The Passing Days...and a Birthday!

The last several weeks have been quite full with a lot of extra activity.  It has been a joy to have Kathy home and have her enter in to the family events!  One Monday shortly after she arrived, we (Mom, Kathy, and I ) spent most of the day at Laura's helping her pack up rooms to prepare for their move.

The cooler, damp weather has made the flowers this spring so beautiful!  Last Saturday afternoon I enjoyed snapping a few photos of our blooming  roses.

The kids recently participated in another music recital.  Just as they were waiting to turn in to the parking lot where the the recital was held that afternoon, they were involved in a three-car collision.  We ourselves had just parked and were getting out of the car when we heard the awful crash - and all of us instinctively knew it was Ben & Laura.  It was a scary few moments as we ran down the drive to see if everyone was okay.  God graciously protected all those involved, and the Turner van sustained hardly a scratch.  We unloaded the children and all their instruments and, while Ben remained at the scene to talk with the police, the three oldest proceeded with the recital and did amazingly well.  

At the picnic reception following the recital, we managed to get a sister picture.

Perhaps the crowning event this month was Grace's birthday party!  This little redhead had been waiting a long time for her birthday, so I knew we needed to do something special. After all, turning three is a big milestone, right?

We decided to decorate with green since that is Grace's favorite color.  When I asked her several weeks ago what she wanted for her birthday, she said, "Candles!"  So interpreted, I knew that meant we needed to bake a cake to have something to hold the much-desired candles.  This is what resulted:

The cake was a huge success since this is all that was left of it...

Another fun activity we prepared for Grace and the other children was a piñata.  Mom and I found a cute cupcake piñata and filled it with some of their favorite snack foods.  Thankfully since it wasn't raining, we hung the giant-sized cupcake on the monkey bars and let the whacking begin! 

Things didn't go exactly according to plan when the string to attach the piñata was destroyed, so we finished off the cupcake pounding it on the ground.  It was still fun. :)

Little Katie missed all of the action...

Samuel is growing up and is getting good at throwing balls!

At present time, Grace was one exuberant, thrilled birthday girl!  It seemed that there was a delightful squeal after each gift she opened.  This was the typical expression:

Here she is looking up at Grandma after opening her butterfly chair - such a precious expression.

It was a wonderful party and everyone had a grand time!

We are now looking in to June (can you believe that?!)  Between helping Laura, hosting a ladies Bible study on Thursday nights, trying to spend as much time with Kathy, and dealing with all the other things that come with normal life and work,  the days and weeks are extremely full.   But we treasure these days together and thank God for the memories he continues to give us.