19 July 2007

week of firsts

We've had a busy week. Tuesday the kids went to the zoo with Daddy and had lots of other fun because... insert drumroll here... Mommy had her first full day off! I left before anyone was moving and drove 2 hours to meet Marcy, my former roommate and dear friend, in the lovely town of Boiling Springs, population 900. We discovered Boiling Springs (which has 30 bubbling springs that look like they're boiling) as we were searching for a public pool halfway between her house in VA and ours. We had a wonderful day lounging in the pool and enjoying the waterslides before exploring the town (which didn't take long), consuming 2 scoops of Bruster's yummy ice cream, and heading home after bedtime to a quiet house. I'm so thankful to have such a wonderful husband who put in extra time at work several days so he could take off and send me away without a worry.

Today the kids and I got up and headed out to Solebury Orchards to pick blueberries. It was a warm but overcast day, perfect for blueberry picking... especially with a baby on your back. The blueberries weren't quite as plentiful as we hoped, so finding perfect berries was time consuming. The kids were very patient though, and we received a wonderful compliment from a woman in the next row who said, "It's so nice to see such a peaceful family." She even invited Joshua and Patience to pick with her from a heavily loaded bush that had really, really big blueberries. Garty passed the time by reaching around me and stealing blueberries from my box. Oh, and he consumed 2 leaves he pulled off bushes before I could get him off my back to empty his mouth. I tried to get Joshua to help, and he responded by declaring, "He'll bite me!"

After we finished picking blueberries and cutting flowers at the orchard, we stopped to see Grandmom and Auntie Katie, who were on the way home. While there Patience got a big surprise... a Radio Flyer tricycle that Auntie Katie found at a yard sale for $5! The older kids both had a great time riding it. When we got home, Joshua got his big surprise... a real 2-wheeler (with training wheels, of course) that I got free from someone on Freecycle! His eyes nearly popped out. After dinner we went to the farm park up the road so they could both practice riding. After about 30 minutes, Patience was no longer steering into the grass, and Joshua could keep pedaling for more than 20 seconds at a time. It was great fun for all. Hooray for yard sales and Freecycle!

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your children are beautiful. What a fun day. Garage sales are the best!! I have been following your blog and I have really enjoyed reading about your adoption journey. My husband and I have just started our adoption process with AOH. Lord willing, we plan to adopt a boy and a girl. We have 4 biological children and are looking forward to one day being a blessed family of 8!
God Bless,
Melissa
From Indiana

Dono & Laurie said...

Becky! How fun! And how wonderful to have a day to yourself!!!! I must say I'm jealous:) Also It's funny...we got the same exact radio flyer (for Titus) off of freecycle! And a friend gave us a bike(with training wheels) too. I love freecycle and free(or almost free) stuff! Love the updates!
Laurie

Peter and Becky said...

The best part of the tricycle is that it's a nice retro Radio Flyer bike that says "Made in China" on the front! The irony really made me laugh.