Wesley wore a tie to the wedding and Judah wore a bow tie.
While waiting for the reception to start Wesley turned his tie into a weapon.
Judah’s bow tie didn’t quite compare to the wondrous play toy that Wesley’s tie was and so he started to sulk.
While I took pictures of Wesley slinging his tie around I told Judah that he needed to find a way to cheer himself up… and thus this series of pictures;
Having cheered himself up he sat, smiling, for a picture…
And then along came his brother …
The love that these two have for each other is so precious – they are best buddies. They encourage each other to have good attitudes and to be joyful. They inspire each others imaginations. They share their dreams with each other {literally, every morning over breakfast they tell each other what they dreamed about the night before.}
We work hard to encourage their bond – to encourage love and respect between each other and to balance that with stepping back and letting them work out their problems between each other. It’s a delicate balance we will probably constantly be working on figuring out.
But we are so thankful for the deep love our boys have for each other and pray that it deepens and matures as they grow older.
Since Paul was the officiant at the wedding the boys and I had a ton of time to kill so we explored the gorgeous green house and grounds where the wedding took place. I bribed the boys with cheese strings and sticks of gum and the promise of wedding cake for them to sit and let me take their pictures.
Wesley is so proud of his gum-chewing abilities. Up until a couple months ago he always “accidentally” swallowed his gum within minutes of putting it in his mouth so we rarely gave it to him. He eventually got the hang of gum chewing and he proudly showed off his gum in most of the pictures I took of him.
The grounds were seriously gorgeous and so well manicured.
The gardens in Joliet, Il could be a destination wedding location, the grounds are that beautiful!
Wesley: “But mommy I am smiling!”
Judah to Wesley: “Do you think these pictures will ever stop?”
We did it! One week, slightly over 2,000 miles driven and over 1,000 pictures taken; a wedding, train rides, bus rides, visiting old family friends, meeting an online friend, hammock sleeping under the stars, randomly following highway signs to exciting adventures… it was a fabulous trip!
We got home at 2:30 in the morning, slept in and have worked hard to get things put away and cleaned up – a big deal for people like us who normally take a week or two to get around to putting away things from a trip!
Chicago is a beautiful city and there are tons of really fun things to do along the way – I’ll highlight some of our favorites next week, but for now I’ll leave you with some pictures from our adventures!
Going to Nigeria was one of the greatest decisions we made as a family – my children’s lives have been altered as a result of living so closely with those in another culture. Their worlds and hearts are bigger for having had the experiences they did. Their bond to each other is tighter. Their ideas of who God is and how real He is were made personal to them on that trip.
8 months after that trip I still see the beauty and rewards we are receiving from that trip.
We often go through our photo albums and digital files and remember forgotten details, like this photo here;
Judah, myself and a few others had gone on a walk to see a nomadic tribe.
After a short visit this woman went out and started to feed her chickens. A few seconds after this shot was taken she snatched one of them up, which caused the rest of the chickens to scurry away in fright. She then started to feed them again, which calmed them all down, and then she tied the feet of the captured chicken and handed it to us as a gift.
Lovely.
And then there’s this picture – the Orange-tree-dubbed-Sycamore-tree the boys enjoyed climbing and belting out “Zacchaeus was a wee little man…”
The textures and simple building supplies – the blare of white through the window is a tin roof.
The boys would seek refuge in this bucket from the many hands trying to hold them.
Their sweet little friends, Queen and Glory.
Why hello Mr. Goat. Funny to meet you here on this road. How is your morning stroll?
A favorite of my youngest with three of their playmates.
And this picture? It still makes me shudder. I can’t believe I let my then 3 year old get so close to a 50 foot well. My uncle had him safely in his arms the whole time, but wow! It does a number on my mommy heart each time I look at it.
How many children can you fit in an orange tree?
See that dirt? This was early in the morning – probably around 7 am. They reveled in the dirt and made sure it was in every crevice of their body. Then they complained at their twice daily baths. {Typically, they would be inside twice a day – once for lunch/nap time and once for supper/bedtime. Other than that they were outside playing hard.}
Perhaps a bit difficult to read on here, but I have printed and framed this for our house to remember the things that are important to us.
The boys already adore magnet boards, so for our trip I decided it would be the perfect toy to bring along with some new magnets for them to play with.
Rather then buying new magnets I went through my sticker collection, put some favorites on heavy card stock and added a magnet to the back. Easy, cheap and much more customized to their interests.
Like the space dog and planets? I am counting on those being favorites. They are definitely my favorite!
Empty Altoid tins make the perfect home for magnets, as well as a make shift mini-magnet board they can keep in their pockets.
I don’t know where I found this recipe – somewhere on allrecipes.com I believe, but I altered it by adding in blueberries, taking out about half of the sugar, using coconut oil and accidentally using blackened sesame seeds rather than the called for poppy seeds - oops.
You could make any lemon scone recipe and I am sure it would be fabulous, but what I loved about these ones was the icing. When it came time to make the lemon icing I realized I was out of all things lemon – except a Crystal Light lemonade mix. So I mixed it along with a little bit of water and some icing sugar and it was delicious! Very lemony and complimented the scones beautifully.
Do you have any favorite icing recipes?
I love road trips with Paul and the boys – our children are great travelers and fun people to be traveling in a car {or plane!} with. We have a 28 hour+ round trip coming up and I thought I would share some of the ways we plan and prepare for fun road trips with young children.
1. Talk it up – excitement is contagious, so if you’re excited so will your children! Let them know where you’re going, what you’re doing – but do keep parts of it a surprise! In a mysterious voice let them know there will be some surprises along the way. {Then make sure to follow through with surprises!!}
2. Google or Youtube your destination with your child and discover points of interest together. Even if you’re not able to visit these places it will give them an understanding of what that specific city is known for. You could also look for books that talk about the location your heading to and bring it along to read together in your hotel or, if possible, right near the area the book mentions.
