Day in the Park

Last Saturday, I decided to take the kids to the park for a picnic.  This was no small undertaking since Momma was gone for her mother’s day trip.  We had a blast!  We picnicked, and the kids played in the park and then played in a stream.  It was wonderful.

I found my self being rejuvenated by the time that I was spending with my kids.  I laid with my back on the blanket, holding my 1 year old daughter above me in the air.  She was cooing, laughing and drooling all over me.  It was incredible, and I loved every moment of it.

I was on the phone the night before talking with a mentor buddy of mine and he asked me how my soul was doing.  We had a long conversation about that and then he challenged me to make sure that I was playing well too.  He was concerned that I was finding rest and joy in life as well.  This picture was the moment I realized that this was exactly where I needed to be.  In this moment I was so keenly aware of how much God has blessed my life.  I am so thankful!

What a day.  I brought the camera along with me to snap some pictures of the kids.  We had a blast with that.  It turned into a little mother’s day present too!  Here is what we gave her.

What did you do for Mother’s Day?  Even more importantly, how do you refresh your soul?

~Peter

Here’s my only issue… Why is it that the picnic basket I had looks like this?  Couldn’t we find one that was a bit more manly?  Maybe looked more like this?

My Little Newscaster

This weekend Tiffany and the kids came along with me to Morristown for Church on Sunday.  We went up on Saturday and had a great time hanging out, swimming in the hotel pool and even catching a movie.  Sunday’s are an incredibly long day for me, and because they were tagging a long with me, it was a long day for them too!  So, last night I gave Noah my iPhone to play with and pass the time while he was waiting patiently.  During dinner, he proudly showed us his “NBC 10 News Broadcast script”. It was too cool not to share.  I’m proud of this guys mind.  He is so creative.  I’m excited to see what God does with his life.  So, Enjoy! Can you understand it?  Or do you need a transl8tor? ~Peter

Pleasant Surprises…

This morning I was in my office when all of a sudden there was a knock on the door and my three favorite people showed up!  Check out our photo shoot…

We had tons of fun!  Even though she started off crying, it wore off, and mommy eventually came back!  What do you know… Problem solved…  

What surprises have you had today?

~Peter

Don’t read this if you don’t want to see a Shrink Wrapped Puppy…

So, maybe this is a little mean, or maybe it is just funny (as I intended it to be…)  Noah has been in potty training mode for the past couple days and he’s doing amazing with it.  You would think he was born to use a toilet.  Except he hasn’t quite figured out yet that the bowl contains water.  So, anyhow, he was doing his usual thing except this time he had Mr. bailey on the toilet with him.  Mr. Bailey happens to be his favorite stuffed animal.  I look away for literally one second, and Mr. bailey is doing the back stroke in a medium sized porclain swimming pool, equipped with “water fall”.  So, Noah accidentally sent Mr. Bailey into the “yucky water”…  

Well, what would you do?  Would you fish him out right away?  Or flush it and start fresh with some clean water?

I fished him out, for fear that more things would enter the pool.  

So, upon getting Mr. B out, I quick threw him in the sink for his mandatory clean up session.  Story goes on that Noah went the rest of the day without Mr. Bailey because he was in the wash getting fully sanitized.  Anyhow, here is where it gets fun…  for me at least.  Tiffany put together two baskets of house hold supplies to raffle off for our talent offering at church, and she went out and purchased some shrink wrap in order to make the baskets look pretty.  Well… I was the shrink wrapper.  I’ve never shrink wrapped anything before, and I need to be honest here, and let you know that this was actually pretty exciting for me.  My mind began to race thinking about all of the things that could be shrink wrapped.  And then it hit me.  What if I were to shrink wrap Mr. Bailey!  Classic.  What would Noah do?  What would he think?  So, I did it.  Now, Noah had not gotten up from his nap yet so the surprise was waiting for him when he came downstairs.

{Cut to pictures…}

So, he finally thought it was funny.  I had a good laugh, and Tiffany just laughed at me.  Ah well… I enjoyed it.  “Simple minds” as my grandmother would say.  

Can you remember anyone doing anything like that to you when you were little?  What was it?  Comment below…  I’d love to hear your stories!  Maybe I could even try it out with Noah or Grace.  

All in good fun, of course.

~Peter