"For he will not dwell unduly on the days of his life, because God keeps him busy with the joy of his heart."
Ecclesiastes 5:20
(I think I've used this verse before but it applies so beautifully to what we've been doing lately that I had to use it again!)
After a wonderful Resurrection Sunday (details possibly coming later) we returned home late that Sunday night. Thankfully Mama gave us a sleep-in Monday morning which we all enjoyed! Once we were awake and had eaten breakfast we cleaned up the house and gardened outside.
My Uncle Mike, Aunt Stacey, and cousins Kaitlyn, Sarah, and Rachel arrived at our house around 1 that afternoon. After talking a little bit Uncle Mike and Aunt Stacey left for VA Beach on a little husband-wife vacation. Meanwhile, our cousins got to stay with us! :)
[Uncle Mike and Aunt Stacey were going to be returning on Thursday, so we could all celebrate Sarah's 13th birthday on Friday (April 9th).]
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Just to give you a little introduction: Kaitlyn is 14, Sarah is 13, and Rachel is 1. Hannah, Alexis, and I are pretty close to Kate (a.k.a. K.K.) and Sarah but it was also fun having baby Rachel there too. We haven't had a baby that small around the house in at least a year! :)
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I scarcely remember what we did that Monday but I do remember that Mama turned the A/C down to 78 which is a huge thing in our house! :-D (We need to have people over more often...)
Dinner that Monday night consisted of spaghetti and homemade pizza bread. K.K. and Sarah helped make the bread which was very fun! :) They also helped roll it out; each making their own loaf. (K.K. made pepperoni and Sarah made cheese.)
I've forgotten the details of every day so here's a quick glance of what we did:
We gardened, jumped on the trampoline (with and without water), tried to get a "tan" (which ended up being sunburn - thankfully Lexi gave us an aloe rubdown each night! :), played Settlers of Catan, read Narnia, colored, went on a short trip to our neighbors horse farm, rode bikes, cooked food, etc. It was a fun week!
Thursday was the day I remember most... after gardening outside for awhile we sprayed ourselves off on the trampoline. A wet trampoline is so much fun, for those of you who have not tried it. We were laughing the entire time!
Anyways, for dinner that night Mama was making her enchiladas so we were having lots of family over! :)
Uncle Mike and Aunt Stacey returned from their mini-vacation about 4 P.M. and we ate dinner around 6 (I think.). Everyone else who was coming for dinner arrived between then!
Mama's delicious enchiladas!
Cornbread that K.K. and I made.
Taco meat! Yummy!
(I hope you don't get tired of pictures of food because I don't! :)
About 30 minutes before dinner we decided to make Sarah's ice cream cake. We got the ice cream out to soften, crushed up Oreos, and that sort of thing. Sarah's cake consisted of: chocolate ice cream for the bottom layer, crushed chocolate oreos in the middle, and oreo ice cream as the top layer. (We used cool whip for the icing)
The softened oreo ice cream.
We had to wait until after dinner to spread the oreo ice cream on since it wasn't melted enough by the time dinner was called.
Lydia waiting for dinner.
Here's the list of everyone who came for dinner:
Paw-paw and Na-naw
Aunt Megan with Cadence and Justus
Uncle Mike and Aunt Stacey
and, of course, all the rest of us! :)
Dinner was so yummy!
While I was walking around taking pictures of everyone inside I saw Hannah walking around with Rachel outside. So I went out to take pictures of my adorable little cousin! :)
Isn't she adorable?
This is probably my favorite picture of her! :)
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Since I had been very slack in taking pictures during the week (my excuse being that I was generally wet and couldn't hold my camera :) I took some that night before K.K., Sarah, and Rachel left.
Left to right: Eden, Caleb, Lexi, Josiah, K.K., and Seth.
We spent so much time on our two trampolines (we got another one from Grandpa and grandma for Easter) that week that I had to get one picture of some of the "jumping buddies."
Another of my adorable cousins - Justus.
Since K.K., Sarah, and Rachel were leaving that night for Na-naw and Paw-paw's house I asked Daddy to take a picture of us 5 girls together before they left. After asking a few times Daddy agreed! :)
Left to right: Hannah, K.K., Me, Sarah, and Alexis.
This was Lexi's idea.
They left that night and it was so weird not having them in our house. They were so much fun!
