Our Weekend Ways

Our weekends have been full, lately! Since I have started working, we feel like this is the only times we get to spend, enjoying the family...which sometimes my weekends are during the weekdays! I thought you might enjoy a few pics of what we have been doing with our "family " time.

Mark and I spent the first half of this weekend at the Marriage and Parenting seminar hosted by our church. We had a fun time listening the stories of two families and how they dealt with their own struggles of raising children, and trying to grow in their spiritual walk at the same time! Let me tell you, after a weekend like that you realize that things are not as peachy as you thought they were. Don't get me wrong, I think Mark and I are excellently suited, and in love with one another, but the "raising" the children thing, is a little helter skelter if you know what I mean. Needless to say, I begged my mom to send me the huge 20 lb book my dad used as a devotional with me, whenI was a kid. I even asked her to send it C.O.D. just so I could have it here fast, so we could begin to use it with our kids. It is called Character Sketches published by Institute in Basic Life Principles, and it is sure to please our animal loving children. It walks through different character traits that God wants for us, and pairs it with information on a animal that portrays that same character. I can't wait to get it! The other half of this weekend we drove to Little Rock, after church. Our pantry was in desperate need of a Sam's Club refill. Here in this picture to the left, we decided to splurge and buy one (we had planned on two, but they were too expensive [40.00/piece]) luxury reading, massaging chair for our bedroom. Since we are headboardless, we figured it would help out with our long "buffy-a-thons" nights. Ethan digs this new contraption, and is seen relaxing in it constantly. Thus endeth that weekend.

Labor day was spent doing anything but labor! We do however need to labor in our front yard, but we let it go this long, so what's one more weekend. We decided to hike the "blue" trail out at UAM. Ethan is not a fan of the blue trail since it requires longer distances out in the hot Arkansas heat! We made it into a game. A nature walk primarily to find wild creatures. Our very first creature was this snake, pictured below. Mark and Valerie captured it! Ethan and I giggled as they were stuck up in the trees and brush, hineys hanging out, hunting this poor green snake (for the record I am the one that spotted it). On the rest of the walk we found many "micky d's or pork chops" (Ethan's names for the little black bugs here in Arkansas), a King Snake laying out on the trail (sorry no pictures on that one because I was too busy screaming), and two little tree frogs. I think that Mark and I have worn that trail out with all the times we go out there. We love taking them there though, its a good plug in for science discussions with the kids, since the local school has boycotted science for those in elementary.


Now, for our current weekend. The highlight, for our whole family, was Adelyn's 7th Birthday Party. Mark even went, and had a laughing good time. The theme "American Idol". What could go wrong, right? I dressed Valerie to the tee. She was a little Amy Lee from Evanescence, look a like. I even streaked her hair with red dye! We had a fun time getting ready. Valerie practiced her debut song "Are You Happy Now" and was prepared, although really shy, to sing. Paula, Randy, and Simon made it to the party. They were a hoot, especially after Simon printed his quotes off on the computer (he kind of had his analogies off at first). Each of the girls sang, were critiqued by the judges, and in awe at what Simon had to say about their performances. Simon rarely had a good word to say, but then again what's new! Paula encouraged even the worst of performances, and Randy rallied everyone of them into his "dog pen", that is everyone except our well practiced, stylish, rocker, shy, stage frightened daughter. She tried, but the nerves hit her, and hit hard apparently. The picture to the left, is all I could get of my rocker chick (the one behind the curtain)! I had a hard time with it at first. I wanted her to be able to have the same fun the other girls were having. I was disappointed for her, and so relieved that daddy was there to intervene before my mouth got the best of my emotions. I am very outgoing, and she is so shy. I have a hard time understanding that. Here I was as a child, in front of the church nearly every Sunday belting out sounds like "I am a Promise, I am a Possibility, I am a promise with a capital P(remember that songs?), and now I have a daughter that is the exact opposite. I am glad Mark knows where she is coming from. I think with his help she will feel confident and succeed one day! I will be in the front row, cheering her on! Today, I had to wonderful opportunity of explaining what a "period" is to my daughter. She handed me a box of Playtex this morning and said, "mom, what are these for?" I told her it was for when mommy had her period. I asked her if she knew what that word meant. She said, all sweet and innocent like, "yes, it's punctuation." I giggled and then told her the word had more than one meaning, and that I would explain it after church. Thanks to Kids Health for parents online, I was able to talk her through the whole event, with a slide show to boot. Heck, I even learned some things. She is now knowledgeable, although I skirted around the "sperm" questions. I wasn't ready to go there, just yet. Boy am I glad this weekend is almost over!