Sunday, April 22, 2007

Happiness is: Children and Grandchildren

We had Emma and Christopher over for our usual Friday afternoon.
We always start our play in the family room
with Thomas, Percy, Donald, Molly (our trains).
Emma and Chris like to make up their own stories with the trains --
they have watched our Thomas videos and they like to imitate those stories
and create problems that Sir Topham Hatt has to solve --
mostly it involves Percy or Thomas wanting to have
all the tracks to themselves and not sharing --
Sir Topham Hatt comes to teach the little engines how to be patient and how to share!

Since it was such an amazingly beautiful day here

and since Uncle Adam and Aunt Emily came over to play (which they often do)

we went outside in the backyard to see if we could play some baseball!

Uncle Adam was a very astute pitcher and knew exactly how
to throw the ball right at Emma's bat in exactly the right place!
Emma was so delighted to hit the ball -- and SHE WAS GOOD!

We got out our rakes and tried to get a little bit of yard work accomplished . . .
Emma enjoys helping with raking, picking up sticks, picking weeds
(remind her of this, Diana, when she is a bit older and her chores involve
yard work -- tell her she joyfully did it when she was little!)
We got out the sidewalk chalk and Aunt Emily drew a nearly perfect picture of
SPONGE BOB -- except I didn't get a picture of it!
Emma likes to pick her favorite color of chalk and carefully draw.
Christopher likes to dump all of the chalk out of the containers
and try each color -- he especially likes to add his two cents to other folks' pictures!

We got out the jump ropes and tried to teach the little kids to jump;
but they are a bit young yet for jumping rope . . .
so Uncle Adam entertained us by jumping very fast . . .
We also had him demonstrate the high jump.
Emma thought it was pretty cool that Uncle Adam could jump that high.
She told me that when she grew up she was going to jump high too.
Aunt Emily decided it would be fun to do manicures.
Christopher was sure that red would be a good color on his toes.
We told him his daddy would not agree.
Emma picked out pink for her toes and a beautiful sparkly red for her finger nails.
Aunt Emily compromised with Chris and painted his toes clear
(don't worry, Jesse -- it doesn't show up!)
We found our bubble wands from last year and spent a lot of time
making huge, gigantic bubbles that went up to the sky and touched the trees!


However, Emma had gotten a taste of baseball,
and nothing came close to her joy of hitting the ball --
she has a very good eye for the game and decided that no one
threw the ball quite like Uncle Adam.
Grandma and Grandpa tried to pitch to her, but Adam was the best.

The moment of victory! Emma is GOOD at baseball! Uncle Adam is a star pitcher!

On Saturday, Matthew joined us for some playtime.

He had fun making bubbles too,
although he kept putting his hands in the liquid and wiping his hands on his clothes and hair . . .
Emma and Chris tried to show Matthew how much fun it was to make bubbles!
They are pretty good at teaching their little brother.

We didn't have much time Saturday to be with the kids
but we wanted to give them some time to play at their favorite park.
We spent about an hour playing and we met lots of other children!
Isn't it cool how little kids form instant friendships?
This is Zoe and Caleb, two total strangers, sharing their sand toys
with Emma and Chris.
Chris and Caleb were into stomping out castles.
Emma and Zoe wanted their castles left alone!
So the girls picked up all the sand toys and kept trying to get away from the boys!
I was watching, and all four of them were pretty frustrated; so I suggested that they play
FOLLOW THE LEADER -- Zoe was the instant leader, and all three children
followed her around the playground for the next 15 minutes, imitating her every move!
Matthew stayed with Grandpa at the park because he wasn't feeling well on Saturday; so Grandpa put him in the stroller and walked with him so that I could play with Emma and Chris. In all of these pictures, I have just realized that Grandpa is not included. It is not because he didn't work very hard at playing with us! In fact, he not only played with us, but he fixed dinner for us on Friday evening as well as lunch on Saturday.

We don't have many days left with Emma, Chris and Matthew here in Michigan; and Uncle Adam and Aunt Emily are moving in one week. I'm deeply sad about all of that, but I'm really thankful that we have these memories to look back on. I don't know what the future holds for any of us, but I know I can trust the Lord to take care of my family; and so I am praying that His will be done in each life, just as it is in heaven.

4 comments:

Sabrina said...

I love the pictures and all the stories! Children are happiness! I love Emma's haircut, did Emily cut it?

JonesChronicles said...

Mom, what a fun day you had! You sure know how to tire those kids out! The sheer number of activities is astounding. I feel exhausted just thinking of keeping up!

Mom, your encouraging spirit helps combat my pessimism. It has been fun finding out that MY mother-in-law is really a friend. I don't know if you are familiar with this song...and I can't even remember who sings it...but I think of you when I hear the chorus:

You've been more than a friend to me, You fight off my enemies, and you have spoken truth over my life. And you'll never know what it means to me just to know you've been on your knees for me. Oh, you have blessed my life more than you'll ever know.

I'll tell you what I tell Nathan:
"I'm busy loving you!"

JonesChronicles said...

Mom, it is good that Emma likes baseball because in the short time that I have been in Houston I know this. being a Astros fan is a must if you want to call your self a texan. I have already told rachel about this and inform her of all the out coming of the games. (and big plays that people could talk about.)

-nick

Thursday said...

Hi, Carol! It's Suz...I found your page through Sabrina's. Very cute. :)

I think the attitude difference between a very young child's eagerness to help clean, rake, etc. and an older child's (or adult's, actually) reticence to do chores is partly because...well, we call them CHORES, right? I think there's something in Mary Poppins' classic advice about finding the fun in every job that must be done. :) I remember fighting with my brother over who got to dustmop...before either of us "had" to do it.

Looking forward to keeping up with the Joneses. :)