A Tale of Two Picnics

 Spring time is here in all it's beauty!  Praise God!

 After church this week, we had a picnic with a few families.  I wish I had brought out my camera before most of the people had left but these few will show the fun we had!

 Mikaela got a Corgi puppy named Tasha  

 Isn't she darling?

 Sweet girlies! 

Parents and boys talking in the shade (yes, it was quite warm for an April day!)

Heading to the playground.

 Little Leah

"Here Ben, you can have it!"

 Flowers!!!!!!

 Aren't they lovely?  I've never seen tulips like these before.  

 They look like peonies

 This is the "before" garden picture.  Yep...it needs a lot of work!  But I have to say, it already looks better than it does in the picture since Ben worked in it for a couple hours the other day.  One step at a time!  

 The Hostas are just poking up and reaching for the sun!

For the second picnic us kids took our dinner to a near by park to enjoy the fresh out-of-doors and each others company.  (Dad and Mom were on a dinner date at home!)

Corn dogs have been sounding so good for a while, so we simply looked up a recipe and made our own Baked Corn Dogs.  They would have been wonderful if our corn meal had been finer (we only had rough ground organic corn meal) and added a little more sugar to give them the "sweet" taste of the original Corn Dogs.

Cooking of the Corn Dogs.  Can you believe it?  I forgot to take a "done" picture!  Opps!  (They looked strange and lumpy anyway...you didn't miss anything!)

Heather compiling BLT sandwiches (minus the L.... another oops)

Jasmine iced tea with peppermint stevia and fresh lemon....talk about delicious!  Wow, my mouth is simply watering for this scrumptious goodness.  I really need a glass, right now!  





To be continued ..... 








......after I get my glass of tea.

Okay, I'm back!  In this picture Lydia is enjoying the green (and rather damp) grass.  It took a while to find a dry spot to throw out the picnic quilt.

The boys scarfed down their dinner and rushed to grab their fishin' poles and headed for the near-by pond.

Our new picnic basket, (thanks to Craig's List).

"We'll go finshin' at the Crawdad hole, Honey, Baby mine!"

Sarah decided to go frogging instead!  

She got one!!!!

Two!

Heather watching it all.  

It wouldn't have been a picnic if we hadn't got rained on!  So yes, it did sprinkle on us, but thankfully we had most of our things packed up and the few items that were out were quickly stowed away in the van and we took shelter under a tree to wait out the thunder storm.
  

What beauty God gave us to remind us of His promise to never cover the whole earth with a flood again.  It's a joy to know God is ever gracious and patient with us as we strive to bring glory and honor to His name.  


Psalms 84:1-2 
"How lovely is your dwelling place,
    O Lord of hosts!
My soul longs, yes, faints
    for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God."