Together

Today Caedmon and I went to the pool for the first time this year. In a word...phenomenal. I would like that to be how I spend every morning for the rest of the spring/summer! (Not going to happen, but we can wish!) Caedmon was so entertained just playing with a few toys on the steps and occasionally "swimming" around the pool with me. The pool at our apartments is heated so the water is perfectly comfortable and there is not a cloud in our bright blue sky today. Couldn't have asked for a better morning!

One thing that added to the enjoyment was having my friend, Amanda, and her two kiddos there. I have found that motherhood can be so isolating. It is easy to get into my own routines with my own family and never interact with others except for the rushed conversations at church on Sundays. So recently I have made it a point to invite others to go with me where ever I'm going. I try to limit my "errand-running" to one or two mornings a week so that Caedmon and I can do something fun together on the other days. So whether we are going to the playground, the museum, the library, or the pool, I try to invite a friend. Today, I actually invited 6 friends and only one was able to make it, so you gotta be persistent. If it ends up being just me and Caedmon, we still have a great time doing something fun. But if we get to enjoy the company of friends, then Caedmon gets to have some playmates and I get to have an adult conversation (albeit punctuated by frequent interruptions).

Sometimes I would honestly rather just be by myself. Like this morning, I got some bad news and I would have been content moping around alone. But being with Amanda and playing with all of our kids lifted my spirits. Often when we find ourselves wanting to isolate, that is the time we are most in need of reaching out! So treat yourself to something fun...and invite someone to enjoy it with you!

Children's Museum

I love San Jose's Children's Discovery Museum! We recently purchased a membership so we can take Caedmon any time without additional cost. Because of this, we go all the time! We normally only stay for an hour and a half or so in the morning because I don't want to mess up his nap time (I treasure naptime!). But we always have a great time. I don't think he could ever get bored with it because there are so many different things to do. And it's something fun and active to do on a rainy or chilly day. Below are a few pics of Caedmon having a blast exploring and just being a kid!

Sand table with my mom

Fireman Caedmon

This is an actual firetruck that the kids can play on.
They also have an ambulance, old carriage, and an old Model T.

Caedmon's Favorite: Water Play!

Taxes are not my friend

I just finished my taxes...talk about waiting until the last minute! I am REALLY hoping that I didn't make any major mistakes. I'm a little paranoid because I tried to do them myself for the first time this year using TurboTax. The thing that freaks me out is that TurboTax wouldn't let me submit my federal tax return through efile because it said "the original tax return was amended"?! No idea.

So, I'm really hoping that some IRS guy doesn't show up on my doorstep to take me to jail! I'm having images of a front-page story in the Mercury entitled, "Pastor's Wife Involved in Tax Scandal." Surely there's some kind of protection clause for those of us who sincerely tried our best but are just ignorant when it comes to taxes!

Happy Easter!

Highlights from Easter:

• Caedmon's excitement as he looked for eggs around our living room right after he woke up
• a bag of Ghirardelli chocolates (dark chocolate with mint filling) to greet me at the breakfast table
• beautiful weather
• new clothes (Is it vain that one thing I love about Easter is buying a new outfit?)
• 284 people in attendance at South Bay Church
• 60+ amazing volunteers who served joyfully with all their hearts
• a new set design to usher in a new series (My Upside Down Life)
• watching my husband preach with the passion of a 19 year old but the skill and wisdom of someone far beyond his years
• 12 people indicating first time decisions to follow Christ
• 12 more people indicating that they are considering following Christ
• having the HOPE that Jesus is alive and one day I will be with Him forever!

The Hunt

South Bay hosted our first ever Easter egg hunt today at the park behind our meeting facility. Last night Andy and I babysat for the Santos girls, Lily and Cailyn. So, in preparation for todays events, Andy and I took Caedmon and the girls out to a field last night and did a few trial runs on the basics of Easter egg hunting. We explained the necessity of moving quickly and not stopping to look in each of the eggs until after all of the eggs had been collected. We were grooming them to be Champion Easter Egg Hunters!

Well, today was a huge success and everyone seemed to have a great time. There was no way to count how many people were there, but definitely hundreds and hundreds...perhaps over a thousand? No idea. It was definitely a little chaotic, but that kinda added to the party atmosphere. We had balloons, face painting, bubbles, pictures with the Easter bunny, prizes, refreshments, music...and it was all FREE to the community! It was fantastic.

In addition to all of that, we prepared 10,000 Easter eggs for the kiddos. You know how many Caedmon got? None!

We divided the age groups 0-3 and 4 and up. We made it very clear that no adults were allowed to enter the older kids field, but unfortunately did not make that clear about the little kids field. So, even before Filipe said 'Go!' (he was actually yelling, "Wait, wait, don't go yet!") mobs of parents CARRYING their children ran out on the field and got overflowing baskets of eggs! I'm not bitter. I'm just saying...

The entire hunt lasted about 2 minutes and I was left standing there with two very confused little boys. (Caedmon's buddy, Gavin, didn't get any eggs either!) They seemed confused, while Gavin's mom and I felt like we were going to cry! But no worries, I knew that we had kept a box full of eggs behind the table in case some kids didn't get any. (I just never thought my kid would be the one who didn't get any! I mean, what about all that practice?!) So the kids were happy and everything worked out just fine!

Juliane, aka Vova, we three of her many grandchildren

This is Filipe's mom and Lily and Cailyn's grandma, but Caedmon claims her also!

Caedmon with Madison and Livy.

Those girls are amazing at keeping up with him! My little babysitters!

My friend, Vivian, with he sweet son Gavin.

Gavin's saying, "Hey, who took all the eggs?"

Facepainting
Caedmon got a shark...but that's not him in the pic

PRIZES!

Three of the precious ladies in my small group!

We probably had close to 80 volunteers today!

You can click on this picture to enlarge it and get a better look at the crowd.

I think this event definitely gave our church a positive image in the eyes of our community!