Shopping for Cereal

For those of you who have followed my blog for a while, you are familiar with our good friends, the Hagens. (They are missionary friends of ours that live in the Bicol Region, near where we used to live.) Well the Hagens are home on furlough right now also and were passing through Central Arkansas on their way to an appointment in Mississippi. We had worked out a plan for them to spend the night with us at my parents cabin but we hadn't told any of the kids. We were going to let them be surprised! It just so "happened" that we were in Wal-Mart shopping for cereal at the very same time. Here's how it all played out....

Honestly, I expected yelling and screaming when they saw each other, but I think they were in total shock!! They hadn't seen each other since last November, so I guess "bumping" into each other in Wal-Mart WAS pretty shocking!!

Carly & Mikayla

Zach, Caleb & Ben

Thank you, Lord, for a few special hours to spend with special friends!!

This was also an early birthday celebration for Carly. One of her favorite recipes is for a dish called "Grapes & Cream". (It's really, really good!) Carly requested that instead of a birthday cake this year. Sorry, Carly, no candles in the grapes!!

A little over a year ago, the area around my parents' cabin was hit by a tornado. Thankfully, the house suffered little damage but the damage to all the trees was pretty unbelievable! They've done a lot of clean-up work, but this tree near the house still had a huge limb hanging that dad hadn't been able to pull down. Since Steve used to be in the tree trimming business, he decided to take care of business!!

Everyone watching Uncle Steve up in the tree

Carly & Mikayla fixed a vase of wild flowers

While he was up in the tree, Uncle Steve hung a rope swing!

Dad and his burn pile

Riding the 4-wheeler

Two of the cutest cowgirls ever!!

Testing out the new swing. Thanks, Uncle Steve!!

For dinner, we roasted hot dogs over the bonfire. And ended with Smores, of course!

How many marshmallows can Caleb stuff in his mouth at once??

Ben found a new friend! Bless his heart - the little critter flew a little too close to the fire and his wings were a bit melted.