Little Fellow Comes to Play ...

Dylan and Kelly went out on a date Wednesday night and I got to have Brendan over to my house!

I set up the Hotwheels track ahead of time and got out the pom-pons because Brendan likes to pretend that he is a car wash worker and he uses the pom-poms as his "spinning brushes" -- and he is completely serious about this job!

 We took a break from washing cars to have dinner. Brendan loves pasta, so we ate some pasta! AND he had some colby cheese and crackers as well as some cucumbers.

 Brendan is also very serious about eating ...

 But then we got right back to washing the cars ...

 Look how serious he is!

 A birds-eye view ...

 See how creative we were with our car wash? Brendan was very impressed with the set-up.

 See how pleased he is?

 Every single Matchbox car got a good scrubbing with those marvelous spinning brushes!

Brendan kept this up for quite a LONG time ...

 But then--whew--he finally grew a little weary and climbed up on my bed. I covered him up with the softest blanket that I have. He rolled himself up inside of it and hid his little face.

 We played peek-a-boo for quite awhile ...

 Brendan thought that if I could not see his face … that I could not find him!

 There he is!

 He likes my soft chair too ...

 We enjoyed an ice-cream sundae ...

 Brendan really liked his mint-chocolate ice cream!

 And we played with every single lighthouse in my little Beach House!

See how he is checking himself out in the mirror and looking to see the room behind him? He kept doing this and looking all around my room to see how it looked in the mirror. You are a sweetheart, Brendan.

Sunday afternoon instead ...

We did not have our usual over-nighter Friday night and into Saturday this last weekend! Instead, we opted for Sunday afternoon. I am glad we had at least these few hours together. I picked the children up after church, took them to my house and stuffed them full of spaghetti, meatballs, salad and other goodies.

Our Bible story this week was about the tower of Babel (gate of God), how the people decided to stay all together instead of spreading out and populating the earth (as they had been commanded to do), came up with the idea to "build a tower up to heaven" and "to make a name for ourselves," and how God put an end to their plan by confusing their language. We had a real nice study time--comfortable and full of questions, while the children colored.

Why did God want people to "fill the earth and subdue it?" We had to ask that question! We talked about most of the wars since time began mostly being about land and resources. If they all had stayed together from the very beginning, wouldn't there have been lots of arguments about land and ownership? We were just guessing about this, but it did make sense. 

So God "came down" and confused their language so that nobody understood each other. THEN they scattered around the earth like God had intended. We had read this story many times in our Jesus Storybook Bible (she does a very humorous job of describing the misunderstanding the morning no one could understand each other any more). I wanted to go a little deeper this time and talk a bit more about obedience and what happens when we … don't! 

We also did a bunch of Origami hearts since Valentine's day is this week. Matthew loves folding paper--me too! And Emma does as well. We made SO MANY paper hearts! 

While we were folding our hearts, we listened to some great songs like "Whom Shall I Fear?" (Chris Tomlin) and "Me Without You" (TobyMac) and sang along together. Christopher was with us too, except he was in the playroom building LEGOS and didn't get his face in these pictures! 

Oh! And we are memorizing Scripture together because … these kiddos are old enough to do it and they have very good memories. We've decided to keep these verses simple and to choose ones that are real encouragement or good reminders of God's love for us. We decided that since everyone has TEN fingers, TEN-word verses would be a good place to start: one word for each finger. We began this week with Psalm 118:6, "The Lord is with me, I will not be afraid." I love this verse so much. It comforts, brings JOY, and gives me courage and strength to continue this journey of faith. The kiddos seemed excited about this 10-word memorizing project … YAY!

Here comes The Polar Express!

I got to spend a little time with our birthday boy tonight! I made him a card AND I made him his very own ticket to the Polar Express!

 Several weeks ago I was trying to figure out what to get for Brendan for this GOLDEN birthday of his … and I stumbled across this clearance item at Toys R Us! Yikes! How PERFECT is this?!!!

 So naturally, I ordered it!

 I knew Brendan would be SO excited. Look at his precious little face when he sees his packages!

 He tried really hard to get the ribbons untied ...

 Brendan is a very tenacious Little Fellow ...

 But we finally helped him ...

We unwrapped the small package first: a Thomas the Train book with a little "radio" that plays the songs from Thomas ...

 Brendan loves both books and music … he was very pleased … oh! and he especially loves Thomas the Train.

 Brendan was so into this book that he forgot about the bigger present that was still wrapped up and waiting for him ...

 So, I took the ticket out of his card and presented it to him ...

 "The Polar Express!" Brendan said. "Ticket!"

 It even has the letter "B" punched out very small in the corner ...

 Then Brendan opened the BIG package ...

 Look at his little face when he realizes what this is!!!

 It takes forever to unwrap and cut open packages like these! Dylan and Kelly pitched in and did their part!

 Brendan was SO pleased ...

 Brendan was very enamored with his ticket … 

 He played and played with this … humming the tunes from the movie, singing … what a great little kid!

 Can you hear the bell, Brendan?

I'm so glad you like your golden birthday presents, Brendan! You are loved, sweetheart! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!