To the Mall with Kaity-Girl!

Brendan directing "The Nutcracker" while dancing ...

Last week Thursday (2/18/16), while Brendan was here, I pointed my computer his direction, turned on Photo Booth, and little fellow performed until he was cracking himself up. This is one of the little videos I caught of him.

Sunday time with Brendan

I got word, via Kelly, that there was a small boy who was "missing" his grandma! So Sunday, mid-afternoon, I picked up Brendan and since the weather was very mild, I decided to introduce him to Stomp Rockets. Once you see the pictures, you will know that it was a huge success.

 Brendan is FOUR now, so he wants to do everything himself, like the big boy he is ...

 It takes quite a bit of sudden force to blast off these styrofoam rockets. Brendan had to practice over and over again so that he could jump with both feet and land on the ... stomper.

 But he was successful ...

 So he enjoyed his endeavors for a very long time ...

 Until we were quite exhausted from blasting and retrieving rockets!

 Look at his precious, dear, happy little face. He has a Snoopy bandage covering over a little sore on his face that he keeps re-annoying by scratching.

 After we were all stomped out, we decided to go and take a walk in the woods ...

 Even though the woods was BARE of leaves and snow ... so forlorn looking ... we enjoyed our walk nonetheless.

 We spent some time throwing rocks into the partially iced lake ...

 And walked down all sorts of dreary-looking pathways ...

 But did we enjoy ourselves? YOU BET.

 We each found the best and most perfect walking sticks too!

 The woods always has its own kind of beauty, no matter what season, doesn't it?

 I carried Brendan ON MY BACK across this entire boardwalk ...

 I love to be with a little child outside in the wonderful fresh air ... Pickerel Lake is an ideal place to walk and talk and just enjoy being alive.

 They are in the process of building a NEW boardwalk right next to the OLD boardwalk and they are making very good progress too.

 The sun was starting to set ...

 So we wandered back to my car, after playing with our VERY TALL shadows for awhile!

Life does not get any better than this ...

This past Friday night, the older grandchildren and I went to see "Risen" over at AMC Theatre. I liked the way the story was told very much. I especially liked their portrayal of Jesus. It wasn't perfect--the disciples came across a little bit flaky--but it was a compelling story of this Roman tribune's journey to faith.

 The kiddos seemed to appreciate it too. Christopher was a little disappointed that Jesus wasn't better looking--but then I reminded him what Isaiah said about Jesus--that there was nothing in his appearance that would attract us to Him--He just looked like any ordinary person. The movie depicted very well the joy of everyone who met the risen Christ. It was comforting and encouraging to me too.

After the movie, we came here and had a spaghetti/salad dinner with ice cream cones for dessert. We were having a sleepover, but Christopher opted to go home for the night--so we returned him to his house and then Ems and Matthew came back here to The Beach House. We hung out for awhile and then got tucked in. I let Matt and Emma watch "Peter Pan" on my computer while I took myself to bed at about 10:30. They did great, were nice and quiet, and finally went to sleep themselves.

Emma spent a lot of time Saturday morning playing my piano and singing along with the computer to her favorite song from Peter Pan, "Lost Boys." She is learning a lot of good musical principles from her choir class at school and she is learning to master her voice, along with reading music. Her love of music is very evident--and I enjoy (very much) watching her grow in her ability and talent. She is a sweetheart.

Tuesday, February 16

 Narration soon.