Pirates of Penzance ~ it's really over.

Glory, asleep on a couch in the basement of the theater. Poor thing, she had a cut on her nose! :(

Fine Linen's spring production, The Pirates of Penzance is officially over. Everyone at our house already sorely misses the wonderful friends we have in this group! We're looking forward to the cast party when we can spend time together again!

"A pair of ducks, a pair of ducks, a most ingenious pair of ducks" (In this case, three pairs!)

Family portrait, minus 15 daughters. LtoR: Kate (Grace), Mabel (Elise), Major General (Kevin), Isabel (Me), and Edith (Jenna).

The Stanley Sisters!
I am so very blessed by the friendship of all these sweet, talented girls.

My Uncle Chris, the policeman.

It was great fun having him in the production this year! He was so thoughtful and gave each of "his" girls - Alyssa, Megan, Grace, Jenny, Sarah, and Me - two red roses after our final performance. :)

They are the Pirates Who Don't Do Anything!

The kids all did a super job, and were very fun to watch. (Plus, they were cute!)

I love this picture because it was taken at the end of our afternoon performance, and everyone was tired and ready to eat lunch. I think most people plastered smiles on their faces for the cast pictures (I know I did!). You can tell Meg and Tess are fading fast... :)

Growing to be More Like Christ

"You cannot despise becoming what you enjoy about God. Joy in the God who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for undeserving sinners cannot return evil for evil. That joy will love being merciful. 'He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.' (Micah 6:8). Joy in the God who is slow to anger cannot coexist with its own impatience. It will fight for the triumph of what it admires in God. Joy in the God who spends eternity showing 'the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us.' (Eph. 2:7) delights to be generous and looks for ways to give."
~from John Piper's Don't Waste Your Life

Baseball Games

After the zoo, we met up with the Hall family to watch Andy play baseball. It turned out that we didn't actually get to see him play, but it was still fun to be at the ballpark with friends.
Isaac Hall (age 5) took some really good pictures with my camera, and I thought I'd post them so you could see for yourself what a fine cameraman he is! :)


"... God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong." (1 Cor. 1:27)
"From the lips of children and infants You have ordained praise..." (Ps. 8:2)

He even caught one of his brother, Andy!

These pictures were from our zoo trip as well, but they are of me, which is why I didn't post them before. Becky and I skipped out on the aviary (neither one of us is too crazy about the birds) and wandered along a side path while waiting for the others in our group. We came across these strange stones set up along the walkway. They had incredibly weird quotes on them which didn't really add in a positive way to the whole "zoo experience". But since we were somewhat bored, we decided to have a little photo shoot!
On my previous zoo post, I got a comment from a certain girlfriend of mine requesting that I post these pictures for all the world to see our - or rather, my - craziness. :) I love you, Becky Girl.


It's okay to laugh at me... I was being funny. So was Becky, but for some reason we didn't get any pictures of her next to the random colored orbes. ;)

I just had to put one in black and white! You know me and the whole "old-fashioned" tendency.

St. Louis Zoo

Some friends piled into a fifteen passenger van and made a trip to the zoo one fine spring day. They had a nice time, enjoying the fresh air and each others' company. The handiwork of their Heavenly Father was displayed before their eyes at every turn. These friends are so very blessed to be brothers and sisters, living to glorify the Master Creator!

The penguin house was quite... smelly.

These two were so photogenic! Don't they make a cute couple? :)

The elephants were probably my favorite!

Here we have a Nathan, being funny. I laughed... so did other people walking by on the path.

Another elephant!

I am pleased to have gotten a picture of my dear Becky, even if it is with her back turned. She doesn't like having her picture taken very much, but I don't know why, because she is a beautiful young woman - inside and out.

Flowers in spring serve as a reminder of our God's faithfulness.

"The Lord will fulfill His purpose for me; your love, O Lord, endures forever - do not abandon the works of your hands." (Ps. 138:8)

An adventurous cameraman.

Hippos! They make me think of the VBS song... :)

Mark and Zeph sneak stealthily through the tangled forest.

Special Occasion

Daddy, Josh and I went to a parent/teen formal dinner with our Landmark friends a couple weeks ago. It was really nice, and we had fun taking pictures of everyone all dressed up.

This is Josh and some of the guys he goes to school with - LtoR: Josh, Chris, Ryan, and Zach. I "stole" the picture from a friend. :)

I have more pictures, but they're not in the computer yet, and I have a crazy (fun!) busy few days ahead. So it might be a little while before they get posted.

Sad, Funny, and True