Good enough for the Fair

I really liked how these recycled art projects turned out.  I think the results are good enough to enter in open class at the fair!

Family Adventure

We enjoyed a whole-family, non-disaster adventure last month.  We've enjoyed having a zoo pass this year and have definitely gotten our money's worth but we decided to skip renewing it this year.  We haven't gone too many times but by the fourth trip of the year the excitement was not the same as when we only go once. So we won't take any winter zoo trips and we'll get a new pass next summer.  By then everyone will be really excited to go see the animals again!

Mental List

Thomas seems to be keeping a mental list of the pros of being a priest (I'm not sure if he has cons, if he does, he hasn't mentioned them).

#1 He can go to all the pancake feeds he wants.
#2 He won the 3rd grade scholarship for Christian behavior.
#3 He has never seen a priest at the swimming pool.
(This is my personal favorite.  Thomas likes to play in the shallow water at the pool but does not like actual swimming all that much- he gets that from me.)
#4 He won't have to decide who to marry.

Seems like a good list to me!

Happy 4th

We celebrated with family and had fun at the spray park.

Then we enjoyed dinner and evening fireworks with friends (well a couple of us did not enjoy the fireworks, too loud).

Some Little Boy Fun

Daddy, Julia and Samuel went to 4H and Thomas was at Grandma and Grandpa's so the little boys an I headed to the lake to practice Philip's new found bicycle riding skills. He rode down the cement path to the wheelchair accessible dock, which he was nervous about riding on because he thought his bike might sink the dock.  :)

He did a great job, he just needs to work on looking up instead of down at his feet and the wheels!

Then they threw in most of the pebbles on the dock and I didn't have to worry about them falling in since there's a good railing!

It was a good time.

Riding

After two years of me trying to teach Philip how to pedal a bike, last Wednesday Philip hops on and says, "Mom, look! I can ride my bike!"

Julia can ride a two wheeler if you give her a push.  Daddy brought home a Barbie bike he got from a co-worker so Julia has been more inspired to learn to push herself off and stop by using the breaks instead of jumping off.

Samuel hasn't ridden much this summer but he got his bike out too.

Nicholas likes the pedal tractor but he's much to little to make it go!

Thomas was enjoying his week with Grandma and Grandpa so he wasn't in on the riding this time.

Alex

Samuel's friend Alex passed away on Sunday.  We're offering many prayers for him, his family and friends. May his soul, and the soul of all the faithful departed, rest in peace.  Amen.