How could I forget....

When giving a recap of our week, how could I forget Caleb and Emma's nail polish adventure?! On Wednesday morning I was at women's covenant (our staff women's coffee time) and Luke was at home with the kids. He was on the phone talking with a guy from a supporting church when Caleb ran in with paper towels covered in bright red and yelling, "It's not blood! It's not blood!" He yelled loud enough that the guy on the phone said, "It's not blood?" So Luke got off the phone and went to investigate. They had completely emptied a bottle of red nail polish in the living room. I'm not sure what the extent of the painting was. I know there is still asmall spot on the rug because they ran out of nail polish remover. But at least it's not blood....

A week with us...

Sunday was a beautiful day with sunshine and 60+ temperatures, and a rare day when our whole family could spend a good amount of time together, so we decided to head to our favorite park, Oso de Oro. It was designed for the handicapped, so everything is very low to the ground - perfect for little tykes, too! Emma's favorite part was the duck pond. She stayed there just running around and laughing at the ducks for quite a long time. Whenever we're leaving the park, it's tradition for them all to climb on the bear. Yeah, it's not a golden bear (like the park's name), but it is a bear. It's always been a milestone when each one could climb on with no help. Emma's the only one who's not there yet. It felt like spring to me, ahhhh... But alas, the rest of the week has been cold and rainy. I know, I use the term "cold" like a Californian, because by that I mean highs in the 40's.

On Tuesday night after meeting with my LTG (Life Transformation Group, like an accountability group), I helped our friend Maytag roll egg rolls. Maytag is a junior at Fresno Pacific University (FPU) and grew up in the ministry of W.I. She's raising money to go on a missions trip to Vietnam this summer - as the group's translator! By the way, her name is Hmong. In Hmong, "May" means "girl" and "tag" means "last". Her dad was hoping she'd be the last girl, but she does have one younger sister - hee hee! Anyway, I love the egg rolls and she had to make 500 of them! We feasted on some at our house.

Today we enjoyed a field trip with Tower Christian to Young at Art, a kids' art studio. Our kids each got to work with clay and they were able to choose 2 pieces to fire. Next Thursday we can go and they can glaze them, then we have to wait another week to pick them up. I think they enjoyed it. Elizabeth loves anything "craft"-y, and Caleb just enjoys new things. Emma sat and watched wordlessly.

That was our week - oh yeah, interspersed with strategic planning meetings and work at the thrift store, and school.... Yikes! I was hoping life would slow down in January. Maybe February....

more pirate pictures....

Birthday Ahoy!

Caleb turned 4 on Wednesday and celebrated with a boys-only pirate party! He was very rigid about the boys-only rule and instructed me that even I could not attend. Even as I was making his favorite mac and cheese for them to eat, he told me, "Mommy, after you make the food, you have to leave!" So I took Elizabeth and Emma and went to the mall.

Meanwhile, Luke ran a pirate party full of "Aargh"'s and "Matey"s and he even said there were some English accents! They had a treasure hunt with a treasure chest of "booty" (candy) at the end, they played "walk the plank" and "sharks and pirates", both made up by Luke. Then they ate beans and weanies, mac and cheese, grapes, carrots and the pirate ship cake.

Caleb loved it. I think his friends did too!!