County Fair

Today we had a super fun morning with some friends at the County Fair.  Growing up as a super involved and nerdy 4-H girl means I love the fair.  However my fair experience was always taking projects to the fair and getting them judged, wandering around the 4-H part of the fair, eating lots of fair food and never really thinking about the rides.

I've learned a lot of people actually go to the fair for the rides.  So today for the first time ever I attended a fair for the rides.  And they weren't for me to ride but for my kids.  This morning was preschool day and they were offering free entry and 5 free rides per child and then the rides were only 50 cents each after that.  So after all was said and done I spent $1 and the kids loved it.

I was a little worried the kids wouldn't really like them but Grace jumped right on and after Caleb watched Grace ride one ride he decided he'd try to.  They loved them.  Grace's favorite ride was the dragon roller coaster and I'm not sure I'd even be willing to ride it.  It was quite jerky.

After riding several rides we headed over to check out the livestock.  Caleb was pretty scared of the animals.  He also kept saying about the cows, "That kinda looks like a cow!"  Finally as we were heading out the kids got to meet the fair queen!

Swimming

One of the best things about this summer is we have done lots of swimming.  So much at the public pool that I'm kicking myself for not buying a season pass.  We've also been able to swim at a few different friends' private pools which is always fun.  And Grace took lessons in June for three weeks. They were only twice a week and she really didn't show a lot of progress in the 6 lessons.

Despite the lack of progress I do still like lessons because it gives her more exposure to the water and helps her practice following instructions from a person in authority.  Since she's not in preschool and we're planning on homeschooling I always find things like that beneficial.  She's currently taking lessons at the Y and seems to be enjoying them too.

Anyway outside of lessons she has finally gained the skill of being able to put her head underwater all by herself.  She has put her head under many times via being dunked (safely with me), thrown (safely and controlled) or jumping in but never on her own initiative.  So when she decided to do it this week I was so proud of her!

Caleb is also fun to swim with.  He loves loves loves jumping in and will stand on the side and jump to you for hours if you'd let him.  He also really likes slides.  There are two kid sized slides at the public pool he adores and one giant one that you can ride down on tubes.  He loves riding with Matt or me on that one.  I only have one picture of him swimming this summer with his friend E at E's pool.

Kingdom Rock Vacation Bible School

Immediately following my family reunion we drove back to town for the first night of our churches Vacation Bible School.  And it was AWESOME!  I think everyone loved it but because I was so intimately involved in the planning I took a lot of joy in seeing it go off without a hitch.  Last year was the first year we had a VBS and we learned a lot from it so this year was really fun to help plan.  We had almost 80 kids and 60+ people who volunteered in some way, shape or form.

I was more involved with the preschool program so I got to spend my time around 3-5 year olds which was so fun. It was amazing watching the kids play, interact, learn and worship God together.  It was also amazing watching the adults and kids get to know each other more.  

We were also blessed by a team of college students who travel around and help out with VBS programs and camps all summer.  They did the opening and closing each night and brought a ton of energy.  It also really helped us focus our volunteers and energy on shepherding the kids.  The team had three girls and two guys and the girls stayed at our house for seven nights.  I had so much fun hosting them and getting to know them.  And Grace and Caleb were enamored.

One of the volunteer roles at VBS was a photographer and Celina held that role and did a great job.  I'm so thankful for all the pictures that Celina took because I never would have had time to get out my camera (on my phone) and they would never have turned out as good as hers.  So, enjoy some of her pictures below.

Matt and Jason leading the preschool games

Love this picture of these 3 girls

Singing and Dancing

One of my favorite pictures of Grace

Celina said she just wanted to keep it real:)

H Family Activities

Wow, we have had a lot of stuff going on the last couple of weeks.  It's been great and I'm not complaining at all but it's been nice doing nothing but hanging with the kids, playing in the sprinkler, and getting some down time this afternoon while the kids nap/rest.

The week of the 4th of July my sister and nephew were able to come and visit for over a week.  We got to go to my parents 3 times to see them and get some quality baby holding in. Neil is getting cuter every time I see him.  Here's a fun picture my sister took...

