Nebraska winters tend to be gray and cold with intermittent spurts of unseasonable gorgeousness, so when we aren’t having pizza lunches with the grandparents (which we did last week), Vivian and I like to take the kids outside whenever this happens. We hit a February high in the 70s on Saturday, so we took Hannah and Aaron down to the “Brown Park” (AKA Dream Land Park) by Lake Manawa. We had some burgers for lunch and then Hannah and Aaron got to wear themselves out swinging, sliding and exploring the large wooden outdoor playground.
In other news, our fifth member of the family, Flappy the Cockatiel, seems to be under the weather. This is often a dire situation for a little bird, particularly one who’s nearly twenty-five years old like Flappy. He seems to be hanging in there, however, with lots of cuddling for his mommy and daddy. It did prompt us to get our first “full” family photo with him, however.
On Sunday, Twin Valley Church’s new Pastor gave his first official sermon as pastor at our church after a brief blessing for him and his family by the elders. Then we celebrated his first day downstairs with a potluck. I have to say that I really appreciate Pastor’s Ryan’s hands-on, proactive approach. He pushed for me to upgrade the church website to WordPress, and he was technologically-savvy enough to dive right in and start making edits as soon as I gave him an account.
That evening, our mutual friend Jessica invited us over to her place to play cards as Hannah and Aaron got some quality playtime. Jessica’s roommate brought along her three girls, who kept our kids occupied, as we all played Rummy along with Jon (and Aaron, when he felt like joining in). I have to remind myself how easy it is to get grown-up time when you have other little ones around to keep your own kids occupied.
The nice weather lasted at least one more day, which allowed us to have our first lunchtime visit to Stinson Park for the year. The kids had lunch, and then they both got to make hams of themselves performing on the large stage singing and dancing for the amusement of mom and me.
