Spring Time 2 County Fair

Remember our trip to the fair last spring?

This year Evie was tall enough to ride every scary ride her wild heart desired...Anabelle discovered that fair food is "nummy!"...And the girls went on spin after spin together...And down the Super Slide over and OVER... Someone really hated the Crazy Bus, but in all we had a wonderful spring night!

The Ranch

This post is long overdue!

Some friends of ours are full time "house parents" in the boy's house at a local children's home. It's actually not just a wonderful home, but also an amazing ranch and hands-on school for children from crisis families.

"Seamark Ranch, a non-denominational, Christ-centered children’s home and school is committed to sharing the Gospel, hope, healing, and a brighter future with children from families in crisis"

Seamark's Website

A while back, they invited our whole small group out for dinner and a fabulous night at the ranch. The kids enjoyed meeting and feeding chickens, donkeys, and horses, all of which are raised and cared for by the children who live on the ranch. For dinner we ate giant fresh carrots and potatoes that had been grown there - delicious! It was a really cool enlightening night. What a huge and amazing work is being done there!

What they do there is incredible. Our friends, the house parents, are not only raising 2 girls of their own, but also 8 (? - it was 8 last time I checked) boys! I find myself struggling all the time to raise my own children faithfully - God's way. What an awesome calling it is to bring other's children into your family, to raise them, and to introduce them to the faith. HUGE!

Speaking of raising children, we have been hit hard by the terrible two's (also known simply as sin) in the last week. It has sort of blown me away because Anabelle has always been an easy and sweet girl, but oh my the tides have turned. Just tonight alone (not counting the many offenses from earlier today) she bit Evie on the shoulder breaking a blood vessel, and then presented me with a clean plate - proof of a fully consumed dinner - only for me to find her entire meal scattered about the floor after she had been given dessert and put to bed. How did she get away with that you're probably asking? I guess because I was being a spacey mess and forgot that I CANNOT TRUST HER. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me - right? Now is the time when I need all of you to give me the "CONSISTENCY" speech. Trust me, the child gets PLENTY of grace, I need to work on the consistency! Help!

One more thing... I received very sad news that a young man ,who my brothers and I knew as children, passed away unexpectedly last week. Please keep the family of Ben Speer in your prayers, he was 22.

Summer Time

It's Summer time and boy is it HOTTTT! We've been pretty busy the past week or so, and we have a few more busy weeks coming up. From Vacation Bible School to all sorts of play dates, we have been out of our house almost everyday! The extra activity combined with the (extra intense this year) Florida heat is wearing me out, so I won't lie, I've been taking naps with the kids lately instead of blogging :) We're having a great Summer though! I'm trying to squeeze in plenty of fun, while at the same time trying to turn us into "more organized people" in anticipation of Evie starting school in 2 months (sniff, sniff - I'll save all that for another post!) Anyway, I just wanted to drop in to say "Hi". I do have a few "preplanned" posts to entertain you all over the next 2 weeks while I am still very busy, plus I will try to pop in here and there. I hope you are all enjoying Summer!

Beach Night

Ben's mom rented a beach condo last week (for herself that lucky lady). She invited us out for a night to play and we were thrilled - we LOVE evenings at the beach! Here are a few pictures (little disclaimer: the cowboy boot & bikini combo is a statement dreamed up entirely by Evie - such a fashionista!)...

The County Fair

Last weekend we took Evie and Anabelle to our county fairFor little girls it is a very magical placeA place with rides that are just your sizeAnd games with ballsThat hypnotize you into being stillBecause it's all so prettyAnd you are too little to see that it is creepy and dirty All you see are things that you have only ever dreamed of doing, but at the county fair, for just 2 tickets... ....You can!

Christmas Made in the South

C'mon Little Girls, it's Christmas craft show time!So let's get dressed up, and head down town!

We'll ride a little pony and buy some big hair bows!
Did I mention it would be a little cheesy? But that's what makes it fun!

Ben is the best sport because every year he agrees to take me and the girls to Christmas Made in the South. It's your typical convention center-sized, campy, Christmas, crafty, shin-dig! I just love it, and Ben comes along to crack some awesome jokes. It's just not Christmas time until you've attended a craft show! Since the girls were such good sports, we took them outside afterward to see the WWI locomotive - trains and crafts - so very Christmas! I am totally excited about the start of December tomorrow, I bought Evie one of those countdown calendars with the little doors and chocolates! With each day's chocolate treat, I'm going to include a "Christmas activity surprise". I hope to blog about all 24 surprises, so I hope you will follow along! Merry start of Christmas time everyone!!!

Girl's First Trip to the Fort

This past Sunday afternoon we decided to take the girls to the Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine. We didn't know if this outing would be a hit or a miss. It was without a doubt a "hit"! The weather was perfect, the water was gorgeous, and both girlies were happy to be outside. Evie very dreamily enjoyed the "castle" as though it were fit for Cinderella (never mind it's actually a place reminiscent of death, disease, and destruction) she was in a wonder world all her own. Enjoy the pictures!

Family Outing to St. Augustine

Pictures from our day trip to St. Augustine April 18, 2008