{pretty, happy, funny, real}

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~

with the lovely ladies at Like Mother, Like Daughter

{pretty}

 Yesterday was an absolutely perfect day for a picnic. In God's divine providence, it turned out to be the day of our homeschooling group's Annual End of the Year Picnic.

This year Coach Q of The Homeschool Gym came with fun games for kids of all ages. Parachutes, balls, flags, frisbees, tons of organized games for all the kids to play. My girls had such a blast running and playing and enjoying the breeze, the friends, and the activities Coach Q put together.

{happy}

 I was happy to have some help keeping track of all the little ones. Earlier this year we found MK who comes three mornings a week to watch the little ones while I school the older girls. Her help has been an incredible answer to our prayers. She came yesterday and it was so nice to be able to relax knowing there were two sets of eyes on my littles.

With the extra help, I got a chance to visit and enjoy the winding down of our school year. The kids also enjoyed being with friends, making cereal necklaces, face painting, and some older boys even made balloon animals! It was such a fun day for everyone!

{funny}

 Did I mention my girls enjoyed the face painting? Doesn't this just look like a girl ready for the summer?

While not a fan of the face paint, Gabe did enjoy the watermelon. I have never seen a kid so serious about his watermelon. He is certain to get every shred of edible melon, and even then will not let go of the rind. He chose the melon over a popsicle so I guess I can't complain.

{real}

My real pictures should be of the hour or two before we left for the picnic because that was truly an ordeal. Alas there are no pictures of my destroyed kitchen floors, nor of the now faded kitchen mats. There are also no pictures of two little boys in brand new outfits, ready for a picnic at the park, now ruined by bleach stains and crying because of the soap in their eyes.

It seems no matter how organized I try to be, no matter how much effort I put into being ready to go the night before, it is inevitable that some disaster will strike. Yesterday, while I was in the shower, the boys dumped an entire bottle of dishwasher detergent on the kitchen floor. We found that one particular brand of our detergent has bleach (a lot of bleach) in it. We're trying to use it up and in hindsight I should have just thrown it away.

 

 Instead I do have pictures of the little work I did for our picnic. I set up a treasure hunt in the sand of our turtle sandbox, the sandbox that sits in our garage because dh doesn't like sandboxes.

It seemed to be a big hit. Although I suppose I could have had some great reality shots that evening when I had to bathe our boys because they were covered in sand and bathe the girls because they were covered in face paint...

Still it was a beautiful picnic and a lovely start to our summer!