A great way to spend a Friday

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The weekend in pictures...

...mostly because I'm too tired (and sunburned) to write much.  I will say that we had a VERY fun weekend.

Our family performed music Friday and Saturday at the Plumb Nellie Days Festival in downtown Branson.

We also provided sound and lighting for all the main stage acts.

To add to all this fun, C and A finally got to play their first ball games of the season!

A trip to Bonniebrook

Today was girl's day out.  Adrienne, Grandma and I headed out to visit a place nearby that we've wanted to visit for a long time now.  It's called Bonniebrook and you can read about it here.  It's the home of Rose O'Neill, who is probably best known as the creator of the Kewpie dolls.  You can read about Rose here.  Now around this area most everyone is familiar with the name Rose O'Neill and her famous Kewpies. Bonniebrook is where Rose's family lived when they moved to Missouri and settled in the Ozark hills.  But today we learned that there was much more to Rose O'Neill than simply the chubby, smiling little cherubs she created. 

We learned that in the late 1800's, at the age of 19, Rose headed to New York City to seek work as an illustrator.  Quite a bold move at that time.  Because of her talent, she was able to sell her illustrations to magazines such as Life and Harpers and was eventually hired as the first female staff artist at Puck Magazine (although she signed her illustrations with only her last name so readers would not know the artist was a woman).  Not only a gifted artist, Rose was an author and a staunch advocate for women's rights, especially women's right to vote.

In 1909 she created the Kewpies and they soon became a phenomenon.  For several decades, Kewpies were everywhere.  These chubby little cherubs were extremely popular and their smiling faces helped sell a variety of products over the years.  The success of the Kewpies made Rose a very wealthy woman, however, we learned that she did not hoard the money she earned but spent it quite freely to help support family, friends and fellow artists.  So much so, that when she died in 1944 at the age of 69, she had very little money left to show for the huge amount she'd made over her lifetime.  But the value of her life, we learned, was not to be measured in dollars.  She was an artist, sculptor, writer, advocate of women's suffrage, businesswoman, and philosopher.  She lived a very rich and full life.

We topped off our girl's day out with lunch at Ruby Lena's Tea Room.  It was SO yummy and check out that meringue on the piece of pie we're about to dig into!

Tie dye, baby!

This week we've decided to do something fun and different each day.  (In other words, something extra fun and extra different.)  Monday's activity....tie dye, baby!  For starters, we headed over to Michaels to buy a tie-dye kit.  The kit we bought indicated that it would dye up to 20 shirts.  We didn't realize until we got it home and read the directions that we had to mix all the dye at one time.  So we had to tie-dye a bunch of stuff!  Well, since we'd only planned to dye one shirt apiece, we went hunting through our drawers and pulled out every white shirt we could find.  We were afraid we might have to tie-dye our underwear!

Here's what we did.

First we twisted up our shirts...

Then we put on our gloves...

Then we had some messy fun!

Here's what we ended up with.  Not too shabby!  We are definitely ready for summer (or Woodstock).

Candle making fun

Mom's thoughts

"I looked on child-rearing not only as a work of love and duty but as a profession that was fully as interesting and challenging as any honorable profession in the world and one that demanded the best that I could bring it."    Rose Kennedy

Thank you to my friend Jill for finding and sharing this wonderful quote.  Interesting that the definition of profession is a vocation or calling requiring specialized knowledge.  I think I always thought that I had no profession once I stopped teaching to stay home with my children.  I realize now that I just changed professions.

I love being a mother and I love being present in the lives of my children.  Seeing them grow and being a participant in that process is more satisfying than I can truly describe.  Although my inadequacies seem overwhelming at times, I know the responsibility I have been given as a mother is one that God gives me the strength and power to fulfill.

"My grace is enough - it's all you need. My strength is at its best in your weakness." 2 Corinthians 12:9

Here's something else I really liked.  Ann Voskamp writes...

Inside the frames, the bodies, the souls of our children, reside the children still to come.  And the children then still to come.

Like nestled dolls, future generations dwell within the child whose eyes I now look into, whose hands I now touch.

Every day, every parent parents thousands.  When I raise my voice, frustrated with a child, I speak to generations of children.  When I wipe away a tear, comfort, listen, I honor centuries of children.

Just a few of the thoughts rolling around in this head of mine on Mother's Day of 2010...

For all you dog lovers

This video just makes us laugh...