Fenway Park

On May 18 we flew into Boston on our way to Ireland. We had a few hours to kill so Tom's friend, Sarah, picked us up at the airport & we toured Fenway Park. Now to many of you that may not be interesting or fun, but our boys loved it. We are a baseball family, we make no excuses about it, & we are glad to have a common interest that we all enjoy. So we were all in heaven....or at least the Bostonians would say so! Here are a few shots of our day!Clay acting goofy...putting his hand in the HUGE glove!

Chandler & Clay in front of the pennant wall!A Red Sox Emblem on the fence!

If you look closely, you can see a baseball imprint of a baseball that was hit off the Green Monster!!! Really cool!

A pic of all of us at Fenway Park! Go Red Sox!!!

Baby Blue Jays

Before we got the pool ready for the summer, we had drained it & it had debris in the bottom. A huge storm blew through & blew some baby blue jays, who's parents I feed with popcorn & bread crumbs, out of their nest. This little fellow jumped around until he found himself in the bottom of the pool & couldn't get out. We watched the mom & dad swooping down into the pool to try to get him to fly out but to no avail. We propped a long board into the pool hoping he would figure out to climb out. We left for church that night & decided to check on him when we got back. He still was in the pool. Tom got a big piece of hard plastic & shewed him on it & we got him out without touching him & put him on the deck. He began jumping around & hid under some monkey grass until morning. I guess he made it because we never found blue jay feathers in the backyard!

Here he was enjoying freedom from the pool!

Backyard Entertainment

I try to be kind to the backyard animals so I generally will throw the stale bread or chips out to the birds & squirrels. This day was popcorn. Gotta love this little guy!

Isn't he cute the way he is holding the popcorn?

Bendy Straw Lessons

Not too long ago, we taught Graeson the lesson all little boys need to know....the bendy straw trick. You can see below the laughter in his eyes of how much fun it was. If you've never tried the bendy straw trick....you should....makes for lots of laughs....for those young at heart anyway!

G strategically placing the straw....or trying to anyway!
Blowing on the straw....the thing that makes the whole process a success!!!

Funeral of a Fallen Soldier

Clay....Clay....Clay...Recently one of Clay's toy soldiers was injured in battle and no surgery, tape or glue would help. I said just throw him away...you have 100 more. But he's my favorite! I said well I bet you have 4 more exactly like him. So he went to his room and conducted a funeral of this fallen comrade. He needed to borrow my phone to document the event. Thought I'd share....
As you can see below all of the other soldiers are sitting at the funeral and one green beret even has his hanky ready for tears.

All of the soldiers listening to the funeral. Notice the tissue in their hands. Can you see the casket in the bottom? He's all wrapped in toilet paper.
The casket with a "RIP" message at the head of it.
I believe this is the helicopter view of the funeral.
I tell you Clay is the funniest, most imaginative kid. He keeps me laughing all the time. The funeral was successful....but I doubt this soldier is RIP...I'm thinking he's still in the bottom of the toy men bin because I doubt he made it to the trash.

Twisted Tree

Not sure why, but I love trees. Especially unusual ones, or really big ones. This one caught my eye. Could it be the funny face that can be seen right at the bend? The fact that it's bent about half way up? Or that it's twisted? Or maybe that the branches above the twist look like really wild hair? I wonder why the tree is like it is? Did it suffer some trauma when it was younger? Did someone break it but it managed to survive anyway? Or is it some other reason. I don't even know what kind of tree it is but it is a neat one.

I can look at the tree, & it's a lot like us. We might suffer bad times, traumatic times, & events that might twist us so that we're forever changed, but like this tree, we can continue to grow and stand tall. We might end up with a few visible signs of those times but we are still what God created us to be. God will always see us through those times. He's a Faithful God. He's all-knowing and all-powerful and He will never leave us nor forsake us.

If you're feeling like the twisted tree, have faith & courage and know that God is with you!! Stand firm. Dig your roots deeper and don't let go. And know that you are becoming who & what God wants you to be.

Irises

Several years ago, mom & I visited an iris farm. We saw so many beautiful flowers. We purchased a couple of different bulbs & planted them in her flower bed. For 2 years they didn't bloom. But wahhh lahhh this year they bloomed! The varieties are so pretty! We love them!