2 praises from the week:
The Lord gave us a really great time with our cousins. It's so wonderful being able to talk to your cousins about spiritual things and to grow closer to them all the while. Out of all their visits, this one, I think, was definitely the best. We all had so much fun together...I am so grateful for Kaitlyn and Sarah (and Rachel!).
Rachel did not have an allergic problem the entire week!!! Rachel is highly allergic to milk and in the Wassenberg household everything but our veggies has milk in it in some form (and that is not exaggerating :). So it was almost a miracle that Rachel didn't break out once with all of the exposure to milk.
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Friday was going to be another busy day! Mama's midwife appointment was that morning and Sarah's birthday party was that night at Na-naw and Paw-paw's. Daddy took Caleb, Eden, and Josiah to work with him so that Hannah could drive us the 45 minutes to the midwife's house. :) The check-up went very well. The most exciting thing about the appointment was probably hearing the baby's heartbeat!
After talking with Mrs. Giglio (I pronounce her last name gig-lee-o but Mama says it is jill-e-o :) we left. Daddy called as we were on the highway and said that we were going to our favorite pizza place, Anna's Italian Restaurant, for lunch. We all didn't know why but we didn't ask any questions.
Once we arrived in the parking lot by Anna's we gathered together and Daddy said a little "thank you for all the hard work you've done" comment but I was kind of confused because none of us had really done any hard work that week. Well I just shrugged it off and we proceeded to go inside.
Once inside, our waitress met us in the aisle way and told us that "they are waiting for you." Once again, I was very confused but the only thought that entered my mind was that "they" meant Na-naw and Paw-paw, or Mr. John, who just happened to want to meet us for lunch.
So we kept on walking until we entered the room we eat in almost every Wednesday night. As I turned the corner, my mouth dropped open in disbelief because sitting in the chairs at the table were some of our best friends...the Whitsons!!! The first thoughts that entered my mind was "What are they doing here?" "Is it really them?" "Did they really drive the 7 hours from their house to ours just for lunch?"
As we all stood there in utter disbelief, eyes gaping with mouths wide open, the Whitsons were smiling away taking pictures and video recording. It was really neat! After we all recovered from our shock we gave everyone hugs and proceeded to ask lots of questions. Daddy and Mama were just standing there, smiling at our reaction; they had planned this for a few weeks. The shocking thing is that none of us figured that they were coming. :)
Pizza arrived a little while later, so we talked as we ate. We left for home after we were finished eating, to get everyone settled in. It was around 3 PM when we finally got home. Once everyone settled in, Daddy and Mr. Whitson left to go look at some buses and the rest of us talked, jumped on the trampoline, etc.
At 5 o'clock we all piled into our van and drove over to Na-naw's house for Sarah's 13th birthday party. (Na-naw and Paw-paw knew about the Whitsons coming too) Hamburgers, hot dogs, beans, Au gratin potatoes, chips, and more was for dinner! After dinner Sarah opened her presents and then we had cake! :)
We were the last people to leave, getting home around 9-10 that night.
Saturday morning we all were up early for breakfast at 8 AM (which turned into 8:30 :). We all normally sleep in until ??? Saturday morning (because of our late Friday nights!) but we had to get up early because Hannah, Taylor, and I were going to Lavender Fields. (Hannah has started working every-other-Saturday at
Lavender Fields Farm, as the cook for their afternoon teas. Taylor and I went along for fun!)
After one of Daddy and Mama's best breakfasts', Daddy and Mr. Whitson drove us 3 girls over to the farm. After a quick prayer, we hopped out and they left. Originally we had 4 people sign up for the afternoon tea, but at the last minute 4 more people came! So, we had 8 people that we cooked for and served!
Here's what we did during the day:
We arrived at the farm around 10 AM.
After talking to Mr. Shaun we went into their commercial kitchen and filled up pitchers with lavender lemonade, set the tables, prepared the food, etc. The two recipes for the tea that day was Cheese and Herb Biscuits and then Rosemary Shortbread Cookies.
Kara, a friend from church who has started working there too, arrived around 12 PM and then Mrs. Schermerhorn trained us (myself and Kara) how to serve the guests during the teas. (I'm going to work there too, now! :)
The tea was at 2 o'clock but like I said above, about 15 minutes before 2:00, 4 more people signed up so we were all racing back and forth from the kitchen to the tea room, and back again; setting tables, getting silverware, putting food on plates, etc. It was lots of fun!
