On Safari

Today we had an imagination safari while waiting out a thunderstorm outside. My bed became the van, and I told the girls to bring along their binoculars. I told them to stay in the van because there are alligators on the ground that will bite their toes. We spied giraffes, leopards, tigers, and lions. When the girls got antsy and wanted to get down, they even figured a way around the alligators. Hannah said, "Look, it's God and Jesus coming this way!" "What are they doing on our safari?," I asked. "They're coming to save us from the alligators!," Sarah said. I replied,"Really?! Cool!" "Yeah, don't you remember that Jesus Saves?... like the song in church, Mommy!" Cute, huh? Needless to say, all the alligators were vanquished.

A quote I could have written myself (if I was any good at writing)

I saw this on one of the blogs I follow, credit Texan Momma at www.whoputmeinchargeofthesepeople.blogspot.com and it reminded me of the way I think of myself each day. It made me remember that I'm not the only one who feels I need to regroup and ask for a new measure of patience, etc. at the end of each day. The gist of the topic of the day was that Texan Momma had a tough time at the grocery, and was apolizing to anyone who may have encountered her or her 4 kids that day, and the last paragraph summed up my thoughts at the end of each day pretty well...
"I don't know if I saw you today or not, since everything in the blog world is so anonymous. But would you have known me if you saw me? Maybe. I hope that the reality of who I am is not as harsh as my perception of who I am. But I fear that I am exactly what people see. That the inside me is too close to the outside me. I'd like to believe I have some inner softness, some peace at the core of my being. I think my peace has been drained out of me like a flower pot with a hole at the bottom. I'm praying for peace. Patience. Love. Tolerance. And forgiveness."

Thank goodness God, and our family (usually), gives forgiveness and each day is new every morning!

Another day at the Garden

We had another nice day at the Botanical Gardens today. We met up with 3 of my speech therapist friends and their kids. The little guy in the picture with Caleb is Sam, the closest thing Caleb has to a buddy at this age. Sam is my friend Nicole's son, and he's about 2 months older than Caleb.

It was a lovely day... the kids really enjoy romping around in the fountains and playing in the gardens, and we put Caleb in the fountains for the first time. It was really funny seeing him freak out over the teensy little fountain spray we positioned him near. And the poor little guy, he always seems to be stuck in the goofiest hats. We're still trying to sort out whether that's a cry of fear you see, or a cry for help for a new hat. I've got to macho-up his headgear!

Our weekend trip to NJ

We had a wonderful time with Ryan's family this weekend. The kids stayed up late every night playing with cousins and enjoying themselves. On the fourth of July they were up till almost 10 watching fireworks and toasting marshmallows by the fire. It was neat to see Caleb with his 2 cousins his same age, Skylar and Arianna. The drive was tough, with Caleb crying alot of the way, but other than that it was a great weekend!