children

Adventures // with ice cream and playgrounds

Children love ice cream….and playgrounds….and I love seeing them happy, so earlier this summer, my younger siblings and I all took advantage of a spare evening and went to a nearby ice cream shop!!  Being only about 8 country miles away was a big plus, too, for us country folk. 🙂 IMG_5441

By the way, the proper way to eat an ice cream cone is upside down….can’t you see how efficient that is? 😉

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Ohhh, those eyes……and that adorable little chocolate-smeared chin!!

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Ella and I shared a cone!  The literal, non-germophobe way….

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Or at least we tried.

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Peanut butter sundaes are the best, right, Joy??

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Beth is so pretty!!  And her character reflects her love for the Lord…so glad she’s my sister.

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Cara!!  That girl is growing up too fast…

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Wade’s just keepin’ to McIntosh Ice Cream Outing Traditions!

As soon as the ice cream was finished off, we headed a couple of miles down the road to a local school playground – one of our favorites.  The evening was so enjoyable!  We even made friends with a few other kids who were hanging out there, and watched their jaws drop as we told them that we were ALL siblings, not a day care. 🙂

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Staticky slide hair!

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Wade and Ella have fun!

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money can't buy ice cream, but...

Okaaaayyyy, not quite.  Here’s the truth, though!

“If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.  These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.”
John 15:10-11, NKJV

What did you do this summer that you especially enjoyed?  What do you wish you would have done?  I’d love to hear about it down below!

Out of the Mouth of Babes…

…some of the funniest things will come!  We have a house full of littles, so we are always laughing at the things that roll off their tongues.  Here are some of the recent ones!

“Mommy, are you babysitting?” -Wade (5 years old)

As many of you know, Wade has almost the whole collection of Thomas trains and some of the tracks, courtesy of Grandma, and loves them to death.  He and the twins can rattle off the name of any train in a split second.  Once Wade was expecting to receive yet another train in the mail from Grandma, and went around the house singing Polly Wolly Doodle All The Day, but with a little twist on the words: “I come from Louisiana for to see the trains from Grandma, singing Polly Wolly Doodle all the way!”

One April evening Susannah came up to me with a water gun and we had the following discussion:

Susannah: “Hannah, I’m going to KILL YOU!  BOOM!  YOU’RE DEAD!” (she literally shouted this in as firm of a voice as she could muster)

Me: “But I don’t really like being dead…”

Susannah: “Well, you HAVE to.”

Me: “Why?”

Susannah: “‘Cause you’re old.”

Me: “Oh yeah?  What tells you when a person old?”

Susannah: “My gun.”

Me: “Oh dear…”

haha – what has this place come to?

So we got into a mealtime discussion a couple of days later when just Dad and I were home with all the littles, and somehow we started on this thing about when I will get married.  Haha…those discussions are some of the funniest EVER!  Kate (7 years old) told us that “one thing sad about when Hannah moves out is that I won’t be able to get on her shoulders anymore.”  I assured her that she could still do that when she came over to visit!

Then Wade spoke up with his two cents:  “When she moves out and doesn’t have any kids, just a husband, she would have to clean her floor up herself…like sweeping or clean up the clothes on the floor…Hannah, you’re not big enough to get married.”  Somehow children always get to thinking that the only purpose they have in life is to do all their mother’s work…sooooo not true, though I do remember having that mindset myself!  🙂

Laughing on the inside, I asked him, “How big do you have to be to get married?”  He must have changed his mind mid-thought, because he told me, “Well, I know some people who are mommies and daddies when they’re 17!”  (I actually can’t think of any…but oh well.  At least I have his permission if I needed it. 😉 )

I overheard a conversation between Wade and one of the twins just the other day.  Wade was answering his sister’s question of what game he and Susannah were playing, saying “We’re taking turns accidentally falling off.”

What funny things have you heard children say recently?  I’m looking forward to hearing them! 🙂

Happy Easter // celebrating Jesus’ resurrection McIntosh style

Happy Resurrection Day to you all!  I hope you all had a wonderful day today as you celebrated the rising of our Savior!  We certainly enjoyed our family day today.  We went to a sunrise service at 7:00 this morning with some of our church family, and enjoyed a delicious breakfast afterwards with some awesome discussions and fellowship!  Though we unfortunately didn’t actually see the sun rise, we did enjoy the beautiful sky and the not-too-cold weather during our service.

During our regular service later this morning, the children performed a play of the Easter story.  They did a great job!  It was so fun to see the little ones like Susannah up there as well, walking around in the crowd scenes like they were supposed to!  We did get a video (albeit an iPhone video), so if y’all want to see, it, let me know, and I’ll post it.  🙂

Now, McIntosh tradition is to hunt for Easter baskets sometime on Easter Sunday, so Mom and Dad’s room was off-limits last night.  (I may or may not have trespassed to get Ella’s pajamas…) 🙂  Back in the old days, when I was little, we would always do the basket hunt as soon as we woke up or right after church, but somehow everything gets pushed later and later as kids get older!  Charles hid the baskets this year, and though several people found their baskets during the day, the search officially began immediately following supper.

But before I get into pictures of that, I want to encourage you to watch this short video about the cross from a medical perspective.  It’s very powerful, and I am awed at the depth of Jesus’ love, willing enough to go through all that just for wretches like me!

Here are my favorite shots.  Even Ella got a basket!  She was thrilled to see that she got animal crackers…

IMG_4978Mom usually uses food items that she got on sale to fill our baskets, whether it be crackers, m&m’s, Easter bunnies from last year’s discounts, or diet pop and fruit cups from the discount grocery store!  It’s tons of fun.  🙂IMG_4989IMG_4999So Charles always has an extremely hard time finding his own basket, since Dad takes pleasure in hiding his basket really good every year.  🙂  Charles loves the challenge, though, and he was determined to find it.  He brought up this bag (below) and was beginning to proclaim his victory when he realized that the bag was actually full of some of our lost tools!  😀  Oops… but maybe he should spend more time searching the house.  Who knows what we might find!  😉  (He did end up finding his basket in Grace’s van, for those of you concerned about his psychological and emotional well-being!)

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I was a little bit lazy this year at basket-hunting, but I did end up finding it (after a certain sister gave me several unauthorized clues)!  🙂

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What did you do to celebrate Easter?  Did you gain any new perspectives this year?  I certainly did!  It was definitely a blessing to hear and read things about Jesus’ resurrection that I’d never thought about before!

P.S. Verse-image credit (1 Peter 1:3) does not belong to me.