VBS, Playdate, and Library Program

Last night was our first night of Vacation Bible School at Church. Usually we do a week long VBS, but this year we are doing something different. We are having a soccer camp/VBS on Wednesday nights for 5 weeks. Last night went really well. A lot of kids came and everyone had a good time. I was in the nursery with a couple of other adults and 9 kids. Besides learning about playing soccer, the kids also have singing, snacks, and watch a skit. I hope the next few weeks go really well.

This morning we went to our friend's house along with some other Moms from Church and their Children for a get together. It was nice. It was such a beautiful day outside, so we stayed out there. There were 7 Moms and 20 Children. The kids played on a swingset, hunted for bugs and frogs, kicked a soccer ball around and just had fun playing in the yard. Us Moms got to visit and catch up with eachother. We all go to Church together, but we don't always have a lot of time to just visit there. We ate lunch there before heading home.

This afternoon I took the kids to the reading program at the library. Today there was a lady there who talked all about bugs and insects. The kids all seemed really interested and enjoyed looking at the different bugs that she'd brought along. They decorated small size take out boxes as bugs. They also had a nice snack there and won prizes. Clara won a $5 gift card to Walmart and the other kids won some toys.

Now we are at home and just relaxing for a little while. We are going to go over to my Mom and Dad's house later for dinner. Allison, Ben, and Emily are outside playing in the pool right now. Clara is watching "Little House on the Prairie"; and I'm thinking about taking a little nap. :)

Sunday July 27, 2008

We went to Church this morning. It was a great service! Today we were learning about Love being an action verb. Pastor went over
1 Corinthians 13:7 - "It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."
It was a good sermon and one I needed to hear I think. It reminded me to be patient with those I love and to never give up on them.

We stayed for Sunday School too. It was so nice, because I hadn't been to our Sunday School class for a couple of months! I love going to Church! I love singing the worship songs, learning more about the Bible, and learning how to apply God's Word to my life. I am always happy at Church! We have so many wonderful friends there too that are like family to us. Tim and I love to visit with our friends there each week and we wish we had more time to do that.

After Church we went out to lunch and then shopping at Walmart. I had to buy some crayons and notebooks because they were just so cheap. I love new crayons! I just like to look at them. I buy them for myself sometimes and as soon as one of the kids finds them and uses them, they are ruined for me. I only like them when they are brand new. :) I remember as a child (and even still) my favorite episode of "Mr. Rogers" was one where they showed crayons being made in a factory from start to finish. I think I would love to work for crayola and make crayons. My favorite color is cerulean blue.

When we were done shopping, Tim took me to my sister Tricia's house. She and I went to see a movie. We watched the new Batman movie. I've seen all the other Batman movies and I think this one was the scariest, but we liked it. I would not take the kids to see it though.

Tricia brought me home after the movie. We stopped at our parent's house first and visited with our Mom for a while. I got home just a little bit ago and now Tim is out fishing with Allison.

I think Tim has the day off tomorrow. I hope maybe we can do something fun like go for a walk or to the park or swimming or something like that. I hope the weather will be nice.

Fun at the Playground

I took the kids to play at the school playground for a while today. Then we went out for icecream and later we went to the reading program at the library. Here are some pictures from the playground.

Emily and Ben swinging




Allison


Ben climbing


Monkey Allison hanging upside down


Monkey Clara on the monkey bars

Fun at the Playground Part 2

Emily, Allison, and Clara


Allison is trying to get the butterfly to climb onto her hand. I circled the monarch butterfly in case you can't see it. :)


Ben, Emily, and Clara


Pretty Emily



"All Aboard!" Clara, Ben, and Allison

A Good Wednesday

I had a really nice day today! I slept in until around 9:30am. I did a load of laundry and hung it up outside on the new clothesline. :) It's nice to get out first thing in the morning and smell the fresh air. The sun was shining all day today and the warm breeze was blowing.

Around noon, I took the kids over to my Mom's house and she watched them so I could go out to lunch with my friend, Mary. We went to the coffee shop in town and had a really nice visit for about an hour. We go to Church together and teach there together, but we never really get to just chat. It was really nice to get to know eachother a little better.

When I got home, I picked the kids up from my Mom's house and then we went and picked up Allison's best friend, Olivia. We came back home for a while and the kids played outside in the wading pool for a while. I fixed a nice dinner of chicken, green beans, and macaroni and cheese. After dinner, Clara left with my Mom to go to Vacation Bible School at my Mom and Dad's Church. Tim got home from work just a little bit after 6pm and then I took Allison and Olivia to Youth Group at our Church. After I dropped them off there, I went to visit my sister, Tricia for a little while. We played tennis and bowling on her Wii game and got to visit a little bit. I had to leave a little before 8pm to pick the girls up from Church. Then Allison, Olivia, and I went shopping to get a few things we needed and some snacks. :) We rented a movie and the kids are all watching that now.

Tomorrow we'll be going to the reading program at the library. I'm not sure what the activity is for tomorrow, but I'm sure we'll have a nice time there. Tomorrow night we'll be going to the VBS program at my Mom's Church. They are having a little carnival I guess for their final night. Clara's excited about it.

Oh, and thinking of Clara... we did have a little bad news today. This morning when Clara went to feed her hamster, Snowball, she discovered that she was dead. :( Poor Clara is so sensitive and she was really upset about it. I felt so bad for her. We fixed the hamster up really nice though on a pink washcloth in a check box. We dug a hole under the new back porch and buried her there. I made a little popsicle stick cross that reads "Snowball, beloved hamster and friend" and Clara put some flowers on top of the grave. Clara got the hamster sometime in December or January. I'm surprised that it died so soon, but I guess it happens. I don't think we'll get another one for Clara. Allison still has her hamster and Allison told Clara that she could have one of the new bunnies for her own. Clara was happy about that.

