For Fun on Friday

We've been playing a memory game at our snack times for the past few days...together, as we're munching and crunching on yummy apples or pistachios, we have been brainstorming happy memories (fun times and funny times, which are not always the same thing at the moment they are lived out, but after the fact bring a smile to all our faces...like the time Mommy was filming Paul swinging all by himself when he was 11 months old and he fell off.  It wasn't funny at the time, trust me, but the video is hilarious and enjoyed by all NOW that the tenderness of the fall is past).  I wholeheartedly recommend this memory game because remembering happiness promotes more happiness. 

This morning I downloaded oodles of pictures that have been accumulating since the first of the year so for a little more fun this Friday, I'll share a few...they capture some recent happy memories!

MJ refers to this wee pup as the "most wonderful doggie in the whole wide world" and tells him daily how much she loves him.  Bringing Sprocket home has been a huge blessing for all of us!  Sure he is a lot of work and he makes messes and needs training galore, but we're all pitching in and learning a lot and mixed in is so much laughter that it makes it all worthwhile. 

He is even incorporated into school...he's Paul's reading buddy!

Socialization?  We're for it!  Even for Sprocket...

he is having fun meeting all the people

that my homeschooled kids are undersocialized by :-)

The girls have been having fun baking...

This is a pan of pear/cinnamon rolls Bekah made.

The were SOOOOOOO delicious I had two!

Coloring is still fun, 

especially when your brother shares super-sized Cars pictures!

Painting -- love it!

Some of the best fun comes from being creative 

with what would otherwise be thrown away.  

We received a package this week

and Paul immediately wanted the box.  

He turned it into his "super alien flying boat" 

complete with his personalized control panel.  

Hours of fun, I kid you not!  

Thank the Lord for empty boxes :-)

Even Sprocket enjoys recyclables...we gave him an empty vitamin jar which he chased around for awhile, then chewed on even longer.  When we realized he figured out how to open the lid, we popped a couple of doggie treats inside, resealed it and gave it back to him.  It wasn't long before he got it open again.  We did that over and over until he demolished the bottle with teeth marks, but oh what fun he had (and us too, watching him and cheering him on) in the meantime.

This Friday, I hope you have some fun.  And take some time to play the memory game with your kids if you can...there is a wonderful pay off (more smiles, less complaints).  Kids can have the tendency to remember the times you said no, the things they didn't get to do that they wanted to do...whine, whine, whine...BUT, brainstorming happy times can help them focus on the good gifts of God to them and shape the story they tell themselves.  Just sayin'...