Family coming and old Favorite Thing post

The Watkins are coming tomorrow!!!!! They're trip will be almost 2 weeks and they'll be in Oregon with Laura's family for a week and with us about that long too. We are going to be able to celebrate 3 of our kids birthday's together and Easter. We have celebrated Easter with them for the last 8 years!

In honor of their visit I remembered a post I wrote in December that I never had time to post. It is #7 in my list of Favorite Things. I won't post the whole thing here but I did want to showcase the awesome picture Lee drew and painted for us before we left. The picture does not do justice to amazing it is!

This picture was Lee's gift to our family. It is full of all the things special about our life here in Maplewood...the ECC, The Post, the train, Rocket Ship park, and even the arch way in the back.

This gift is priceless. We love it!

-----old post here-------
We love our Maplewood too. This is how a normal weekday could look like: Walk the kids to the end of our street, play "Crush the Castle" on the steps of the church while we wait for the bus. Drive 10 minutes to drop off Gray and Annabelle at preschool. Stop at any number of coffee shops or run errands at the plethora of stores that are all 10 minutes from my house. We are 10-15 minutes from every neighborhood. I love how central we are.

After school, kids ride bikes while I sit on front porch with the neighbors. When Brian gets home he might walk to the church parking lot at the end of the street, otherwise known as the "Skate Park." The kids love to ride fast in the big open area.

Or if it is Wednesday, we might walk (the kids ride their bikes) to Schlafly to visit the weekly Farmer's Market. The kids plan to get cookies and we get a beer and sit outside listening to live music.

Or, we might decide to eat in the backyard. I'll yell from my back porch to Kristie next door and see if her family wants to bring their dinner over. The Watkins will come out and the kids run crazy in our humongous back yard.

On the weekend, we might walk up to Foundation Grounds. The kids bring their backpacks with books and colors and we might actually get a few minutes of quiet reading in.
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Fun to look back and remember