Sunday Celebrations

Starting Saturday night.

*Sidenote....if this comes out as being rather jumbled, I'm blaming Will. The children are playing church and Will is the most exuberant preacher. "The spirit of Satan is BAD. The spirit of Jesus is GOOD. YES THEY ARE." And on and on and on. "But the only Gospel is that He comed back up to life! Yes He did. The other mans were bad, but Jesus was not." And on and on and on. It's now prayer time.

Obviously I am listening more to church than I am paying attention to this blog post. :)

Anyway.

Saturday sometime Addie and Will came racing into the house shouting that we were going to town that night. I informed them that we weren't. They shouted all the louder, "Yes we are! Daddy said so. But it's a surprise and we can't tell you what we're going for and you can't 'plain 'bout the secret 'cause you do that to us all the time and we are too going to town and we're going to get you something for Mother's Day 'cause it's tomorrow and we can't wait but you can't be with us in the store 'cause then it wouldn't be a surprise any more and I can't wait til we go to town 'cause it's gonna be fun and maybe you will have to sit in the car while we go in the store and that wouldn't be fun for you but that's sometimes what has to happen when there's a secret and I CAN'T WAIT TIL TONIGHT!!!"

Then they stopped the shouting, took a deep breath or two, and raced back outside to make some more secret plans with Daddy.

To say they were excited would be a vast understatement.

They gobbled down supper that night faster than they have ever eaten in the history of their short lives. They raced to the bathroom after supper and waited quite impatiently while I shoved them through the shower.

Sidenote #2. Church is now over and they have hopped in their car to go to McDonalds for lunch.

Back to Saturday night. (Are you tired of hopping around yet?)

Showers were accomplished in record time and Addie and Will waited by the door for at least 15 minutes while Jason and I spruced up. Til we finally
left for town they were about to bounce right out of their skin.

On the way to town Jason gave them their choice of which store they wanted to go to. Lowes, Tractor Supply, Wal-Mart, KMart. Not a real great selection, but the best we have here in our small town. One vote for Lowes and one vote for Wal-Mart. I was ever so pleased when Wal-Mart won. At least they have a varied stock that I could browse while the rest of the family shunned me.

The children made sure that I understood that I WAS NOT ALLOWED to watch them. I had to go in one door while they went in the other. I had to stay as far away from them as I possibly could.

Addie was quite stressed the one time that they caught a glimpse of me.

According to the adult figure who chaperoned the little shoppers, Addie took her job quite seriously while her little brother thought they should buy me whatever caught his eye. Cat food, shovel..you name it. His heart clearly wasn't into the buying-for-a-lady deal.

Addie desperately wanted to buy some tall glass things that had a tail, but they couldn't find any. (That would be her description of a goblet, we figured out when we got home.) Instead she settled on a bottle of yummy smelling lotion and Will got me an ice cream scoop. I know. I had to laugh a little. He made sure that he chose (according to him) a 'glass' (otherwise known as metal) one that I wouldn't break. Last week I actually broke a very heavy duty ice cream scoop while trying to dip some extra hard ice cream.

They also got me a card and a pack of blue gum...which I found out about on the way home from town. Addie said she wanted some and Daddy wouldn't let her buy it...and Will blurted out that maybe "Mommy will share hers after she opens it tomorrow". :)

That night when we tucked the children in bed they both informed us they would get up early so they could give me their specially chosen gifts. We assured them that I could wait to get the gifts...just get plenty of sleep.

Nevertheless, both children's feet hit the floor about 7:00. They tiptoed down the steps and stood whispering at our door. Finally, they gave up ever seeing us wiggle and went to the living room to read books. But, trust me, they kept a close eye on us. At the first wiggle, they erupted in giggles and ran to the dining room to grab my gift.

I felt like a queen. I got to open my gift in bed.

Will accidentally-on-purpose blurted out that he hoped I liked the ice cream scoop cause he picked it out and it wasn't going to break this time cause it was glass and not plastic and it was fun choosing the ice cream scoop and Daddy thought it was a good idea and....

Addie perched her little self on my right foot and bounced and grinned.

It wouldn't have mattered had they chosen to buy cat food. I would have been thrilled.

Gifts opened and appropriately oohed and aahed over, we tumbled out of bed to ready for church.

After church we went to the park to meet the rest of my family for lunch. It was a chilly venture at first, but judging by the red nose I am now sporting, I'd say it ended up being beautiful and warm. I can hardly believe those two words finally made it into the same sentence. We've had beautiful and cold, and we've had rainy and warm, but we haven't really had the beautiful and warm.

It was a fun day. The children had a ball.

Will taught us all how to climb up the outside of a curly slide....

Clay nibbled on chips which were spilled on the ground....

and picked dandelions....

and just generally looked adorable....

The three girls took walks....

Brandon, Will, and Karter made sure that the soles of their shoes gripped well....

Jack learned the joys of swinging....

Darin rescued Jack from lofty heights....

And I apologize to the two boys whose pictures I failed to take.

After the park, my dear husband took us all to Dairy Clean where we feasted on Sundae's and blizzards.

Then we came home. And we went to the pasture to 'help' Jason with chores.

We watched the sheep....

and the cows....

We rocked babies....

and practiced our balance on a beam....

helped Daddy reel up the polybraid....

and took more pictures of the sheep and cows.

Then. We walked back home. We all took nice warm showers. We crawled into bed praising God for giving us such a wonderful day.

And we drifted off to sleep.