Fabulous Friday

 The weather could not have been more nearly perfect than it was yesterday.

THGGM has been on vacation this week.  A perfect week for it.  In other years this would have been the week we spent in Traverse City.

Oh, well.  It's impossible to complain when one had as wonderful of a week as we did.

 THGGM even got to go to Jonge's school and watch him receive the "Integrity" award.

Anyway, back to Friday...

Pake spent the day in the backyard holding babies, kissing boo-boos, and making tents.

That tent is WONDERFUL, I might add.  I hope he will make one just for me.  I'm always amazed that no matter how old I get (and i am getting old) the feeling is the same every time I crawl into a tent.

This one was especially lovely, as when the sun shone in it had the effect of stained glass.

 My contribution to the day was the large container with $1.50 worth of pea gravel.

They ALL  enjoyed playing in it.  I set it up on a bench with access to all sides.

At one point in the day there were eight children in our backyard.  And there was enough room for everyone.  Jonge's friends from down the street came to play and brought one of their little sisters.  Kado was shy at first, and just looked at her out the window.  She must have looked harmless enough to him, as he soon joined her.  When I asked him if he wanted to bring his bucket of toys that he came with outside to share with her, he gave me the most astonished glare and announced, "No!  These are MY Toy Story Two (yes, toy store TWO) toys that I got for CHRISTMAS!"  They seemed to have fun playing Cowboys, Indians, and dinosaurs.

 Did I already post this picture of the happy Hertsje?  Maybe I did.  The same smiles were present when Pake put her in the tent with him and all the cousins.

She is SOOO happy to be in a crowd of people who love her!

And since we have established that there IS a record, this is for the record. My peonies haven't bloomed yet.

Zeke is also happiest when he is in a crowd.
He would like you to know that he is feeling fine again.
Well, it's actually ME who would like you to know that.  He's just happy to not be in such awful pain anymore.