A visit with friends

Recently Melody and I traveled to central Illinois to visit Kyle, Gretchen, and their sweet little girl, Alaina.

We spent the first afternoon and evening playing games and visiting.
The next day after Alaina had lunch (she makes great faces!)...

...Melody got to work. No, she's not searching the classifieds.

We wanted to picture how large the project would be. Now for some light sketching.

The first coat of paint on the mural for Alaina's room!

I always enjoy watching the process--from blank wall to beautiful picture!

The weather was lovely, and we thought a walk was in order.

"Do you think she'll notice if I try something?"

"Faith! What did you do?!!!"

"Oops. Sorry, Mel. I just painted one stroke..."
"What will I do with her?"

Watching the master at work.

The results of an afternoon's work.

Time to play!
We were amused by Alaina's attempts to walk with her pant legs hindering her efforts.
After supper, we started a fun game of Super Scrabble. It took us three hours!

We had a lot of fun, and it was a close game at the end, but Kyle emerged the victor!

The next morning, Gretchen and I picked out the fonts for the lettering, worked on the sizing, and then cut the letters out. The little miss was supposed to be napping, but she didn't get much of one.

So when she got up, she and Mel had some play time.

Her socks kept falling off, and Mel put one of them on her toys. Alaina thought it was hilarious.
I think she was a bit slap-happy from not getting much sleep.
We had a grand time laughing with her. Thought you might enjoy the video!

After lunch, Gretchen and I did our part.

Placing the letters and tracing around them took us a good portion of the afternoon.

Melody was happy to leave the math and measuring work to us. She would much rather be creative--decorating people was more interesting to her.

We brought a container of homemade cookie dough truffles with us, and by the third day, this was all that was left. Hard work requires sustenance!

This was our pose for the rest of the afternoon.

Melody worked and we watched. :)

Time to paint the Bible verse!
Our entertaining little companion.
I think she wanted the camera.

Deciding which paint to use for the flowers.

A butterfly!

All done!!!!

After a delicious supper, Kyle headed out to help butcher a deer. He offered to let us come along, but we told him the ice cream needed to be eaten.

Our creations were quite yummy!

I couldn't resist a few more Alaina pictures!

"Oops! Am I supposed to have this?"

I love the delight of a baby as she enjoys the simple things in life!

Many thanks to our gracious hosts! We had a wonderful time with you all!