The Cahill's

Back in April, a generous friend offered to watch our kids overnight so we could getaway and relax a bit before the baby comes. After tossing around ideas, we settled on some new territory to explore – San Marcos. We found the cutest little Air B&B and a few things to do, packed our bags, some games and a good book and headed out!

The first day we ate at a cute Italian restaurant and spent the afternoon strolling the river.

We found a fun swing and waded around a bit. We debated if we should try tubing but the weather was on the chilly side.

The B&B was cute and well stocked. We cooked a pizza and played some games then retired early.

Brian was up before 6 the next morning, eager to get a start on the day. The niftiest disc golf course was a mile down the road and rain was in the forecast so he wanted to get there before it started. We were the only ones on the course.

It was set up more like a putt putt for disc golf. Pictures of some of the more unusual holes:

This putt started on a platform and you had to land on a marked “island.” If you missed, you had to shoot standing on a boulder dubbed “the rock of shame.”

Odd?

Brian’s favorite hole – try to ricochet off the car hoods into the basket.

Basket at the top of the lighthouse.

Which way do you throw?

Last hole – the Alamo!

We played the course several times and quite enjoyed ourselves. Back at the B&B we did some stretching then fixed a delicious lunch before heading back towards home. A local museum on LBJ and some Mexican food for supper finished up our getaway.

In March, we were privileged to celebrate the 6th birthday of our Eden girl!

Since we were currently reading the American Girl books for “Molly” we had a party with our co-op group on that theme. The cake is like the one Molly had in the book.

We played some of the classic school yard games like Red Rover and Statues.

Molly also enjoyed roller skating, and in one book shared the fun with a friend by each using one while pretending to walk a dog  with a jump rope. We tried out roller skating which is harder than it looks! The weather was beautiful and we had a lot of fun.

About two weeks later we joyfully celebrated a new birth day for Eden as she was born again into the family of God!

Her earthly family gathered (including many of the cousins!) to witness her baptism.

She affirmed her desire to be a part of God’s family, confessing with her mouth the Lord Jesus whom she believed was raised from the dead.

Brian baptized her. (note: she wanted to wear the same dress that Ivy and Flora had been baptized in a year and two years previously)

Behold, a new sister in Christ! She has been interested in being a part of God’s family (as she puts it) since the time of Lance and Flora’s baptism but we had waited, unsure if it was a sincere desire or just an imitating of the older ones. She has mentioned it off and on throughout the last year but I’ve always just waited for her to push the issue. Our Bible study this year was on Revelation and as we went over the lesson on Jesus reaping the harvest she again expressed her desire to be part of God’s family. Brian happened to be working from home that day so the two of us were able to talk with her and walk with her through understanding exactly what that meant. What a neat moment. I am profoundly grateful for the opportunity that our Bible study has provided for a chance to daily disciple our children and discuss the things of God.

And of course, as with our other birthday celebrations, refreshments and games with cousins followed.

We baptized her Easter weekend – what a glorious way to celebrate the death and resurrection of Christ!

Our return to school from the Christmas holidays has gone fairly well. The first week in January, pre-school had a snow theme with the book, “Katy and the Big Snow.” The book is about a snow plow that clears the city roads after a big snowstorm. My sister came over most days to help so we were able to do a lot of fun projects.

They created a city map and had construction trucks push cotton balls around, clearing the “snow” from the roads.

Shaving cream snow was cleared away from the houses. Some toy cars were used but hands worked much better.

A tricycle and laundry basket made a decent snowplow to collect sock “snowballs” while practicing compass directions.

Measuring the snowfall from the story “first 6 inches, then 1 foot, then 2 feet, then 5 feet!”

Skye helps make a batch of play snow – never can have too much!

We also had fun with some snow themed food.

Snowflake pancakes for breakfast!

Hard boiled egg raisins and cheese sticks made a fun lunch.

Tried our hand at meringues – but they didn’t set well. Still made a gooey good dessert at supper.

An unexpected addition to our snow theme came a week or so later when the local ice skating rink had a free day!

Everyone started out on the cones…

…but it wasn’t long until they were out on their own! They enjoyed it so much we stayed the entire 3 hours!

Near the end, Riley, Brian and I played a little bumper hockey. Loads of fun but uses a lot of energy!

Our final wrap up was a snow family fun night. We used balled socks to play a variety of games.

Snowball toss. (Cousin Bruce – foreground – thinks this family is nuts!)

The best was during the snowball fight – Ivy stuffed a snow-sock ball down Daddy’s shirt in imitation of snow play and Daddy jumped around yelling “cold, cold, cold!!!” Which sent all the kids into hysterics.

We had some great bonding family time.