3. Print maps and create mile or State markers – a highway map that labels home and the destination {such as one printed from Googlemaps} will give the child a deeper understanding of where they are going and give them an opportunity to explore a map and will give them something to “follow along” on while driving. You could also print maps for the destination city – I have printed a map for the local transportation system in the city we’re heading to and the boys have had a blast looking at it.
I have seen some fabulous ideas for helping kids know where they are while traveling and the one I think I am going to do this trip is to tie a string between the drivers seat and the front passenger seat. Then I will roughly draw each state we will be driving through and attach them to the string, in the order we will be passing through each one. Then I will use a wooden clothes pin and draw each boy on one and we will move the clothes pins along the line to show them each time we enter a new state.
4. Search for fun playgrounds that will be on your route. This is the one I have been looking at. Also, you must check out this list of incredible playgrounds - if you live near or will be traveling near any of these WOW!! They look super fun!
{A stop at a fun playground could be one of those secrets you play up when you’re creating hype about the trip!}
5. Hide favorite toys – I know I have mentioned this before. It is one of my favorite secrets for keeping the kids entertained in the car. I have found that shiny, new toys for road trips cost money and, generally, only hold a few minutes of play time. So I have started taking some of their favorite play toys and stashing them away before we go on a trip. They are thrilled to be reunited with their favorite toy and, because it is a favorite, they actually play with it for a long time. It costs nothing and doesn’t add to the toy junk collection.
6. Print fun activities – spend a few minutes finding fun printable activity sheets for your kids to do in the car. There are some really cool things available out there for free for you to print. Even the expensive coloring books generally have free sample pages for you to print. My all time favorite {and the boys favorite!!} is Taro Gomi‘s art. We have printed and used all of the free down loads and I am wanting to create some of my own sheets for them inspired by his work. {since his books are currently out of our budget.}
7. Get some new audio books and music cds – the local library may have a good selection, friends might have some you can borrow or try downloading some from audible.com – seriously, I should get an affiliate link with them! I talk about them enough!
I’ll work on a list of favorite audio books and music, but would love, love, love to hear some of your family favorites!
8. Plan meals and snacks – this really plays into the “creating hype” category for my boys because they love food. Love, love, love it! They enjoy contributing their own ideas for snacks {“cheese strings and pretzel rods please!“} and are really looking forward to pizza bites and pigs in a blanket – both special foods reserved mainly for trips. When I do make the dough for the pizza bites and to wrap around the hot dogs they will both be active participants in that activity.
9. Pack minimally - Nothing makes a trip more stressful then lots and lots of stuff jammed into a car around tired people… well, nothing except for trying to find a needed item in the midst of lots of stuff. Planning {and list making!!} helps me be able to visualize what I need and cut out what I don’t need and taking only the necessary makes the trip much more peaceful.
So, how about you? What goes into the planning of a trip for you that makes the trip itself a richer experience for your family?
I still have time to implement some of your ideas before our trip!!
He calls himself a super hero and assures me daily that he will protect me from all danger.
He is certain that when he grows older he is going to marry me and live with me forever and ever and ever.
He owns a measuring tape that is devoted solely to measuring the growth of his muscles and finds great delight in flexing those little boy muscles for me.
For my birthday last month he told Paul exactly what he wanted to buy me for my gift – a 64 pack of crayons. Pink crayons. Four shades of pink.
Pink Flamingo
Tickle Me Pink
Wild Strawberry
Wild Watermellon
In all the wild, boyish, loudness that goes on in this house he saw a need for his mommy to have a little bit of girly-ness in her life … and so he bought me pink.
I will continue to ooohhh and aww over muscles, to gently suggest that maybe God has a little girl out there that will grow into a woman he could one day marry and to call on my super hero whenever I have a load of groceries to be carried or have misplaced an item.
And I will be coloring with pink for a long, long time.
I am so excited about this project – a friend pinned something similar she’d seen on Etsy and I decided to give it a try.
Melting crayons – or crayon flooding- to create art is a really fun activity and you end up with super unique wall art!
I started with a box of Crayola Crayons {bought on a back to school sale for .25 cents a box – now IS the time to stock up on these crayon boxes!} and a 9×12 flat canvas {3 for $3 at Big Lots.}
I put a piece of double sided tape across the top of the canvas and then tied some string around the crayons to help ensure that they stay in place.
Then I put the canvas outside in the hot Georgia sun.
5 minutes later I decided there had to be a better way.
I brought the canvas indoors and pulled out my heat gun. Instant satisfaction!
Within minutes I had this dramatic before and after {the after being photographed framed}
I realized pretty quickly that I didn’t like the crayon wrappers attacked to the canvas, nor did I like the smeary look I did to try to fill in where the crayons had been attached to the canvas {see above photo.}
So I set up a simple system that allowed the crayons to hang over the canvas without being attached to it and I came up with this artistic piece:
Next I experimented with hand holding the crayons and shaking them over the canvas as I applied heat to the crayon. This is the piece created with that process:
And our final piece was done on a 16×20 canvas and involved a ton of broken crayon pieces randomly laying on the canvas and being melted right where they were on the canvas. The boys loved making this one best as it gave them a lot of hands on stuff to do – like peeling crayon paper, breaking crayons and spreading them across the canvas.
This crayon wax piece fits in well with our “artists wall” of other canvases the boys have painted! It doesn’t show up well in the picture, but it has a ton of texture too it and looks great hanging on the wall!
With back to school sales going on, now is the time to stock up on boxes of cheap crayons for your own masterpieces!
