Our Front Porch

Springtime at Christensen Manor

Family Magnets

These are Elizabeth's new favorite toys. I took individual pictures of family, glued them to cardstock, covered them with contact paper, then stuck a magnet on the back. She loves signing the names of Mom, Dad, Grandma, and Grandpa when she sees them, and she points to others for me to say their names. She especially loves to carry "Stephanie" around to show her toys and the flowers on the porch.

I've noticed these are especially effective because we were just in Phoenix visiting them all, so they're familiar faces.

Life,

with all its ups and downs,

twists, turns, and surprises,

excruciatingly boring plateaus, and

drops that throw you screaming at the top of your lungs,

will, in the end, most likely make you wish to say:

"Let's go on that ride again!"

Elizabeth loves the water

I heard somewhere that if your kids are grumpy, just add water and they'll snap back to life! For Elizabeth, that seems to be especially true!

Spring

Elizabeth loves her sunglasses. A gift from Aunt Stephanie.

If there's water, she'll find it and find a way to get it all over!

Climbing up the ladder at the park. She loves the slide!

Never say "Never"

Do you see that kite? We took it to the park on a day perfect for kite flying. The wind was so perfect that we tied the kite to a bench while we played on the playground and it floated merrily there the whole time.

When Adam went back to fly it again, he undid the string from the bench, but the playful wind jerked the kite string from his hands and he looked up, expecting to see the kite come crashing down. But just as the kite was starting to feel the slack, the end of the string caught on the end of a tree branch, wrapped around tightly, and pulled taut. The kite soared upwards once more, bobbing and fluttering with the wind!

There was never a happier end to a kite. We were at the park for a long time and it never once came down.

But it was the tree that sparked my imagination. I thought it looked delighted. And a story started forming in my mind.

This tree was a bit unique. It had always dreamed of flying a kite. It would see children out with them on windy days and yearn to try it too. Sometimes, to take a turn, it would stretch its branches into the wind until they creaked.But it never worked out. Each time, the whole thing would end tangled, snagged, and shredded, and the children would go home in tears.

The tree now understood that it was never meant to fly a kite.

One day a man brought his family to the park. They were flying a small kite high in the sky. The tree looked on longingly, but resigned to its fate and turned away, sad. It felt the breeze rushing through its bare limbs and the tickle across the newly forming leaf buds.

Then suddenly, the tree became aware of a new sensation. It was a slight tugging came from one of its outermost limbs. Looking to the source of the pull, the tree saw an orange handle, secured tightly to a twig by the string of a hovering kite! The wind had plucked it from the man's hands and had slipped it so neatly onto the branch, like a ring on a finger!

Well, there was never a tree more pleased in any park. It swayed in the wind and flew that kite for hours and hours. Children playing at the park looked up to see the impossible sight. Everyone knows that trees don't fly kites! But there it was, tickled as a tree could be, with a kite flying high from its branches.

At the end of the afternoon, as the sun was setting, the fibers of the frayed string finally let go. The kite was carried away in the breeze, slowly hovering lower to the ground until it was out of sight. The tree watched it go, sighing contentedly.

Everyone knows that trees don't fly kites. But today, that one did.