A birthday, a wedding and father's day

This has been an eventful week.  Last weekend we had a wedding, which was a ton of fun.  The kids loved the reception.  We left them with Bart's parents for the wedding and that worked out perfectly since our daughter can sit still for about 20 seconds flat.  Plus the wedding was outside and it was a little rainy so I'm sure they would've been all worked up about that.

We celebrated Leah's birthday super early so she could do it
Bart's family.  She went a little crazy when she saw Olaf.

It's hard to tell but she actually put 4 candles in that cake

Super cute Blake and Liesl

Bart's birthday was Friday.  It was fairly uneventful.  He's not very picky or super opinionated so it's sometimes difficult to know what he'll be really excited about.  We did go to Quaker Steak and Lube so he got spoiled with that.  We do reverse birthdays, or hobbit birthdays as Bart likes to call them.  Bart got us all gifts for his birthday.  It's fun but a pretty difficult concept for our kids still.  They want gifts, of course.  Leah is going to be a mess for her birthday!

Father's day has been fun.  We skipped church (GASP, sinners!).  It was nice to have a relaxing slow morning.  The kids were in heavy need of a bath so we let them marinate for a while.  We got a late breakfast, eventually went out to lunch and let the kids play.  We're high class and really splurged today.  We went to McDonald's.  Obviously Bart cared more about his kids joy than his own today.

Bart's father's day gift
(designed by our friend Brian)
He'll always have something to remember VZ
and the people he spent so much time with

We ended up getting home really late last night since we impromptu ended up going to my sister's place.  We had a really good time but it was hard to leave.  We just haven't had enough time with people, especially quality time.  And it was really quality time.

As St. Teresa of Avila audaciously expressed it, from heaven the most miserable earthly life will look like one bad night in an inconvenient hotel.  In the Christian scheme of things, this world and the time spent here are not all there is.  Earth is a proving ground, a dot in eternity--albeit an important dot, for Jesus said our destiny depends on our obedience here.  Next time you want to cry out to God in anguished despair, blaming him for  a miserable world, remember: less than one-millionth of reality has been presented, and that millionth is being lived out under a rebel flag.                                                    -Yancey

This quote has helped me this past week.  When I think about our recovery this week from sickness, missing fingers (slight exaggeration), obnoxiously disobedient kids, it's quotes like this that help me hold it together.  Well, maybe not hold it together, but rather not strangle my kids.  Praise the Lord we made it through this past week.  Your prayers were felt.  Tangibly.  The kids have been a lot better.  Bart isn't sick anymore.  My finger is healing nicely.  We're feeling better about life.

At the wedding reception

And in a little over 2 weeks from now, we'll be in Florida.  Ah, Florida.  In July.  We don't even care.  Just get us there.  To our beds.  To our own place.  To this: Florida