LOTS of photographs of our weekend ...

Another weekend has flown by! Friday and Saturday comes and goes so quickly every week. If I don't journal what we did together, I will not remember these precious family times ~ my memory isn't the best! And since a picture can say a thousand words ... I am posting a multitude of them today, with minimal commentary.

Matthew John ... looking a little bit
weary after a long week at school.

The children had a 1/2 day at school Friday, but I didn't know that until ... Friday! So I didn't pick them up any earlier than usual. I'd had a very busy week and had a lot of unfinished business to complete Friday, so it worked out for the best.  

This week our Bible story was about the Miracle of Multiplication, when Jesus fed the 5,000. Since I can go on-line to many children's Bible sites, I was able to print out some color pages that illustrated the story very well. The kiddos colored while I read the story to them. 

We talked all about how much Jesus cared about the people who followed him just like He cares about us right now as we walk with Him. We talked about Jesus being "the Bread of life" and read the story from John 6. They really enjoyed just coloring as we talked about the miracle that Jesus was able to accomplish and not only feed 5,000 men but probably as many women and children ~ and not only give them enough, give them a surplus, so that everyone was very full and happy!

It was Matthew's turn to pick the Friday night movie, and he chose "The Lorax" by Dr. Seuss. Actually, we had seen this movie at the theatre back in El Paso a few years ago; so it was fun to see it again, even if it was just on the small screen of my computer. It's a good story and the children enjoyed it. I think everyone, except Christopher (so consequently, me too) was sleeping by 11:15 ... but everyone slept in until 8:30 Saturday morning.

Since we were expecting company Saturday, late afternoon, we had to make preparation! We had invited Uncle Dylan, Aunt Kelly, and baby Brendan ... as well as Grandpa Pahman, Jesse, Diana, baby Kaity, and Shane to come over for dinner Saturday night.  

Emma remembered that Brendan likes "spinning" toys ... so she constructed him a LocBloc spinning robot guy ... 

 Chris and Matthew kept busy with art projects while Emma and I "kid-proofed" the house and removed all small objects that would be inappropriate for babies.

Emma didn't want Kaity to feel left out, so she
made her a toy using LocBlocs as well ...

 I asked the kiddos if they would make Grandpa Pahman a thank you card for taking care of their Mitzy-cat all of these months, so they got right to work on it!

I remembered, about mid-afternoon, that I had a sample CD of Aunt Kelly singing some beautiful songs she had written and I asked Emma if she wanted to hear how beautifully her Aunt Kelly could sing ... we actually played this sample CD 10x before they arrived at about 4:00 in the afternoon. 

Brendan found his "gift" from Emma
and immediately removed the
spinner ... so that he could fully enjoy
SPINNING it!

 Christopher and Brendan enjoyed playing together. Brendan was quite fond of Chris's hat and kept putting it on and off ...

We asked Aunt Kelly if she could help us with our "EASY" Origami book, which is NOT easy one single bit! So she sat down and seriously constructed this difficult lion from the instructions in our book. She agreed with us that the illustrations were not clear and that it was anything but easy! 

The kiddos enjoying a few appetizers ...

I love this picture of Kelly!

 We ate lots of veggies and dip, chips (!), pretzels, grapes, tangerines, jell-o, and pizza!

 Brendan baby was somewhat ... stressed with all of the chaos. He typically comes to my house and has the place to himself! AND ... since he is a very industrious and intense little person, it was a little upsetting to him to see all of his toys (!) played with by so many children all at once. His daddy was taking the time to explain things to him ...

 Baby Kaity hasn't been to my house very often. She seemed happy to explore and play with every little thing she could reach ... and she is a tall little girl and can reach lots of stuff!

I didn't do a very good job at photographing all of us together ... I had my hands full just making sure everyone had enough to eat, etc. But it was good to all be together. Regrettably, Shane was too sick to be able to be with us ~ he did not want to infect the kiddos ~ so he will join us next time!