Lets be honest: if you are like me, within a given hour I float between two extremes – “isn’t it time for school to start back?” and then, “but I am sad school is starting back so soon and I will miss them so much”. Given the day, I may err towards one side more than the other (I am not telling you which 😉 ) . That being said, we are trying to soak up all the fun before school starts back. With some of our colleges having started back already and some of our team spent planning with our team, they have gotten to have some adventures with babysitters, but we have still had fun outings with just our family or with friends. The kids start back Thursday, including Blake this time as a preschooler at the girls’ school!
US Open – last year, we attended the US Open’s Arthur Ashe Kid’s Day. They had face painting, balloon animals, kid friendly concerts, tennis activities for the kids, hair braiding and coloring, agility events, and people got the opportunity to see the professional players practice. We had a great time, so this year, we decided to attend again. We had a great time again this year, but the icing on the cake of everything (at least per the adults) was getting the chance to see Serena Williams and Novak Djokovic practice. In fact, the kids sat and ate lunch while we watched Novak play another person in one of the new stadiums.
While we aren’t HUGE tennis fans (my husband is way more into football, especially these days 🙂 ), it is still a great opportunity to expose our kids to another sport and to see some of the best tennis greats of all time perform. What a blessing to be so close and get this chance.
While Ed had his first day at Queens College, I took ALL the kids to the Bronx Zoo (which is HUGE!). I was only brave enough because I was meeting some school friends and they promised to help. Believe it or not, it was a great day, the kids did fabulous, I didn’t lose anyone, and I conquered driving there and back – BIG feat! I didn’t take a lot of pictures because – well, keeping kids alive – but here are the two I did. Kinsley loves the red panda and because its her favorite, Brynn calls it “Kinsley’s bear”. Too cute.
Ed spoke about and prayed for the college students, professors, and faculty at our 3 church services last weekend.
One of the best parts about marriage (that I feel like no one told me!) was that you get to inherit your husband’s friends (and even more fun, their wives!). This past weekend, Scott and Lyndsay came to NYC to visit us (well, it was originally an extended work trip but when work was canceled, we had even longer to play). With 8 kids between us, it could have been a crazy, hot mess, but instead, it was actually really, really fun. The kids all played well together and enjoyed each other, and we had fun laughing about how we would work on arranged marriages between them (coincidentally, they have a boy 2 year old to match Brynn and a girl 4 year old to match Blake and an older boy to pair up with Kinsley 🙂 ). Even more than that, we enjoyed deep, soul-filling, challenging, encouraging conversation, and I think we loved it ten times more than our kids. Scott keeps this blog up and running, so huge props to him for that, too!
Another highlight of my week was getting to start discipleship and connect with this sweet, sweet friend. She’s always a bright spot and I am thankful for her friendship!
Meanwhile, while I was spending time with (hmmm…managing) the kids, Ed was at Queens College and lots of meetings getting things up and running. Here is a photo of them at a table at Queens College. We gave away an Amazon gift card, cups, candy, and made a donation to a non-profit local ministry when students filled out survey cards for us. We hope those connections develop into deep community and gospel conversations!
And then we invited them to a cookie social the following day – with lots of yummy treats and conversations!
St. John’s begins this week, as does school for our kiddos! Continue to pray for the adversity we are facing at St. Johns, as well as momentum to be developed, great spiritual convos to be had, and students to keep coming around at Queens College!