he didn't belong there...and maybe we felt that way too at times. God kept calling us, and we kept waiting. God is so faithful! So Happy New Year everyone! We look forward to celebrating it again every year~TOGETHER!

Sudsy Business

Supergus getting a lesson on washing dishes! YES! He did a great job~next we'll move on to laundry.... and the bathroom.....and dusting.....washing my van!!

*evil laugh*

Back-talkers Beware!

It has been said that around certain parts of the country, okay particularly the part of the country that is our home address, that back-talking and sarcasm are crimes that can't go unpunished. So, even with slight sarcasm we have to take measures. Primarily, being put "butt first in the snow" tends to rectify most cases. Even if the victim claims to be innocent, it's just fun to watch! And watching NEVER gets old!

Winter Carnival

After having to postpone the Winter Carnival once, we were so excited to finally attend the annual event at the school! The sledding hill was plenty primed from hours of recesses and avid sledders making the path like glass by the time we arrived! There was even a bump or two down the way that would send you shooting in the air in a new direction, hopefully landing in one piece! We spent the morning sledding and playing "hockey". What a great way to enjoy the seemingly never-ending gift of snow. If you were outside that day, I'm sure you could have heard me screaming allllll the way down the hill! The child inside of us got to come out and play all afternoon!