quite a weekend

We had a very fun weekend, so I thought I'd share some pictures. Pictures are always fun, especially when there are lots of cute kids.

Saturday we had our annual Grove City College pool party. Every year a group of us coordinate calendars to gather for a relaxed day of food, swimming, and catching up on each others' lives. This year the weather threatened to wreck some of the fun, but we had a dry stretch in the afternoon when most of the kids and half of the adults enjoyed the pool.

Sunday we had a combined birthday party for Joshua and Patience. They wanted to invite friends, so I agreed to a few local friends in addition to the grandparents and one aunt. We had a cooking party in honor of our family's obsession with food. I had a very stressful day getting ready for the party (on account of being gone partying all of Sat), but all the pain was totally worth it when I saw the kids making their own dinners.

Now we're trying to refocus because school starts first thing tomorrow morning for our kindergartner and our 2nd grader!

working hard

I've been trying to get some work done around here this week, so the kids have been creating their own work. There were some big fires, and here are the firefighters fully decked out in their winter boots on a very warm day.

Meanwhile Garty was knocking down the walls. (Maybe you can guess what Peter was doing in the third floor hallway last week.) And in case you're wondering, his pajama shirt is definitely on backwards. He dressed himself.

disturbing imaginations

While I was sorting laundry a few minutes ago, I heard Joshua and Patience playing. They were pretending their stuffed animals were a family of lions. The kid lions asked if they could go to the playground. The response was, "You are old enough to go to the playground by yourself. Just..." I was expecting some typical parental advice like "be careful" or "don't talk to strangers." Instead the end of the sentence was "eat anybody who is mean to you."

Sunday report

Peter's sermon went well today. The room didn't burst into chatter the moment the service ended like it usually does. I think everyone was feeling contemplative. However, sometimes it's good to talk about hard things so we handle them better when they come, which was exactly the point of the sermon. Thanks to any who prayed!

sermon

If you read this post in the near future, we'd appreciate your prayers for Peter as he preaches tomorrow. His sermon title is "When it's OK to not be OK." He's preaching from Job about dealing with loss and grief whether we're experiencing it or supporting others who are. I just finished reading the final version. It's really good, but it's not an easy sermon to preach or hear. Pray that God will use it to comfort or challenge people as needed. I'll let you know how it goes.

an 8 year old? say it isn't so

Joshua claims he turned 8 today, but we're not convinced that we're old enough to have an 8 year old. I tried to talk him into turning 4, but he wasn't interested in Mommy's crazy ideas. So despite our best efforts, we decided to go ahead and celebrate our boy. Here are a few pictures from the evening...

Joshua was very specific about his dinner requests: honey baked chicken, rice, green beans with nuts, and roasted eggplant and tomato salad.


His cake was the same request as last year. Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Cake.


We gave him a rocket that was assembled tonight and should take flight for the first time tomorrow.


We also enjoyed moving our soon-to-be butterflies to their new home. Gram and Grandpa Bobby stopped by earlier in the week with this very cool birthday gift. In 7-10 days we should have 5 painted lady butterflies!


Before bed we read Joshua's new book, A is for Africa. And the fun's not over yet. We still have a small joint birthday party for Joshua and Patience on August 30th where they'll both be spoiled with lots of fun and more cool gifts.

cousin love

One of my very favorite things is to watch our kids play with their cousins. Cousin love is a beautiful thing. Sadly, our only 2 local cousins moved away today. Now seeing any of the 6 (soon to be 7!) cousins will be a special occasion. We miss them when they're gone, but we're so thankful for the times when we're together.

water fight

Can someone offer these kids some tactical advice on waging a good water battle? You shouldn't need to study the video too long to figure out where they went wrong.

July

The summer is flying by. We're having lots of fun. There's just not enough energy left at the end of the day to tell you about it, so I thought I'd take some time today to share the fun with lots of pictures. Click on all the links to see a small portion of the tremendous collection of pictures we took in July. I even took time to add a few captions for you, which is pretty impressive for me these days.

We kicked things off with a fun 4th of July with friends and family. The next weekend I ran away for a wonderfully relaxing scrapbooking weekend on Long Beach Island thanks to my friend's parents who vacated their condo. The following weekend we all headed to Ocean City, NJ where Peter shared about Worldlink at CCO's Beach Project while the rest of us took advantage of a free trip to the shore. Our official vacation was 4 days in Baltimore and Leesburg enjoying the sights and visiting Arlan, Marcy, and Ari. Then with the little bit of energy we had left we went to Camden one evening to visit the Children's Garden, play in the fountains, and have a wonderful dinner with Gabes and Daria. When we weren't out of town, we were taking swimming lessons, visiting the library, going on picnics, meeting our new nephew, picking blueberries, and learning to do cartwheels (not the kids... Peter).

tonight's fun

From Peter...

Post dinner game of hide and seek:

1. Joshua counts upstairs while Patience and Garty run downstairs to hide. 2. Patience calls (not quietly) for Garty to come hide in the mud room. 3. Garty pounds across the bare floor and says (again, not quietly), "Where? In the back?" He proceeds to hide. 4. Joshua walks down the back stairs, immediately steps into the mudroom, and the round is over. How did he know?