A Thanksgiving Revelation

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto Him, and bless His name. Psalms 100:4

I love that song that is based on that Psalms. "I will enter his gates with thanksgiving in my heard. I will enter his courts with praise. I will say this is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice for He has made me glad." We would sing this song at church a lot. One of my favorites. Yesterday was such a good and needed reminder of all that I have to be grateful for. It is so easy to get caught up in all that I am failing at and all of the things I need to improve on. Things to make me a better parent, employee, wife, person, etc. I think it is good to do self-reflection and work on improving ones self, but there is a fine line between that being too hard on ourselves. We need to celebrate our successes. 

It was affirmed to me yesterday, that I am where I should be. I am with who I am meant to be with. I am a parent to two amazing kids. At times, I feel that I am doing horribly, but I can see in the eyes of my kids, that most of the time I am doing a pretty decent job.

I hope everyone had a lovely day spent with family and friends. Happy Thanksgiving! Blessings to you and yours! 

                                                               ~ Love, Hugs & Kisses ~ 

                                                                      The B Family

Witches, Pirates, and Candy!

Both of our kids love Halloween. Meli probably puts it right up there with Christmas. That makes complete sense for a kid who wears some kind of costume at least a few days a week. Yesterday, I came home from work and she was still wearing the kitty ears that she had on when I left early that morning.

Colin usually knows right away what he would like to dress up as. Meli changes quite often and starts planning once she sees the signs for the local Halloween store. COMING SOON. Well, she actually starts planning earlier than that. She has already started her ideas for next year.

This year, we were going to be two pirates (Will and Colin) and two kitty pirates (Meli and I). Meli was torn between wanting to do a family thing and really wanting to be a kitty.

I convinced her to be a witch. Each year, I take the kids south after the school day ends to enjoy trick-or-treating where we used to live. They close the downtown area of all traffic and all of the businesses get into it. They have bounce houses, games, and lots of candy. They even have a haunted house (well...haunted martial arts dojo).

We usually meet up with MiMa for trick or treating. She loves Halloween just as much as Meli!

We make it back home in time for passing out candy and going around our neighborhood. Poor Charlie was scared of the costumes. I thought it would be easier for little Char-Char if I set up in our driveway. Avoiding the doorbell ringing constantly. I actually scared a few kids sitting there in my witch costume! Will had the fantastic idea to play Halloween music. We were one of the more lively houses!

Our friends came over to trick-or-treat with us. Odin (who is almost 2) was the wolf and his mom was Little Red Riding Hood. So cute.

Pictures from their school Boo Bash.

She even got to put some (washable color) in her hair. 

Then they had a neighborhood party.

Halloween Day!

Will managed to avoid any pictures...again!







                                                      ~ Love, Hugs & Kisses ~
                                                               The B Family

Walnuts of all things

I love how random items can cause you to recall memories that have been long forgotten. When we took the kids apple picking recently, I found a big bin of walnuts and it made me giddy. I grew up with a big walnut tree in our backyard and love them! The walnut tree was the coolest thing ever. My brothers and I loved this tree. It was such an wonderful source of entertainment. We would climb it, swing on the tire swing my grandpa made, have walnut fights (which hurt like hell) and lay under its shade.

I remember having a big sheet laid on the floor with tons of walnuts on it for us to crack. Usually around the holidays. Perfect memory.

My grandparents house was awesome. We also had a plum and apple tree. I need to get more trees for our yard. We have several but not any that produce actual food. I would love an almond tree!

                                                        ~ Love, Hugs &  Kisses ~
                                                                The B Family

Emojis...I think

Colin and Mae both love costume play. They have a huge chest of costumes and accessories that can provide wonderful entertainment all day. Or at least until they get the idea for a video game in their head.

We try to make it to the Halloween store after the holiday to see what costumes we can get at a discounted rate...because OMG costumes have become ridiculously expensive. I think I want to go back to making our own next year.

Still, we found these. I think they are emoji things. I realize I am getting old when I do not get the references. I do think they are adorable though.

Our puppy, Charlie, was not so sure about them.

The one with Meli wearing the Devil face cracks me up. That fits her grumpy face so perfectly!



                                                        ~ Love, Hugs & Kisses ~
                                                                 The B Family

Cat Week at the B House

More like cat month. Our story time has been interrupted more recently.

The kids both pick a chapter book that they wanted us to read aloud. This way we can read books that fit both of their ages. Meli will kind of listen to Colin's story while she plays and Colin will usually read his current book when I read Meli's.

Meli loves kittens and puppies. She was so excited at the library to find several chapter book series that were about both. So we started with Magic Kitten: A Summer Spell (Meli) and the Warriors Series: Into the Wild #1 (Colin).

Meli's pick is about a lion that is magical that has to disguise itself as a kitten in order to hide from his evil uncle who wants his throne. It is cute so far. I like the writing more than some of the early chapters.

I actually really like Colin's choice. We are both excited that this series has been around for a while, so there are a lot out there. I remember this one from when I would work in the children's section at Barnes & Noble. They even have a dog series and wild animal ones. This one was a little slow to start, but mostly because you have to learn all of the cat clans and long names. We did find a Warrior companion book at the library that was pretty cool. You do have to be careful reading that too much before the series, because you learn spoilers.

Reading to the kids is one of my favorite things to do. I am so glad that they both seem to get excited about books and the adventures that can be had.

UPDATE: We are now reading the third book in the Upside Down Magic series. It is not necessarily about kittens but the main character can turn into a kitten with dragon parts. That sounds weird, but it is a really cute series. The kids love it!



                                                          ~ Love, Hugs & Kisses ~
                                                                    The B Family