The Second Half of March 2019 recap

March was a busy month.  Chris was gone in Germany still for the first week finishing up training for his new job.  And he left right at the end to head to a work conference in Vegas for about 5 days.  In between he was really busy with a lot of work at the office because he was new and there was a lot to do between the training and work conference, so the kids and I ended up spending a lot of time without Daddy unfortunately.  He also joined the Knights of Columbus at a nearby parish and was good enough to help out with some Lenten activities, which is wonderful, but combined it was a busy month and we missed Daddy a lot.  Obviously the kids and I spend tons of time together anyway since I'm a stay at home mom and I am homeschooling them.  But many evenings I was flying solo that month, so we decided to make the most of it (and some nice weather here and there) to explore parks and do some entirely NEW activities. Check it out!

Here's Kolbe.  

He got pretty spoiled that day- a popsicle AND a sucker.  

             

Another morning praise session with Kolbe.  He is in the sweetest, snuggliest stage and he LOVES to sing.  Even when he's tired, he loves to sing along with songs he knows.  This will never NOT make me tear up.  

Kolbe loves cars.  Enough said.  

              

One of the weekends when the weather was decent we got out hiking with the WHOLE family (Daddy toooooo!).  There was a lot of whining as our hiking muscles haven't been used a whole lot this winter, but we got back in the game and stretched those muscles and our wills a bit.  

Kolbe did quite a bit of hiking that day, but his little legs got tired.  I snapped this picture when he sat down for a well-deserved rest to watch this horse on the side of the trail.  

When the weather gets nicer, I get to hang out on our driveway reading while the neighborhood riff-raff comes and chalks up my driveway.  hahaha.  I love these kids and I love our neighborhood and I loved watching them smile, laugh, and create beauty on our driveway.  

As I mentioned, we went to a bunch of parks in March. 

Park fun!  Oh, to be a kid again.  Wait, we can all choose to live life to the full and enjoy things with the curiosity and excitement of children.... :)  

             

Always climbing on something, that girl is.  ;) 

Sibling fun on the teeter totter toy.  

This park was a NEW one that we'd never tried before and it's only about 8 minutes from home (we live in a town with TONS of great parks-we are blessed).  

And he's a beautiful shot I snapped of these two sweeties at our neighborhood park at dusk.  

I was blessed to hear Fr. Jacques Philippe (he's written a bunch of amazing books) speak at a Parish Mission just 10 minutes from us.  He speaks in French and has a translator (she was an excellent translator by the way).  It was incredible.  

Just soaking up some fun and sun with my sweet Sophie.  

The kids and I have been trying to stop by local parishes more to say hello to Jesus, even if just for 2 minutes.  On a good day though, I can take all 5 of them and we can get about 5 minutes before I have to take the smallest two out to get their energy out.  Sitting quietly in church and just praying is a tough skill, but we are working on it a little at a time and we have been loving our frequent, but short visits in the past few months.  

One parish we like to visit has a playground just outside the church so we can pray and then play for a bit afterwards.  The kids love it.  

Sophie has really begun to conquer on the climbing apparatus everywhere we go.  

During the kids' spring break, we weren't able to go away and do anything crazy, but I did take them to a local roller rink.  It was perhaps the worst decision taking 5 kids who have basically no experience by myself, but honestly we had a lot of fun despite the fact that Ava and Elise basically just hugged the wall and crept around the rink the whole time.  Kolbe  enjoyed it immensely until he fell a couple times and just decided he was DONE.  He spent awhile just walking around the arcade area watching kids play some of the games.  The other 4 kept skating (slow and steady). 

 

Kayla has skated before and did quite well.  Sophie used the little skates and she actually did amazing.  Thankfully she didn't need any help and was highly motivated to just get out there, so I was able to split my time between helping Kolbe, Ava, and Elise who needed more help.  Kayla was sweet and took a turn watching Kolbe in the arcade area so I could take a turn around the rink with Ava and then with Elise to give them some practice and get them off the wall for a turn. 

            

            

            

All in all, we had such a great time even though it was CRAZY!!!  

I haven't been roller skating (and was never that great anyway) since I was like 10 years old, so it was definitely an adventure.  If we had chosen to have a bad attitude, I'm sure we could have been frustrated because there was a lot of falling, a lot of wall hugging, and Kolbe refused to even get on the rink halfway through our time.  Instead, we focused on fun and recognized that this was a NEW activity to basically all of us, and it was so fun.  The kids keep asking when we can go again.  

 

I am never sad or disappointed when I take my kids on an adventure and just go all in with them to have fun and experience something WITH them.  

Thank you, Jesus, for the FUN and for no one getting anything more than a few small bruises on our rears from falling and embarrassing ourselves a few times.  

Yassssssssss!!!

Remember when I told you that Spring began?  

Yeah, this is a regular part of Colorado spring.  We just keep getting snow here and there until sometime in May generally, so you know March still had plenty despite a bunch of lovely days of sunshine so we could still feel like Spring had, in fact, begun!  

And that's a wrap on March (except Elise's birthday, and that post is coming soooon!)