Spring Break Fun! Tuesday Day 2

Day one was pretty fun but day 2 had great fun as well. My older daughter is living in AL and is close to having her 1st Baby! That is right! I am going to be a Grandma!

She's 34 weeks! 

Johnny and Magy

Little Andy's Ultrasound! 

So we decided to go shopping to Target to buy her some baby stuff. Everyone picked out something and it was fun. 

Afterwards we headed over to Razzalicious for some great yogurt. It was quiet fun having leisure time chit chatting.  

Picking out the goods for little Andy coming!

All wrapped up and ready to mail

Me and Andrew Selfie

Graham and Andrew

Allenni and Violetti enjoying their yogurt

Later that night, We decided to talk to Dad into going to eat Indian Food.  So off we headed to  enjoy some Curry and Masala!

This sweet girl is always full of smiles

Duane was tired after a full day of work but enjoyed his Biryani 

Violetti and Andrew

Isaiah is over waiting for his food to come out! Graham must have just gotten finished teasing someone

Eli is the stud muffin 'cause he just ordered spicy for his food, Allenni is dreaming of her shrimp curry coming

The food has arrived! 

I would say that our day 2 of Spring Break was a great Success! Wonder what Day 3 holds?

Just Blessed in Life May 2014

Duane always laughs at me because when I say I need to run to the store for a few things, it usually means a CART of things from a Restaurant Supply Store! LOL! Really, this only feeds our family for a couple of weeks. 

a few things

Eating out is rare for us because we are such a large group, so when we do, it is very exciting! We decided one Sunday morning to go to Denny's for a brunch. I have memories of my parents taking me as a child and hadn't been in years. We decided to try our local one out. Everyone was excited that they could add coffee, hot Chocolate or juice to their orders as we usually all get waters. I was excited to get some grits that this southern girl had not had in a while.  As we were sitting there, a gentleman walks up to Duane and whispers something to him. Duane thanked him and the man walked off. Duane said, "Guys, that man just paid for all of our Brunch! Can you believe it?"  So our bill ended up being paid for except for my grits that I forgot to order! I love how God sends little blessings at the time you least expect it.  Since we had planned to pay for our Brunch, we  all agreed to pay it forward and paid for a another larger family that had come in and ate. I hope with these actions of our kids seeing that when we are blessed, we take that blessing and forward it. and that in the process we are imprinting the joy of giving to others on our kids.

Sarah- the daughter of a missionary friend who lived with us last year and Allenni and Ben and Nathaniel

                                       

The other part of the crew- Graham, Isaiah, Andrew, Violetti, and Eli

The crew

our bill

Later on in the week, Duane got this note from one of his patients' family.  

It is no secret our family loves Ice Cream- On a psychological note, when you are creating bonds with older children, you can eat ice cream together around a fun time or sitting close and the body will secrete the same chemicals in the brain as when a baby is nursing or sucking a bottle and being nurtured and trust is developed. 

When I learned this years ago, We ate A LOT of ice cream. So Ice Cream in our house is not bought in the 1.5 qt size! No, it is purchased by the 5 gallon buckets. :) 

We rarely get rain in the spring or summer. So when a storm cloud like this arises, it is pretty cool

 The weather is great around here in May. So we hang out a lot on the patio and eat ice cream and chill

Violetti calls her new hairdo, Barbie hair.

Dr. Seuss Day Cake Competition February 27, 2014

Some days end up being packed way more than I should. Even though I tell the kids no, I usually will end up with a compromise. LOL!                                                               This time it was Allenni, who wanted to win the cake competition for Dr. Seuss at her school. Well, I am a little competitive and so we made a game plan.  She did all the work but the detail touches and after a full day, I worked on the cake while my daughter snoozed a way. I wrote the following on FB. 

"Working all day to run a business -mental exhaustion.  Running a large household keeping everyone on their toes- physical exhaustion. 
Teaching a class til 10pm on essential oils- fun, 
Staying up til 2am to finish daughter's cake for Dr. Seuss cake competition- very tiring as well as relaxing, 
Seeing the huge smile on daughter's face and hearing thank you over and over- PRICELESS!"