Strawberry Picking

April in Texas Hill Country means good strawberry picking!!  Our dear friends (The Lee Family) invited us on a strawberry picking expedition complete with a stop at an old school house on the way out to the farm. 

The girls and some of the Lee children at old school house

Abbie and Mom picking berries

Abbie and Benjamin hugging :)

2 large boxes filled with berries

We were able to make 12 jars of freezer jam and a couple of strawberry pies along with some delicious strawberry shortcake!

Mumsie to the rescue!!

Paul's mom (affectionately called "Mumsie" by her grandkids) came for a visit the end of March.  Woefully, most of the pictures we took are on her camera and so the pictures we have do not even begin to cover this great visit and all the help she provided!!  We enjoyed a week filled with park trips, swimming lessons, movie watching, laundry help, car cleaning, and (drum roll please) FREE BABYSITTING!!  The blog postable pictures don't do this visit justice but rest assured it was a wonderful week of memory making and a much appreciated extra set of helping hands!! THANK YOU MUMSIE!!!

Mumsie picnicking at the park with some homeschool moms



Britta smiling at Mumsie while she pushes her in the swing



Mumsie watching the girls at swimming lessons

She may not appreciate my posting this one (forgive me) but this sweet picture shows how we wore her out and definitely appreciated having her extra set of helping hands all week! 

Chaplain Min comes for a visit

March also brought the treat of a visit from the Army Chaplain Paul served with in Iraq.  Chaplain Min had some training to do in San Antonio and therefore was able to join our family one day for church and then dinner at our house.  What a blessing this visit was!! It gave Paul and the Chaplain a chance to connect stateside after many months deployed together AND it gave me a chance to meet someone I had heard so very much about. 

Paul and Chaplain Min

I wasn't able to find a good picture of Chaplain Min and Paul together while on deployment but these will be fun for you to see nonetheless:

Chaplain Min celebrating Christmas with Paul & his platoon of medics

Paul (by American Flag) and platoon of medics

Stockings were hung on the ambulance for lack of a chimney

Just a brief glimpse into their deployment life together.  Both Paul and Chaplain Min have repeatedly stated how thankful they are that God ordained the two of them to be deployed together. 

About time for some updates.......

Goodness me...it has been over a month.  Buckle up (or skip ahead), we have lots to cover :) As I wade through the pictures snapped & events that have taken place....it looks like we need to start with the Colonial Birthday party!  Here goes:

I know I've said this before but, one of the beauitful things about moving to San Antonio has been the wonderful community of homeschoolers we have been able to join!  One dear homeschooling family has girls the same age as Libby and Emily and they too have been studying Colonial USA in their history lessons this year.  Their eldest daughter Joy had a birthday the end of March and wanted to do a Colonial themed party.  My sewing skills were put to the test and my March evenings were filled with making skirts, mop hats, and scarves for the girls to wear to the party.  There was soap carving, sack races, a Boston Tea Party, rag doll sewing, and a chance to make pomander balls (apples covered in cloves).  Needless to say, we all had a great time!

Emily helping with the Boston Tea Party

Birthday Girl Joy and her Colonial Flag Cake

Did Abbie like the cake?....Oh YES she did!!

Snapshots of life in Texas!

Sometimes, pictures really do just say it all!

The girls help with making their lunch:

And continue to love dressing up & dancing:

Look who is standing!!

Some pictures snapped in our backyard after church yesterday:



Note water dumped down back of Emily's dress by stinker Abigail (in foreground)



Trip to the Symphony

The girls and I have been enjoying dates to the San Antonio Symphony with our homeschooling group.  A couple weeks ago, the symphony did a special weekend performance for kids so we were able to bring daddy along too!!  They had an "instrument petting zoo" before the concert where kids could look at and play various instruments.  The oboe section made double reeds out of drinking straws for the kids so they could practice "buzzing".  The concert theme was "At The Movies".  It was a great time!

Here we are waiting for the performance to begin:

Thank You Mike & Karen!!

There is NOTHING more delicious to 4 small girls (and their mom!) than a package FULL of girly, fun things to celebrate Valentine's!  This post is late because I was hoping to snap more pictures of the girls enjoying ALL their fun goodies but my camera never seems to be at hand "in the moment!". 

If you didn't already know it, Abigail LOVES yellow (pronounced "yel-LOH").  When she saw this yellow star wand she was without words! Her body wiggled from head to toe with excitement and she grabbed it and twirled around.  She looked at me and said "Oh mommy, a yellow star!".  PRECIOUS :)

The girls gushed over Valentine socks, heart shaped drinking straws, stickers, jewelry, HAIR BOWS, and precious outfits!  Here is Miss Abigail in her new shirt and pants:

Britta has worn her sweet outfit MULTIPLE times and I promise a picture very soon!  She is constantly on the move and therefore rather hard to catch with the camera :-)

Thank you for the sweet fun, delicious memories in the making, and once again, reminding us how very much we are loved!

WE LOVE YOU RIGHT BACK!!!