30-Before-30 #7 Go on an Awesome Family Vacation

Wow were we ever due for a Family Vacation, we hadn’t had one in a really long time.

We started our journey by doing a 17 hour drive (all in one day) with 7 people (3 adults, and 4 children) cramped in our minivan all the way to Austin, Minnesota.

After getting a good night’s sleep we began our relaxation time.

Some of the many activities we did during our time off included:

• Visiting the local YMCA for swimming
• Playing countless games of Killer Bunnies with our great friends Dean and Heather
• Explored the SPAM Museum (yes you read that correct)  This was actually a very fun museum with lots of interactive displays. (and it also is a Storm Shelter Area) ~ yes that is a wall of SPAM cans :-)
  
  
• Playing Connect (for the very first time) at our amazing friends Sarah and Troy’s house
• Visiting Faith Baptist Bible College to see another awesome friend who gave us a full campus tour, and the kids ran off some steam on the campus grounds
  
  
• Spent an entire day at the Mall of America’s amusementpark
  
  (more about this in an upcoming post)
  source
• Worshipping with the church family in Austin, Minnesota
• Built an impressively tall tower out of full individual milk cups with a good friend Ian at Perkins
• Unknowingly chatted with 3 NBA players
• Ate at countless delicious restaurants (no calorie counting this past week)

We needed to end our vacation a day early due to the passing of a godly man from New Brunswick.  So we headed home ~ taking 2 days to do the long journey this time.  We stopped mid way at an impressively wonderful hotel, where we enjoyed swimming and hot tubing.

The next morning we awoke early and hit the road for home. About the time we were nearing the Canadian border we drove into horrendous weather ~ this is really as good as the visibility got from this point on. 

We drove slowly and carefully and arrived safely home late Saturday night. We then awoke early the next morning to enjoy a day of fellowship with our dear church family.

Thanking God for a memory packed vacation
with our family and friends

Melodiejoy

If You Homeschool...

If you are a homeschool Mom, I'm sure that you can relate to this photo :-)

Photo Credit

Loving enjoying the crazy lifestyle of a homeschool family

melodiejoy

30-Before-30 #5 Take Happy on a Mother-Daughter Outing

Saturday night, left me with the opportunity to take my precious little "Happy"" on a Mother-Daughter outing. 

Happy and I went to our absolute favourite store (Wal-Mart) and explored a variety of departments.  Happy donned her special flashing lights sunglasses for the entire shopping trip.  (she looked some cute (and silly) with these on)  We spent lots of time in the toy department, pushing buttons on random toys, and examining some interesting, and some strange toys  ~We are really not even sure why some of those toys are even made???

photo credit

But because my little girl is growing up, we actually spent the majority of our time in the shoe department.  Happy enjoyed being able to explore all the options of shoes that she dreams of owning someday.  We laughed at some peculiar shaped, coloured, and designed shoes. 

We ended our visit at the store, by exploring the children’s clothing department.  Now this turned into a rewarding experience.  Happy being the youngest of the 3 girls in our home rarely gets “new” clothing because most things are hand-me-downs.  But on this trip she had the opportunity to try on a buy something just for herself.  She picked herself out an adorable swimsuit, and thoroughly enjoyed the “dressing-room” experience (something I’m really not sure if she’s ever done before).  Happy wore a massive smile during this alone time with Mom.  I too really enjoyed this quiet opportunity to chat alone with Happy, and learn even more about her innermost desires.  She really is as precious little girl J

As we were on our way home, Happy exclaimed to me that she loved her shopping time with Mom, and asked if we can do it alone again sometime ~ so I know that she enjoyed it.  With 4 kids even a couple hour trip to Wal-Mart alone, can turn into a memorable experience for them.

treasuring our quiet conversations

melodiejoy

Bible Bags #4 of 5

So I'm challenging myself to complete my 30-Before-30 so yesterday I tackled part of #10 which reads

Complete sewing all the Bible-bags for the family

So I decided to make Happy her Bible bag, I rounded up some pink and purple scrap fabric that a friend gave me, and quickly whipped up this pattern for her.  The sparkly diamond buttons, are from a second hand acrylic sweater, that needed discarded.  But I saved the buttons because ~ well I always keep the buttons on things I'm throwing away.

She was "tickled pink" when I called her upstairs and gave it to her.  The gold coloured plastic piece was from an old favourite shirt of Happy's that had been stained and needed discarded a few weeks ago, she quickly recognized that I had added it on her bag.

So I've finally competed all the children's Bible bags!  Now I just need to make myself one (which may wait until after our family vacation ~ which happens to be # 7 on my list Go on an awesome Family Vacation)  I'm still doodling my own bags design on paper, and haven't settled on what I want yet :-)

Imaginatively designing my Bible bag

melodiejoy