Wild About You

We spent a few HOT but lovely hours Memorial Day at the zoo. Monday was just about as hot as they come up here in Michiland.

The animals looked how we felt.

Nevertheless, we got to see and do all kinds of cool things...like feel real camel hair as we watched the camel's graze. I do not know how John the Baptist wore those kind of garments in the desert heat.

Judah and his 'MUM' watching the gorillas...

Monkey see,

monkey do.

Judah wanted to pet the peacock; papaw kept a watchful eye.

Belle and daddy scoping out the baboons.

Judah playing with the meerkats

Perhaps the most refreshing ice cream we've ever tasted!

Walking through the outback adventure to see the Kangaroos.

Aron & Judah in their matching chucks.

Stealing kisses in the butterfly house...

Thanks to Dad & Mom Kirk for a wonderful weekend of moments together!

ejk

6.5.11

belle, child of God. she's the little one:)

*The close observer might note that Aron is leading worship with a rather large guitar. Yes, you are seeing it correctly; he is leading with a bass guitar. No bass musicians were available to play this week, so what's a worship leader to do?! Proud of my man of hidden talents!

"this is the best day of my life!"

And all it took was a few water balloons and some time with 'mum' (as Judah calls his Grandma Jackie) and 'poppy' (as Aunt Kara would say of her daddy).

ejk

How does your garden grow?

Belle attentively listened as Aron and I brainstormed our best and most economical ways to keep the critters out of our little garden. She came to us on Sunday and told us she needed "a big stick, hay...but we don't have hay, so yarn will do, tape, marker, glue, and a brown paper bag. And that is all." And she set to work creating the scare crow she had dreamed up in her brain.

"The bunnies will hop up and see the scary face. They will be SOOOO afraid that they will run away and leave our vegetables alone!" she explained.

She has been the biggest helper with this garden. She wants to do it all. And when we've done all there is to do...well she finds a way to prolong the fun. Sunday night we found her doing this:

With a shovel (that is every bit as big and heavy as her tiny frame), she dug little holes and planted flowers (blossoms picked from a tree). Aron and I walked around the yard and found planted flowers scattered everywhere! She was hard at work!

It must be the "Gardner" in her!

Forgive me for the bad pun,

ejk

A sweet way to spend a Saturday morning

Saturday greeted us with the loveliest of outward graces. Sunshine and 70's, the promise of a simply gorgeous day. While Aron hopped from Tennessee to Georgia to Michigan (all in a few hours...this still blows my mind), the kids and I decided to visit our very favorite one stop donut & farm stand orchard shop.

Oh it was a wonderful first visit of the year. There's not much by way of fruit or veggies in season yet, but the donuts are always freshly made. And lets be honest...that's what we REALLY come for anyway, right?!

Extra to take home for Sunday morning breakfast...YUM!

Judah sampled one of each; I think its a way of marking his territory.

And Belle did a little dance for us; silly girl!

And look at the view across the street...the orchard in full bloom! Someone help me out on this one...I believe those are peach trees; am I right? Which has got me anticipating the absolutely fabulous homemade peach donuts this little stand makes each day with peaches right out of their orchard. A delightful reward after a hard week's work!

I just love little one of a kind specialty shops. And we're especially sweet on this one! You'll have to join us one Saturday morning!

ejk

3:46 am

A soft, sweet voice chatted happily in the living area. It awoke me from the foggy sleep I had drifted into. I made my way out of our bedroom to see this:

Its 3:46 am. Do you know where your Lion Cub is? Apparently mine had opened his toy closet, grabbed a toy car & a tub of play dough, carried it out into the hallway (where the light was on), and was playing happily all by himself...in a dark, silent house.

He had to have crawled over his sister, but Rose sleeps like she's under Maleficent's pricked finger spell. Dead to the world. In all the commotion of him playing and putting him back to bed, she never even stirred. Infact, if Judah ever wakes up and works himself into a full on cry, no matter how long we let him go, she will have no interruption of her comatose sleep.

Here she is fresh as a daisy this morning, reading a book upon rising. That's my girl!

So the moral of the story is that this little adventurous cowboy failed his trial run at the big boy bed, and at least for a few more months, will stay (trapped) safely in his crib. No more middle of the night one-man-parties for you, Judah Man!

a bit sleepy today,

ejk

5.19.11

Our main squeeze, our five o'clock happy hour, our prickly snuggles, our lights out, and our sleep safe and sound has arrived safely in NashVegas (as he fondly calls it) for his songwriting conference.

Lucky him. Poor us. (I know its only a few nights, toughen up, right?! We're really a-ok. But having Aron away for a few days sure does make me so look up to all of you out there that either send your husbands away for weeks or months on end or who are parenting all by yourselves. You are truly amazing, and God sees. And he is with you. Always.)

I woke the kids extra early so they could have breakfast with daddy before he left for the airport. I explained to Judah, "Let's have some breakfast with daddy; he's going to fly on an airplane today." No sooner than the words left my mouth, Judah practically leaped out of my arms and stammered off in his crazy bumble-run to find Aron. I followed and caught up with him just as he was tugging on Aron's shorts, "I go airpane. Peeeease. Peeease. I go airpane!"

Later in the day, long after Aron had gone, I found Judah attempting to put on Aron's deodorant. He looked up at Belle and me and said, "I daddy. I daddy." I suppose when the alpha male leaves, the younger pups instinctively know they're supposed to step up.

Except my young alpha-male-would-be decided come nightfall that perhaps sissy's bed would be the best place to rest his head. He's never crawled up in bed and layed with her before without getting up. Perhaps he wanted her comfort tonight?

I just hope I don't get a middle of the night visitor, peeking eyes staring just over the matress to totally wig me out while I'm manning the fort alone.

Well, that's what's a goin' on,

ejk