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.

Happy Spring Break

Spring break starts today!!! Yes, that means all fun, all week!!! We woke up to snow on the ground this morning but we weren't going to let it get us down. So, Isaac, Sydney and I made cupcakes and when I say "cupcakes" I don't mean any regular cupcakes. I mean "Rainbow" cupcakes!!! Yikes, what does that exactly mean you may ask? Well, the only things extra you need for these cupcakes are 6 small bowls and lots of food coloring. And with Isaac and Sydney's help we were able to make a mess out of the kitchen. So, the following picture is a picture of the final product. (icing and all) They look kind of "Tie-dyed" but overall they turned out pretty cool. At least the kids had fun with them.

And a close-up of Sydney with a little residual icing on her lips!

And this is what they looked like inside. Ideally the colors of the rainbow, but there was a lot of purple in this one apparently.

And a picture of the kids with their cupcakes. Isaac was too busy eating his to even look up for a picture.

Jordan showing off the colors in hers.

We are very excited for a fun filled spring break. And hopefully the weather will be nice for us.

Love Ya and God Bless, Tara G.

Princess and the Frog

Today we went to a "Princess and the Frog" themed birthday party and I have to say that everyone had a really good time. There were tiaras and wands for the girls and frog hats for the boys. Overall it was a huge success. Here is a picture of Jordan sporting her wand, tiara and small stuffed frog!

And Sydney with her princess attire on also, along with her frog!

And here is Isaac with his frog hat and frog also. Surprisingly he really had a good time also. There were 3 other boys there so they all had a really good time.

And I managed to get a group shot of all three (2 princesses and one prince charming who turned into a frog!) (In this shot you can see Isaac's hat a little better.)

And last but not least, Isaac wanted to take a picture so I jumped in with the girls and he got this picture of us. Hey not too bad for a 3 year old! Way to go I-man!!!

We hope all of you had a great weekend.

Love Ya and God Bless, Tara G.

Happy St Patrick's Day!!!

It has been a while since I have posted so I figured I could start with St. Patrick's Day. We started the day off with green cupcakes. The kids were very excited to have cupcakes for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner!!! I can't really blame them, Patrick and I enjoyed them also.

So, the below picture is one of Sydney enjoying her "Breakfast of Champions!" And yes, this is what her hair looks like in the morning when she wakes up. And Isaac, who is very excited about breakfast also. Isaac liked the butter cream icing the best and didn't want to eat the cupcake.
And last but not least, Jordan with her cupcake. Jordan on the other hand, didn't like the butter cream icing so she only ate the cupcake part.

And here is a group shot! Craziness and all!!! (And yes, they are all in their pj's still in these pictures.)

We hope all of you had a great St. Patrick's Day.

Love Ya and God Bless, Tara G.

Snowman Charlie

This afternoon it was very nice outside so Patrick and the kids managed to make this guy. The kids named him "Charlie." Don't ask me where they got the name from but we just went along with it. They were very proud of their creation and so were Patrick and I. So I would like to take this time to introduce you to "Charlie." And here is a picture of Jordan and Isaac posing with him.
And yes, it looks like he has two fingers on one hand and just an arm on the other side! What can I say, "He's Perfect!!!" :) And I don't know what the kids are doing in this next picture but it looks like they may be doing some sort of dance or something! (They get their "sweet" moves from their father!) :)
So, as you can see the kids were super excited and had a lot of fun. Unfortunately, Sydney was napping during all of the snowman making but maybe she can jump in on the next one.
Love Ya and God Bless, Tara G.

Happy Valentine's Day

We hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day. Ours was a great one. It seems as though the Candy fairy has dropped off more candy than we need so the kids were very excited all day long. When the kids woke up this morning they were so excited to open valentine's cards and have a special treat waiting for them. It is so fun to see them getting bigger and enjoying special times like these. The following picture was one I caught this evening before they headed off to bed. (There was still a lot of sugar running through their system at this point in the evening!) Also, we made truffles in the shape of hearts. The kids helped so that made it even more messy! (I will have a whole post on that experience later!) Here are the red covered ones.And here are the white covered ones. I need to stop making these things or I am going to explode!
And last but not least we talked about love and I showed the kids how to make hearts with their hands. They were very excited about this and I even managed to grab a few pictures. Their sweet little hands........ priceless!!!!
Isaac's hands
And Jordan's hands

We hope all of you had a great Valentine's day.

Love Ya and God Bless, Tara G.

Bubble Packing

Last week Patrick's parents sent us some home-made tamales. Which we were very excited about. You see, here in Ohio, good Mexican food is hard to find. And I mean really hard to find. Unfortunately, it got lost somewhere in the mail and took a week to get here. So, what does that mean? That means throw them away or you and your entire family will get food poisoning! Total bummer, we were really looking forward to some fresh tamales! But it wasn't a total loss. Isaac and Sydney got the chance to be introduced to bubble rap. And they loved it!!!

Isaac trying to figure it out.Sydney trying to figure it out.

And here is a short video of them popping the packing wrap.

At least it wasn't a total loss! With lemons we made lemonade on this day.

Love Ya and God Bless, Tara G.