Weekend fun

On Friday, as a reward for a big academic accomplishment that Strider finished, we decided to let him go to see "The Blind Side" at the "cheap" movie theater. He has been wanting to see this movie for months now, and since he's only been to a theater a few times, and this was his first non-kid movie, it was a BIG deal. I loved seeing his face when I told him the plan! Pete was anxious to see it, too, since he read the book version of the story last year, so he took Strider and his friend Sam. On the Fun Scale, I think Strider would give this a 10 out of 10!

Then on Saturday Pete had to go to work for most of the day, so the kids and I rode our bike/scooter/stroller up to the park in our neighborhood for our annual Kite Festival. The anticipation was high.... the reality was just ok. On the Fun Scale, I'd give it a 6 out of 10. Some ideas are just better than the real thing. :)

Here we are riding a tractor/fire-truck thing that went about 2 miles/hour. The instructions before this photo was taken were apparently, "Girls, try to look happy. Boys, try to look very serious."

Strider and his friend Bailey roamed around a lot, before and after trying unsuccessfully to get a kite in the sky...

The bounce house is always a hit, though!

Rayna and Colsen made visors...

The little boys enjoyed watching all the kites in the sky... I know this picture is too small to see, but way off in the distance Rayna was twirling around and around to the music, and Strider and Bailey were trying to fly their kite...

We ended up having to rush home to get to a baseball skills-assessment day for Strider. And THAT on the Fun Scale was about a 2 out of 10. If I have to take all 4 kids to a semi-muddy field during lunchtime for an hour and a half again next year, we'll be skipping it.

BUT, it was hard to stay too grumpy yesterday.... the day was just too beautiful! I love when the maple trees look like this

Today, we went to a memorial service for a woman we had never met, and it was beautiful, too. Hearing about her passion and devotion to God was so inspiring... Strider and I talked a lot about what we learned about her, and how it was such an unusual funeral service. It was a good reminder about the blessing of Life, but also about how there is much more to living than just the ol' Fun Scale. I hope this lesson will be a good foundation for me as we start out this next week.