Visit Me Over at Joy in the Journey

I don't post much here anymore. It is just easier for me to blog at my "main" blog, Joy in the Journey.  

Christmas Music

Both K and L sang in the children's Christmas choir. K played a piano solo (video below) and T played the drums for "The Little Drummer Boy" (video below).

K's 9th Birthday

K turned 9 on 11/11 and I (Mom) took her out on a special birthday date. She got her hair and nails done at a local salon.

I took her out to eat lunch.

Then we came home and she opened presents. Two people who know her very well (her sister and "Miss" Linda) got her the same thing because nothing screams "Kaitlyn" like a little pink poodle. K thought it was hilarious!

Of course, we had birthday cake. K requested an ice cream cake, but we used brownies instead of cake and she wanted mint chocolate chip ice cream. We used mini chocolate cookies to decorate the cake and made them look like music notes because K loves music (especially playing the piano).

Apple Picking Fall 2011

Since moving to Pennsylvania in 2008, we have enjoyed visiting local orchards and picking apples. The children love eating them and baking with them and it has truly become a tradition we've made since living here.

Want to go down memory lane? I've given links to all our previous apple picking posts below.

Apple Picking 2008

Apple Picking 2009

Apple Picking 2010

Springtime Update

We have been enjoying some fun springtime activities. We've been gardening. We are working on developing more flowerbeds around our house and also giving container gardening a try. Tyler has wanted to grow his own carrots for a while now, so he planted some carrot seeds. They are doing well, and we hope to be eating them in about 30 more days!

Bird watching is another one of our family's favorites. We feed finches, hummingbirds, and we have a separate wild bird feeder, and a bird bath. We are attracting all sorts of fun birds and identifying them in our field guides. Tyler is really into birds right now, especially water birds. We had a mother woodpecker make a nest in one of our trees and it was fun to listen to them and watch her feed them.

This weekend, our church had a picnic and we had a wonderful time. Some friends of ours brought a huge water slide and it was a big hit with all the kids (big and little).

So, how about you? How was spring been treating you? We have one more week to enjoy some rest time before we start three weeks of a program called Tennis for Kids, and then Vacation Bible School, and then Heath and I are headed to Ontario, Canada for a mission trip. Once we return from that, my focus will be getting things organized for the 2011-12 school year. Lauren will be a 1st grader, Kaitlyn a 3rd grader, and Tyler a 4th grader.

K's Poetry

K entered a poetry contest hosted by one of our local library branches. She won 2nd place in her category and she was invited to a special celebration to read her poem. It was a really special and fun night for our family! All of the poets did an awesome job!

T and K had a good time listening to all the poetry, and the refreshments were a nice bonus too!

Reading and writing poetry is something we do regularly, and it was encouraging and inspiring to our entire family to take part in this celebration.

Happy 6th Birthday!

The baby of the family, L, is six-years-old today. This is how the boys in the family help prepare for a birthday around here. They eat all the extra icing from the pan.

This is how the sister helps prepare for a birthday. She creatively and neatly decorates the birthday cake.

Happy Birthday baby, I mean, Big Girl! We love you and are so blessed to have you in our lives. You make us smile, laugh, and you give us a reason to just spin around with silliness at random times (like when we walk down a grocery aisle)!

I also want to mention a dear friend to our family, "Miss" Linda who took L to story time at the library yesterday and out to lunch as a special birthday treat. I didn't post any pictures of their day together because I wasn't sure "Miss" Linda wanted her picture on the internet or not. When you live nearly 1,000 miles away from family, it is such a sweet blessing from the Lord when He brings people into your lives like "Miss" Linda and her husband.