End of Soccer

Harper finished his second season of soccer in May!  He did really well and actually made several goals this time!!  He was so proud of himself and he really enjoyed having Matt take him to his games.  The ladies and I usually stayed home so he could have some guy time, but there were several games where we just had to attend!!

 And it was quite hot at some of the games, so we had to arrive in style.  Yes, we are Harper's support team all in shade!

 Finley had to have one of the girl's umbrellas....you know a black one just won't work for her!

 Harper's team

Big man at the goal!

Made in China

The kids are very into where things are made.  Every where we go, they are looking for the "Made in China" branding.  At lunch one day they were examining their cups, plates and silverware.  Chloe thought she was funny and stuck her foot up on the table and says look do you see where it says made in China?  Harper quickly chirped up, "Chloe!!!!  You are not made in China, you are made in Heaven!"  Conversation ended :)

7 YEARS!!

Why do they have to grow up?!  The more birthday's they have, the closer I am to them leaving me!  These two are more than marvelous.  They have such amazing hearts and care so much about each other and everyone in our family.  I love the bond they have and how compatible they are.  They are beautiful inside and out and I am so proud of them.  For their birthday I got them all pumped up to go to Kate's Skate for the first time.  We arranged for Mom to come watch the little kids while we took Carly, Chloe, Harper and their friend Avery to the skating rink.  We met up with Dad who had Reilly and Reagan.  All children were beaming from ear to ear and bubbling with excitement.  We waltz into Kate's and the place is desolate.  We finally find a person and she looks at us like we are crazy and says, "Oh, we are always closed on Wednesdays!"  Seriously?!!  I couldn't believe I let them down so much.  I felt horrible.  Carly and Chloe, well, they were so calm about it and just waited for me to figure out what I was going to do.  I remembered that Monkey Joe's offered 1/2 price on Wednesdays, so we all loaded back up and headed into Matthews.  Good save, but still not the same.  I know they all enjoyed it but I still want to take them skating.  After that, we came home for some pizza and cake with all the Grandparents and enjoyed their special day.  Happy Birthday Carly and Chloe!

Smelling Good Girl

I seriously could write a book on Finley Claire!  The other day we were sitting down for dinner and Finley comes down.  I had her go back up stairs to do something and she took way longer than she needed to for the task at hand.  A little while later she came down (if you are wondering why we didn't go get her......you try eating with 5 kids.....we liked one less mouth talking while we swallowed our food whole!)  As she comes down all smiles, Matt looks at me and says, "Do you smell her?"  I had her come to me and I asked her what she did - "I just put a little bit of Daddy's stuff on me!"  Cologne!!  Oh yes, the girl stunk mighty pretty!  She was so proud of herself getting all dolled up for dinner!

Another FiFi moment:  She made a project for me at church for Mother's Day.  She proceeds to announce in the car:  "Mom, I .....Dad, I made you a present for Mother's Day!"  After repeated attempts by Matt that the gift is for me, she refused and we just let her think that the gift was for Matt.  One day the child will admit that she likes me :)  I also got purple shorts from her for Mother's Day - need I remind you I hate the color purple!!!  But I do know that she will complement me when I wear them and of course that will melt my heart.

Compassionate Heart

Today's Objective:  Go shopping for Mother's Day gifts

Departure:  9:00 am - this left me with only 2 hours to get the shopping done, go pick up pictures from Deanna, and get home to feed everyone lunch.  We cut out morning school lessons so that we could get our adventure done.  Plagued by a long list of stores to go in and out of, we took off!  We went to 2 stores and the bank and then we proceeded to sit at a light.  As soon as we got to the light, the kids noticed a homeless man.  We had seen this same man one other time and they briefly asked about him before, but didn't really say too much about it then.  But today they were excited to see him.  As I sat and slipped my hand up and gave a gentle wave, my kids were banging on the windows of the car yelling "HI!!"  The light turned green and the questions started:  "Where does he live?  Does he have a car?  How does he eat?  How does he go to the bathroom?  What happened to his house?"  I answered all their questions and all of the sudden their little hearts were filled to the measure with compassion!  "Mom, we have to give him some money!"  I told them that giving him money wouldn't really help him because alot of the times people who are homeless have a hard time knowing what to do with money, but we could feed him.  So the unanimous answer was to go to the grocery store and get him some food.  I stopped at another store before heading onto our quest and then they piped up, "Mom, he probably doesn't know about Jesus!  We need to get him a Bible!"  I told them that would be a great idea, but I didn't have one in the car to give him.  "Ollies!!!"  Carly yelled as I was approaching the shopping center - we quickly turned in and my babies bought the man a Bible!  (They are at the check out paying for it above)  We then went to the grocery store and got some dry snacks for him to eat and a sandwich.  The kids were so excited.  We wrote in the Bible that we could only feed him for a short time, but through God's word he would be fed for a lifetime.  We wrote about God's promise and Jesus dying on the cross to pay for our sins.  They were ready to go see the man.  We parked the car at a mattress store and walked across all the traffic (yes with all 5 kids) to get to the man in the median.  They handed him the bags of food and the Bible.  Then Chloe spoke right up and said, "Jesus loves you!"  (Now if you know these kids at all, you know that Chloe would never do this.....but she did!)  I talked to him for a few minutes and then we left.  I am so thankful for the lessons my children teach me daily.  They have such innocent hearts and are taking everything in that we teach them and then they are DOING!  My objective was to get everything off my list done, but they showed me that you need to stop and see others first.  I pray that their hearts never become hardened.  I pray that they will continue to grow and to know the love of Christ.  In preparation for VBS, I am doing an Ephesians study.  These verses came to mind as my kids were showing me how to BE JESUS!

Ephesians 3

Chloe having a Baby!

Today is the first day my kids have ever played being married. Chloe is waltzing around in a wedding gown and Harper is the husband. They decided they were going to have a baby (I am overhearing this so I am hiding in the stairway). They sit down and pray......because that is how you get a baby.....you just pray about it :)  So sweet and innocent!

Little Miss Self Reliant

She never ceases to amaze me!  Today I go upstairs and I find a pair of wet panties and wet pants on the floor next to the bathroom.  No sign of the child and the door to her room was closed.  I open the door to find her sitting on the floor playing like this!  She wets the bed, gets up takes care of the problem, found some panties on the couch where I was doing laundry, looks for pants, can't find any so she sees the legwarmers I found and threw in the hallway to put away once she woke up from her nap.  Nope, she doesn't need me, she can take care of things all by herself!