Peter is 34!

A modest steak dinner with baked red potatoes and sauteed corn and zucchini.

It's become a sort of tradition for the kids to hide Dad's gifts and make a scavenger hunt with clues to find them. Peter LOVES this tradition. It really makes the kids feel involved in the preparation and celebration of his birthday too. The kids wrapped his gifts and set up the scavenger hunt entirely on their own. It's so helpful that they're getting bigger! I was freed up to focus on cooking his dinner. The first clue led Peter to the mailbox, which is also a typical hiding place every year. :)

Deciphering his next clue.

The clue led him to his own closet.

Heading to the next one...

...which was on the deck.

Since I let the kids handle this, I was unaware that one thing was hidden in the sandbox and another out in the tree fort in the woods. I might of intervened had I known, but no harm done.

And this one in the garage is hooked onto the end of a fishing rod.

Now to open.

My mom got Peter a book he wanted called "John Calvin and the Church: A Prism of Reform." He was excited and what you see here is him reading to us *all* the titles of the essays included. The kids were highly interested. (Not so much)

We finally made it to dessert. :) Peter isn't huge on chocolate. If I'd had time, I have planned ahead better for a dessert he particularly likes. But he'd rather that I not push too much and overdo it at the last minute, so we settled for something quick and easy: Individual chocolate molten cakes (made in a muffin tin). We had some homemade chocolate ice cream in the freezer and, in the end, neither of us thought the dessert was too shabby. :) Hey, we survived another year!

Actually, the Lord has blessed us tremendously. These celebrations are always a reminder of how blessed we are. God has given us good and meaningful work to do. He has filled our lives and teaches and trains us. We are growing. Not easy. Growth isn't. But worth it and beginning to bear good fruit, as God is faithfully showing us lately. Praise the Lord for another year and another step closer to the Glory that awaits.

Fishing, Stuff and the Park

Peter took the boys fishing just before Father's Day. The following pictures are ones he took from their trip. After that are some random ones and finally some from the park where we played on Peter's birthday.Tackle.

Bait.

The first lake.

The second lake. There's the fisherman himself, getting ready to cast.

Cal is just playing in the water, studying what's going on under the surface.

Just a nice shot. I think this is Cheat Lake.

Bringing one in. Lakes look beautiful, don't you agree?

Ben's Make-a-plate that he got back in the mail. (He traced the outline of the horse and did the rest himself).

My 10 year old's sense of humor. He liked the sunglasses on the can of soda, but thought he needed to add a crooked hat to complete the look.

Faithful Sam with his berries. We have one small patch of wild berries in the woods adjoining our property. Sam faithfully seeks out the ripe ones every day, sometimes twice a day, to be sure that he doesn't miss any. He adds each picking to his bag in the freezer where he is hoping to accumulate enough to make a pie.

This is Hoopha, called hoops for short. (Hoopha is "under" in Greek). Ben found this box turtle on the field above our house one day after a rainfall. We've been feeding/enjoying him for a bit before returning him to his home.

Eli's first day to swing at the park. He looks one-legged. :)

Cecily and I found these glasses at the park.

The kids played a game of tag with dad, involving some balls.

Sam got caught.

Hot, happy time.

Pirate face? I think they just like to try things and then see what it looks like on the camera.

That's it for now. We celebrated Peter's birthday yesterday, so we'll post some pictures of that soon. Otherwise, I'm caught up. I guess I'm just too distracted to get the camera out much these days.

Elijah - 4 Months

These pictures were taken just before he turned 4 months.

I love how he coos, and chews on his hands. He's just beginning to "play."

Here you can just see him putting his two middle fingers in his mouth. These are the fingers that he finally settled on. They're the ones he soothes himself to sleep with. He went back and forth between the fingers and his thumb. I have several thumb sucking children. I was kind of glad he settled on the fingers since he's the first one to do that.

Lounge chair for babies. He does the "deer in the headlights" look very well.

Even Peter will occasionally wear the baby carrier.

"Hi Dad!"

He's so interactive. So cute.

He spotted me. :)

In his bed.

I found this fish mobile at the consignment store and we are both enjoying it.

A little dark, but I like this picture.

I helped him sit up. I hope you enjoyed the new pictures. He really is SO sweet. He has a marvelous temperament. I probably say that about all of my babies. It's probably partly the age he's at. Boy, are we enjoying him.

Benjamin's Birthday

I'm finally posting the pictures from Benny's 8th birthday.

Ben had his own idea to have a picnic dinner for his birthday. Being early April, we waited to plan the exact day to celebrate until the weather forecast looked promising. Then we planned our first trip of the season out to Cooper's Rock.


When we unloaded out of the car was the first time I got a look at the accessories that Cecily had added to her outfit without me knowing it. She was wearing a bonnet and a cowboy belt.

There's some rocks by the parking area that are the first thing to get climbed on every time we come. Here is Millie peeking through Cal's feet when he's climbing on the rocks.

Keeping those serious faces is a lot harder than it looks. :)

Feels so good to be outside again!

We took a hike before dinner and climbed some large rocks along the way.

Everyone on top. Elijah and I stayed on solid ground.

Cecily and her bonnet.

Until she wanted it off, that is.

While Peter lit the grill and waited for the briquettes to be ready, Ben and I walked to the scenic overlook.

Gazing down into the drop-off.

:)

Going to see the view...

It was quite warm, and the wind was really picking up. Amazingly beautiful on the overlook.

Ben notices a group of large birds soaring nearby.

I think there were 8. Hawks maybe. They were enjoying the warm, thermal air currents too.

They put in a playground at the picnic area! What a great addition.

Getting very windy now.

Ben and his hot dogs.

I know I wouldn't have thought of a picnic in April, but it was wonderful. What a great idea.

It got so windy after we ate that we went ahead and took the cake and gifts back home.

Ben had requested a cake with a scene on it. He wanted it to include animals. I bought him some new farm animal figurines and made an attempt at a farmyard scene. ;)

Happy Birthday!

I got these great wrapping papers out of the dollar bins at Target. I really love thos bins.

A card from William.

From his Papa and Grammy.

"Cool!" A lego-type building set to make a camouflage tank.

A new Jonathan Park CD set.

From Uncle John and Aunt Leslie. I'll have to post a picture of his finished plate. He got it back in the mail already.

Last? Can you tell what it is? He had been expressing a desire for a lever-action rifle. It's hard to find one that's made with any quality, but we're hoping this one will hold up for at least a little while.

As soon as someone pulls out a knife, this is what happens every time. Maybe because I'm not a boy, it cracks me up to see them all hovering around. What is it about sharp implements?

Suh-weet! Nothing like the feel of a gun in your hand. He loves it. It's been his trusty companion ever since.