Munsinger Gardens and Splash Pad

We made our annual summer trip to St. Cloud to visit the Munsinger/Clemens Gardens last week. The kids love strolling through the beautifully manicured gardens, splashing in the fountains, visiting the peacocks, and throwing crackers to the ducks in the river. My friend's 9-year-old son offered to take a picture of me with the kids, and I think it is the first one I have of me with all five of them. 

Now for a silly one:

After the gardens, we visited the Lake George Splash Pad & playground. While we were there, an ice cream truck showed up. The kids had never seen one before. They watched it with amazement, but not one of them asked if they could have some. They probably just assumed I would say no. Imagine their surprise when I suggested a treat! They were beside themselves. Silas got a Spider Man treat that stained his hands and face red and blue. I thought the girls would be more adventurous with so many options, but they all stuck to what they knew. 

House Progress

The railing is done and the walls are painted. We moved the furniture up yesterday, but I think we may need to trade these for a big sectional to make it work right. There's nothing on the walls yet, and I need to add some color somewhere, but we're getting there!

Note: the wall color is more gray in real life than these photos are showing. These are cell phone photos, so pardon the quality...and the goofy kids. :)

Picking Out Paint Colors

Turns out I hate picking out paint colors. I was going nuts! I had 17 different samples scattered across my walks and none of them seemed right. Finally I reached out to my friend's mom, who is an interior decorator. The very first color she suggested was a winner. Lesson learned! Out kitchen and living area will soon be Benjamin Moore's Sandy Hook Gray. 

Mini Remodel Project

JP had a great idea the other day to take out the wall between our kitchen and the lofted living room. The idea is to open up the space and make it feel more like one big room instead of two separate ones.  He put up a railing, and it looks great. We are in the process of picking out paint colors, and that will make a big impact, as well.

We plan to move our living area (which is currently downstairs) up to the lofted area and make the downstairs the new homeschool room. We may even switch bedrooms with the girls to make the whole downstairs area a "kid" zone.

Contains Fragile Material

The other day, Ruby & Rosie declared they wanted me to mail them to their friend Shiloh's house. So, I got a large box, put them inside with some crackers and water, plus the bags they had packed, and we taped them up. Rae addressed the box, and together we dragged them out to the mailbox. Hilariously, Ruby & Rosie thought the whole thing was real! After a few minutes by the mailbox, their excitement started to turn into nervousness. I told them it was illegal to mail children, so they'd need to be very quiet so as not to be discovered. They finally decided they didn't want to break the law, and we released them. 

I felt badly after the fact because Rosie actually got pretty emotional and admitted she was scared. I assured them I would never, ever do anything like that in real life, and we all had a good chuckle over it after the fact. 

Kelley Farm

I have been wanting to take the kids to the Historic Kelley Farm for some time now, and the opportunity finally presented itself. The farm was holding an event called children's day, during which kids could participate in daily farm chores, demonstrations, games and activities. Silas could have pumped water at the well all day; Ruby was chasing kittens all afternoon; Rosie stayed near the horses, and Rae kept herself busy (and got soaked) hauling buckets of water from the well to the horses and gardens. 

This was a great educational trip, and I would highly recommend it! It coincided nicely with our Little House on the Prairie history theme this year. 

I was drooling over this beautiful house!

Father's Day 2015

We are so thankful for the fathers in our lives. Each one of them plays a vital role in helping mold and shape us into the people God purposes is and our children to be. 

While we were not able to see all of our dads this Father's Day, we took advantage of Missy & the kids being in town to join my family at Big Marine Park Reserve for a picnic and playground fun. 

We planned to swim, but signage warning of swimmer's itch deterred us. Luckily, my dad noticed a hose near our picnic site, and the kids had a blast spraying each other all afternoon. 

Good Quote

"We must return to viewing our lives through the filter of the scripture rather than viewing the scripture through the filter of society."

-Vern Peltz