This little man loves Grand Haven ...

Pixie-Girl Kaity is FOUR today!

This little pixie has captured my heart.

I love her so much.

Monday afternoons we have adventures ...

Kaity loves everything we do together!

She loves playgrounds and parks

the John Ball Zoo and the Children's Museum

apple orchards and farms

hanging out at the Beach House

with puzzles and puppets

pretty music and instruments

play-doh and paints

I love the memories we are making, Kaity.

So thankful God made you, little one

You are a such a gift to me!

Monday afternoon with Kaity and Emma

Narration to follow ... hopefully!

A sleepover with Emma

After we were finished at the beach Sunday night, I drove the boys home and Emma decided to spend the night here at the Beach house. We uploaded our Grand Haven pictures and edited them for awhile and then we got ready for bed and just relaxed.

Emma reading "Finding Dory" to me on her favorite chair.

 We did not watch a movie, but Emma introduced me to one of her favorite Netflix programs--Ah! I forgot the name of it. But we watched Episode 1 together and then I just had to go to sleep.

We slept in Saturday morning, ate a nice breakfast together, got cleaned up and then we had our Bible story time. We have been studying stories about JESUS and this week we had followed Jesus to Nazareth where he was reading the Isaiah scroll on the Sabbath. Jesus referred to two Old Testament stories after he was finished reading. One of those stories was about Elijah and the widow.

 So I decided to study those two Old Testament stories and teach them to the children BEFORE doing the Nazareth story, so that we can figure out WHY Jesus reminded the people of Nazareth about these stories and WHY they got murderously angry at Jesus for doing so!

 I love this story about faith in the middle of a hopeless situation. God is SO kind and SO great, isn't He?

The widow did not completely believe that Elijah was God's messenger until her little boy had died and Elijah called upon the name of the LORD to bring him back to life. What a wonderful picture of how WE finally come to faith in Jesus, because of HIS resurrection from the dead. I loved studying this story--and the next one is equally good!

Grand Haven with the kiddos!

Late Sunday afternoon, I picked up Emma, Chris and Matthew and we drove out to Grand Haven with our brand new wave boards! We didn't arrive until about 5:15, the sun was still high in the sky, the waves were just right (not too big, not too little) and they were just right for our wave boards.

 The water temperature was perfect and so refreshing. We played for a very long time out in the lake. This year, there is quite a large sand bar which makes it possible to walk very far out into the lake without going above waist-deep water. But watch out--the drop off is quite sudden, and then you can't touch bottom.

 My favorite thing was to watch the children play on the beach. I love to dig in the sand and I'm an old granny! These children love to dig and build and pretend ... this is the perfect place to just lose yourself, forget your sadness, take a deep breath and just ... LIVE.

 Emma is very "into" mermaids again this year, so we made her into one!

 Emma! You crack me up!

 All of us enjoyed playing in the sand. We stayed on the beach for as long as we could!

 I haven't seen Matthew this relaxed and having this much fun in a very long time. It did my heart good, that's for sure.

 And Christopher! Posing for this photo shot! Handsome boy you are, Chris!

 Emma built a MOTE and then added sand castles. I missed taking a good picture as she made further progress, and then before I could snap a good picture a wave pretty much wiped out her creation.

 We were 100% happy the whole time we were there. So thankful to God for this incredible gift of beauty and time together.

 I dug my usual hole in the ground. Emma stood up in it to show me how deep I had gotten. I actually had struck water at this point.

 I handed Emma my camera while I was driving home so that she could take a picture of this beautiful sky!

Thank you, Lord, for everything about this day.