Sometimes . ..

this happens, because the 20 minutes of a child being quiet, happy and entertained is worth the 45 minutes it takes to clean up!

"Thomas has a mustache like Poppa!"-Ella said I have really fun friends. These girls came Saturday. We stayed at a hotel, had dinner, shopped, dished, laughed. It was a really fun weekend. Thank you, thank you, thank you for coming!!! Chad also got a nice surprise. Instead of a weekend alone with the kids, he got to spend the weekend with two friends, and four more kids! Travis and Blake came up with their wives and kids. They stayed here at the house. Ella had a blast playing with the girls. See more pictures and reports of the weekend here, here and here It was SO nice yesterday! I sent the kids outside with buckets of water and paintbrushes to "paint" whatever they could find. They ended up painting themselves and each other! Joel, one of our former Sunday school teachers, was is in town for a conference, and came for dinner last night. It was good to see him and catch up over dinner. He and his wife have 3 boys, 2 in college, 1 still at home. I really appreciate hearing his perspective and insights on parenting. I'm so glad he called! PLUS he brought flowers and chocolates!

So- laundry got pushed from Monday to today. The pile is exceptionally tall today. There are men in my backyard, removing tree stumps I think, I have already fished 12 colored pencils out of the heat register, along with a melted crayons, cheerios and pretzels (thank you Thomas) and washed water color paint and glitter glue out of the carpet (thank you Ella)-- so, it may be one of those days!