Camping

Julia's class at the apple orchard

Caleb and Cardale bouncing

Cardale, Isaac and Julia wading

The kids playing on the beach

This past weekend we went camping with Cardale's family at Tri-Ponds in Allegan.  We couldn't have asked for a better camping weekend.  The weather was great, sunny during the day and cool at night.  Another bonus of fall camping is that the sun sets at a decent time so the kids aren't awake til 10:30 pm.  The kids had fun playing together and the adults got to relax a little bit.  We were talking about how it has been 3 years since Cardale lived with us, time flies!

Julia went on her first field trip last week to an apple orchard.  There was a reporter from the Holland Sentinel there and her picture ended up in the paper, very cute!  This orchard had only 2% of its crop because of the frost this spring.  It's sad not having many apples to pick this year.  Our neighbor's little girl is in Julia's class and I was going to bring her to the field trip.  Well, Asha got sick that morning and couldn't go.  Julia was devastated, I was shocked at the intensity of her disappointment.  She was wailing and refusing to get in the car because she didn't want to go without Asha.  I could also hear Asha crying at her house.  Two sad little girls.  But, once Julia was on the field trip she had a great time.

Isaac gave us a scare recently.  The boys were playing outside with friends and I was inside.  Caleb runs in and says, "Isaac got hit by a car!"  I just looked at him and said, "what?"  Caleb said, "He doesn't have any broken bones or anything."  I had all the windows open and couldn't hear screaming so in my gut I knew it wasn't SERIOUS, but I was still scared.  Isaac had been riding his bike on the sidewalk and decided to turn around in a neighbor's driveway.  At that moment the neighbor was backing her minivan up and bumped Isaac.  She hadn't seen him and he hadn't been paying attention.  He fell off his bike, but wasn't hurt.  He was scared though.  The neighbor was very kind, giving him a hug and saying we both need to be more careful.  I was really hit with emotions the next day thinking about how the outcome could have been so different.  I've said many "thank you Jesus and thank you for guardian angels!"  Caleb also gave me a scare recently.  We were walking home from school and he darted in front of a truck without looking.  It's like his brain just shut off for a minute, even he was surprised at what he'd done.  These incidents have reminded me I don't really have control over my kids.  When they are little you can control almost everything they do.  As they get older all I can do is train them and recognize they will make their own choices.  I know, not exactly a new idea!

We're looking forward to Grandma DeMaster's visit this week!