Hot (both temperature and popularity) Playgroup!

Well, thanks for your prayers because today got off to a much better start than yesterday. I spent some time this morning preparing myself in prayer and in Scripture. I'm currently doing a devotional plan on YouVersion.com's iPhone App called Parenting by Design and it can be so right on somedays! Today's subject was the value of trials and it focused on the trials it can be to parent and that we should just look to the Lord in those situations and then we can be grateful for being drawn closer to Him. It really, really spoke to me and encouraged me exactly where I needed to be encouraged! So, anyways, I was determined to do better with Koen today and just embrace this phase...the good and the bad. Also Doug and I had talked about how Koen seems to really get into trouble when he is just spinning/bored/not active with a task or play. So, after breakfast I put him to work and he loved it! He brought me all the trash cans from around the house for me to empty for trash day tomorrow, then he put them all back. Then I had him deliver toilet paper to the upstairs bathrooms. And after all those trips up and down the stairs he was still asking for more jobs! There wasn't much more I could think of, so we went on to the play phase of the morning. After awhile I needed to pack up lunch for playgroup, so I had him do http://www.starfall.com/ on my computer. Have you every visited that site? It is a great, simple phonics-teaching website. I've been very impressed with it. Koen is enjoying the "Learn to Read" section of the site right now. After about 15 minutes of phonics, I had lunch packed and we were out the door by 10:30am.

Playgroup was a blast today! When I got there there were already 4 moms gathered and I think while I was there another 3 arrived. Definitely our biggest gathering this year. Lots of fun to catch up with a few people I hadn't seen in awhile and both the boys had friends to play with (although my boys really like clinging to me at playgroup).Koen played with his friends and especially liked it that Austin brought a toy CD player that played a few tunes and then when Aiden arrived with trucks to play with. Tavin mostly pushed the stroller and then really enjoyed the swing today. I took a ton of pictures. He was just so happy and I love cute swing pictures! Here he is with his buddy, James.Koen was really helpful at the swing set helping me keep both Tavin and James going (Austin also tried to join in on the pushing fun). And here are the adorable Tavin swing pictures...Playgroup was quite hot as was the walk home, so since the boys had eaten their lunches at the playground we decided to throw on the swim gear and head out to the backyard for a refreshing half hour playing in the sprinkler. It was a nice change to the baby pool and a little lower maintenance on the prep side of things. Tavin is so brave with water. Koen would have been freaked out at this age with water coming at him and rotating into his face. Tavin just follows brother and walks right into it and laughs. After our sprinkler fun, we headed inside to get ready for nap. I noticed I had a text from sister, Abbie, who is in Costa Rice (check out http://www.abbielucille.blogspot.com/ for details on her trip). She was available to Skype! So I set up the computer for Koen to chat with his aunt while I lay Tav down for his nap. Who knew you can have a babysitter via the internet? Tav did get to "chat" with Aunt Abbie before his nap too. He just babbled for below while Koen enjoyed the one-on-one attention from his beloved aunt. So cute.The boys fell hard into their naps and I set into my clean up phase and then sat down to work on my computer when I heard a rushing noise and a loud engine just outside the house. It was the fire department working on the fire hydrant. Poor Koen missed it! I took some pictures to show him later.Well, the boys are waking up from their naps now and I'm going to go into frenzy cleaning mode for the final few minutes. Thanks again for your encouragement and prayers, today has gone very well with Koen, which has been a great blessing.