zoo much fun!

Yesterday, we headed to the zoo for some animal adventures and to check out the new elephant exhibit and visit some old favorites. Ben, confined to a stroller most of the time, was not a happy camper. He wanted to get out and run with his sister and brothers, but until I buy or make a harness for him (I saw several kids with this accessory yesterday), he's going to be tooling around in his stroller...for my sanity. :)

conflicting body language: what does Reese  really think of the Meercat exhibit?

touching a snake - last time these two helped hold a python!

here comes an elephant

My mom with Brie and Tim and Jack (my sister's family)

Ben's first train ride

This next series of photos are my favorite of the day:

"This turtle is...

...really. slippery"...

..."There! I think I got it."

"My brother cracks me up!"

 

"Now this is how you tame a plastic turtle:"

BTW...Reese chose this wardrobe especially for this trip. He referred to them as his "zoo clothes" (maybe because of the animals printed on them?) An outfit for every occasion.

swim.bike.run. training countdown

Training officially begins a week from today according to the 12-week plan I'm following. Let the countdown begin...

gifting love

One of the things I used to love doing was spending time thinking the perfect gift to give for a birthday or Christmas and creatively packaging it up. I especially went all out at Christmas and would even hold off putting on the gift tags until just before the gifts would be opened to keep the suspense up.

Then as we quickly grew our family to four children in just under six years, suddenly my planning and creating time became drastically reduced. And I hate the scramble that comes with realizing we're days away from the event and I need to find something to give and hope I have a not-too-crumpled or wrong-for-the occasion gift bag and tissue paper. For me, gift giving is about looking into a person's heart and choosing something that is just right for them. When I rush it or don't think the gift and packaging through, I feel a piece is missing from the gift. Perhaps they don't see it. But I do.

So I'm attempting to recommit myself to thoughtful gift-giving. This weekend I was challenged to come up with two gifts - one for a birthday party Luke was going to and the other for Mother's Day (I completely missed the boat on my brother-in-law's gift..grrr).

For the birthday gift, Luke selected a Care Bears coloring book, and I found this waterbottle craft (practical and fun!). Instead of traditional gift bag...I jazzed up a straw bag ($2.50 at Target):

To put the finishing touches on it I used the wallflower (to replace using tissue paper) and ruffle steamers tutorials from Dana's blog and painted a simple gift tag. Here's how it looked all put together:

Gifting time/special things to do together is one of my favorite things to give - it doesn't wear out or break and it's one of those things we always want more of but never have enough of. For my mom, I gifted a mother/daughter/granddaughter hike followed by high tea. Here's how I packaged the gift card:

Note: I also used the ruffle streamers technique to create the ruffle flowers for these gifts.

What are your favorite types of gifts to give? Do you have a special or favorite ways of packaging the gifts? Please feel free to share in the comments section. And happy gifting!

finds: lemon verbena candle

I found this candle in Target yesterday, on sale (!). I love the freshness of the lemon scent and the extra bonus of environmentally friendliness of the soy wax. They have other scents and sizes too.

today

Today...
...I piled the kids into a shopping cart at Target and wheeled around gathering items for some party decorations, things to tuck in a birthday gift and loaded up on a few essentials

...we headed to the Nature Center to beat the rainy weather blues

....I laughed at the goodness of God when He helped us find our way to the Nature Center after a "road closed" sign (and no posted detour signs!) caused us to alter our route and guess our way there. I just "happened" to turn onto the one other road that goes right past the Center...Shepherd's Hill Lane!

...we enjoyed finding turtles, snakes, fish and crickets, pressed buttons on a light up map, crawled through a tunnel and into a kid-sized tortoise shell (the kids did these things :)), watched the river run under the lookout deck, savored maple sugar candies, played with puzzles, ran along the trails outside the center


...I laughed as I turned around to discover Ben sitting in a mud puddle because it looked like he deliberately chose to sit there

...the kids made new friends with children who are moving next door to us

...rejoiced at the return of the sun - it seems like ages since we've seen blue sky

from milk to real food

One of the greatest takeaways from my reading of Beth Moore's books and her Bible studies is the importance of memorizing scripture and declaring it  -out loud. I'm still working on the out loud part.

The memorization part is something I've been doing for a while and it's a discipline I've wanted to grow in our children. Ever notice how easily children can memorize their lines of their favorite books or movies and how they delight themselves in doing so? That's what I want for our children when it comes to the Living Word.

Two years ago, Beth Moore started a year-long Scripture Memorization Team on her blog. When she re-introduced it this year, I knew I wanted to involved my children somehow. This is what I came up with:

Inside this decorated infant formula can are 24 pieces of index cards (Beth has the SMT memorize two verses per month). Most cards have verses I selected from the Bible that I felt would be helpful to memorize. A few verses are from Brie's Missionettes class and a few are blank - awaiting new verses from Brie's class or my own additions.

Each day, our kids rotate who gets to choose the Bible verse for that day (I love this part since Ben, who's almost two, can participate and understands the thrill of getting to pick a verse). Then we read the verse at each meal of the day. If it's a new verse or kind of long, I sometimes read it twice.

And that's it. I figure if we do this (almost) every day for a year, then we should have a good number of those verses memorized, if not all of them. The best part is that the kids look forward to choosing the verse and often remind me that we need to pick one on the days that I've forgotten. :)

Making the container was simple, too. I used plain brown wrapping paper to cover the side of the formula can and cut a circle to tape on the inset of the can's lid (glue wouldn't stick to the plastic). I printed out the words on a label and then added a trim of 1/4" red rickrack.

maxing out the memory

Maybe it's getting older, having several young children, juggling more than one thing in a day, or all these things combined, but whatever it is, I think I'm maxing out the short-term memory compartment of my brain most days. Yesterday was a prime example...

I decided to go to the gym in the morning to work out. Since the kids would be in the child watch room, I figured I would shower there instead of at home. Which, of course, means packing a few extra items.

After dropping off the kids, I headed to the locker room to store my things and take out my discman - only to discover I had left it at home but somehow managed to bring two locks with me. "No big deal," I think. I also realized I left my flip flops at home (those I prefer to use in the shower but also could do without).

Post-workout, I head for the locker room, grab my bag and head to the shower. Only to realize I hadn't thought to bring a towel or shampoo. And then I began to laugh at my total lack of preparedness and how I managed to leave home without the most essential piece of the shower-at-the-gym plan.

Anyone else have a moment or two like this?