Movin' on up!

This post is mostly about Emmet. He's been in First Steps Sunday School for two years now and it's time to move up to the next department (pre-K to 2nd grade). There was a graduation for him and the other kids on Sunday. Emmet was once again trying to set a fashion statement by wearing shorts and cowboy boots. Gotta love him!
Pictures can't quite capture his singing and actions. But he was doing it pretty good to the song "Father Abraham."

And then they sang "If you're happy and you know it" and the last verse is to shout AMEN. And Emmet was definitely shouting it! We all got a smile from watching him sing his songs enthusiastically.

Emmet getting his certificate . . .

And his Beginner's Bible.

And then the older kids sang a song, too. Ephraim's on the far left.

A great big THANK YOU to both boys' teachers for teaching them important Bible stories all year! Your hard work and dedication is worth it!

Happy Father's Day

And here are our pictures from last Sunday, Father's Day! We gave Seth our presents on Saturday night. And the boys made him a few crafts in Sunday School.



Mmm! Peanut M&M's.

Twizzlers. Notice how happy Ephraim is.

The movie "A Bug's Life."

Happy Father's Day to Great-Grandpa Elmer.

Happy Father's Day to Grandpa Harold!

Playing firsbee with Grandpa Harold & Daddy.

We have a fun father, 2 splendid grandfathers and 2 treasured great-grandfathers to spend our time with. Happy Father's Day! We love you!

God is my H-E-R-O!

Bible School was almost 2 weeks ago and I'm just now posting pictures. This was our first year to attend VBS at our church and it was the first time for me to teach. I taught 8-10 Pre-K kids! I think I'll be allowed back to teach again despite the whole fingerpaint incident that ended up with painted shoeprints on the carpet.
Here are some photos of my boys taking part in Hero Headquarters.
Ephraim is on the left, helping to unscramble the word that would be a clue to the day's theme: Hero's Take Action.

Emmet (in the middle with the blue shorts) got to participate on another morning: Hero's Step out on Faith.

Craft time with their classes.

We had their VBS program on Friday at 11:30. Here they are singing the theme song. Emmet's in the front row, 5th from the left in the white shirt. Eprhaim's on the far left a few rows back.

The boys did a great job learning their memory verse and can still recite it two weeks later. "Do not let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity." 1 Timothy 4:12

The girls went to nursery all 5 days and talked about it all night at home. Eden would say "I go nurshee." Nursery is kind of a hard word for a 2 year old.

Cherries & Slip-N-Slide

It's time to pick cherries . . . and of course, when we wanted to pick them, it started raining on us. But we continued to pick since we wouldn't be long. The sun came out as we were finished and driving away. We picked 4 gallons of cherries. This is my first year of doing them, so I had no idea what was in store for us with regards to preparing them.
Eliza showing off her pickin's.

Everyone is helping. Including Grandma and Mark and John. We came in and just started picking. About half way through we noticed a chipmunk in the tree, probably shared stiff from all the chatter and shaking. After spotting him, we were a bit more careful about which tree to pick from. We didn't want to make him mad at us and attack.

We took our cherries and made 10 pints of pie filling and 15 pints of jam. Yes, it took a lot of time to pit the cherries, but it was worth it.

Slip-N-Slide Time!

My cheap Dollar General slip-n-slide that I bought on clearance last year. The kid were so excited to get it up and going and then who wanted to be first? No one! Finally, I got Ephraim and Eliza to enjoy it.

Eliza got to going pretty fast that she'd slip off the end. When it was time to come in, she had grass clippings and mud in her hair.

Just content to sit in the grass and watch.

It was hard to get pictures of Eliza going down the slide because I needed to give her a push and I couldn't beat her to the end.

The run-off from the slide proved to be the most intertaining after a while. Ahhh, summer days.

Flood Waters

Some random photos of water, water and more water!

By the pond at Grandma's house. Trying to get Eden to cooperate for a photo.
Those who would pose.

Uh, we're not driving through that. This was the morning of Kristin's wedding, June 12.

The crick is up and out.

Grandma's crick is up and out. All the water you see is flood water. The crick is normally behind those trees.

And back at Grandma's pond.

We need a bit of dry weather so the crops and garden can get their roots dried out. Right now, some of them are dying because it's too wet.

Trip to the Science Center

On Wednesday, June 16, after a morning of VBS, we took off for the the Science Center of Iowa. The boys have been so anxious to go back after going there with school. So, here we are. Enjoying it!

Emmet was super-excited to show the girls the snakes and turtles. Notice that he's wearing shorts and cowboy boots. I didn't realize this is what he had on until we'd gotten out of the van at VBS in the morning. Oh well!



The electricity globe.

The girls enjoyed the exhibits too, pushing all the buttons, etc.

Building a dam.

And building rockets.

Emmet helping Eden with her rocket and telling her when to push the launcher.

Ephraim is on the other side, pushing back. The kids were ecstatic with this.

Ephraim's face.

We had a great time together and the kids were great for me! We had parts of the SCI to ourselves, which was very nice.