Child Labor

Cute Kids

Last month I took some pics for a friend from high school.  She has a 40th birthday party for her husband (can my friend's husbands really be 40??  Man, I'm getting old.)  Anyway, I did a combo of shooting for her party and taking some snapshots of her kids.  Krista, your kids are SO cute, it was fun to spend the day with you.

This little guy was too cute for words

Sisters, they couldn't look more different!!

Sweet little thing had a fascination with the orange Crush from the party.  We could not get it off her face for the pics!!

Swim Lessons

This has been a very busy 2 weeks.  For the first time ever, I sighed up ALL my kids for swimming lessons.  The catch for me was that at this pool, I could do them all at the same time, in different levels.  It was money well spent.  Everyone had a great time and it seems that everyone has learned some new skills. On Monday, I bought a 1/2 price pool membership, so we have been staying after class to swim.  It's been a scorcher this week, today it's over 100 degrees.  This pregnant mama is feeling it and am SO thankful for our central air.  Fun summer days.

Greta cracked me up with her jumping in the water.  Almost everything she does is with a huge smile on her face.  I had to teach her over and over again to shut her mouth when she jumped.  You can see her concentrating hard to keep it shut.

Aaron loves to go underwater, not quite swimming on his own yet.  I'm hoping he'll catch on by the end of the summer.

Smiling Morgan

Claudia was just waiting in line for the slide when I had my camera out.

There's the smile, though the mouth is shut!!

Brave

I have had the kids in swim lessons, this is halfway through our second week.  I am SHOCKED at how much Aaron and Greta are learning.  I have never had my kids in water this many days in a row, so I guess that is the key.  Steve came with us on Friday and got a little video of Greta.  That was the first day she was putting her face in the water.  Today she was jumping in and going completely under.  What's funny about her jumping strategy is that she needs to jump up and down about 10 times before she actually goes under.  I think she may be my bravest in the water??  Can't remember, I know Claudia was quite brave as well.  Go, Greta, go!!

New Toy

I'm not sure who was more excited, the kids or Steve.  He got a new rocket and had to assemble it.  We had to wait for a missing part to come in the mail, get the engines...the blast was a long time coming!

The launcher...

Assistance needed (sorry for the rear shot, dear.)

My poor husband and kids.  BOTH of the rockets got lost in different corn fields.  We did a search for both, but no luck.  After the second, Morgan was so sad.  After spending a long time in the corn she said to me, "All I have is a bunch of scratches and a bunch of sorrow."  Lesson learned.  Do not shoot rockets in our yard while the corn is high!

No training wheels!

Free

We have a new addition on our house.  I haven't decided if I like the idea of it or not yet.  Let's just say there has been a lot of "joyful noise" going on.

Summer Evening

Last night was one of those nights that was just...perfect.  The weather was warm but the humidity has calmed a bit.  Steve and I sat outside for a long time just watching the kids play.  Insert: As I am sitting here typing about my perfect summer evening, I have broken up 2 fights and had to bandaid a boo-boo.  Back to a pretty normal morning.

Trying to balance...

Got it!

Greta has been very into riding Aaron's bike.  You can see her determination as she stretches to reach.

Morgan got herself a skateboard at a yard sale and it doing really well at riding.  Steve and I were both saying last night that when we were kids we could never ride one.  

A bit of a "true colors" picture

Poor Greta.  She has to resign herself to this trike when Aaron wants his bike.  You can tell the front tire is split and makes it awful hard to petal uphill.

Still practicing

I can't decide which shot of Aaron I think it cuter...

Produce

Even though we got a late start on our garden this year, it's been kind to us!!  We've been getting lots and lots of zucchini and cucumbers these past 2 weeks.  My kids are a little obsessed with zucchini bread and just the other day we tackled our first double batch.  Morgan was very excited to help shred.

I don't typically post recipes on here...but this one is SO easy and SO yummy, it's a must.

Cucumber Salad
3 cucumbers, peeled and sliced
1/2 red onion (I only use this when serving company, I'm not a fan)
1 t. celery seed
4 T. olive oil
3 T. white wine vinegar
1 t. dijon mustard
1 t. salt

See if you can keep from eating this all in one sitting.  YUM!!

Struck

One day last week I was laying on the couch reading.  The little 2 were sleeping and Morgan was playing in the basement with a couple of friends.  It suddenly started to downpour.  The girls came up and asked me if they could go play in the rain.  There had been no thunder and lightening.  Often in those storms I will let them go out.  For whatever reason, mostly b/c I didn't feel like dealing with the madness of 3 wet little girls, I said no.  I went back to reading, them to the basement.  Not even minutes later, I heard this sound so loud...literally like a bomb going off.  I seriously thought there was going to be a huge hole in the side of the house.  I timidly got off the couch and did an inspection, at least expecting the power to be off.  Nothing.  The storm was brief and afterwards I went outside to look.  There are a couple of trees just 10-15 feet from our garage.  Apparently, one of them got struck by lightening.  As you can see in the photo below, it was pretty obvious.  2 of the rungs of the ladder Steve had on the tree so the kids could climb had been blown off.  My heart was certainly in my throat upon seeing that.  Imagine if I had let those girls go outside.  I am grateful for God's protection that afternoon!!

Found out this weekend that during the same storm my neighbor/uncle lost his electric dog fence in the strike.  Powerful stuff.

Halfway

Can't get enough of her

This little girl has just been cracking me up the last few days.  It seems within the last week her vocabulary has exploded and she is now relating fully as a big kid.  Good and bad ways...I'll start with the bad.  Twice today, after me telling her to do something that she did not want to do, her response was, "You're not in charge of me."  Umm...yes I am.  Though it was a a bit unnerving to hear her say that, I have to admit that it was pretty funny coming out of her mouth.  I don't know where she heard it and I'm not sure that she knows what it means.  Ok...actually as I am thinking of it, I think she hears her brother saying that to his sisters.  And yes, he does know what it means!
On to the cute.  She awoke from her nap extra late today and we were all in the kitchen and as she came down the steps and before we could see her she exclaimed, "Hi!!!  It's Gweda!!"  Her new thing is to say "berry" instead of very and she uses it at least 15 times in a sentence.  "Mom, I am berry, berry, berry, berry, berry, berry.... tired."  Today at supper she told Steve, "I want berry much more milk."

Good-bye, Locust

Last weekend our church broke ground for the new building.  It is a very exciting time for us and for the church family.  Our property is amazingly beautiful and one of the favorite spots is the big locust tree that sits on top of the hill, right where the new building will be.  B/c of the building...the tree had to go.  Last Monday, the day after the groundbreaking, was a bittersweet time. We got to watch it being cut down.

One last picture with the tree

Counting the rings

In about 20 years, this picture will be a classic!!