Summer Vaca Part 2

 The second part of our vacation was a visit with some of our dearest friends.  We enjoyed visiting with friends in MI.  It was fun to see Jeff and Amber's new home..what a blessing for their family.  Such a special time!!  

Kids picnicking in the back yard 

 friends...so happy to be together again!

 time for dessert!

Love these girls so much!  

 The a few of the dads played a game of baseball with the kids.  I love the expressions on their faces in all of these pictures.  This is serious business here...

 I love, love, love this pictures of these sweet girls.  What a joy it has been to watch them grow.  They posed themselves like this and I just love how each one of their personalities shows in this pic!  

Summer Fun

Here are are a few of our summer adventures from July:  

One simple thing that we love about summertime is garage sales!  My kids have become bargain hunters just like their mom.  They have fun putting their dollars in a wallet and seeing how far they can make it stretch.  Hannah, esp has been learning some good lessons about not buying the first thing that she finds but saving and waiting.  

These pillow pets were such a fun find for these two.  Hannah found hers and would you believe...right across the street a little boy was selling his Thomas pillow pet too.  Mommy loves that they are mini because they take up less space. They have been snuggling with them ever since :)  

 Here's a toy that takes me right back to my childhood. Hannah loves her light bright.  It has been a wonderful quiet time activity for summer afternoons while Isaac was taking his nap.  It's pretty handy that her dad is so artistic.  He can draw her pretty much any pattern that she wants.  :)  

 Have I said how much we love the metro parks?  Here we are with "skimming nets" ready to go on a bug catching walk.  

 The kids got bug jars from the naturalist.  They had 3 different rounds of bug catching.  They would bring their finds back to him and he would tell them all about their bugs.  Fun morning!  

 We love, love, love the library.  As long as we were home, we were there at least once a week...but often several times in a week.  It is always so fun for me to come home and see how excited they are about the new books that they picked out.  A new favorite series lately has been The Berenstain Bears.  These book take me back to my childhood too...I can almost hear my parents reading some of the stories to me as I've been read them to the kids.  I also love that they help teach practical life lessons to the kids.  

 Pirate Day at the art museum.  They did an awesome job doing a pirate story and craft time for the kids.  The timing was perfect for my two.  They have been spending lots of time wearing bandannas on their heads and running around the house pretending to be pirates.  This day was perfect for them!  

 Painting their feet to make foot print parrots 

 so ticklish 

 3 little pirates 

 The Bubble lady at the library. 

 Summer festivals.  Hannah ran into a friend...they were so excited to ride some rides together!  

Isaac might have gotten out of a few naps this summer.  Here he is..enjoying some quiet time.  Can't believe how big my little boy is getting!  

Dancing to the music on the circle...yeah for summer evenings!  

We LOVE summer! 

A day with friends

My dear friend Teri and her family just moved to a new home and a new ministry.  She is one of those forever friends.  One that has been faithful through the years and over the miles.  We enjoyed getting to live just about 45 minutes from each other for the past two years.  Her move will be taking her a little bit further...but thankfully the drive is still do-able in a day!  Anyway, the kids and I spent a day with her and her kids helping to play and entertain while she packed.  Here's a taste of the fun we had. 

 

A rain puddle + bubbles = lots of entertainment.  :) 

It was fun to see their creative juices flow.  The kids turned one of the boxes into a "jack-in-the-box".  They played music from a toy jack in the box while one of them put this silly wig on and hid inside the box and then popped out.  It was so cute! 

This is the second pregnancy that Teri and I have been able to share together.  What fun to have a friend to share the journey with.  This was just a few weeks before Teri delivered her little girl...and I'm 24 weeks along with my little girl.  

Strawberry Pickin'

This was the second year of our strawberry picking tradition.  The kids loved picking and were totally in a picture mood this day.  They kept climbing up on the tractors and asking me to take their pictures.  I just love their smiles and the special times we have together.  

ready to pick!  

They both loved taste testing the strawberries too..isn't that one of the best parts?!  At one point during the morning, Isaac handed me his basket and said here...can you just hand me the ones that are good for eating?!  :)  

juicy, fresh, and delicious!  

We went with my friend, Nita and her cuties. All three of them have great smiles!!  

We took our strawberries home and made strawberry freezer jam, fruit salad, smoothies and strawberry pancakes.  What a delicious treat!  This is the freezer jam recipe we use.  It turned out yummy!  Next time, I would like to try this sugar free one....I didn't have any apple juice handy and wanted to make the jam when I had the chance..so maybe next time ;)