Swim Team

All three kids did swim team this summer.  The girls swam in meets, but Sam just did practice!  He ate during the meets!  Sam can swim, however he doesn't have the confidence to actually swim very far.  When swim team was almost over for the summer he told me "Momma, don't tell my swim teacher I can swim--she doesn't know I can."  And that pretty much sums up his summer!

 Both girls did a great job and improved a lot from last summer. And had fun!

Blueberry Pickin'

Back in late June we went to Hope Fruit and Berry Farm to pick our blueberries for the year!  We spent a morning out there picking and eating blueberries.  I think we ate as much as we picked.  And I say "we picked" very loosely.  I didn't pick many at all--I was still new in my boot and it was hot with uneven ground--at least that's a good excuse!  Leigh and Sam didn't pick many either--and their excuses weren't nearly as good as mine!  However, Zeb and Sara Beth picked!  And they picked lots!

The owners of the farm happen to be good friends of ours!  So the kids had a blast when they weren't picking!  There was a big rain shower and the girls "shared" and umbrella while they were eating blueberries!  Leigh did try to eat some out of the bucket Zeb had already picked and she was quickly told to go pick her own!

I can't remember exactly how many we picked, but I'm pretty sure it was 20 pounds!  Yum

VBS

VBS is always one of my favorite weeks of the summer!  This year I was privileged to be the director.  It's taken me 2 months to recuperate enough to want write anything about it.  Just kidding--kind of!  The theme was "Lord of All Creation".  We walked through the days of creation Monday through Wednesday.  On Thursday we talked about the fall of mankind and then Friday we saw how Jesus was the answer to the fall!  We had over 400 kiddos and the Lord truly blessed the week!  Yes, doing this was tiring, but I am SOOO grateful I did!  It made me love our church even more!!!  I am blown away by the number of mothers and grandmothers who volunteered.  We had over 250 volunteers--both teens and adults.  I am very thankful for each and every person who helped during the week.  

Marshall man had fun playing with the giant globe in my office!

 We also had several guests during the week!  Eady came and spent the week with us!  What a treat for Sara Beth--it had been over a year since they had seen each other and they picked right up where they had left off!

 My sister and her kids also came for the week!  It was super fun to hang out with them, plus my sister and mom helped a ton by taking the kids everyday for lunch so I could clean up and get organized!

Jennifer came to get Eady on Friday and we were able to spend a quick (too quick) 24 hours with them!  Can you tell it was hot???

This was there "sad" face as they said "until next time"!

5

 Our littlest guy turned 5 about a month ago!  We had a fun day celebrating him!  This kid keeps us laughing!  He is so very funny!  He loves legos, ninja turtles, books, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and his sisters!  He thinks a good day is staying home and playing all day!  That's about all he ever wants to do.  

We started off with dough-nuts and presents...

and then headed off to the Children's Museum.  I didn't get any pictures of him there, but we ran into a friend of Leigh's from pre-school and kindergarten that moved away!

Then it was party time--at Pump-it-Up!  

This is my excited face--getting to hold my niece and my best friend's child at ONE TIME!

We finished off a great day at Fernando's!

We really had one of those rare, near perfect days.  And then we got home!  ha!  We were in Zeb's car and his door actually opens (unlike my van).  Sam opened the door and his carseat flipped out with him in it!  It resulted in a bruised cheek a bloody lip and mouth and a pretty bad scrap on his hand and knee! And that's reality!