Summer Love

Summer is always a season with much anticipation and excitement.  Longer days, warm weather, outside adventures, fresh fruits and water fun.  We are enjoying less structure to our days and lots of time at home and with friends and family.  Here is a random collection of things we are loving about summer...

Hudson and I made a frozen ocean.  We froze several layers of water with blue food coloring, glitter and plastic ocean animals.  He used hot water with salt to free the animals.  It was a perfect activity on a hot day and kept him busy for quite some time.  

Greta enjoying the last bite of her s'more during a bon fire out at Nana and Papa's house with small group friends.  

Roy and I grabbed dinner at Chipotle while the kids were at my parents.  

Another outside activity involved baking soda, food coloring and vinegar.  Greta was especially excited about this one, watching the colors fizz.  

This documents yet another trip to Lowes.  This stop involved a bag of popcorn from Homegoods, which was our previous errand. 

I'm studying 1 Peter this summer with ladies from church.  We meet on Tuesday evenings.  

We enjoyed a patio picnic with Louise.  

Papa Ed joined us for our (what turned out to be VERY WET) patio picnic.  

Louise makes the best smoothies.  

G is for our Greta Girl. 

We are finally getting the garage organized (today marks the one year that we got possession of our house) and Roy's tool area set up and functioning.  Hudson enjoys using it too and it feels SO GOOD to have everything in its place.  

We love snuggles.  

We continue with our landscaping improvement project.  Slow but steady we are making progress.  We removed 8 bushes, we transplanted 8 plants and put 8 new plants in the ground.  We also trimmed  all the bushes we kept.  This will wrap up phase one of our project for this season.  

Trying to keep the kids busy while we work outside usually involves water.  

Another trip to Homemakers means another round of cookies for the kids.  

Hudson spent the day with his Papa Ed.  They checked out the corn and 

went to Pizza Hut for lunch.  

Enjoying the shade during a water break at the pool.  

Playdates with friends make for a sweet summer day.  

Playing at the park, enjoying time outdoors is good for the parents and kids.  

Pretty pretty princesses had a busy morning in the castle.  

Sports Camp

Last week Hudson attended Sports Camp.  A fellow homeschool mom friend coordinated it and invited Hudson to participate.  It was held Monday-Thursday mornings from 9:30-11:30am.  It rained on Tuesday so they rescheduled for Friday morning.  It was an awesome time and a great chance for the kids to get exercise, learn some new skills and practice teamwork.  A few of the sports/activities they played were soccer, baseball, basketball, Everybody's It Tag, Mission Impossible, Dead Ant Tag,   Nerf Battle, Ninja Biathlon, 7 Pin Knockdown, Mini Golf and Capture the Flag.  

Father's Day

We spent Father's Day celebrating with my three favorite dads.  Roy slept in until 7:00, which basically never happens.  Morning snuggles are a daily occurrence at our house and a favorite part of our day.  

We made waffles for breakfast, Roy's request.  

We had a few gifts for him.  Even though he tells me not to buy him anything, its a perfect excuse to get him a few things he needs.    

We headed out to Ed and Sue's for a Father's Day lunch.  We played a few games of UNO with GG Ells.  

My parents made a quick trip to see us and make a delivery so they joined us for dessert, which was strawberry pie.  Hudson loves his Bapa Rog and Papa Ed.   

So thankful to spend Father's Day with our dads.  

Roy and Sue were coordinating so it felt appropriate to take a picture of them.  

Roy requested a steak supper for Father's Day so that is what he got.  

Roy, you are loved.  You are a gift to our family.  We are thankful for the way you faithfully serve and love.  You consistently provide for our family and lead us with grace.  I thank God for you and celebrate you every single day.  

VBS 2018 :: Shipwrecked, Rescued By Jesus

The kids attended VBS at Westview Church June 10-14.  The theme was Shipwrecked, Rescued By Jesus.  It was Greta's first time participating in the preschool program and she soaked up all the fun and activity of the week.  They made crafts, ate snacks, watched Kid Vid stories, heard Bible stories and played games.    

VBS was 6:00-8:30pm so it created several late nights for Greta.  A few afternoons we took a 20 minute drive just for the purpose of getting her to fall asleep and catch some rest in order to make it through the evening.  

The themes of each day were...

Day 1 - When you're lonely...Jesus Rescues

Day 2 - When you worry...Jesus Rescues

Day 3 - When you struggle...Jesus Rescues

Day 4 - When you do wrong...Jesus Rescues

Day 5 - When you're powerless...Jesus Rescues 

The last night parents were invited to join for the last hour to watch the Closing Ceremony video and listen to the kids share/sing their favorite songs from the week.  

Doing big kid things in so much fun.  

Hudson was all smiles about me taking a video of him.  

Our Greta girl, dancing the night away.

Bapa & Mimi Camp

The first week of June the kids spent 5 full days at my parents house in NW Iowa.  It was wonderful timing because it was a transition week between being done with school and starting our summer.  The kids had tons of fun and made so many sweet memories.  I asked mom to send me pictures throughout the week and here is a handful of the ones I received.  So thankful for my amazing parents and the way they care for and love Hudson and Greta.  Spending time with them to invest in a relationship with them is the greatest gift they can give.    

Hudson and Greta each had a chance to do some farming with Bapa Rog.  

These two holding hands for a picture before a ride in the Ranger just melts my heart.     

They had a pizza picnic at the park.  How fun is that?    

A perfect opportunity to play and explore at a new park.  

Mimi and Greta had girls time and painted her nails.  

They went to a program at the library that had jugglers and unicycles and...  

 lots of things that spin.  

They had a movie night, complete with popcorn and smoothies (their favorite).  

Where else can you go for a morning swing in your pjs?  

Even though their pool is small, they had great fun dumping, filling and transporting the water.  

Thursday was game day.  

Uncle Ryan bought them donuts.  They read stories, colored pictures, made stepping stones as an art project and played pretend in the basement.  

On Saturday Mimi took them to the Launch Pad Children's Museum in Sioux City.  

Mom said Hudson was playing so hard he was sweating.  

How did our little farm girl get so big?

Playing ice cream shop with Mimi.  

Mimi spoiled them and played with them all week long.