Well, that was my Wednesday. For the most part it was a very nice day! I hope tomorrow will be a great day too. :)

A Few New Things

Tim (with some help from my Dad) just built us a nice little back porch. The one we had before had fallen down. This one is a little bit bigger. I think we will get a lot of use out of it. He isn't all the way finished with it yet. He's going to put some steps on it and maybe some railing. Maybe eventually he will build it out a little more from the house too.







Tim also just put up a clothesline for me. I've been wanting one for a long time. I think it will save us a lot of money in the summer, not having to use our gas clothes dryer. Also, the laundry smells extra fresh after hanging outside. :)






The kids and I were so hot yesterday that we all jumped in the pool :) Wading pool that is! Well, at least we got cooled off. :)

Friday July 18, 2008

Summer break is about half way over now. We have been enjoying it though. It seems like we've been pretty busy most of the time. We go to the library often. All of the kids like to play on the computers there. Even Ben and Emily can play games there. Ben most likes a game called "Chicken Hunter" where he gets to shoot chickens. Emily likes a matching game best. We check out books of course too. Allison just finished reading all of the Lemony Snicket books. There are 13 of them! Clara has been enjoying Shel Silverstein. Ben likes to find books about cars or superheroes. Emily likes to get books about princesses. :) Usually I check books out too, but right now I have too many books of my own that I haven't read yet. I've been getting up early to read my Bible every morning. I love that quiet time for just me and God. I read the Bible from front to back and I'm in 2nd Chronicles right now.

The kids have been playing in their slip and slide a lot lately. It's been really hot outside! I bought a really small wading pool the other day and the kids had fun cooling off in that yesterday. I would like to buy a big pool that we could all play in, but besides not having the money for it, Tim doesn't like all the maintenance of a pool.

The past couple of days have been rainy, but it's still been pretty warm. I took a walk with the kids the other day and by the time we got home, poor little Benny's face was so red! I try to keep an eye on the kids and make sure they drink enough water in the summer so they won't get dehydrated.

Ben has to go to the dentist today to get a cavity filled. We may go to the Farmer's Market while we're in town too. I've really been wanting some fresh tomatoes! Maybe we will go to the park or something today too. It will depend some on the weather as it's raining again right now. :) The rain is good though! It makes the flowers and those yummy tomatoes grow! :)

Last night we went over to my Mom and Dad's house for a while to visit with them and my sister Tricia and her husband, Bum. (His name is Brandon, but he's been called "Bum" since he was little and we are just used to calling him that.) Trish and Bum just bought a Wii game and they brought it over to show us. I didn't actually get to play any games on it, but I did create a little character and that was fun. I watched Mom, Dad, Trish, and Bum play a bowling game and some of them played a tennis game.

Well, I guess I will close for now. It's 9:40am already and all of the kids are still sleeping! :) I love my morning quiet time! :) I hope we all have a great day!

A Beautiful End To a Storm

We had a good little storm here today. For a while we were getting rain and small hail. Tim said he saw clouds blowing in all different directions. Allison and I took these pictures after the storm.

Fluffy White Things

Here's a picture of one of our new bunnies. Allison's rabbit, Jasmine just had them a few weeks ago.

This is a flower I took a picture of when we went for a walk the other day. It's not a dandelion, but some type of milk weed I think.

I just thought this cloud looked really cool. It reminds me of an angel.

Fishing with Daddy

Tim took Allison and Ben fishing the other night. Here is what they caught:

Here's Ben catching a bass.



Here's the bass that Allison caught.


Tim hooked this one, but Ben reeled it in!


Daddy and Ben are proud of their catch.



Tim caught this snapping turtle. Yikes!


They didn't keep any of the fish or the turtle, but they had fun catching them.

SPIDERS!!

We've been watching this spider (the one on the left) for over a week now. Tonight there was another spider with it. This new one is black and green and it's body is smaller than the other one. I'm not sure if they were fighting or mating, but in the end, the second spider is now nowhere to be found.

NATURE

Here are just some pictures I've taken recently.

This is a butterfly in my Mom's sweet pea tree.

This is a spider that lives in our back doorway. Everynight it comes down and builds a web. I really don't like spiders, but I have enjoyed watching this one as long as it stays on the other side of the door. :) I think it's some sort of orb weaver spider, but I'm not for sure.

Here is a Bald Eagle that we saw this past Monday. It was standing on the side of the road, but when I pulled over to take a picture it flew up into the tree. It's a pretty good picture, but I wish I could have gotten the front of him.

Lake Michigan

On the last full day that Shannon and the kids were here, I took them to Lake Michigan. My mother-in-law babysat Hunter for us, so the rest of us could fit into one vehicle. We had a nice time at the lake. The kids played on the playground and we all walked along the beach and waded into the water. After that we went out for ice cream!

4th of July

Over the 4th of July weekend, our little town puts on a pretty nice festival! We went to the parade on Saturday morning. Then we walked downtown to see what the vendors were selling. We had sno-cones and cotton candy. The kids played little carnival games that the Baptist Church put on. They won lots of little prizes and had a good time playing.

Tea Party at Grandma's House

One day while Shannon and the kids were visiting, my Mom invited the kids over for a tea party. Allison and Clara had spent the night at her house the night before, so they helped Grandma prepare the party. They dressed up and helped make the food and set the pretty table.