Oh Glorious Day

I woke up on Sunday morning to some early risers.  The exciting night before, the time change, the coughing that seems to never cease, it all contributed to every child being up before the usual time.  I tried putting off jumping out of bed and getting the day started since it was a luxurious non-school day, but there was too much noise, too many pitter-pattering feet, too many squeals from neighboring rooms and too many requests to visit the bathroom.  So, I had to come to terms with it...this day had started.  With that, I checked the weather.  What?!  It was going to be sunny, upper sixties and no school since it's a Sunday.  Even though my body was dragging, I knew I had to take advantage of this November treat.  My new found goal...get these boys to the 9am service and then promptly to the playground to soak up the sunshine and run off the rowdiness.  So, that's what we did.  I packed the gear, the lunch, fed the boys, somehow squeezed in a shower and we made it with 3 minutes to spare.  Janse took a nap in Doug's office while he preached a great sermon and then the boys and I whisked him away to the playground for some leaves, laughter and lunch.  Jansen spent a lot of time in the ErgoBaby before lunch.  I just love this thing.  He's so snuggly in it and it's quite comfortable for a carrier, plus I get to look at his sweet face the whole time.  He's getting quite used to it.

I love this picture.  Koen is often not into pictures, but this day he was.  The boys had so much fun together.  It was such a blessing that they were getting along!

I let Koen take some pics with my camera.  I just had to laugh when I saw the pics of Penn he caught.  The facial expressions of this funny three year old crack me up!

Tav also looks whimsically happy in this shot.  There's something about swinging that can just transport you to a happy place.

The boys spent some time on the merry-go-round too.  Again, Koen was in to posing.  I had to take advantage!  Tough to catch a non-fuzzy pic when the objects are constantly in motion though!

I wish I had worked harder to get some pictures of Jansen on this visit to the park.  His outfit and the backdrop behind the swing make for quite a perfect Fall color palette, not to mention the leaves strewn about.  

After the boys had played and polished off their lunch (and naptime was approaching), we took off for home.  We did get some downtime (well, the boys did, not so much for me...so much to do on these days they are all home!), but I'm guessing due to the time change, Janse had a really weird, short nap.  So, I figured that we should get back outside and yet again take advantage of the gorgeous day.  Koen got the bikes out and I loaded up the stroller and we were off for another playground.  But unfortunately, on the way there, Tav had a very serious fall.  He badly scraped up his face, arm and leg and was quite shocked.  Koen came to his aid and was comforting and kind.  Tav thought he could handle continuing on to the playground, but he was too shaken and his mouth was starting to swell.  So, we headed back home.  We got Tav cleaned up and calmed down and all was well.  So well that as I made dinner, we all relaxed to some Big Band tunes.  Janse danced in the Ergo.

And the big boys all found some coloring activities.  It was amazing.  Spontaneous, simple happiness.  Ahhhh...

I fed them dinner, then got them through bath and bed.  We had our moments, but all in all, it was a smooth evening after a very good day.  No, that doesn't do it justice...it was a glorious day.  One in which I stood in awe of all the blessings in my life...from big things like these amazing boys that make up my life (you too, Doug, not just the 4 we made) to the little things like the colorful leaves strewn about the playground, from the unseasonably warm November day to the heart-warming rescue efforts of Koen on behalf of his hurt brother, Tav.  From dancing to big band numbers in the cacophony that is the kitchen at dinner time to the quiet cuddles before bed with each of the boys.  Truly, truly a glorious day.