Fun With Little Friends

Yesterday (now almost a week ago Saturday...I'm behind on finishing this post!) Ian got to have two of his buddies, Daniel (5) and Anya (2), come play for a good part of the day. Mindy, their mom, and I went to TAMS together and have been friends ever since. Mindy was a HUGE help during my pregnancy and now that she is pregnant with their third, we were only too happy to give her some much deserved time to herself. Plus Ian loves hanging out with Daniel and Anya!

Our first activity of the day was going to feed the fish in the inlet by the Oasis Restaurant by the Joe Pool Lake in Grand Prairie. The fish there are huge (many look at least a foot and a half to two feet long!) and they love to be feed. They will swim all over each other trying to get any morsel of food offered and are a fun sight for kids (and adults!) to watch.

Ian had to the be in the stroller or he would have run off! Miss Anya decided she wanted to be in the stroller as well, so Daniel helped me push.

Ian thought Daniel pushing him was waaaaaaay more fun than Mommy!

Feeding the fishies!

Daniel and Anya did great feeding the fish. Ian just wanted to eat the bread!

As soon as Anya noticed this, she started feeding Ian too. One piece for the fish, one piece for Ian. Such a sweetheart!

I loved watching Anya feed Ian...it was so cute!

Watching the fish scramble for the bread.

And another piece for the fishie named Ian.

Daniel certainly is a brave boy! He had no problem running out on the wobbly piers all by himself and looking at the boats and the water!

We walked to the end of the long pier to watch people load and unload their boats.

Daniel found a piece of rope and did a bit of "fishing" himself.

A couple of guys on of the adjacent piers were getting their boat ready to go fishing. They were very nice and let Daniel help untie the boat as they were getting ready to cast off. They even waved bye to all the kiddos as the drove (they're in the boat on the right).

After a bit, Daniel decided to check his line and see if he caught anything.

Reeling it in.

Nope, no fishies yet!

As we were getting ready to leave, another family was coming up the pier. So we moved over to let them by (it was kind of a skinny pier). As we passed by, I turned and gave my typical friendly "Excuse us!" as we filed past them. Much to my surprise, I recognized them!! Janiece had been one of my seniors at TAMS - she lived right across the hall. She is an amazing person full of warmth and godliness and really had a wonderful positive influence on my life. I have been trying to find her contact information for eight years now, but none of the e-mail addresses I had for her worked and none of our mutual friends had her current contact information. So I was thrilled to see her, her hubby (Josh, also one of my seniors at TAMS), and their five beautiful kiddos! They are expecting their sixth and Janiece looks amazing! It was totally a God moment. Somehow He saw fit to put us on the same pier at the same time. Seriously, how random is that?? Such a nice reminder that He is in charge of every little detail of our lives! (And thanks Mindy - without your kiddos, we never would have ended up at the pier that day!)

Leaving Joe Pool Lake. Daniel was pushing Ian and Anya was pushing her own stroller.

Three adorable munchkins - they all fit in my backseat!

Back home, Anya and Ian shared (clean) pacifiers. Anya really is such a good little helper! Ian was teething that day and she made sure he had a paci to chew on.

Daniel wanted to write an e-mail to his Momma to tell her about the morning.

This five year old is one smart cookie! He sat very diligently for 30 minutes and wrote the following e-mail by himself:

I Went to the AirporT and I WenT to The pond and I Love you Momma im waching A dvd mommy and I Got A present mommy and I had Lunch.

Love daniel

Pretty impressive for a five year old, huh? He only needed help spelling "airport" and "present". Mindy homeschools and has done a great job with her kiddos!

Our little sweetheart looking out the window.

Hehe...I thought it was pretty creative how Anya found a way to relax. She pulled the riding car up next to the glider's ottoman and chilled out for a while.

After lunch, we went to the park. We played "Where is the Daniel monster?" for quite a while! Can you find him?

Look, there he is! (He was hiding behind the third (top) tier of the stairs.)

He was a pretty good runner too and Anya had a blast watching him.

Headed back home - little Miss Anya fell asleep. (Ian was taking a nap at home with Daddy, so Anya got to sit in his car seat.)

We had such a fun day! Thank you Daniel and Anya for coming to play with us! We can't wait until next time!