Whew! Has this last week (or so) ever been super busy! But it's been a good busy and we've really enjoyed it!
A sweet and beautiful wedding... (*See earlier post from today. I wanted to share it outside of my normal read area and didn't want to add all the personal stuff. 😍)
We couldn't all attend, but these cuties had fun!
A rare picture with Sarah...(oops, did not get one with my hubby!😞)
The younger children got to experience the fun of a water park for the first time.
And some play on the courts...
Michael and I got a brief getaway for our anniversary. We spent the day kayaking in Arkansas. It's always so precious to spend quiet time with my love!
We wrapped up the busy, crazy week with a sweet time at Coffee 'N Crafts in Shawnee. A great place to go for relaxation and great coffee!
Abby spent all of her time free-handing or tracing pictures onto canvas for people to paint and reading the step-by-step instructions to the little boys so they could get the picture they had picked out.
*A bit of a disclaimer...if you go, they don't have directions there. Abby researched how-to sites for the pictures they wanted and printed everything out before we went. A couple of children chose to do their own thing, without a guideline and that was fine, too.
With a couple of precious friends...
And of course they got to shop specialty drinks and cakes... Yum!
The finished products... (Notice that Wallace did 2 of the same project. Perfectionist, maybe?😆)
Selah even got to play on their piano and provide some entertainment...
These guys were so proud of their art! Andrew wanted to take a picture as soon as we got home to send to Daddy...
They both did such a great job listening and following instructions. And Titus learned a valuable lesson. Abby was reading the instructions to him, a step at a time, and left him to finish the step while she went to help Andrew. He finished but decided he didn't want to wait so he tried to paint it like the sample. Unfortunately he had just painted the zebra a solid color so when he went to add the stripes on, they mixed together to make a very uncomely mess. He was pretty upset and Abby explained to him that that is why it's important to follow the directions and that he was supposed to dry it between colors. He was pretty sad because he couldn't fix it so she told him it was okay, they'd fix it together. She painted white over it so he could basically start over. Of course he waited and followed directions EXACTLY the rest of the project. At the end, he brought it over to show me and said, "Momma, look at my picture. I messed up
really bad but Abby helped me!" I talked to him about how life is like that, too. Sometimes we mess up and sometimes it's really bad, but those who love us come along beside us and help us set things aright. We talked about how sometimes he can help others, too. Later, we talked about how instructions aren't just for projects but that God has given us specific instructions to follow, too, and it's important that we know them and follow them.
I love how God gives us valuable life lessons in the small, ordinary, everyday things!
