Opinions on Aging

Andre received a new primary teacher this year.  He is a young man named Michael.  Michael is 19, athletic, handsome, funny, cool, half-black, and has a big head of hair.  It looks really good on him, but it sort of resembles the 'do of Crusty the Clown's pal Side-Show Bob.  Anyway...since Michael has begun teaching him, Andre has suddenly decided that he wants to grow out his hair again.  Its been awhile and I always thought he looked cute with twists and braids, so I said okay. 

Andre has been bugging me about it for awhile so finally I thought it was long enough to braid.  It wasn't, but I could do the elastic twists.  I posted a photo of his new look on Facebook:

One of the comments was from my sister, Kathy:

"Oh he looks so much older now--well he is older but maybe it is the great hairdo?!"

 

The funny thing is, I think he looks younger with his hair like this.  I took the following photos literally the day before styling his hair this way. So, I'll let you, my tender viewer, be the judge.

My Beach Baby

Due to some heavy construction traffic near Baton Rouge, our drive from Dallas to Fort Morgan, Alabama took about 14.5 hours instead of 11.  We arrived in the dark and couldn't see the addresses.  I was driving and pulled into an area of homes, hoping they might be the right ones.  I looked for our friends, the Morphis's van but could not see it.  So, I tried to turn around and promptly got our van completely stuck in super soft and deep sand.  Luckily a family vacationing in one of the homes had a truck and we HAD actually arrived in the right spot so Matt Morphis came to our rescue as well.  I hadn't been stuck in sand since back in high school when my silly guy friends would drive down on the beach, all cool and tough until they all would get stuck.  I was a bit humiliated.  Luckily it didn't take long to get us towed out and into our little beach house. 

It wasn't the most amazing house or anything but I was quite in awe with it all.  In my mind I had it figured that only the rich and famous could ever actually vacation on a lovely, quiet, softest sand beach in a house that led straight out to the ocean.  And yet, here we were.  And we weren't rich or famous, just very blessed.  Well...perhaps rich.  Isn't it all relative?  Considering that the weekend prior to our arrival in Fort Morgan, I had been in Port au Prince with scenes like these still very fresh on my mind"

I felt very...well...different...to then have views like these:

Kind of a surreal and blessed feeling that I could feel so happy and fulfilled having been able to be in two such beautiful yet disparate  places with people I love so much in such a short period of time.

Anyway...at the beach...Lila was not so sure about the ground which felt soft at first but tricked you as it gave way with every step.  She didn't like it the first day or two but quickly grew accustomed and enjoyed herself very much.  she was quite the angel, in fact.  Enjoy a few photos of this dreamy little one:

Finn is FOUR!

Good heavens.  It has been about seven weeks since I've journaled anything.  And that is sad because the past weeks have been full of so much worthy to be recorded!  I've been a pretty crummy blogger for quite some time now, but I rarely go this long.  Ah...well...here I am and I'll just make the best of it.

This kid.  He turned FOUR on March 15th.  We celebrated it a few days early because we were on vacation at a beach house in Alabama and had been telling him for months that he was so lucky because he got to celebrate his birthday at the beach.  Once we arrived at said beach (on Saturday night the 9th) there was no way he could bear to wait until the following Saturday.

I love his animated expressions.  His siblings and our friends helped to make it an extra special day.  Grace came up with all kinds of games and activities for him.  He received a Spiderman cake and mask, which made him very happy.

So...here are a few photos.  Not edited.  Not even cropped.  Just like I am back in the old days.  I love this boy!