A do-nothing kind of day ...

Monday, August 6:  I picked up my boys this morning at 9:30 (after a horrendous start to my day--see prior post). We saw "Tom", the Mary Freebed Turkey on Madison Street  as we drove to my house ...

This is the Mary Freebed Turkey ...

Brendan wanted to get a good look at him, so I circled around and stopped. We had a little conversation with "Tom" before driving on ...

"Tom" hangs out on Madison Avenue ...
This is his second year in the neighborhood!

I was given some instructions by Dylan and Kelly this morning, the first one being that Brendan was to be allowed NO screen time today OR tomorrow--it seems Brendan disobeyed quite a few times during bedtime and then this morning ... so ... this was the consequence. Brendan and I had a few "talks" about this throughout our day. The best one was during lunch when I asked Brendan what some of his feelings were about what had happened. He is such a dear little fellow. I decided to review (once again) the story of Adam and Eve and how when they disobeyed God they HID from Him and were frightened to see Him. We talked about those feelings of shame and fear when we don't do the right thing. We talked about how much freedom obedience gives us and how much happiness it brings to us, to our parents, and to God. I tried to keep it light and threw in a few stories from my own childhood, like the time I stole the little bag of gum from the dime store up the street. Brendan listened very acutely when I told him the story.

Anyway, instead of resorting to screen time, we read quite a few books! I'm glad I visited the Library two weeks ago and loaded up on some good books!

 List of books we read today at The Beach House:
1.  "The Bravest Knight," by Mercer Mayer
2.  "EEK! There's a Mouse in the House," by Wong Herbert Nee
3.  "Just One More Pet," by Mercy Mayer
4.  "There Was an Old Monkey Who Swallowed a Frog," by Jennifer Ward
5.  "The Invisible Moose," by Denis Haseley (illustrated by Steven Kellogg)
6.  "A Good Knight's Rest," by Shelley Thomas

It was kind of hot and humid at my house, so eventually we drove over to the Mall to play on the eggs and bacon playground ...

Little Aidan enjoyed himself at the playground very much.

THEN we had dinner with the family to honor Shane's birthday ...

I learned today that baby Aidan LOVES salsa and anything whatsoever he can dip into it! He was covered in it by the time dinner was over. I've never seen him eat like this before. Note to self:  Keep salsa on hand at home for baby Aidan!

It was good to share a meal together, especially to see Shane and remember his birthday together. 37 seems like an impossible number to me ...

Baby Erin taking a little snooze ...

I took these of Erin just as we were leaving ... she is a little doll.