Abundant Recompense Copy

First off, these guys are besties. I love it when they play and carry on conversations with each other. We went on a field trip for preschool a couple weeks ago to a walking trail near our house. I feel strongly about kids being able to have unstructured outdoor time, so we went to explore the trail and woods and see if it'd be a good place to spend an afternoon during summer break. The kids each got to bring a sandwich bag to fill with treasures while we walked.  There were a billion exploded cattails. And we found lots of interesting plants. We found a pretty fun waterfall.  . And conquered a giant fallen tree. And we found this really cool hut that somebody made out of long sticks. We had fun deciding on the perfect knot to use as a doorbell and discussing how we would survive if that was our actual home. It was a great afternoon. We'll definitely be returning with Addison and Bryn this summer.

Look at this girl! Five years old and cute, creative, and crazy smart! I cannot believe that kindergarten is on the horizon for her. Whatever will I do without her at home next school year? For Leah's fifth birthday, we pulled out the big guns and had a friend party. It was fun to get it all ready with her and the older kids. She decided to theme it around bunnies, so we made bunny invitations, bunny sugar cookies to frost, and a sweet pin the tail on the bunny game thanks to Trinity's artistry. We fished for candy bunnies, stuck bunny cling-ons on the window,  and the kids put on bunny ears and hunted for their missing carrots. It was a bunny extravaganza, and it went really well. Lots of friends came and it was fun to watch them all playing outside on the tramp and swingset. These guys were awesome party helpers. Addison was in charge of pin the tail, and Bryn was in charge of the fishing game. They rocked it! The next day was Sunday, Leah's actual birthday. Aunt Bri and ...

Crazy story: I wanted to take some nice photos of the kids while we had Nate's mom's sweet camera on loan. We'd used it to take some engagement pics for Jenna and Preston and had a couple days before we needed to return it, so we decided to go for it. We gussied the kids up one evening and headed to the back yard. At that very moment, our neighbor down the street happened by and mentioned to Nate that he'd really like to take some pictures of the kids for us sometime. He had no idea that we had a photoshoot going on right then and there! So Nate said, "How about now?" So the neighbor ran back down to his house, grabbed his camera, and spent the evening taking pictures of our kids while they played. What a blessing! They turned out beautifully! \ He even insisted on taking one of Nate and I in all our end-of-the-evening glory.

Asa baby turned three on April 27th! I think he had a great, great day. He invited me to build a playground out of Trios with him. He's a very pleasant building companion. He thinks the orange Trios are fire, and makes sure no one touches them. We went to Walmart to grab a couple things, and we passed the bin of giant balls. He always gets really excited about them and asks if we can get one. Usually the answer is, "no, not today." But this time I said YES!!! I'd been planning it for like a week and it was so fun. He got to pick the one he wanted and chose this beauty. He named it Cheerio. Daddy sneakily worked from home and magically appeared at lunch time with three balloons for our three-year-old. We baked a strawberry cake. And Asa helped to decorate it. He chose the color to make the lemon frosting, and chose the sprinkles and put them on himself. We made a spider cake, which he thought was the coolest. He is really into spiders right now. For supper we had ravio...