Sweet Sleep

With each of my babies, I have learned the value of a good night's sleep. I would rather have a peaceful night of deep sleep than any other luxury this world has to offer. This week has been especially hard on all of us, sleep-wise. Sam is cutting teeth, and he is letting us know about it...mostly between the hours of 2-4 a.m. Eric and I have started working in shifts at night to soothe Sam back to sleep. The other night we had just managed to get him back to sleep, and had fallen asleep ourselves, when Christy came in and said that she had had a bad dream about a baby crying! We are all looking forward to Sam returning to his usual 8-9 hours of sweet sleep every night.

My Favorite Season

Eric bought these beautiful Fall flowers for me!

Autumn officially begins on Monday! This is my favorite time of year. I can have confidence that the hot, humid Summer days are behind me. I can look forward to the cool, crisp breezes and chilly nights. It is natural to feel the urge to snuggle up with my children, reading many books and having long conversations about the changes in life. The Glory of God is displayed in such splendor all around us as the leaves change to rich colors of red, gold, orange and yellow. Signs of harvest show how God is so good to supply us with many simple pleasures.

Renaissance Festival

This weekend we traveled to a land far, far away (Shakopee, MN), to visit Kings, Queens, Princesses, Princes, Knights, Jesters, and a vast array of other characters. We listened to minstrels play, and tasted some of the local fare. We heard many "thees" and "thous", and even had tea with a royal entourage! Despite dark clouds, torrential downpours and a plague of gnats, we had a great time at the Renaissance Festival!


This would have been a great family picture, if only Sam would have looked at the camera!


Doesn't Sam make an adorable little "arrow" in Eric's "quiver"?


This is The Castle entrance. Our girls are the little kids in brown.


Eric taking a break with the kids in the "Secret Garden"


Becca was captivated by "Jamison the Juggler"!


The girls enjoyed making a craft in the kid's craft area.


Christy is a pretty little peasant, isn't she?


Here is Becca looking sooo cute at the entrance of the kid's craft area.


This was what the girls looked like before we put their coats on.


If you have a fast Internet connection, this is a slide show of our experience at the Renaissance Festival:

Camping girl-style

We read Ryan & Julie's blog, and decided that camping looked like a whole lot of fun! So, since we don't have a real tent or supplies, we did some day-camping in our yard. The girls had a great time! Don't you just love all the pink?! We also fired up the grill and roasted marshmallows and hot dogs. Eric even cooked a marshmallow for me that was the epitome of perfection...golden brown all the way around! I should have taken a picture of it!

Grandma's Pictures

Grandma Becky downloaded onto our computer some of the pictures she had taken while she was here. I thought some of them were too cute to pass up, so here they are! I now I'm probably biased, but I think I have some of the cutest kids in the world! ;-)

Murphy's Landing

We took the family and Grandma Becky to Murphy's Landing today! It is another place similar to the Dakota Heritage Village from the late 1800's. We enjoyed looking at all the old buildings, and our tour guide really made that era come alive for us! We all learned a lot. A part of me yearned for the simplicity of that time period, but another part of me was extremely thankful that I live now. Can you imagine having to go out to the privy in the middle of January in Minnesota? I don't know how they did it. Anyway, the weather was absolutely perfect, and we all had a great, educational "field trip"!

Old-fashioned Fun

The kids enjoyed putting their heads through these holes to look dressed up in duds from the past!

Serious Games with Grandma

Eric's Mom is here for a visit! We have been enjoying our time with her, and the girls are thrilled to have someone to give them undivided attention! Right now, they are playing some games together. They look pretty serious about winning, don't they? ;-)