At 2 o'clock everyone was let in and Mrs. Schermerhorn, Kara, and I went around and gave everyone their first course (the biscuits) and some tea.
After everyone finished their biscuits, we gave them their rosemary cookies. We checked on them every so often, refilling their cups with lemonade/tea, removing the trash, asking if they needed anything, etc.
When everyone was done, they got up and left and then we cleaned up! (When Kara and I weren't in the tea room we were in the room beside the tea room helping Hannah and Taylor do whatever was necessary)
After all the tables were cleared (Hannah and Taylor helped also) we went and washed all the dishes in the kitchen. In order for everyone to be able to help clean up, we made an assembly line: Hannah washed the dishes, Taylor held the dishes until I could get them and rinse them off, and then Kara would place them out to dry!
Altogether it was a really fun time together! Kara left soon after we were done, and we were left to ourselves until Mama and Mrs. Whitson picked us up.
Taylor and I (Hannah is taking the picture) after cleaning up. You can see all the dishes drying in the left of the picture! :)
I borrowed this picture from Taylor's camera since I had forgotten to get my camera out of the back of the car when we arrived. (Our lunch was in there too!)
After letting Mrs. Schermerhorn know that we were done, she took us to the freezer in the kitchen and gave us some of their absolutely delicious ice cream! Hannah and I both chose raspberry.
The Chickahominy River flows through their farm, so we went down and sat on the rocks nearby to read our Bible until our parents came and picked us up!
It is almost like a little paradise down there. So pretty! :)
(By the way, it is also where our annual church baptism takes place.)
As we were eating our ice cream and reading our Bibles, a few of those yellow jackets were flying around. So, after sitting there for a little bit, we decided to go back up towards the house to enjoy the river from a distance! :)
Mrs. Whitson and Mama arrived a little bit later. We returned home soon after, but before we left Mrs. Whitson took a picture of us 3 girls...
Once home, after a fun day at work, we relaxed and helped get dinner on the table. Dinner consisted of chicken 'n wine sauce (a family favorite) and all the fixings that go with that!
After dinner we all went outside to enjoy the gorgeous weather Jesus gave us.
Abby, Lexi, Taylor, and Hannah on the hammock.
Mr. Whitson and Daddy cranking our dessert for the night: ice cream! :)
The fixings for the ice cream!
(Missing the sprinkles...)
When the ice cream was ready we went in and fixed up our bowl of ice cream and sat down to watch the movie Amazing Grace.
Abby, Lexi, and Michael.
That hand over Michael's face is Caleb's!
Michael and Caleb
Hannah, Taylor, and Josiah (sorry for that one red eye! :)
Eden
Mr. Whitson, Madelyn, and Mrs. Whitson. Funny faces must run in the family! ;-)
The movie ended late that night, so we all trudged sleepily up to bed when it was over.
Sunday morning we had another wonderful breakfast: sausage casserole and cinnamon bread!
Everyone but me at the breakfast table.
The Whitsons were leaving after breakfast to make it back in time to their church, so we talked until we had to say goodbye.
Us 5 girls in front of our apple tree.
All the kids!
(I love Lydia and Madelyn's expressions - they're so cute!)
After pictures we gave hugs, said goodbyes, and then we watched the Whitsons roll out of the driveway.
Even though it was a short visit, it was so nice getting to see the Whitsons again!
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Sunday night, Mr. Johnny came over for movie night and popcorn. After the movie was over, we jumped on the trampoline before bed.
So, that ended our busy week! Thank you for sticking through this forever long post!! :)
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One more praise: the Whitsons brought a few bags of clothes from some people they know and the clothes were the perfect size for us! Jesus is so good!
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By the way, (you thought I was done, didn't you :-D): the photo contest that Alexis and I entered...we didn't make it into the finals. Thank you all for your interest though! :)
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One last thing: my grandma's brother died last Thursday morning. He lived in Kansas. I'm so sorry for Grandma! He was her only sibling. Both of Grandma's parents are gone and Uncle Jim (that's his name) never had any children so Grandma barely has any family left. If you remember, please keep her in your prayers! WE LOVE YOU GRANDMA.
Delighting in Jesus,
Kimber :)
