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.