sleepover central

Since my sister is in town, we decided to have a sleepover with all the girls at my house. After a fun afternoon of lunch at Don Juan's, a girl's trip to Target and some frozen yogurt, we all went our separate ways for an hour or so. Then we met back up at sleepover central.

We played, decorated MK's cardboard house, colored, decorated cookies, popped popcorn, watched part of a movie, went to the park and had a lot of fun.

Our first attempt at a picture of all three girls left us with this...

Madelyn is so silly but she finally calmed down for a few seconds to give us a normal-ish smile!

Hopefully we can squeeze in another sleepover before the week is over!

my spunky princess

Dear Madelyn,
When we walked through the door after church this morning, you immediately ran back to your bedroom. We were about to turn right around and head to lunch, all I needed to do was a quick change. Five minutes later I was ready to go and found you just like this in your rocking chair. I managed to convince you to leave the hat, necklaces and glove at home, but the Tinker Bell costume was not coming off. Rather than make a big deal out of it, I let you wear it in the car. I thought you might be ready to take it off when we got to lunch. That wasn't the case either.

You wore it to lunch (and received several puzzled looks as I received sympathetic smiles from moms) and were so proud!

I adored the pink and brown polka dot dress you had on underneath. You looked so precious, like a little lady. You felt like a princess though when you put on that costume and it made all those funny looks worth it!

Love you and your spunky little personality!

Love,
Mom

missing Africa

It's been five months since my trip to Uganda with Parental Care Ministries.

So much of my life and my way of thinking is different now. Yet too much of it is still the same as it was before I went. Every morning, night and the time in between I find my heart and mind thinking of these precious children though. Africa has a big chunk of my heart and I don't ever want it back.


Want to get involved? Want to help orphan and needy children?

Sponsor a child by clicking here: http://www.pcmonline.org/orphans.php

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Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.  James 1:27

Rainy Day Painting

It was a paint on the porch and watch the rain kind of day around here. Today and in to the weekend we are supposed to have five to seven inches of rain. So the day went about like this:

• snuggle in mommy and daddy's bed for a little while
• cook breakfast together
• have a dance party in the kitchen
• play with baby dolls
• watch the rain through the open windows
• paint on the porch
• paint the porch
• take a really long bath
• lunch
• naptime
• read books in MK's room
• movie time (which lasted 15 minutes-fail)
• play in the playroom
• play-doh
• dry erase board fun
• bake cookies
• snuggle on the couch and read stories
• watch Super Why
• dinner

And then Daddy came home! Woo-hoo!

"something is missing"

Madelyn Kate,
Your little quirks make me smile on a daily basis. One that you developed at a very young age has to do with your plates. If I prepare a meal for you on a plate with sections, every section has to have something in it or you won't touch anything. Before you spoke well, you would point to the empty section. When you started talking you would point to that spot and sign and say "more". Now you say, "Something is missing. Mommy!! Something is missing".

If I try to spread something out to cover two sections, you separate it back out and demand something new.

You are quirky and cute and I love every bit of you!

Love,
Mom

Daddy's new toy...

Daddy's new before work/lunch time/after work toy.

MK likes to watch him.

She would really prefer to be the one in the boat.

For now she settles for cheering him on from the shore.

We are soaking up lake life, especially since we know we won't have the water in our backyard forever!

park time

We have the greatest park about 10 minutes from our house. Madelyn loved playing at it for over an hour this morning. The only thing that would have made her love it more is if the other little boy playing there wanted to play with her. It was a meeting of little miss never-met-a-stranger and the most shy child I've ever met. She simply did not understand why he wouldn't look at her or talk to her.

Before we left, we played a game of I spy. She's getting so good at it. It was all fun and games until she said, "I spy with my little eyes a not nice little boy." Oh dear. When Luke and I have taught her that it's rude not to speak back to someone who speaks to you, it's hard to explain that her new would be park friend was not being rude.

It was a good learning time for my little extrovert.

It was also a good learning time for this mom!