Then at the end of their visit on July 7th we had a family reunion.  This year was my grandpa's family's turn to be in charge.  So Laura brought her photo booth (they still have events in Chicago so she didn't have to haul one from Texas), I lead one lame game, and my cousin led a couple of good games.  It was a pretty hot and steamy day but it was fun to see everyone.  I have a bunch of fun photo booth pictures I had to put on the blog too.

Grandpa and Caleb

We totally forgot to use props

Grandpa and Grace

I often don't know what to do so I just stick out my tongue

My grandpa and his 4 granddaughters

My Grandma and Grandpa

July 4th

Another thing we enjoyed this past week was celebration the 4th of July with Matt's family.  Since Rachel (Matt's sister) was born on the 4th of July it was also a fun family birthday party for her too.  And the weather was perfect!

We started the day by hitting the road right away in hopes of having our 2.5 hour drive to Matt's parents' done by 10 or 10:30.  Even with a bathroom break we made it before 10:30.  Once we got there the rest of the family arrived and we just enjoyed hanging out, eating outside and being together.    

Finally around 7:30 we gave the kids a bath and got on the road again by 8:30.  The kids zonked out right away and Matt and I enjoyed being able to see many fireworks shows from the road.  There was one point when we could see 3 or 4 shows at a time.  It's not the same as being under a show and hearing the noise but it was neat to watch while in the car.

I loved the pictures Rachel took of everyone in their patriotic clothes...

Sleepover

We have had a lot of fun things going on the past couple of weeks that I haven't had a chance to really even think about let alone blog about.  The first one I want to write about is Grace's sleepover with Charlotte and Anna.  Last summer Charlotte came and spent the night at our house and this year we invited Charlotte and Anna since Anna is 3 now.  I have a feeling that as the girls get older and since they will be living super close to us soon I won't be blogging about sleepovers because they will be very regular occurrences.

Anyway, Charlotte and Anna arrived around 5 for dinner with us.  We had the classic kid favorite pizza and even had some mixed veggies on the side.  The highlighted activity was a pillow fight after dinner.  Apparently Anna told her parents thats what you do at sleepovers so we had to do one (picture below). Then we played a few rounds of hide and go seek and put the kids to bed.  We were planning on taking the kids swimming in the morning so we decided to put them all in separate rooms so guarantee a better nights sleep.

Everyone slept great and then got up and had a yummy breakfast before meeting back up with C & A's parents and heading to their grandpa's house to swim.

The pillow fight

2nd Quarter Book List

I'm still feeling good about my reading pace.  Since I'm still hoping to read 50 books this year I'm happy that I'm halfway through.  I think I've been reading book 26 for over two weeks though and I finally finished today.  We've had a lot of other stuff going on and I'm always slower at non fiction.  Now I'm off to fold some laundry and try a sample of the young adult book Divergent by Veronica Roth on my Kindle.  From what I've heard though I will love it and will end up buying it.

I have rated my books on an astrick system that is as follows...
* - Not great and don't read it unless you're bored or it looks really really interesting to you personally and even then you might want to think twice.
** - Pretty good and if it looks interesting to you I would recommend it.  I don't think it would be a waste of time.  I generally enjoyed these books.
*** - Great book!  Definitely read it (if it looks interesting) and you will like it.
F is for fiction and NF is for non-fiction.

13. Moloka’i by Alan Brennert - (F)***

14. Carry on Warrior: Thoughts on Lie Unarmed by Glennon Doyle Melton - (NF)*

15.With or Without You by Carole Matthews - (F)*

16. Here and Now: Living in the Spirit by Henri J.M. Nouwen - (NF)***

17. Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise by Ruth Reichl - (NF)**

18. The Last Chinese Chef by Nicole Mones - (F)**

19. The Pastor’s Wife by Jennifer AlLee - (F)*

20. Persuasion by Jane Austen - (F)***

21. Unglued by Lysa TerKeurst - (NF)**

22. The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate - (F)***

23. Once Upon a Prince by Rachel Hauck - (F)**

24. Making Children Mind Without Losing Yours by Dr. Kevin Leman (audio book) - (NF)**

25. The 7 Experiment: Staging Your Own Mutiny Against Excess - (NF)**

26. Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain - (NF)***