Happy Birthday Levi and Eli

This morning, we all loaded up and went to the ice hockey rink for Levi and Eli Bear's birthday party. We did not go into the party with high expectations. There was no way on earth that we expected Zachary to enjoy an ice skating party. He had roller skates, but we had to exchange them because he was scared to death when we put them on his feet. The party started off very wobbly. Here's a picture of Andrew Staples (Zachary's best bud) and Zachary on the skates when they first put them on.

After that, the boys got familiar with the ice. Ray, being the brilliant man that he is, brought some chairs out onto the ice for the kids to use to hold on to (and Marty and April, too). After a few minutes, both Andrew and Zachary started getting the hang of it. I took a short, but hilarious, video of Zachary after he got comfortable on the ice.

The Bear boys were in full hockey gear. They were all over the ice and having fun playing with Thrash and their pucks and sticks.

Us southerners aren't that good at ice skating, but we were very impressed that Zachary had a ball. One last picture of the hockey birthday cakes (notice the Zamboni and hockey sticks on the cakes)...

What a fun morning. All day, Zachary has been asking when he can go back and ice skate again. Who would have thought?

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Today's Bible Verse:

I lift up my eyes to the hills -- where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. -Psalm 121:1-2

Happy Spring!!!

Today is the first day of Spring! Adios Winter...

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Today's Bible Verse:

The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights. - Habakkuk 3:19

An Afternoon With Aunt Jackie

Zachary and Allison spent the afternoon hanging out with Allison's family. Aunt Jackie came over to Grandma's house for a couple of hours and spent most of that time playing with Zachary. They played football in the backyard, hide and go seek and read some books among their many activities.

Zachary loves it when Aunt Jackie comes to visit. He has her undivided attention and can get her to play most any game he comes up with. Thanks, Aunt Jackie!

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Today's Bible Verse:

But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. Psalm 13:4-6

Play Ball

Finally, today is the first day of baseball season for Zachary. We awoke bright and early this morning - before 6:00 - to a huge lightning storm. We had some serious doubts as to how the day would go. BUT - we were told that the opening day parade was rain or shine. So we started to get dressed. By 9:00, parade time, the weather had taken a break. Every team in the league participated in the parade and all of the kids threw candy out at the crowd from the back of their team's pickup truck. Here's a couple of pictures.

After that, we went over to the ball park for the first ballgame of the day - Zachary's. It was to begin at 11:00. Unfortunately, the fields were practically under water. The coaches worked on the fields for over an hour and a half. All of the fields were deemed too wet to play except the t-ball field. So, as the only folks at the ballpark, we began the game. With 15 minutes left in the game, we found out that we had spend the entire game under a tornado warning and that severe storms were all around us. We started to get rained on, also. Here's a couple of pictures of the game.

Zachary didn't notice the mud, or the wet weather. He was so excited, he could hardly contain himself. He talked the rest of the day about how much fun he was having playing ball this season. The team lost the game, but I don't think any of the kids even noticed.

We spent the rest of the afternoon today avoiding the storms in the area. There were severe storms all over Atlanta today and even some tornadoes that led to a few fatalities. Last night, we prayed that God would give us good weather for the ballgame today. He did. Thanks, God.

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Today's Bible Verse:

For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea. - Habakkuk 2:14

Hello Spring!

Sunday afternoon, we went to Little Mulberry Park for an hour or so before church. It was our first time going to this park. Wow! It was everything you could ever want in a park. We didn't go to the playground because of the crowds, but we did enjoy some of the walking paths and went to the pond to see what was going on there. Zachary got to watch some folks fishing. That was way cool to him. We also got to watch a family feed the ducks. Then we went over to some of the docks to see what was going on over there. Here's some of the pictures we took.

Ok, so the weather today isn't so warm (it's 55 degrees today), but I am posting these pics to remind us that Spring is on the way and we welcome it with open arms!

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Today's Bible Verse:

The Lord is good to everyone. He showers compassion on all his creation. - Psalm 145:8-10