Sonquest Rainforest

This week I had the privilege of doing the crafts at our VBS. It was a rain forest theme. Today's craft was frames that will hold a picture of the kids from the rain forest.

Here the group sings some songs.... it was fun to see our church transformed to look like a rain forest. We even got to skype with missionaries in the rain forest of South America.

One of our favorite friends Rachel shows off her frame.

Amelia and Samuel pose in front of the beautiful backdrop.

The entrance- a volcano.
What a fun, but busy and tiring 3 days. It is always such a joy to share God's love with other people, especially children.

Choo-Choo

Samuel has lately had a fascination with all things trains. He will even line things up in a row and go choo-choo. It was really fun while we were on our trip to Wisconsin Dells to have a "train day." We road a 1/3 quarter scale train and ate at a train restaurant where your food was delivered by a train.

We have been thinking for awhile about his upcoming birthday and what to get him. After attending a Thomas the train day at our local toy store., we realized how fascinated he was with the train table. We thought this might be a good gift to get. Of course, the authentic Thomas stuff is pretty expensive. We had found a nice alternative train set/table at Toys R us, but was still pretty spendy. It was then we turned to Craig's list. We have not done a lot with this site, but found plenty of good options..... Our first one we visited was an authentic Thomas octagon table that was beautiful with track, 3 buildings, and 4 trains. Nice.. still $150. The second was a place I found in Bloomington. A white table with track and trains. I had seen this table all over craig's list and this lady had it priced at $35 for everything. I contacted her and arranged to go see it. She had found a small chip and lowered it to $30. Again, I was not sure though if the condition would be good and that first one was a beautiful piece of furniture. We went and saw it last night and when we got there, she said that she really just wanted to get it out of her house and she would give it to us for FREE!!!! David and I looked at each other and were in shock. This family had a beautiful house and lots of toys and did truelly need the space. I tried to give her something, but she wanted us to just have it. How very generous!!! I'm still in awe.
It is a nice solid table with two storage drawers, lots of track, bridge, mountain and many trains and other pieces. The kids loved it!!!!. Now for his birthday we can get him some other accessories. I know it's silly to say, but it is amazing how God provides. We try to be good stewards of what He has given us, and it's things like this that show again his goodness in every situation. I'm so grateful for our parents who taught us to spend our money wisely, shop around, and look for deals. I have seen many times where things like this happen and the money that was saved can go to help someone else. So thanks, to this generous family in Bloomington our kids will get hours of enjoyment... hopefully someday we to can pass this along to another family that will enjoy it.

Look at the concentration in playing trains

A view of the table
I think David and I have enjoyed setting up the tracks/rails just as much as the kids.

Garage Saleing

No, this is not a post about my recent most greatest Garage Sale finds, it's to announce that we are having a Garage Sale this Friday and Saturday.

DETAILS: Garage Sale July 16-17, 9-3
Location: Our house... leave a comment with your email/phone number and I will call you back with directions. I have chosen not to give out our address in this blog.

Stuff included: LOTS AND LOTS OF BABY THINGS... clothes, toys, infant stuff and lots of misc.
If you know someone expecting or with kids infant-3yrs old there is lots of boys/girls things.

I often get asked, "Oh, so you're not having another baby then ?"
It's funny how this question comes up almost as soon as you have another one. The answer is No, we are probably not having another one. We love our two, and know for us this is the right fit. I always thought I would want to manage a large brood, but realize I just don't have the energy for it. It's sometimes hard when I see/hear of others that have 3 or are expecting more, but I have also seen the challenges that come with raising a large family, and I love things the way they are. So, there you go... come buy all our stuff. We think we are done. :)

What is this?.... surprises when we got home!

When we got home from our trip last week, this is what we found in Amelia's bedroom
A stage/curtain with an early birthday surprise behind it.
What could it be?

It's an Ariel bike!!!!
Wow!

She tries it out and then proceeds to quickly go out and ride it before it rained (and again afterward.) In the words of Amelia... "this is so cool." She talked about it all night and wanted her friends to come over and see it. What a fun surprise to come home to and with great presentation. We have had fun all week learning to ride. We now need to gain some confidence in hills and breaking.
As a side note the kids have also enjoyed using the stage in the basement to put on "shows."
Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Vesta... you can use our house anytime we are gone.
They also mowed the lawn for us too. :)

Our Big Vacation!

We're back!
After 8 days and 5 states we have arrived home from our big summer vacation. We started our trip off in the Wisconsin Dells. We enjoyed 3 fabulous days of sun, trains, and water parks.

Here is the indoor portion of the water park at the Chula Vista Resort. The kids enjoyed going between the inside and the outside. We were glad to have everything on site at our resort.

Samuel takes a turn on the lazy river (for kids). This became a favorite area and we spent a lot of our day here.

Where are we now? We are in Illinois. We traveled to Rockford to attend my cousin's wedding reception. We got to stay/see lots of family. It was a fun, but busy 3 days.

The weather was beautiful for this outdoor reception on the Rock River. A bit hot and humid, but no rain.

Amelia enjoys some treats from the desert table. Thanks Borseth's and Vesta's for a great weekend.

Happy 4th of July!
We then headed to see Nonnie (David's grandma) in Quincy Illinois on the banks of the Mississippi. We enjoyed a wonderful 4th of July fireworks show and days of fun with Nonnie.

More views of the Mississippi river the next day.

Enjoying some yummy chocolate pie.
Nonnie had not seen the kids in about a year so it was a treat for her to catch up with them.
She loved introducing us to her many friends.
What a fun, full trip.