Father's Day

We decided to spend the weekend in. The kids and I were out long hours every day last week and Todd was very busy at work so by Friday afternoon, we were all done for the week. But, even though we didn't have much planned, we still had a great weekend! It was relaxing and we all needed that.

Sunday after church, we went out for (gluten-free) pizza at Uno's. Yum! Then we headed to Picerington for his activity of choice which was creeking! He'd heard about how much fun the kids had all week wading through creeks looking for critters and he wanted in on that fun ;)

 Unfortunately (or fortunately?), they didn't find anything ;) Then it started raining! We stayed dry under the trees for a while but it didn't look like it would be clearing up in the near future so we headed home vowing to try this again soon.

A rainy afternoon turned creeking into this:

 Puzzles and board games are just plain ol' fun! Between rains, we grilled out too ;)

Todd, I hope your day was as terrific :) Happy Father's Day!!

Our Daisy

Even though it was Cub Scout Camp, Megan still had the opportunity to do some fun stuff! And I'm so glad. Because, really, there's nothing worse than watching fun stuff going on all around you and NOT getting to do any of it!

My station wasn't open that first morning as the cubs needed to take care of some "first day" things , so I walked around snapping some pictures ;)

Making her name tag:

 Parachute play:

 And the really fun activity of the day....fishing!

 Little girls don't fish without also just playing ;)

I'm so glad I got these because they ended up being almost the only pictures of Megan I took all week! She did all kinds of things: creeking, slingshot, BB gun (and I have the target paper to prove that she's a pretty good shot for a little thing ;)), and tye-dying. She really had a great time, but I think it was probably just a warm-up for her because the week ahead is her Daisy Day Camp!! This girl is having a very busy summer so far!

Where We Spent Our Week

Cub Scout Day Camp!!! Camp Falling Rock is gorgeous!

After much discussion, we decided to make this a Family Affair by volunteering to help out. I ran a station (crafts. Don't laugh! I can do crafts if someone gives me the supplies and says, "do this". ;)) and Brandon was a floating scout helper. They even had a "sibling's circle" so Megan had fun stuff to do also.

It was a wonderful experience for all of us! Nicholas had such a good time hanging out with his cub scout friends and doing all sorts of "boy stuff": archery, BB gun practice, fishing, creeking, just to name a few.

 They all participated in painting their flag and when they went from station to station, the flag led the way.

He was a bit shy that first day. That's how he is sometimes. But he warmed up quickly and had a great time!

Cub scout camp rocks!!! More to come :)

SURPRISE!!!

I finally got around to doing it.....I planned a surprise party!! Actually, I didn't plan much. I had been thinking about how twenty is a pretty big birthday and how I would like to make a big deal about it for Kristen but we have so much going on in June that I couldn't really wrap my mind around it. Until a few days before her birthday when I roped Jon and Kristen's best friend, Betsy, into helping me plan a surprise! Being last minute, some of her friends and also some of our family, were busy (my cousin's daughter graduated high school this year and had planned her graduation party on the same day) BUT it was still fun! Kristen was absolutely thrilled and even said to me, "This was the best birthday ever!!"

Some pics from our evening:

 I captured the "surprise!" !

Kristen and Betsy were telling a story, talking at the same time, finishing each other's sentences....signs of a wonderful friendship :)

 Cracking me up....

 A few of our partiers:

 Lemon cake....of course ;)

 Kristen and Meemaw Diana:

 And again with Betsy:

 And Jon:

 I hardly saw these two the whole night. When they finally landed in the living room to briefly play, I snapped this:

And a few more partiers:

It was very much a fun night and one none of us will forget! Happy Birthday to our twenty year old!!!

Twenty

My water broke in the evening of the 10th. I labored all night with little progress so they gave me Pitosin. She was born at 11:08, 8 pounds, 15 ounces and 21" long. I had never been so happy to meet anyone in my life! She made me a mom.

Kristen turns twenty today. Twenty. I can't believe it's been that long! So much has happened in that time but still it doesn't feel like it's been twenty years.

I'm so proud of who she is: loving, smart, funny, happy, hard-working, caring, sometimes sassy ;) She is a godly young woman. She's the best big sister ever. She is, and always has been, a joy.

There is a song that will always remind me of her. I sang it to her all the time dancing around in the kitchen, trying to get her to fall asleep at night, settling her down in the car. It was "Her Song". Here is my favorite version:

Enjoy!

Yesterday, Kristen said goodbye to her teenage years. Todd took us all to California Pizza to celebrate (did you know they have a gluten-free menu and yummy GF pizzas??). Kristen, you are so very loved. I hope you enjoy every minute of your birthday!

Square Foot Gardening

Since we've lived here, we haven't had any luck with our garden. Either the critters eat all the plants or they just haven't done well in general leaving us very disappointed with our efforts. The last couple of years, I haven't even bothered trying.

But this year we decided to give it another go. I ran across a gardening book that I really like called All New Square Foot Gardening and finally this year, we're giving it a try!

One of the things I like about his ideas is less work ;) Another thing is planting anywhere you have space. With that in mind, I put some things on our deck in hopes of keeping the critters out! Hopefully it works!!

Here's one of our containers a couple of days after planting seeds:

 I couldn't believe how fast they spouted!

This is today (a couple of weeks of growth):

 Gorgeous!

Todd made this one for the yard. Hopefully the critters hate peppers and tomatoes ;)

 I'm so excited about having some fresh veggies at our fingertips!

I had told my mom about it and last Friday, the kids and I went over to help her get started:

 We made her three raised beds 4'x4' each.

 Megan is a little gardener ;)

 Yep that's me. Bet you didn't know I could handle power tools! Todd usually keeps me away from them though ;)

I'm loving the simplicity of this gardening! Hopefully, I'll be posting pictures of yummy veggies soon :)

Memorial Weekend

I'm just getting around to blogging this! I've been busy and lazy all at the same time these past couple of weeks. So much going on that my head is spinning and when I have "down-time" and can blog, I'm unmotivated. UGH The next couple of weeks don't really look any less crazy (this weekend and all next week is giving me fits!) so it's now or never so to speak :)

The Saturday of Memorial weekend was spent at Russ and Judy's. They had screened in their patio and invited us down for a little cookout so we could check it out (and also to gift us! More on that a bit later). We had a wonderful time! The food was yummy and the company, wonderful :)

 Isn't it fantastic??

 Megan loves Molly :)

 Of course, we had to play cards ;)

 Think Jon's peeking at Megan's cards?? I thought so too ;)

 There was sprinkler fun...

 And a wonderful cookout:

And there's our gift from Russ and Judy!! When they enclosed their patio they decided they no longer wanted two tables outside so we were the recipients of a patio set! It couldn't have come at a better time for us either as ours has officially bit the dust :) We had just taken one of the chairs apart to see if we could give it a face lift. I think we can, and we probably still will since just our family fills one table all by ourselves, but now there's no hurry! We love this set! Thank you Russ and Judy!!