When Grandparents Visit - Meeting the Fish

   This last Mother's Day, my sister in law and her family went to the Bonneville Dam.  When Beniah saw her blog post, he said, "Mama, let's go see fish." 

   So, when my parents when they arrived last Friday, we loaded up in the van and headed off to the Bonneville Dam. To keep the fights down, we had to split the boys between their grandparents.

Once at the Dam, we went searching for fish.

 We followed the path, right to the large sturgeons.

 

Then we were off to the trout ponds. Since Grandpa and Grandma were there, fish food was bought and the boys had fun throwing the pellets into the pond.

 Beniah loved watching the water fall down into the pond.

 Elijah did his best staying awake.

Of course, we had to reenact the bear growling photo. Beniah wanted no part of the silliness this time.

Happy Mother's Day!

This year for Mother's Day, Tim surprised me by taking me and the boys out for breakfast before church. Ok, it wasn't a total surprise. He told me on Friday what his plan was since we would have to be out the door an hour and a half earlier than normal. But I still enjoyed my time with my boys.

While we waited for our food to arrive, Daddy taught Beniah the proper way to wear the Smuckers jam samples.

Elijah was an emotional rollercoaster at the restaurant. 

First, he was upset that I would dare to take the lens cap off.

Then came contentment when I allowed him to hold my coffee mug. 

Who wouldn't happy up by holding a mug of coffee?  

 Then came the tears again after Daddy told him "No."

After church came naps.

We ended this splendid day with walking around the neighborhood...

...and blowing dandelion seeds into the air.

It was a wonderful Mother's Day. How was yours?

His Name Will Be Baatoe!

Today, we woke up to nice sunny day. This called for a celebratory walk after breakfast followed by weeding our garden patch, bubble blowing, and a picnic lunch.

 

  

 During our lunch, we were entertained by a brave squirrel who climbed and jumped between our backyard trees. 

Beniah asked me what the squirrel's name was and since I don't come up with good, quirky names, I told Beniah that he should name him.  After awhile, Beniah said, "His name is Baatoe (Pronounced Bay-toe-E).

We now have a wild pet squirrel that will never know that it has owners.

Aargh, matie!

Last weekend, Tim and I took our boys up to Olympia to watch Tumwater Highschool's production of The Pirates of Penzance.  Tim's sister, Joann, directed marvelously directed the first play that Beniah watched. We got there a couple hours early, which allowed Beniah to have some piano playing time.  With all of his piano interest, I am seeing lessons in our future.

I am happy to say that his "first" lesson from my mom on how to play the piano (with your fingertips, not the palm of the hand) stuck.

We then went to the school to get Elijah used to his play area and the horde of baby-ogling sitters.

We then went to our second row seats (it's good to know the director) with an excited, but slightly intimidated boy.

 

Thankfully, the cousins were in the row behind us and helped ease the discomfort of the unknown. Another bonus of having them sit behind us, was that Donny played with my hair for a good five minutes during the play. I'll take whatever playing with hair time I can get!

 

Beniah was really good during the play and was amazed at the "life threatening stunts" that the actors pulled. For instance, the pirate king sat on a person who was pretending to be a box! Beniah let out a loud, "Woah!" at that point. He was also enthralled with the stage that wrapped around the orchestra box so that the actors were a couple feet in front of us.  Beniah wanted to get as close to the action as he could. So, he stood up and put his head between the two ladies in front of us. They were good sports and even smiled at him when he started whispering about pirates and dancing policemen.

Let's Ride, Brother!

It’s not what you ride, it’s your attitude that it counts. ~ Anonymous 

 Faster, faster, faster, until the thrill of speed overcomes the fear of death. ~Hunter Thompson

 

People are more violently opposed to fur than leather because it's safer to harass rich women than motorcycle gangs. ~ Alexei Sayle

 

Sorry!

     Growing up, I was always so excited to visit my aunt and uncle's place.  They used to live in this wonderful little farmhouse that had a forest on one end of the property that was haunted (at least that's what my sister and cousins said) and on the other side of the property, a barn that housed a zillion cats. Inside the house, there were stairs that were perfect for bumping down and a large play area between the two upstairs bedrooms. Best of all (in my mind at least) were the board games. My cousins owned the best board game of all time, Sorry! From the moment we got there, I would be begging my cousins to play Sorry with me. I usually got my way because I was the youngest of the bunch and the adults were probably thinking, "For the love of everything good and holy, make this kid stop whining!" 

     A couple of weeks ago, my niece and nephew came over for a visit and my mother in law brought out her Sorry game. I was in nostalgia heaven.  Beniah loved playing with his cousins (even if he didn't quite get the rules).

Life is Like a Piano

 Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life. ~Berthold Auerbach

Life is like a piano... What you get out of it depends on how you play it. ~Author Unknown

The piano is able to communicate the subtlest universal truths by means of wood, metal and vibrating air. ~Kennteh Miller

Music is well said to be the speech of angels. ~Thomas Carlyle, Essays, "The Opera"

 Music produces a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without. ~Confucius

 

The pleasure we obtain from music comes from counting, but counting unconsciously. Music is nothing but unconscious arithmetic. ~Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

The aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul. ~Johann Sebastian Bach

Fun With Cousins

 For the past few months, my niece and nephews have come over to play while their Mama was at work. With five children under the age of five, every sunny day is a huge blessing from God!

The boys find various items to play with outside. For instance, Donny and Beniah found some feathers that are NOT leaves.

 Evie is just her sweet self and lets me take all the photos of her that I want.

 Elijah just wants to keep up with the big boys and gets frustrated when he can't keep his balance on the uneven ground.

Today, the five kids are together again and the sun is shining. I think that the yard will be calling us after lunch.

Oh Happy Day!

The greatest day in history, Death is beaten
You have rescued me
Sing it out Jesus is alive
The empty cross, The empty grave
Life eternal You have won the day
Shout it out Jesus is alive
He's alive

Oh happy day, happy day
You washed my sin away
Oh happy day, happy day
I'll never be the same
Forever I am changed

Today, we celebrated Easter with some friends from our church.

Elijah had a blast playing with his cute little friend, Olivia (who is 4 days older and 10 pounds lighter than him).

Then came the Easter egg hunt. When Beniah first started out gathering eggs, he by passed two pink eggs and a yellow egg for a blue egg that was toward the back of the yard. His obsession with blue knows no bounds!

 Elijah even found a couple of eggs on the picnic table.

By the end of the day, we were happy, tired, and (for some of us) totally sick of getting pictures taken!

I love the fast shutter speeds!

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter.

When I stand, in that place
Free at last, meeting face to face
I am Yours Jesus You are mine
Endless joy, perfect peace
Earthly pain finally will cease
Celebrate Jesus is alive
He's alive
 

 Oh happy day, happy day
You washed my sin away
Oh happy day, happy day
I'll never be the same
Forever I am changed

Oh what a glorious day
What a glorious way
That You have saved me
Oh what a glorious day
What a glorious name

  Oh happy day, happy day
You washed my sin away

 Oh happy day, happy day
I'll never be the same
Forever I am changed

Happy Day song lyrics by Tim Hughes and Ben Cantelon