May we become Fishers of Men

"Come, follow me", Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." At once they left their nets and followed him. Matthew 4:19-20

So this afternoon my friend and I decided to take the kids fishing. I didn't know if the combination of 6 kids, 4 poles with hooks, and a pond was a good idea but looking back I definitely think it was. So, sit back and enjoy this very long winded post.

This is how our afternoon started. Here are the kids patiently waiting on the front porch! (All six of them!)They were all very excited and even caught all of the bait for the afternoon. We sent them out into the yard to find enough worms for the trip and I have to say that they did a great job. We probably had 15-20 worms when we left.

So, we arrive at the pond and these two girls were ready for some fun. Ella is 2 1/2 and Sydney being almost 2 were our main worry. I was nervous about missing naps, a pond for drowning and catching a finger or nose in a hook but these two did very good and just enjoyed the time outside in nature.

Sydney definitely could fit through the slats in the "so called" fence and she even managed to sneak her feet through a few times but for the most part everyone stayed dry.

And here she is again wondering around the pond. Ethan is in the background doing some serious fishing.

This next picture is one of Jordan sorting through all of the worms. Ethan, Isaac, Emma and Her did a really good job getting our bait for the day.

And here is Jordan with her fishing face on!

And here are Sydney and Ella carrying around our bucket, which the kids had every intention of filling up with "huge" fish.

And then it happened. This was caught! Yes, you are looking at a picture that I took this afternoon. (And this is no "Big Fish" story!)

The BIG one, it was caught. It was about 2 ft long and a very fat catfish. It was huge and the kids were very excited. However, it did flop around a lot and made Isaac a little nervous but overall everyone thought it was pretty cool.

And another close-up of the BIG one. I was pretty impressed that this big of a fish was in this little pond that we were fishing in.

(Just a small clarification at this point in the post --- O' ya, and by the way, we didn't actually catch this fish. Some high school age boys were fishing on the other side of the pond and when they caught it we let the kids run over and look at it. But I bet I had some of you thinking that I caught that big thing with Jordan's Dora-the-Explorer fishing rod! Wrong, but don't give up on me yet, I did catch something!!!!)

And another picture of the boys as they were fishing.

And then it was our turn. The kids were done and Laura and I were ready for the challenge. So, she grabbed Emma's Barbie fishing rod and I grabbed the trusty Dora one and we were ready to go. And then it happened. Laura caught the first fish. I couldn't believe that she caught one first but I was excited and grabbed the camera anyway!!!

Not quite as big as the high school boy's fish across the pond but our group was very excited.
Here are the kids checking out the fish up close!

Even Sydney got in on the action. She didn't shy away from the fish one bit.

In fact we had to take the fish away from her for its own safety! I like the smile on her face in this one!

Here is one of Jordan getting close to the fish.

Now, I was on a mission. It was time for me to get serious. So, I switched from the Dora fishing rod to the Superman fishing rod. And lucky for me that was just the change I needed! I caught one!!!

Yes, again it is slightly smaller than the first one from across the pond but we wanted to get the kids comfortable around little fish first (Ya, RIGHT!!!!!)

And here is Sydney with the trusted fish bucket.

And again they are getting to touch and feel this little fish.

Sydney again getting right in there and grabbing the fish!

And the even funnier part about this fish story is that we really had a measuring tape with us so we could actually see how big our fish were. Mine was 4 inches!!!

And Laura's was 5 inches!!! (O' Man, she beat me!!!)

And you may have noticed that Laura is the one who is always holding the fish, unhooking the fish, baiting the hooks or anything like that. It just was not my "thing" today. Thank You so much Laura, I really appreciate that!!!

And here is Isaac taking back one of the fish to release back into the pond! He warmed up the the little guy by the time it was time to leave.

And here is Jordan taking back the other fish to release into the pond.

Overall we caught 3 fish. Laura caught 2 and I caught 1. (If we hadn't run out of worms I am sure I would have caught more. If you ask me, she may have been putting 2 worms on her hooks!!! Just kidding Laura) It was really great weather and I think everyone had a really good time.

We are continuing to enjoy our spring break and will post more of our adventures soon.

Love Ya and God Bless, Tara G.