Monday, June 26, 2017

An early Kaity celebration!

We celebrated Kaity's fifth birthday here at The Beach House Saturday, late afternoon. We started a little "deal" for her last birthday that she was agreeable to (thankfully). We agreed to buy some very nice toys that we would keep right here for Kaity to play with, instead of taking them home to her house. You see, things tend to get lost there.
 Kaity had no idea what was in this box. Thankfully, Emma wrapped this up for me the week before. She did such a nice job.
 This is two sets of PLAYMOBILE. One is a nifty playground. The other is a camping/picnic set. It is SO cute. And it is very fun to watch her play with all of the tiny people, kitty's, birds, and little accessories that come with these sets.
 Kaity was very pleased. She loves stuff like this.

 Emma also assembled both sets before wrapping them up so that Kaity would not have to wait while all the pieces were figured out. Thank you, Emma!

 We got out our PlayMobile horses and stables and got all of the people together for a good time.

 We enjoyed some mini-cupcakes and ice cream together. We sang Happy Birthday to our sweet Kaity ...
 We told her to make a wish ....
 She had to think this over quite awhile .... meantime Chris was complaining that wax was getting all over the cupcakes ...
You are precious, Kaity!

An overnight with Brendan ...

It has been a really long time since Brendan had a sleepover at The Beach House; so we decided it was high time. Friday was it! I picked up Little Fellow after work, we did some grocery shopping, and then we headed on home.



 I love having this little child come over to my house. He loves it here. We just hang out together and it is usually very relaxing.


 I put my tent up in the playroom and that is where Brendan slept Friday night. He FINALLY honked out by about 10:15 and slept all the way until 7:30 Saturday morning.
 We decided to go to the township park Saturday morning. Brendan had such fun here. He is a very mechanical and determined little person.
 I loved watching him work this shovel. He really kept at it until he had it mastered. This is a VERY heavy shovel, and Brendan was super strong about it.


 Brendan climbed to the top of the tallest slide. I love his facial expressions!




 It was a beautiful, but very cool, end of June Saturday morning. It was perfect for running around at a playground.

 And also, for the first time, we walked this super nice trail that winds around wetlands and beautiful woodsy places. Our little dear was running and fell down, scraping the skin off his fourth finger as well as his left knee. He cried a little bit, but then got up and kept walking--although we switched directions and instead of heading deeper into the woods, we did a turn-about back to the car ...
where some nice clear cold water awaited his wounds. He was a brave little sweetheart! I love him so.





This is really quite a beautiful little place to hike, don't you think?

Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Precious Kaity

I picked Kaity up yesterday at 2:00. We came over to the Beach House to play for a little while. I had gotten this baby romper/walker toy out of my shed a few weeks ago for baby Aidan. We put Paco in it for fun today. Kaity pretended Paco was our baby and gave him little rides around the front room and kitchen.
 We painted a pretty picture for Diana's birthday. Kaity was so pleased. We put together a brand new Melissa & Doug puzzle (48 piece wood Pirate puzzle) and that was fun. We also read TWO complete stories. One of the books was about a little girl, Lily, who found a big brown "puppy" that was actually a BEAR (that had run away from the zoo) out in her garden. It was a very funny little book. We also read a complete story about Peter Rabbit forgetting it was Mother's Day and trying to make her a strawberry pie with strawberries from the fox's strawberry patch. Kaity listened to both stories very engaged today--laughing and anticipating and smiling ... this is good, and shows real growth in Kaity's attention level. Thank you, Lord.
 At one point, I found out that my camera battery needed recharging; so I plugged it into the wall. Right before we left to go to the playground, I remembered my camera battery was NOT in my camera! "What if it didn't get charged enough, Kaity?" I asked. "Take a picture of me and see if it turns out," was Kaity's reply. Below is the picture. :)
 I decided to take Kaity to a playground we had never played at over at Lamoreaux Park.
 It isn't too big, but it is very colorful and there is quite enough to do there.
 Kaity did EVERYTHING.
 Kaity is SO physical, SO athletic, and quite fearless.
 And doesn't she have the sweetest little face?
 I just love her so.
 Kaity showed me how strong she is and was quite the monkey ...

 We took a little walk mid-way through our playtime over to where the fishing ponds were (in the background of this photo above). I failed to get any pictures over there; but Kaity was a real trooper and ran most of the way. We also met a little blind dog and its kind owner. Kaity got to pet the dog and we visited for awhile with the woman who owned him.


We also played school for a little while at this tiny place underneath the playground. It had a good alphabet board, etc. Kaity wanted me to be the teacher; so I was!
 Mill Creek runs right next to the playground ... so pretty.


 Dear Kaity--do you have any idea how precious you are?


 Thank you, Lord, for this little girl. Oh Father, I pray she will know and love You some day. I pray she will KNOW how deeply You love her and how you have rescued her so that she can belong to you.

 I love Monday afternoons!

PS:    I neglected to take any pictures whatsoever when the kiddos came over Saturday afternoon and evening! So I do not have a separate post for that. But I do want to chronicle that we enjoyed a nice french toasty meal, played games together, and had a good time. Emma spent the night and together we watched "Hacksaw Ridge" which was probably the most graphically violent film I have ever seen in my life. I can't believe I let Emma watch it. Except it was based on a true story and during the grossest fighting, we left the room together because we just couldn't watch any more blood and guts. We both decided, though, that the story itself was beautiful and very worth telling.

Emma and I also went to church Sunday morning. We've been studying the book of Ruth the last several weeks. Before bedtime on Saturday nights, I have been reading the book of Ruth to Emma and talking about it with her. I have so enjoyed this. Anyway, church was wonderful. We studied the story of Ruth through the eyes of Boaz this week. What a wonderful man Boaz was--so protective, a man of integrity, and so kind to Ruth. This next week, we are going to look at the story from Ruth's perspective. I am looking forward to it!