Home Depot.....

Here are the girls, dressed as Home Depot employees. Notice that Katy even made a name tag for herself (and Darsie, and Liam, and her stuffed dog and .....)...
They had Katy's cash register out and every single book pulled off of their bookshelf (I guess that's what their Home Depot sells). Gotta go help them figure out how to clean up now....

Ahoy!!

This morning, Matt had to leave early to help friends move into a new home. It seemed a great opportunity to have some fun time with the girls. So, we packed up and headed to Home Depot together (the girls asking why we were going to Home Depot for a fun time). Home Depot has free (!) kids clinics the first Saturday of every month, with projects for them to make (using real tools!), aprons for them to wear and pins to put on the apron for each project completed. I found out about this from my college roommate, Kate, whose kids did this earlier in the spring. Thanks, Kate!
Well, the girls LOVED it! They got to hammer and use real nails (Katy was especially excited about the real nails, not just toy ones like she plays with at her friend's house!). Katy did great at following the picture directions step by step, and she hammers pretty well for a kid who has never done it before! Darsie needed a little help, but she was engrossed in it the whole time. After a loud hammering time, they came home with beautiful catamarans (you can see them below). I will post another picture after the paint dries on them (that's what we did when we got home).
And what are they doing now, after such a fun adventure? The girls are in their room wearing their aprons and playing Home Depot. :)

Parade!!

We went to a parade this morning with friends of ours from church and their son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren. They had us over to a cookout Friday evening, and Katy and Darsie hit it off with their oldest granddaughter, Kendall. All weekend, the girls talked about Kendall. So, when they got to see her again today, along with her very adorable brothers, they were excited! All had a great time (I think just as much fun talking to each other as looking at the parade).
It was fun for the girls to have a new friend, especially one whose daddy is a pastor, just like theirs!

Katy in the Spotlight.....

Here she is...

Here's Katy...

Here she is...

Katy's Performance

Katy's girls' group ended tonight for the year. They had their annual end-of-year program, where each group shares a bit about what they have been doing all year. You may remember the Christmas banquet, where Katy faced the back during her group's entire performance. Well, we prepped her for this one, and she was excited about it and ready to go. We prayed with her in the car, asking for God to help her enjoy it and be brave. Well, she did GREAT!! She did everything the group did, from doing the "secret handshake" to sharing her special thought from this week (she mentioned me using my sewing machine today!) to even saying her lines for the "H" attribute. I will upload a video later (you can't hear her very well, but she does say "God is Holy").
Anyway, we are so proud of her! She has come a long way from the fall! Several friends of ours also came up and expressed how proud they were of her as well. I told her about it in the car, and she commented that God had helped her. Praise Him for answering the prayers even of our children!

Humbled...

I read this quote on my Google Reader this afternoon. It's an excerpt from a new book John Piper is writing...

The most fundamental task of a mother and father is to show God to the children. Children know their parents before they know God. This is a huge responsibility and should cause every parent to be desperate for God-like transformation. The children will have years of exposure to what the universe is like before they know there is a universe. They will experience the kind of authority there is in the universe and the kind of justice there is in the universe and the kind of love there is in the universe before they meet the God of authority and justice and love who created and rules of the universe. Children are absorbing from dad his strength and leadership and protection and justice and love; and they are absorbing from mother her care and nurture and warmth and intimacy and justice and love—and, of course, all these overlap.

And all this is happening before the child knows anything about God, but it is profoundly all about God. Will the child be able to recognize God for who he really is in his authority and love and justice because mom and dad have together shown the child what God is like. The chief task of parenting is to know God for who he is in his many attributes, and then to live in such a way with our children that we help them see and know this multi-faceted God. And, of course, that will involve directing them always to the infallible portrait of God in the Bible.

John Piper