Tulip Time
The second week of May is a BIG week around here. My town is known for our Tulip festival which is held every year at this time. The city was founded by the Dutch, and, thus, the festival celebrates the heritage as well as the beauty of tulips. Other than the summer (this is a big summer getaway town bc of the beach and Lake Michigan) this is the time to come visit. I love living here. I realized that anew this weekend.
As it happened, our good friends Krista and Lyndon came to visit this weekend. We got to do lots of fun things, and also partake in the festivities going on around us. We showed them the beach (although it was freezing!) and we went downtown to see the tulips and walk the streets and of course, stop for ice cream. Saturday morning Jonathan made his pancakes for us all and that night we had a steak grill-out. It was a fun weekend!
Here are a few pictures of Landon. The one of the left was taken exactly a year ago at this time. He has changed considerably...in every way possible. I love my big boy so much...but seeing how tiny he was a year ago makes me miss him that size. Every mother says it...but they grow up too fast!
Landon is very into doing EVERYTHING himself lately. He has to wash his own face and hands, put his own clothes on, buckle his own carseat...everything is "I Do It!" It is kind of liberating for us, but at other times his independence causes everything to take too much time. The other day in a struggle with him, Jonathan said, "Landon, you are ..." and before he could even finish his sentence (which probably would have been...something else or a rascal or 
something like that) Landon says, "So Nice!" He is saying the darndest things right now and every day he has us cracking up over something new he is saying. What a fun kid!
My neighbor called this morning to tell me about her family drama. She has three sisters and between them and her mom there is always something interesting going on. When I first met her, I thought she had the perfect family. Isn't that how it goes though? On the outside families usually do look quite perfect, but I think that inside, every family has some form of dysfunction. Maybe that is a harsh word, but when your dealing with family you are dealing with people and I think due to our sin nature and inability to put others before ourselves, problems naturally arise. Some families have the big problems...divorce, abuse, etc...others just the ins and outs of socialization...but naturally problems do occasionally arise. I wish I could shield my kids from it...but alas, I know we are not perfect and will make some mistakes. To some degree though, I think our children learn from our mistakes and also gain strength through family struggles. I just pray that in the end, my kids think of home as a warm, welcoming place where they are safe and always loved.
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