Our summer in a nutshell ~ 2014

Our summer flew by in a flurry of busyness, but we also managed to fit in some time to enjoy being with each other and our friends.  I am finding yet more obstacles to good blogging...as the kids get older, I am doing more participating with them in activities and less watching, which means fewer pictures.  I have also graduated to a smartphone now, so it's so much easier to just snap a picture and upload it to facebook in a few seconds.  I am trying to find a good balance!

Here are just a few highlights of our summer...

We finished school and the kids were promoted to fifth and seventh grades! (gulp)

We had a wonderful week at summer camp

Abigail was chosen to participate in the silly game show!

 We played at the lake

We led our church's Backyard Bible Club

We had an absolutely wonderful time together on our end-of-school-year family outing; this year we went to Six Flags.

We celebrated the end of summer break by enjoying a day with friends at a local aquatic center...

...and Abigail overcame a major fear to conquer a waterslide all by herself (and loved it)!

Ah, summer break...you were fleeting, but wonderful while you lasted!

Our week ~ end of March

Life has been (as I'm sure you can guess) trucking along at top-speed.

A few highlights from our week...

A freak snowstorm that lasted about ten or fifteen minutes,

and the sun was brightly shining the whole time!

We had our first "subject finished for the school year" celebration, complete with throwing away of used-up textbooks (spelling is done for this year)!

Today after church, we got to go hear the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra perform a special concert designed to educate kids about the instruments in an orchestra.  It was an excellent concert and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  The best part of all was that we won our four tickets in a local drawing, so we got to go for free!  Beyond providing for our needs, the Lord gives us good gifts of things that are not even needs but merely wishes...we are humbled and thankful!

Our week ~ July 8

The cats were very happy to have us home for another whole week instead of watching us repack suitcases and take off again. :)

I am thankful for creative kids, especially during times like these last couple of weeks, when we have continued to have lots of rain.  They've been crawling the walls a bit without their usual outdoor play every day, but it could be a lot worse!  This week David made a space shuttle.

 This is what he named it...

 ...and this is why!  The "compartment" down by his feet is for space-going cats to ride in, and Mindy is always very accommodating of his ideas.  I think she would be perfectly happy to go to the real moon in a real space shuttle as long as she got to be with her boy on the trip!

 The next day, Molly was grumpy because she wanted a box, but didn't want to be in a box with anyone else...so David made her a house.  She has taken naps in it all week.

 When Abigail needed something to entertain herself with, I went to the basement and dug out my favorite Barbie toy from my childhood -- an island hut.  We used fabric to make 'sand' and 'ocean' and she played very happily!

 Tuesday night, we had a long-awaited break from the rain, complete with a lovely rainbow.

 Wednesday we had hearing checks (both kids were essentially stable).  Since the weather was still nice, we rewarded ourselves with a visit to the splash park afterwards.

This week we also had a milestone moment...David was promoted out of the children's ministries at our church and into the youth group!  It was a weeping, wailing, sobbing, but-he's-still-my-baby and not big enough for youth group yet wonderful -- but always bittersweet -- moment! ;) (I really did behave myself, I promise...and we are thrilled to have him under the ministry of our dear friends, the Kichers!)

On Thursday, Bruce and I got to go on a date (we celebrated our 15th anniversary while we were at the Wilds last month!).  We went to the High Museum in downtown Atlanta to see an exhibit of 17th century Dutch "Golden Age" paintings (Rembrandt, Vermeer, etc) that are on loan to Atlanta from the Hague -- and especially to see a painting I love, Vermeer's "Girl With a Pearl Earring."  It was even more stunning and captivating in person, of course.  There was no photography allowed in the exhibit (and I forgot to take of picture of us together somewhere else in the museum...whoops), so this image is borrowed from the High's website.

Last for this post, but certainly not least, we enjoyed Skyping with Aria last night.  She and Abigail love to play this "cousin-speak" game -- Abigail pats the back of her hand against her mouth to make the "bwah bwah bwah" noise...

 ...and then Aria does it back to her!

Sometimes I rue the busyness of modern life...but on the other hand, I am very thankful for the technology that lets us "visit" with faraway family!

Our week ~ July 1

I feel rather like this was our first week of summer vacation!  Our traveling is over for the time being, so I spent most of the week doing the things that I usually do the first week of summer vacation -- cleaning up and cleaning OUT!  Corners that have collected clutter, piles of stuff that have magically appeared and grown...all of the places neglected during the frantically-busy school year have gotten cleaned out and scrubbed off!  The kids don't understand my glee over these projects; they usually hide upstairs and play so that they don't get roped into helping :), but Mindy is my ever-faithful and very enthusiastic assistant.

Sunday afternoon, we got a surprise visit from our pastor and pastor's wife from our church in New York (the pastor who officiated at our wedding ceremony).  We had a wonderful afternoon of fellowship and catching up on each other's lives.

On Monday, Abigail got her new leg brace (aka AFO -- ankle/foot orthotic).  She got to choose the design (lavender with butterflies), so she was very excited to get the finished product!  This brace is more 'invasive' than the last one in the sense that it covers much more of her foot in an attempt to help correct the deformities developing due to her CP.  She is doing a great job wearing it faithfully, though (the pretty design and snazzy new sneakers help with that), and we haven't had any issues with rubbing or bruising, and it has already started to make a difference in the appearance of her foot.

While we were waiting at the orthotics office, we snapped a picture of her beautiful pumpkin smile!  She lost her two front teeth a couple of weeks ago.

Then we got silly and succumbed to the giggles!

We managed to sneak in a 'just us girls' visit to the fabric store while we were out. :)

Our blueberry bushes are producing...happiness is fresh blueberries from the backyard to put on my cereal in the morning!

Our weather has been rainy, rainy, and even rainier, but we didn't let that dampen our celebration of Independence Day.  We just brought the bikes inside to the living room, turned up a John Philip Sousa album, and decorated away to our heart's content.

The Lord cleared the skies just long enough for us to have our own little bike parade...

...complete with puddle-splashing, a fun side benefit of all of this rain! :)...

...and enjoy some sparklers (and grill our Hofmann hot dogs for supper, too!).

We ended the week by getting a load of mulch.  With a lot of elbow grease from my two guys and the usual faithful service by our beloved old van, 100 bags of mulch are ready to beautify our yard.  Now if only the rain will stop long enough for us to work outside...! :)

Our week ~ April 8

This week was our first one this spring that was full of wonderfully warm weather...and we couldn't help but get outside and enjoy it!  We met friends at the playground after school on Monday...

...and more friends at another playground on Tuesday!

Abigail has been having a tough time with spring allergies, as she usually does.  Her allergic reactions got worse and worse until we decided it was time for some help.  Her allergist put her on a few days of steroids and that has done the trick in helping her body to get over the worst of it.

Abigail showing us how she was feeling while at the doctor's office...

...and David wanted a turn to make a crazy face since his sister got to!

This is why everyone's allergies have been so bad.  Look at the jump from almost no pollen in the air to a LOT.

My little girl is growing up so quickly.  She took off all by herself for her soccer field this week with a "Bye, Mom!" and a wave and that pretty 'new' ponytail swinging jauntily behind her.

We stopped at the library this week, which we haven't done in ages.  The kids were so thrilled to be back in the midst of that treasure trove of books...and we carted home 61 books between the three of us. :)  I LOVE that both of the kids got the reading gene!

Mindy likes it best when we stay home and she can be near us.

Yesterday I opened a kitchen cupboard to get a dish out and felt someone looking at me -- I looked up to see this cute little face staring down at me from amongst my canned tomatoes.

 It was a busy week but in lots of good ways!