Raindrops on Roses

What an answer to prayer-- we've had lots of rain days this season! Thank you, Lord!

A Tribute to the Equinox

Eleven years ago, when we found out we were pregnant with our first baby, we made the easy decision to trade in Dave's little pick-up truck for a new, roomy SUV that could haul car seats and strollers.  It was one of the first major life changes we made that acknowledged the new stage of parenting we'd be entering.  And for over a decade this was a good car for us.

But, as all 11 year old cars are prone to do, it started requiring more money than we were willing to dump into it.  It left me stranded and calling AAA two times last year.  It had a host of little and big things, from the transmission to the key fabs, that were no longer working well on it.  We've been saving up and researching for a while and we set Spring Break as our new car shopping time.

Here is a little look back at some fun moments in the Equinox:    

 Shortly after we bought it, here is my car and my pregnant belly at the coast.

 This is the day we loaded our new family of FOUR up in the Equinox and brought Delia home from the hospital.

This is one of the many Christmas trees it carried home for us from the tree farm.

And here is our last goodbye at the car lot.  This car carried my babies around in their various stages of car seats and boosters for years.  It had milk sippie cups go bad in it, it had kids puke in it.  It certainly saw its share of both tears and dance parties.  This car mowed down a coyote on a dark night in Napa and didn't even show any damage.  It made hundreds of trips to school and took us on countless outings.  For 11 years, this car kept us safe in all our travels and we are thankful for it.  

But, similar to when we bought it, we acknowledge that we are in another new stage of life.  Since all my car does is drive back and forth to school, we don't need a big car any longer.  In fact, something small, but comfortable, that gets 40 miles to the gallon is pretty appealing!  So, our new car is a zippy, little, subcompact Honda.  Because it is one of the cheaper cars that Honda makes, our budget allowed for all sorts of bells and whistles that I've never had before!  My mind is a little boggled to also realize that while the car we traded in brought our babies home from the hospital, the new one we bought last week will the car those babies learn to drive in just a few years!

Spring Break Staycation

For our Spring Break, we decided to try something totally new: a complete Staycation.  This Spring Break had a new car purchase in it, so we decided to refrain from spending any money on vacations or even day trips.  Instead, I filled each of our days with friends the girls have been asking to see and playdates we've been meaning to have.  

So, I give you this Friends Post, which is the way we spent a lovely week off of school:

 Okay, this is not technically from Spring Break, but it's a friend picture I wanted to include.  Ella went away for a whole weekend to a church camp.  She had a blast!  She was put in a cabin with lots of her good friends and kept busy with all sorts of fun activities.  It was the longest I have ever gone without talking to her and I'm so happy she's the kind of kid who loves an away-from-home adventure.

 Right before Spring Break, our school hosted its annual Open House and Spring Program.  We always enjoy the opportunity to get tours of the girls' classrooms and chat with their teachers.  The program is only for kids in grades kindergarten through 3rd, which means we are officially done.  Delia and her classmates sang their Fruit of the Spirit songs wholeheartedly and ended our years of Spring Programs on nice note!  (Do you like that pun I just did there?)  Above is Delia with two of her good friends Kate and Sara.

Our Spring Break kicked off with a morning with long-distance friends, Heidi and her kids.  They happened to be in town and were kind enough to squeeze a visit with us into their schedule.  We were so blessed to catch up with these dear friends and hear all about how life is going now that Heidi's chaplain husband is deployed.

Another night I got a playdate with some of my friends!  :)  My good buddy Jetta hosted a Girls Night Out Badminton Tournament and Movie Night for her birthday.  These ladies were a riot and this night was SO fun!  During our tournament we had every kind of weather: blinding sun, extreme wind, even down-pouring rain!  Competitive Jetta made us play through it all!  I am blaming the crazy weather, and not my sub-par badminton skills, on my team's (The Badminton Babes) last place finish.

 Over Spring Break, our youth pastor and his wife had their baby-- a perfect and sweet baby boy named Judah.  He actually came a week early and he actually disrupted the Easter weekend preaching schedule quite a bit, unexpectedly doubling Dave's workload.  But, all worked out just fine!  And what joy we had spending a morning meeting him and showering his wonderful parents with some gifts and meals.  Ella is getting hooked on this "holding newborns" thing and would hardly share him! :)

The girls ask me often to let them have friends sleepover and, you guys, I just don't feel like I have the energy for this in a normal work week.  Spring Break was the perfect time to finally get this sleepover on the calendar.   It ended up being a lot of fun--  with a lot of playing, another movie night, and even an impromptu dance party.

 Delia had her friend Kate over and it was so sweet to listen to them reading books to each other for an hour in the bunk beds they shared.

 Ella had her friend Emily sleep over and they felt so grownup sharing the little guest house, where they listened to music, played cards and slept for the night. They also enjoyed rollerblading around our church parking lot the next day.

Our Spring Break's Grand Finale was a Saturday morning with another good friend, Rachel and her boys Evan and Zane.  We met at the Home Depot to make butterfly houses together and then spent some time at the park.

On the Sunday before school started up again, we reminded the girls of the big Spring Break trip we made to San Diego last year.  We asked which break was better, expecting that obviously they'd choose the one that had theme parks, koala bears, and killer whales in it.  They did not!  A break full of relaxation, movie watching, game playing, book reading and LOTS of time with friends was just as satisfying they reported!  And I think I may agree with them.

These Easter Greetings are Only Two Weeks Late...

Happy Easter, dear friends and family!  We hope you had a joyful day of celebrating God's love and grace and the miracle of life after death!

Here are a few shots of our Easter festivities:

Dying the Easter eggs. 

Getting dolled up in our Easter Sunday best. 

Sharing fellowship, ham buns, and a mega Easter egg hunt with our church family. 

Discovering our love for holding newborn babies on one of the newest members of our church VM family. (Fun fact about this growing family: it is impossible for them to get and keep any sort of updated whole family picture.  There were over 60 in attendance on Easter, 2 were newborns, and at least 2 more babies are on the way this year!)  

Realizing that my girls and their friends in this big family are the "older kids" in the bunch!  With all the new babies (many being born to the kids we had in our high school youth group 10-12 years ago!), there is a new crop of littles.  Not going to think about where that puts Dave and I on the age scale! ;)