fall fest & birthdays

Andrew has turned 4! He had one exciting day for his birthday. It started with the young peoples invading our house in the "amazing race." After a game of caber toss the next clue said to run to my parents house for another clue. That clue, to their utter dismay, said to run back to our house. By this time they were thoroughly exhausted just in time to play some volley ball.

Our boys loved all of this action & hid in the field between the two homes in their camouflaged clothes, chasing after the young people with their sticks. The young people were taking the amazing race very seriously & were not in the mood to be chased by sticks:)

This team started out in first place but volley ball was not their forte. They had to keep on playing until they beat another team. Unfortunately that didn't happen but they were good sports.

In the afternoon Adam's family came over for Fall Fest to celebrate all of the fall birthdays.
The guys tried their hardest at caber toss. Caber toss isn't about how far you can throw but if you can get this great, big, gigantic log to turn over.

Next game up - stomping of the balloons. We tied a balloon to everyone's feet and the goal was to be the last one with a balloon unpopped.

Pumpkin bowling!

Here we paired off into teams and somehow you had to get to the finish line by standing only on one tea towel. Each team had two towels and it took a bit of coordination but the kids loved this challenge.

Then came Nate's 8th birthday. Nate picked waffles, pancakes, & quiche for supper. Fine by me!

When I was pregnant with Nate I read a book called "Jungle Pilot."  This book was a true story about the life of Nate Saint, a missionary pilot in the jungles of Ecuador. He ministered with four other missionaries (including Jim Elliot) to the Auca Indians, a tribe that was violent and ruthless. This book was incredible and the more I read about Nate Saint's character; his life of integrity and conviction, the more I loved the name Nate. Adam read the book too and he was also greatly impressed. That solved our name problem. We were so thankful when we became parents and we now had our own "little Nate."
I managed to buy the book  "Jungle Pilot" and have Stephen Saint, Nate's son, sign the book for our Nate.
It says "To Nate. You have a name dear to me and you have a great heritage along with it."- Stephan Saint
Phil Saint, Stephen's younger brother also signed it with Romans 12 underneath it.
We are so thankful for our sons and we pray that they too will want to serve the Lord wherever they are called with their whole heart.

(The movie "End of the Spear" is about the life of Nate Saint, but the book really gives his true character and life).