Andrea's Visit, Gak, and a "Room Makeover" (sort of)

My dear, sweet friend, Andrea [say On-drea. Not An-drea. She'll correct you if you don't  ;)], was here for the week! What a sweet time we had. We stayed up well past my bedtime every night--talking or watching movies. We shopped and shopped, mostly without spending much money. She is such a blessing to me! (POST SCRIPT: Tim reminded me that "On-drea" doesn't work in the south. Down here we say "on" like "own". How about "ah", like "open up and say ah". "Ah-n-drea". I love the south.)

The kids chose to take Spring Break while Andrea was here, which was super nice for me. But, too bad for them, the weather was horrible! I'm not sure they played outside once all week. Andrea and I took Zack to the library one day just to entertain him for awhile. We went to the new Main Library branch, and discovered that they had a nice, new Thomas train table. That was nice for Zack.

Another day we made "gak". We used a recipe William found online. (Side note: William is one serious on-line dude. He shops, he researches toys, he finds craft ideas...he loves the www.) Here's the link for the gak. Zack helped make the gak, and enjoyed playing with it. Trevor enjoyed it the most--too bad I didn't get a picture. He could stretch that stuff so far! If you've never made it before, it's just Elmer's glue, borax, and water. We added food coloring. It is squishy and stretchy and doesn't retain its shape--it just kind of oozes around.

Yesterday the kids were making forts. Again. And they got into an argument, again. Forts and arguments are inherently linked in our home. Tim took parent-duty. I don't know what made him think to do it, but he re-routed their creative energy into rearranging the room! They were so eager and hard-working about it. They just set to work, moving furniture and rearranging pictures on the walls! Moving that fold-out couch of ours is not for wimps, and they did it in a snap. AND, we looked down there and saw that they had moved this big, heavy mirror and had it hanging up somewhere else! Good teamwork! We had to take it down and re-hang it with more heavy-duty hardware, so I was able to get a picture the second time.

They needed a little help the second time... (I just love those bare shoulders, side by side, working together. Mamma-blessings come in all sorts!)

Even Zack was busy. He loves playing with Tim's little electric screw driver, and Tim had the brilliant idea to use an old shoe box for Zack to practice on! Samuel was his coach! It was so precious!

The room has been re-"fort"-ified, but hopefully we can get it cleaned up and I'll take a picture. :)

One last tid-bit: we finally chose our birth option. We are going to use a midwife at a birth center in Tallahassee (2 hours away). Our good friend (and birth instructor) had her last baby there, and recommended her. The place we are going is called the Birth Cottage, and it is adorable. We are so glad to have that decision behind us.

I know that whether or not your birth-place has poppies in its front yard is of no consequence, but it blesses my heart anyway.

P.S. Tim: I don't know if you read this or not, but Thank You for all your little blessings lately--taking the kids to the park so I can blog in peace, keeping them while I went out with Andrea, and getting Zack up for me while I laid late in bed. You are my favorite blessing.