Eleven

We have a much bigger crew we can't share here making it a truly unique and happy Independence Day!

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Ten Years of Fourths

And just like that, we've been taking these photos for a decade. Wow.  Happy Independence Day!

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Uncle Matt

Uncle Matt (my brother) is serving a mission for our Church in Buenos Aires, Argentina.  For the past 60 weeks, every prayer offered by Calvin has included requests for help for "Uncle Matt in Argentina."  Recently, Clark has learned to add this tag in as well.  They look forward to getting emails on Mondays and love to see the pictures and hear the stories.  I've kept a blog for him (found here) where we can go back and peruse as well.

My boys were particularly excited to hear Uncle Matt had a birthday this past week.  They made their own signs for him (Calvin was even brave enough to write in marker! And Clark only colored his face once!) to take a picture and send him.  There were too many good shots to send just one, so we sent a few.  These were sent along with an email asking a few questions.  The were so excited to hear that he had in fact eaten birthday cupcakes.  And, they secured a promise from him that he'd visit and make his favorite Argentine food--asada.  I'm posting this here to hold him to the promise because I'm very excited about it, too!

A Georgia Fourth Once More

Happy Independence Day from our new front porch!

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Discovery Place Kids

One of our very favorite "adventures" is Discovery Place Kids.  With both boys old enough to play, our membership has been well worth it many times over!  After a particularly stressful past week, I decided we need to get there for some fun on Friday morning.  We arrived just in time for the puppet show which (for once) both boys loved!

We spent a couple hours there playing at nearly every exhibit.  Clark thought the oven was a dishwasher and had lots of fun loading and unloading it.

Calvin was pretty excited by the new bells in the music area.  He also really enjoyed the veterinarian's office for the first time after learning about them recently.

Clark found the floam and was fascinated by it.  And, he didn't try to eat any of it either!

Calvin joined us and played for a while as well.

While both of our boys are somewhat of "butterfly children," they thankfully were largely in agreement about what and where to play this whole trip and took turns following each other around.  And, they love to play together lately, so that made it easier, too.

Of course, we finished with Clark at the water area because he loves to get soaked and needs a change of clothes before heading out every time.  But, he really, really loves it!

And, the water is conveniently adjacent to the giant train table.  Our little engineer looks forward to finishing his visit there every time!

And here we are...

The days became weeks, the weeks became months, and now the months have become years.  We are staring down the end of Devin's residency, and I've barely blogged about it.  Mostly, our days were so routine that there was not always a lot to say.  Keeping private blogs for each of the boys (let me know if you want it on those!) took up most of the interesting moments, too.  One day, though, I imagine I'll want to look back and remember that for three years straight we went to story time every Tuesday.  We did play group on Thursdays, errands on Mondays and Wednesday, and we usually stayed home on Fridays.  Each boy got three books before nap and bed, and breakfast was muffins every day for months straight.  Devin worked 80 hours a week but almost always made it home by bath time--even if it meant he went back to writing notes as soon as it was done.

But, all of that is going to be changing in big ways in the coming months.  We are working to sell the only home Calvin and Clark have ever really known and planning our trip to look at new houses in Georgia for next month!  Then, there will be the actual move.  We'll leave behind our friends, our backyard, our library (yes, it really is ours), and our parks.  The grocery store won't miss us, but we will miss the people who knew us and talked to us every week.  Of course there will be a new library, and there will be amazing parks.  But, Calvin won't have conversations with the librarians like the old friends they are...at least not for a couple years until they are old friends.  The park will be a place for meeting up with new friends, too, instead of the friends my boys have learned and grown with for so long.

All of this is really to say, though, that I'm really wanting to get back to keeping up this little corner of the internet.  The days may be long, but the years are short.  I don't want to let them get away.

Four for the Fourth!

Happy Independence Day!

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