These are the best days . . .

We have had beautiful weather here the past couple of days - 70s and sunny!  My house hardly needs to be picked up at night because we are outside almost every minute of the day.  I love it and so do the kids!  Here is what we've been busy with over the past couple of days:

 Bubbles.  The kids all love bubbles!

 Samuel likes to pop them with his butterfly net!

 Aliyah enjoys popping the bubbles too!

 That tongue is sticking out whenever Samuel is concentrating!

 Taking a break from playing in the pool to ride around the driveway.  I love watching them play together.  They are becoming the best of friends!

 Eating lunch outside at the picnic table that Grandpa Neil made.

 An ice cream sandwich treat before heading inside to get ready for bed!

 Hope decided to go fishing in the swimming pool. (The fishing pole has no line on it and the pool has no water in it . . . think she'll catch anything?!)

 These blocks are my garage sale find of the day!  Only 5 bucks for a tub full.  Samuel was building a castle to keep the lions out.

Taking a break from running around outside to play on Daddy's Kindle.  I couldn't find them anywhere until I heard some noise coming from behind Daddy's chair in the living room!

I realized today that these truly are some of the best days.  Even though the days are tiring and my kids are at such a busy stage, they are at a fun age and I truly love these days spent with them.  I know they won't last forever and I just want to soak everything up about the ages and stages they are all at right now.  I have to remind myself that even though I get frustrated by the temper tanrums, whiny voices, fighing over toys, and crying over the little things . . . this is life for us right now.  This is normal for the ages of my kids and I can't spend my days frustrated by that kind of stuff.  It's not worth it.  I need to deal with it, work through it with them, and show them love and patience throughout the day no matter what and not expect to have perfect kids or to get frustrated when my day isn't going the way that I want it too.  I want to keep this perspective so that I can soak up the fun parts of the days and deal with the not so fun parts and move on, thankful for every precious minute I get with my babies!!