Carving Memories

Blues Clues

Linder Farms

Spiderman joined a local preschool group (run by a friend of mine) for a field trip to Linder Farms last Friday morning. For $5 the kids were able to participate in a hay ride, pumpkin patch search, coloring activity, corn maze and a popcorn snack! They had so much fun!!!



I was really proud of my son, he picked out his own pumpkin and carried it back out of the patch all by himself!

The hay ride was pretty crowded, so we had to snuggle up and sit together.

When we got home the coloring activity was a gift for Daddy. Spiderman scarffed down his popcorn and drink, all that pumpkin searching made him hungry!

Next week we are going to a Halloween party with the same preschool group. I am thinking you can expect pictures of a pirate! Arg!

While driving to Linder Farms this morning, Spiderman saw a pile of burning leaves in someone's field and promptly proclaimed: "Mom! Oh my dear! Smoke!"

I felt like transcribing something more fun...

What are you going to do Elmo?

I am going to have cookies.

What are you going to do Grouch?

I am going to stay asleep in my trashcan.

You go to sleep, you go to sleep, you go to sleep.

Goodnight!

Stop it!

All right Elmo.

Go to bed.

What about you? What about you? What about you?

You? You? And you?

Wake me up!

Goodnight! [growling voice]

Goodnight! [sweet voice]

Goodnight! [low voice]

[Dramatic Yawning...]

You sleep in your bath.

You sleep in the cookie jar.

You sleep in the garbage can. Garbage truck.

You. You. You. And You.

We forgot to say goodnight and pray!

I'm not going to sleep yet.

He said that we forgot to say goodnight.

He said that we forgot to pray and say goodnight.

Goodnight! [repeated in different voices]

[Prays unintelligible words]

You wake me up! [repeated in the different voices]

This continued for several more minutes...but I got bored.

Today is Saturday!

One of the things that I have been trying to teach him this fall is the days of the week, how to use a calendar, etc. Unfortunately, he thinks that every day is Sunday because he thinks that the name is describing what it looks like outside--hence there is "dark night" and "sun-day." So, we still have some work to do in that department... Each morning he moves his apple sticker to the next day, although all week long the apple moved closer to the weekend faster then one day at a time... hmm. Spiderman determined that Wednesday was library day, which it is--we always go to Storytime on Wednesdays... and Friday was "_______ Day" (fill in the blank with his cousin's name). So, this involved me requesting a sleepover from his Auntie. Which worked out great!

Last night Auntie and I went to a Ladies Social event with women from our church. We had a blast getting to know some of the women during an introduction time where we all shared about how we came to Boise and to All Saints PCA. I don't know if everyone else thought we were funny, but Auntie and I sure thought we were! :) After that we went on to the Red Letter Cafe in Boise to hear our friends' band, Beloved, play. Our drummer is their drummer--we stole him. We also attempted to steal their soundman last night! I think he said he'd at least teach someone how to do it for us! (cross-fingers!) Anyway--while we did all this fun stuff, Spiderman and Mr. Oz entertained the star cousin for the evening. I believe they shot each other with nerf guns, took a bath, watched a movie, ate popcorn, and fell asleep reading a book about Winnie-the-Pooh. Overall, everyone had a great evening!

So today we began our day pretty early (Mr. Oz had to leave early to go down to the church to help get the parking lot started for painting parking lines, etc.) and the boys woke up pretty early... so there was donut eating, followed by some crafts (playdough and stuff to glue!) and some more nerf wars, etc. They had a blast! Spiderman was pretty sad when his cousin had to leave later in the morning...

But never fear because tomorrow (which actually is Sunday!) is another day with cousin-fun! We have church and then small groups at cousin's house. So Spiderman rests easy tonight. Speaking of which, he must have had so much fun that he tired himself out... he put himself to bed tonight. :)

Getting Fat!

Taken at 30 weeks.

Only 10 more to go!

To Have and To Hold

My niece, Nicole, is marrying her man: Matt, in 6 days!!!

Sorry we won't be able to be at the wedding, but best wishes to the happy couple. We love you and miss you and can't wait to see pictures and hear all about your day!!! Lots of love!

Fireman!

Well, we braved the cold 38-degrees this morning and headed out to the Caldwell Fire Station with a friend's pre-school group. The firemen weren't exactly sure what to do with a bunch of 3-4-5 year olds, so they skipped the lecture on "stop, drop and roll" and went right for the fire engines!


The pictures didn't turn out so great because no one would hold still and the lighting was bad inside the station, but at least you get the idea. Peter Parker began brave enough to try on the fire-fighter gear, but turned shy half-way through!

Sunday School

My husband has been teaching Sunday School at our church for the 12-14 age group. He is really enjoying it. Right now he is taking them through the Shorter Catechism and basically the objective is for them to walk away ready to say why they believe what they believe. I think that these are important lessons and tools for young people of that age... about to step it up and become young adults and then adults! My father always put a lot of emphasis on the Catechism, and I am thankful for that! I can still recite the answers to the questions that Hubby is using with the students right now.
Peter Parker has been learning the Children's Catechism. He is up to question 14. It brings tears of joy to my eyes to hear him say things like [Why should you glorify God?] "because he made me and takes care of me!" PP's teacher says that he does a really good job in SS and seems to really be absorbing the lessons and is very responsive. It's encouraging.
I am also enjoying SS. I am participating in a class about CS Lewis' book, Mere Christianity. The teacher is awesome and I am learning a lot. I was orignially supposed to be in a different class, but chickened out the first day because there wasn't enough seating in the room and by the time I tried to go in, the door was closed... so I went upstairs and sat in on the other one. I am glad that I did! Hopefully they don't care that I switched! The reason I was late to SS is because I am playing the piano for the children's song time (SS starts at 9:30 and they do singing from 9:30 to 9:40 before they go to class)... I am enjoying that as well! PP is very good at participating in the singing. He has been given an opportunity to play rhythm instruments each time. Maybe there's hope for a musical career after all! If I can just get him to match pitch!

The First Commandment

So this past Sunday my pastor began a sermon series on The Ten Commandments. Obviously his first sermon was on the first commandment! It was GOOD! I hadn't thought about a lot of things that he said before now and as I was listening... and then later involved in a discussion (we have small group on the 1st and 3rd Sunday of the month) that evening, I came up with a challenge for myself...

Idols do not just come in the form of tangible things. For example, if asked to think of an idol, a person might say: TV, computer, clothes, money, cars, a really good American singer, etc. But what about the things that are intangible???

Relationship with Husband/Wife, Friendships, Desires for Self or for others, Protection of Children... these things can be both good and bad... (wanting to keep your kids safe isn't a bad thing!) HOWEVER if they become more important than Christ!!! What then?!?!

I am going to try to nail down some of these for myself.
For starters... being organized and sticking to a schedule. Oh boy is that an idol for me! I'll let you know my progress on conquering it!

P.S. if you want to hear the sermon, go here. (not sure when it will be posted, so keep checking back)