The Happiest Kid!

One of the reasons we love Ben to play sports is because he always plays with the hugest smile on his face. He runs his hardest, does his very best. You can just see the joy. But this year in soccer, more than any other, I have gone to the Lord in prayers of gratitude for the experiences we are having.

This boy running with Ben smiles longer, harder and with more joy. He is never discouraged or even frustrated out there. We understand many others have been touched by his awesome spirit, but we wanted to add our tribute. Thank you for showing us what real happiness is all about! We love you !

All the boys on the team play hard and have fun. They are good sports and have a cheerful, friendly character. It has been so fun to get to know them. When any of them does something great, they go to each other to talk about it.
We are blessed with a good team, coach and group of parents. Thanks for a great season!

Two More Birthdays!

I'm back with Audrey and Sarah's birthday pictures!

Audrey wanted ice cream instead of cake. She liked blowing out her star candles so much we lit them twice for her. :) LOTS of presents. Too fun for Mom. We probably should have regifted some of them.

Sarah had a party with the family on her actual birthday....waited all day for Dad to get home!

The kids line up their presents like this and open them in order. It is so cute.She loved Mia. And Audrey just stood there and stared as though she had never seen anything so wonderful in her life.
Later in the week we had 16 sweet fun girls come over to celebrate with Sarah. It was just good plain fun! We swam, ate pizza, played games, made ice cream sundaes and crafts. Sar said it was her best party yet! Isn't it just the best when you can see your kids truly happy because of something you did?

Birthday Month!!

April is big party month for our family!! We have three children born in April, and then this year, we saved Ben's friend party until April too! (His birthday is in October) Yes, I should win the VERY best Mom in the whole world contest for that one!! People asked me if it was his half birthday??

We start the month with this little guy. He turned the big FOUR! We gave him as big of a piece of cake as he wanted.....

Ben usually asks for these great Toll House chocolate chip cookie cakes. We are all happy he likes them so much!

We had his party at an indoor sports arena here close by. They did a great job! The kids ran and ran and ran, ate cake and pizza then ran some more. Ben loved it!! Hopefully he thinks it was worth the wait!

Check back next week for our last two April birthdays.

Letterboxing!

You would never guess where this is unless you'd been there already. If you live in my town, I guarantee you drive by it every day!
I bet you can't see the letterbox hidden INSIDE this engine!!
This was the most beautiful hike we did Thanksgiving weekend! Found two letterboxes!!

You've GOT to try this!

Just see all the fun places we've been! All you need is a trail name for your family (or group), a stamp that will always represent you, a stamp pad, and a logbook. Go to http://www.letterboxing.org/ to find out more and to see clues to find boxes in your neighborhood! There are boxes all over the place! We tried it and now we are totally addicted! See you on the trail!